You see, I'm a liberal. And I'm a Mormon. These might seem contradictory to most people, and those people would be correct in their own eyes. They are contradictory in the assumptions people who are conservative make about liberals. And liberals are equally confused about my religion (based on their own misinterpretations) This is what I hate about these labels is they make so many assumptions about who I am for which I am grateful to have a balancing stone (the church) for people to see. I think it makes me look very interesting and mysterious and that's what I need if I'm to fulfill my goal of... looking interesting and mysterious (I guess I need some new goals...).
Here's my argument for why every Mormon should be more liberal than conservative: If we're eventually going to live the Law of Consecration would it not make sense to try to learn how to do it with the challenges of today? Whatever you may believe about socialism and communism and their ties to Satan is completely wrong. Why do we think these idioms to be wrong or evil? McCarthy is why, the unwarranted fear of communist. Without going too far down this rabbit hole, let me back up and make it simple. Our religion believes in community, sharing, being sensitive, love, hope, and faith. But I don't ever see conservatives behaving like this in any respect when it comes to politics... And they don't because in all reality most are republican and are indoctrinated into this mentality that the gays and the liberals are trying to take their country and money from them. When in reality people just want to live their lives without persecution. I am for gay marriage. How and why do I say this? Because I don't believe in the divinity of the state marriage board. And I'm not afraid of what could happen to the "Family's" in this country. There has been too much fear mongering and too many people using their religion as a scapegoat for their insecurities and misunderstandings. "If gays are allowed to marry..." is often said but never ended, it's an open invitation to cause all your fears to bloom.
But like I said, "love, community, hope, faith..." I don't see any of these when conservatives are in the grip of their insecurities around the possibilities of passing legislation. Don't you think the Pharisees felt the same way? Insecure and scared of what could happen?
I'll tell you what I believe. I believe the founding fathers we're not perfect and made mistakes, I believe God expects us to better ourselves and love our neighbors, I believe we are not punished for allowing others to make mistakes on their own, I believe I am not being punished for not lobbying to revoke Roe vs Wade, I believe people who have no religion can be closer to God than those who claim to be, I believe in investigating truth in all aspects of my life not just religion, I believe if you claim to love someone you can listen and try to understand them, I believe if you don't understand someone you cannot help them.
Lastly, I believe in all these things because I discovered them for myself. In what ways am I conservative then? I conserve the right to go to practice my religion without persecution. I conserve the right to allow others to do the same. I also live a conservative life style, I'll probably live a conservatives life even, that's because I choose my own path, no one else. I couldn't imagine trying stop anyone else from doing the same. If the greatest gift gave mankind was free agency wouldn't he expect us to do the same? I know he would, and I think it's a challenge to all of us to progress there instead of trying to revert the country to the 1950's when families were "families" (i.e. Like some religions want to go back to the Garden of Eden to innocence).
Zen.
