July 10, 2010

What Would Jesus Do?

Members of the LDS church and Christianity in general have an interesting relationship. We Mormons claim to be Christian since we do, after all, believe Christ to be our Lord and Savior, but we don't share any of the same symbols, history, social structures, even our vocabulary differs greatly in reference to the same things. Since we LDS folk don't use crosses and other symbology to express our faith, we tend to forgo all other sayings as well. I, on the other hand, have a "W.W.J.D." fabric bracelet that was given to me years ago by a friend that I have worn since. Normally LDS people would not wear this. Why? Simply because we have our own culture apart from Christianity and the WWJD craze never became a part of it. To me, it is still a valid message and therefore, I choose to wear it.


Currently, I'm in Texas on an internship and I met another intern native to the southern states (who kinda looks like Martin Keamy on Lost) and we got to talking. He said, ..."so you go to BYU, that explains why you are married and have a son." I laughed and agreed. Then he said, "But you're not Mormon." I replied, "What makes you think that I'm not?" At which point he pointed to my WWJD bracelet and I said "So?" He then replied, "I like you, you are a good guy."

This led me to the conclusion that this other intern didn't believe that LDS think of Christ as our Savior. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I think we as LDS don't wear Christ on our sleeves enough. We live good works and brotherly kindness pretty well, we also have no problem wearing the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith on our sleeves... but Jesus? We don't preach it much.

Maybe it is because we know others understand it already, they already have a Faith in Christ and we want to focus on what makes us unique, but then we are missing the point.

For the two or three of you that actually will possibly read this, what do you think?
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2 comments:

  1. Kevin EllsworthJuly 11, 2010 at 12:55 PM

    I rather agree. I think that too often we leave out the part about Christ. It is a hard balance though - when we focus entirely on Christ everyone things that we are saying the same thing they are and so they don't think we have anything different to offer. Nothing else matters if we don't talk of Christ, and all the explanation of authority and modern prophets is meaningless without it, but then again most of the world has incorrect views of Christ, or at least how we relate to him. Perhaps our focus should be being strong on our beliefs of Christ that make a critical difference and then we have the chance to teach the rest of our doctrine when we are asked how we know.

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  2. EmJuly 29, 2010 at 8:57 PM

    Amen brother! Amen! (which btw is something Matt Christofferson and I have always thought we needed more of in the LDS church...more AMENS!) Even when we are reverent what would be wrong with a good old Amen or vocal Yeah! What about a preach on brother! Maybe it would wake everyone up and they would realize that we are talking about Christ in our life and that we are focused on him rather than what sets us apart.....

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