DaveP turned me onto an interview on Mormon Stories a couple of years ago. It was with Paul Toscano, who was one of the September 6.
For those who don't know, the September Six, where 6 members of the LDS Church who were excommunicated in 1993 during the month of September. It would appear that none of these 6 people committed any sin, other that to question that status quo within the Mormon Church. One was merely an historian trying to do his job.
The action would appear to have been a systematic attach on intellectuals, orchestrated by Boyd Packer, the very same individual, who this last Sunday, helped solidify the Mormon Church's position as being homophobic and harmful to gays.
The interview was interesting, and I'll have to admit that as I listened to Mr. Toscano's arguments and reasons for his beliefs, I actually found myself liking much of what he had to say.
One statement though, caught me off guard...
He stated that "Morality is the enemy of Religion. The more you talk about morality, the more people sink into despair."
He continued to discuss how preaching morality, sets up a structure whereby people can be judged, and ultimately most will feel guilty, unworthy and depression ensues.
It took me a while to wrap my head around the concept, but I think he may have something.
One of my many complaints with Mormon worship is that it simply isn't uplifting. You might say it's uplifting, because you're terrified that others will judge you to be unworthy if you don't, but at the end of the day, it seems the entire religion has become about living a higher standard and being better than everyone else.
That is not a religion!
Religion is about hope, and faith and seeking for something better.
It's about love and charity and seeing all mankind as brothers and sisters.
Morality is the enemy of Religion.
Amen! Mr. Toscana, Amen!
I'd actually highly recommend the entire interview, although it is a little on the long side.
The archive of all podcasts is here. Mr Toscano's interview comprises episodes 77 thru 83
81 is the episode where he discusses the idea above. Specifically at 7:20 into the recording. Mr. Dehlin asks why he can't empathize with the brethren, and see that they're just trying to do the best they can. His answer to that question is brilliant, and then spawns the discussion about morality.
You can get to the 81st episode here.
That's exactly the reason why I tell people that the Sunday afternoon session of conference was pretty much unnecessary: Pretty much all of the talks in that were not uplifting at all and were standard "fire and brimstone" guilt trips. Forget about Packer's talk, think about how terrible the people who are addicted to porn must have felt after the half-dozen talks that likely only made them feel worse.
ReplyDeleteThe Book of Mormon talks about the Word of God being pleasing, comforting, and powerful. So much so that King Benjamin's people fell to the ground because of the power of his sermon and walked away not feeling guilty, but rather strengthened and enlightened to become better people. And this is after King Benjamin had told them that there were lower than dirt.
I actually have a theory that 'porn addiction' has more to do with the emotional rush of breaking a commandment and hiding your sin than boobies and hoo hoos.
ReplyDeleteAnd another theory that the reason it's such a 'problem' in Utah is that it keeps getting brought up - but I think I've covered that one before... Porn, porn, porn, porn... What are you thinking about?
It was that guilt over "porn addiction" that contributed greatly to the nervous breakdown that brought me home from my mission, and hearing talk after talk about it only continued to make me feel more and more guilty until I decided to accept it as a part of me because, let's face it, I'm a straight human who has fantasies and fetishes and rather than deprive myself and make things worse, I've just simply drawn a strict line between the content I like vs. what I dislike and only encounter the latter by accident.
ReplyDeleteWhether or not one may call it being "desensitized," let's just say that if I see what I like when I'm not in the mood I'm able to simply brush it aside and not worry about it.
It's suddenly very liberating to take the mindset of, "I do this because I choose not to," vs. "I don't do it because I was commanded not to." Human nature is basically along the lines of, "I do it because I was told NOT to."
I personally think the term addiction gets overused in Utah, especially with respect to porn.
ReplyDeleteIf it's controlling your life, affecting your aspect of your employment, family or other things, then you might have a problem.
But, like you said, we're all pretty normal, and to be honest, personally, since giving up all the guilt, sin and the idea of Satan... Porn just doesn't seem that attractive (at least not as much as before) nor does it seem to be that big of a deal.
The first time I encountered hardcore porn, I literally threw up. That's definitely been a big help in making sure I don't cross my personal lines because I don't even want to.
ReplyDeleteMy only real problem is going to be finding a nice girl who will not only put up with the fact that I'm one of the biggest geeks in the state (and yes, the Sunday afternoon talks also tried to pile on the guilt for my being a gamer), that same girl will have to understand that I have certain fantasies and fetishes, but if you don't want to be involved with them that's fine. However I will need an outlet in some way every so often to get it off my mind." With the mindset around Utah, that won't be easy.
I did have a chance at one time, though. At BYU one girl I knew suddenly blurted out that she had the same fetish, but I was too afraid to call her and talk about that as 1. I feared she's be incredibly weirded out and 2. I was in a long-distance relationship with my ex at the time and I'd told everyone about her already. C'est la vie.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever considered trying to track her down, and find out if she's still single?
ReplyDeleteSadly I can't remember her name.
ReplyDeleteI just watched that interview a week or so ago and found it fascinating as well. It's sad that the church discourages that kind of out of the box thinking because it's really refreshing to hear some different perspectives on things.
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