Postmodern Pastoral

 29 August 2021 As a child waking up, I'd sneak out into the living room, and if I was early enough, I'd see my Mother kneeling down at the couch and audibly praying. She prayed for her family's health and safety and prayed for the hand of God to be manifest in our lives. My understanding of Jesus Christ and Atonement is because of my Mother's faith. In my faith tradition, eternal salvation is linked to the family. Husbands and wives and children will inherit heaven together. This is a beautiful doctrine, I love it, and it's emphasized all the time at church. I've attended a few Q&As with church leaders and someone always asks a question about "how do I deal with family members leaving the church." Obviously this causes anxiety in devout parents. It's a threat to your eternal life if your children reject the church. When your existence is defined by your faith and family, it's got to hurt when your family rejects your faith. There's all...

21 August 2021  Let me share a story from my mission, one where a little lie went a long way. So my companion and I invited Jose and Cherity to church. During the service their baby started crying so Jose took him out into the hallway to calm down & Cherity stayed in the chapel. After sacrament, I asked Cherity if she was gonna stay for Sunday School and she responded "I dunno, what does Jose want to do?" so I quickly go find Jose and ask him and he responds "I dunno, does Cherity want to stay?"  I went back to Cherity and said "yeah Jose wants to stay" lolz I manipulated the situation to make them both think the other wanted to stay.   Haha I came clean a few days later, and they thought it was funny. It was what got them to stay at church and thankfully they both had a good time. Cherity said "it was the first time I've stayed all 3 hours for church since I was 14." We were really hoping to baptize Jose, and man alive I loved Jose, he r...

 18 July 2021 So I recently started going to the single adult congregation in Tucson. It's for 30-45 year old unmarried people. The Bishop wanted to get to know me, so he and I sat in his office, and chatted. I wear a rainbow ribbon to church, because historically LGBTQ people haven't had a space in Mormonism, but I want to create that space. So of course, our conversation went to that. It's a touchy subject, and orthodox heterosexual Mormons are sometimes a little scared of what they don't understand. I told him I didn't agree with the prophets preaching homophobic and transphobic messages to the entire church. Even with my reservations, he assured me he wanted me in his ward. He has a close friend who has left the church over LGBTQ issues and he told me "I wish he could be like you, still in the pews and happy."  Now I have a choice on how to interpret that desire. I could have a bad faith interpretation and say he was trying to flatter me, guilt trip me...

 17 July 2021 When I walked back into my apartment after 14 days away in the woods, I discovered that I missed a very big storm. So big, a LOT of water came into my apartment. I live alone and I'm not so tidy, so I had a big pile of clothing on the floor. That pile of clothes is now compromised, soaked up the flood and got a little moldy. I ended up throwing away 4 garbage bags worth of clothes and towels. Now I'm at my parents house using vinegar and baking soda and the sunlight to try to salvage some of my shirts. My family in Florida told me there's no hope, there's no getting that smell out. The majority of my clothing, just gone now. And you know it's okay. My parents don't have any clothing from their 30th year. So I was gonna get rid of all of that eventually. And it's so funny that I was just going about my week thinking everything was fine but my little apartment was turned upside down. It's just another day for a Tucsonan too. Like, I'll su...