On faith and belief

[DarkJedi]

I think sometimes it's a little hard to recognize that faith crisis is different for everybody. We each have our own unique experience with what we consider our own dark night of the soul and I think it's human nature to apply our own experience to everyone else who has had a similar experience. But it's really not like that - your experience was different from mine.

I remember talking to a bishop that had gone through a faith crisis and if I remember correctly, I think he landed on the necessity of priesthood. Essentially that the LDS church has it and nobody else does. Church leaders can make mistakes and the entire institution can take an inadvisable detour now and then (priesthood and temple ban) but the priesthood remains and is essential to return and live with God in eternal families.

In a faith crisis, you fall until you hit "bedrock" and that thing is stable to allow you to rebuild.

I find it interesting that what is "bedrock" for one person is entirely shaky ground for another.

For that bishop, his "bedrock" allowed him to remain and participate in the church as a contributing (if somewhat unorthodox) member.

Not everyone that goes through a faith crisis is able to do that and they don't seem to consciously choose what that bedrock is for them.

My standard advice is take it slow, focus on what you do believe, and don't dump all at once.

always great advice.

Thanks, Roy. I could probably use bedrock in place of foundation in my own analogies. My bedrock is certainly not what your bishop friend's was/is, and as you say I think the priesthood is somewhat shaky. I do recognize that many people see the priesthood and priesthood authority as what sets us apart from other churches. My own bedrock is very much in common with other churches - that there is indeed a God who at the very least was a Creator. The only other thing that I am somewhat certain of is that God wants us to be nice to each other.