Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Controversy #3

Warning: This blog post contains sensitive subjects and topics that may be offensive to some people. I declare this as my own opinion and it does not reflect those of anyone else. In my twenty one years of living, these are some conclusions I have come to. Once again, it does not reflect any opinion of anyone else, including the religious group I belong to. If you find offense to what I say, be angry with me. No one else.


Alright, so this is a rant I've been holding in for a while, so let me warn you, it might be kind of long.

I don't have three specific topics this time like I usually do. I just have two things I want to rage about, and then we'll call it good. Shall we begin?

Religion

Ok, I'm sick of this one. Let me tell you a story. I have a best friend and she is awesome. So I have made several other friends who are not in the same religious group as I. I am a firm believer that it is OK to believe something other than what I believe. I've tried to force my religion on others before and have learned that it gets both parties no where. So this best friend of mine was struggling a few weeks ago. I was concerned, so I (mistakenly) shared my concern with some friends of a different religion. My intent was NOT to gossip, NOT to try and 'save' her, but merely to express my concern with people I trusted. Well. Big mistake. This 'trusted' friend went to her and preached harshly against our religious group and tried to convince my friend that Mormonism is wrong in every way possible. Ok, slow down here. How is that ok?

I know that the LDS church has claimed we are the only religion with the complete truth. I believe that, but I also believe that putting other religions down to make yours look better is the farthest thing from what God wants us to do. If you actually listen to some of the LDS conference talks, you'll find that our leaders have straight up said we do not hate any other religion. Look it up, it's there. 

Fun fact about Prop 8: The Catholic church actually donated more money to that campaign than the LDS church. Bet ya didn't know that one.

So what's my point? Well, that story I told you made me realize something: We can't get along if we all think the other is wrong. I was in the wrong for sharing my best friend's life issues with someone else. I'm not going to say where they went wrong because that's already been made clear, but also I can be in the wrong for putting them down. They did what they felt was right. But here's why I get so upset: I wrote my OG post and received a lengthy response that I didn't post. Yeah, it basically was calling me a hypocrite and telling me to look up bible verses because I was stirring up  contention so Satan actually loved my post. Fair enough, I could've handled my rant better. But here's the issue: If you want to bible bash with me, let's do it. Pull every verse, every book you want and I can give you an answer. I've read through the Catholic bible, I've gone to Baptist Youth Conferences, I've had Lutheran friends, I've studied the history of all religions. Yeah, Joseph Smith didn't come around until the 1830s and yeah, Mormonism wasn't around when the country was founded. But guess what? I don't care. Have you, anonymous commenter who called me out on my flaws, read the entire Book of Mormon? No? Ok, well, when you read it cover to cover, and still have some questions, we can talk. Not until then will I waste my time reading your unpublished comments.

Adoption

This one will be short, but it saddens me that it has come to this. LDS Family Services has announced they no longer provide adoption services. I am not quite sure how to put words to how I feel, but I'm sad. This only means one thing: we need to stick together. Like I've said, placing a baby isn't for everyone, and keeping a baby isn't for everyone. Let us all support the single and pregnant women in our lives to help them make the best decision for their babies. I rest my case.

-Allison Susanne De Arton

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