*I love my Savior Jesus Christ.
He is my Redeemer and my truest, dearest Friend.
I know that He loves me and knows me by name.
I worship Him and my Heavenly Father and noone else.
Not Joseph Smith--the man who restored the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth
or
Thomas S. Monson, the man who is called as our Prophet today.
I do not worship them.
I love their testimonies of Christ and their witness of His Divinity.
I am a Christian because I follow Christ.
I am not an Evangelical.
I am not a Protestant.
I am a Latter-Day Saint.
A Mormon.
Politics are not my thing.
I vote when I believe in a candidate
on any level--
local, regional or for POTUS...
and when I don't believe any of the candidates
I don't vote
for a "party" out of loyalty.
But it's near-impossible to ignore
the media's and politician's remarks about
my faith.
It has even been "spoofed" on the
Jon Stewart show recently.
I wasn't laughing.
The spoof was unilaterally discrediting
the Protestant, LDS and Jewish faiths--
but it wasn't funny.
It was unnerving.
And yes, I get that that's the point--
to bring to light the "ridiculousness"
of the very topic of
"faith" and contrast it with politics.
It doesn't fit.
Not in the world we live in
in 2011.
Truth is the world would be better if politics
had a moral, ethical, spiritual standard as it's foundation
we all know that,
but then we're mixing Church and State
and that's inherently controversial right there.
The LDS Church doesn't tell me who to vote for--
it just says to vote for the best candidate that my conscience allows.
I don't know Mitt Romney.
I've been reading up on him this last year,
assuming he might run again for President.
I'm not going to vote for him simply because he's
a member of my faith.
I know what he believes as a member of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
What I don't know is
what he believes in as a
Republican Politician.
Truth is, I'm not sure about him yet.
I used to be Protestant.
I was raised in the Baptist faith--
and my father's side of the family are all members of
The Holy Pentecostal faith.
Some of them have their theology degrees from
The International Bible College in San Antonio, Texas
and have run their own churches.
My father graduated from that same place.
But he chose not to be a pastor/reverend when he
became a young adult.
Frankly, it was because of the salary;
he became a salesman of goods
rather than a salesman of God.
When I was a teenager,
I studied the LDS faith at the invitation of a wonderful friend--
and chose for myself to be baptized into it.
I wasn't brain-washed or tricked into it.
Nope, I was taught the doctrine and invited to pray and know for myself
if it was true.
The Holy Ghost answered that prayer
and I have been a member going on 33 years next month.
Yes, it was that powerful of an answer
that changed my life forever.
I don't appreciate being told that I'm not a Christian
by people who profess to know Christ themselves.
I know Christ.
I have felt His love for me
in my darkest hours.
The Holy Ghost whispers peace to my soul
and witnesses the truth of all things to my heart and mind.
I am a Christian.
So when I hear from someone who has their own agenda--
political, social, or otherwise
that they know my faith better than I do,
it is insulting and wrong.
I know what I believe and in whom I put my faith.
I am not "misguided" or "deceived"--
it is literally the opposite.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--
we recognize that all faiths have good in them
as they extend the invitation to follow Christ.
Our time isn't spent together bashing other faiths
but strengthening our own.
That's why you don't hear a huge backlash from the
14+ Million members across the globe
when we're accused of all kinds of stupid things.
We don't have horns,
We don't have more than one spouse,
We don't do anything weird in our temples.
We do wear sacred garments.
And I find that that's a confusing topic of interest to people outside of our faith,
because if you look around
many faiths have unique sacred items of dress,
though usually on the outside
where ours is worn on the inside.
Just as our prayers are not to be shouted in public
for attention
Neither are our personal tokens of faith.
It's truly personal.
Okay, so I'm off track a bit--
I just wanted to set the record straight for anyone
who is not LDS and reads this to know
that I am a Christian and a Mormon.
The sign on my church building reads:
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints.
*art credit Simon Dewey
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| Dawn is married to her own Mr. Wonderful, the mother of 7 children and 2 grandsons. She lives in the foothills of Pikes Peak, Colorado and blogs her life at Momza's House |
