We were assigned to read the short story,
"The War Prayer" written by Mark Twain. It is a story criticizing war, blind patriotism and gun happy war fevered people. Our next assignment was to write a paper criticizing a modern day hypocrisy. I chose to rant about how we as LDS people sometimes get a self righteous attitude and judge others according to our standards rather than the church. I was nervous to write this because it is most definitely not all people, just a few who practice this behavior. I poked fun at some Sunday day situations, but it is mostly meant in good humor. Speaking of poking fun, if you are a blog follower in the Mormon community, you must absolutely read this blog, it is a girl who makes up this fictitious little family and who makes merciless fun of Mormon girls and their blogs and all things, including weird baby names, posts dedicated to the store anthroplogie or her perfect husband who is going to law/dental/med school....just read it, you wont be able to stop.
Seriouslysoblessed.blogspot,com
and the paper....
It was a time of supposed reverence. The church filled slowly, as the organ boomed from the front and the bishop and his counselors smiled and slept from the pulpit. Families of all shapes and sizes rushing to make it to the chapel by 9:00am. Either the parents looked dressed to impressed and the kids like they hadn’t bathed, or the kids looked dressed to the nines and the mothers with hair thrown up in a mess. There were the proud mothers telling the other mothers about their boys on a mission in a foreign land and how he was now assistant to the president with such a slight arrogance toward the mother who’s missionary would have only been a junior companion still….in Boise. The newlywed couples, relishing in the fact that they were at church together, picturing themselves as a real couple, moved up from the singles ward, now recognized and now talked about by the ward. The boy leans forward as the girl puts her most extreme efforts in delivering the most spine tingling, relaxing, put you to sleep back scratch.
There were the families that always sat in those same pews, no one dared to sit there unless they were new to the place, because those pews belonged to the Hyatts, and the Hyatts always sat third pew from the front. And there were the families that snuck in the back right before sacrament, the nosebleed section, and sat in whatever was open, heels clicking and babies crying as they did so.
There were the families with children who seemed to be drugged, who sat there quietly, big bows in their hair, who just sat and observed. Maybe observing other children who ran around our of control, who needed backpacks upon backpacks filled with baggies of cheerios, coloring books and lego.
It was indeed a Sunday morning-it had come once again, sleepy eyed people arose to gather together in a church with purple fuzzy walls. Some because they knew they should be there, some because others were making them, some because it was their highlight of the week, some because they couldn’t bear to think what others would say if they were not. As the organ prelude continued, so did the small talks and chit-chat, the families noticed that the Bournes son Jason was not at church again this week, thinking that he really couldn’t have been out of town this long, that or he was playing sports on Sunday, shame on him they think in their heads, their poor family, what everyone must be thinking! The same ladies in green and blue dresses gossip about Loreilei and how her and her husband fought on Saturday night, probably about money they thought, maybe they should bring a casserole after hearing that fight over the fence.
It was time, a few seconds after nine and the organ song concluded, the hush ran through the chapel, the doors were closed as the last few people trickled in and the announcements were made. The first prayer was said and the erst song burst through the walls, some singing as loud as they could, because well, they were trained in opera, they needed to help carry the congregation, some mouthing the words and some not even opening the hymnbook.
Oh the joy of testimony meeting, the nine year old boy made his way to the pulpit as people smiled and urged his on. He told the congregation that he loved the church and he loved his family, he said that he learned in primary that God loved every one of us, that we were all equal brothers and sisters in his eyes and that we should not judge, he learned in the scriptures that everyone should think nice thoughts one to another….Amen said the congregation together, smiling and nodding.
An aged stranger made his way slowly to the pulpit, he wasn’t recognized by many, he was not the man that got up every week, he was not the man who was on the lsits but never came, he was just there. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way to the pulpit.
“I have some things I need to say-Don’t worry I am not here to bear false witness, or to tell some crazy story, I just want to say some things I think you need to hear and to echo what this boy has said before me, a sometimes ignored truth that we all know and just choose not to do all the time. We need to stop judging our friends, our very own ward members that are here by our sides every week. Look around, we are all here for the same reason and everyone is here because they are a member of this ward and of this church and we should not judge one another, we should pull self-righteousness and think we are better than one another, because we are not and we need to stop thinking these poor thoughts of each other in our heads and telling them to our neighbors.
When you see empty coke cans in a families garbage as you are walking up to their home to home teach, you are not better than them, so don’t think you are. When you are on your way to the hospital to visit your sick old grandma and you see someone in the ward pulling into the strip mall, you immediately think they are sinning and you judge them ,harshly, maybe never forgetting that and telling your sick grandma that she would never believe who you just saw pulling up to get Chinese. Maybe you didn’t know that they were actually pulling up to the drugstore next door to get some medicine because their two year old has a fever.
When you see people arriving five minutes late to every meeting and activity that just means you are more punctual, not that you are a better church member. When you pray, ask the Lord to humble you and let you not think ill of others. This Church is not a contest to see who can put on the best show, every one knows that every person has problems, some just aren’t in public. We are told in the scriptures to not judge and yet we do everyday and think of it as no sin and no consequence, when in actuality, you the judger might be doing a worse sin than that of the person you think is going straight to hell because you saw their daughter on a date on Saturday and she is only 15…Wake up! It was her cousin!
We are supposed to be an optimistic people, but we are so quick to think the worst and relish that it is them and not you. I am not saying every one is like this, but you know who you are, you know those thoughts in your head and you know you do not hold yourself to the true standard of righteousness that you think you do. Jane Doe has to work on Sunday to support her family, Sunday school teachers give your kids candy because you won’t and the second counselor, Brother Johnson is not sleeping, he is looking down!
Just because you make up rules in your life and home that you think make you a more righteous family, that you think make you better, you are not.
Stop Gossiping, Stop Judging, learn your place and look for the good in people and stop assuming the worst. One day when your issues are on display or you are running late for church, you will want people to not talk about you, not to judge you, but just to be there for you. That is all I have to say.
As the congregation filed out of the chapel, ready for Sunday school, Janie said to Janice “Was that guy married, I wonder who is parents are? Do you think he wandered over from the old folks home?”
“Oh speaking of old folks, Brother Johnson was totally sleeping…”
