I think that, ideally, we should all strive to humbly unite ourselves around God and love and truth and righteousness and such. But I also think that, inasmuch as we fail to do so, its still good to cooperate with each other to the extent that we find common ground, even as we disagree about other matters. Heres a recent Ensign article that I enjoyed that encourages Latter-day Saints, as its title proclaims, to become better saints through interfaith involvement. I worry that some of my fellow Latter-day Saints sometimes tend to associate ONLY with each other rather than to seek good relationships with those who strive to follow God in other sects or religions. Perhaps this results from fear of downward spiritual influences. Its true that the Savior taught that it is better for thee to enter into life without thy brother, than for thee and thy brother to be cast into hell (see Mark 9:40-48 JST)---or, in other words, that its better to disassociate ourselves from those who influence us badly spiritually than to go to hell with them---but yet He, as our Great Exemplar, also spent His entire ministry among sinners, as He taught that They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick (see Mark 2:17). Our neighbors need our upward spiritual influences, whether its to help bad men to become good, or to help good men to become better. And, by the way, it seems to me that religious truth is particularly hard for us mere mortals to perceive consistently correctly, which is perhaps one reason why we who have religious zeal should strive to temper it with humility and respect and a correct measure of tolerance.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 23:07:38 +0000
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