The Role Of A Questioning Approach To Faith

[volgadon]

http://www.withoutend.org/questioning-mormonism/

I found this to be a thoughtful and thought-provoking essay by David Bokovoy on the role of questioning in a search for truth. He lays out very well the case for why questioning is not a sin, is not immoral, and should in fact guide our efforts to reach the truth, even in a revealed faith. Well worth a read.

[Calm]

He's another writer (like Dan Peterson) who it is so much more fun to read his stuff after you have heard him speak so you can imagine him talking while you read with his bright eyes and eager puppydog ways.

[mfbukowski]

http://www.withouten...ning-mormonism/

I found this to be a thoughtful and thought-provoking essay by David Bokovoy on the role of questioning in a search for truth. He lays out very well the case for why questioning is not a sin, is not immoral, and should in fact guide our efforts to reach the truth, even in a revealed faith. Well worth a read.

Wonderful piece!

[Tacenda]

http://www.withoutend.org/questioning-mormonism/

I found this to be a thoughtful and thought-provoking essay by David Bokovoy on the role of questioning in a search for truth. He lays out very well the case for why questioning is not a sin, is not immoral, and should in fact guide our efforts to reach the truth, even in a revealed faith. Well worth a read.

I want to thank you for my 2nd favorite OP (first one is Buzzard's)on the board! It reminded me of when I first started questioning. It was after reading "In Sacred Loneliness" about JS polygamist wives. At that time my TR needed to be renewed. During the interview I told the Stake Leader I was having testimony issues since learning about JS and his wives and having never heard of it before. And he told me it's ok to wonder but not question. Therefore I'm indeed grateful that according to this article I'm on the right path to maybe gaining an even richer testimony than ever before.

[volgadon]

I want to thank you for my 2nd favorite OP (first one is Buzzard's)on the board! It reminded me of when I first started questioning. It was after reading "In Sacred Loneliness" about JS polygamist wives. At that time my TR needed to be renewed. During the interview I told the Stake Leader I was having testimony issues since learning about JS and his wives and having never heard of it before. And he told me it's ok to wonder but not question. Therefore I'm indeed grateful that according to this article I'm on the right path to maybe gaining an even richer testimony than ever before.

Attitude plays a crucial part in how we frame questions and process information , I would agree there, but as for the act itself of questioning? God will answer, that has been my feeling for a very long time.

[Calm]

I want to thank you for my 2nd favorite OP (first one is Buzzard's)on the board! It reminded me of when I first started questioning. It was after reading "In Sacred Loneliness" about JS polygamist wives. At that time my TR needed to be renewed. During the interview I told the Stake Leader I was having testimony issues since learning about JS and his wives and having never heard of it before. And he told me it's ok to wonder but not question. Therefore I'm indeed grateful that according to this article I'm on the right path to maybe gaining an even richer testimony than ever before.

I don't know about others, but from the way your comments have changed over the past, it seems to me that you are well on the way as instead of what was mainly repetition from others and negative/destructive comments, you are demonstrating much more original thought and perceptions and appear to be experiencing the search in a much more positive, less fearful way. When you start to enjoy the questioning, enjoy the searching, then the joy that God gives us isn't far away.

[Calm]

too many are reading it apparently, I get error connection....urggghhh. It was going to be the last thing I read before I went to sleep. Thought it would be a bit more uplifting than the penal substitution theory I am reading about.

[volgadon]

too many are reading it apparently, I get error connection....urggghhh. It was going to be the last thing I read before I went to sleep. Thought it would be a bit more uplifting than the penal substitution theory I am reading about.

Try it again, if you haven't already refreshed the page.

[Calm]

It worked....and I promptly got sick looking at the picture, which reminded me of some surgery I had and a punctured lung my husband had and how I had to clean it and rebandage it with a puckering up look at me, sucking away at life itself....I'm great in a crisis, but once it is over I want things tidied up and put away neatly.

There is an inside to the body and an outside and the only time the inside should come out is a baby...and no one needs to ask me if I want to see the placenta or not if it's mine thank you very much and I have no plans on eating it like a mother gorilla no matter how healthy it is claimed to be in some very weird female gatherings.

I can only hope that Christ understands when it is my turn and allows me to touch his biceps instead of his wounds and maybe a nice fistbump.

Okay, now I think I will the article before bed just to get that string of images out of my head.

[Calm]

I have now read and copied and pasted and sent it off to my mother. I have decided I am going on a one woman crusade to give her hope that it is worth all the effort by reminding her of the good things in life that she taught me...like the immense pleasure of study and learning. For me, the learning was enough, for her she wanted it more applied and hasn't been terribly successful in it..at least so far in this life. I tell her it will be a slam dunk when she gets to the other side (not much longer unfortunately for me, fortunately for her I believe...she has been living on pure love and determination to give those around her a good life and to learn the lessons that God wanted her to know and right now, she is losing some faith that she has failed at both....not unusual for someone in her state whose treasures and accomplishments she acquired were all intangible so others more materialistic often discount her).

Anyway any more short uplifting and interesting blogs or articles, please send my way. She studied art and teaching as a career, but as a vocation she studied anything she could get her hands on in regards to spirituality, all the church stuff and heavy, heavy int scriptures, other stuff is some goofy, some profound. A lot about faith healing (she has had lifelong health issues that hobble her brilliant brain that should be set in a castle instead of a kitchen save for the fact she is most creative when cooking). She studied Jung and Freud, Campbell, Swedenborg and some other visionaries of the time, many of the new faiths, Christian Science, even had picked up a Dianentics sp? book that is probably the one book I got instantly bored of the moment I picked it up, pretty unusual for me at the time.

So suggestions that might interested a senior woman with limited energy to concentrate and process but whose mind is ready and needing to go everywhere (it is getting into some bad habits by not traveling around as often as it used to.) scriptural and spiritual interests the most, not so much historical except from a purely biographical POV....she is interested in people first and foremost, God as the most interesting person out there is her deepest and most abiding interest. I can't believe I didn't think of this before. Well I did, but then I asked her and I didn't throw in enough about the grandkids along with the more intellectual stuff...I'll get her hooked with the wonderkids and then she'll just sink into the bliss of the blogs, article whatevers.

Edited January 9, 2013 by calmoriah

[JeremyOrbe-Smith]

Great essay.

[Tacenda]

Cal, first and foremost thank you for that comment about my recent posts being less critical. I may backslide on occasion. As far as your wonderful as-all-get-out, mom ..she should read this board and comment. There's a 70 or so year old lady in my ward that joined FB and loves staying in touch with everyone that way plus plenty of articles to read. As long as someone sets it up carefully so it's as private as possible with just friends and family. Your mom sounds incredibly well rounded and willing to learn about anything. I hope she knows how fortunate she is to have her mind intact. My mother got dementia or Alzheimer's at the age of around 60. But bless her heart (your mom) if she's struggling otherwise. I am saying right now and probably nothing new that you are your mother's daughter in all the ways you described her.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Tacenda

[altersteve]

I'm a believer in the principle that asking questions is what keeps our faith alive. This essay is a solid reminder of that. Thanks for the link.

[Tacenda]

Duplicate

Edited January 9, 2013 by Tacenda

[CV75]

http://www.withouten...ning-mormonism/

I found this to be a thoughtful and thought-provoking essay by David Bokovoy on the role of questioning in a search for truth. He lays out very well the case for why questioning is not a sin, is not immoral, and should in fact guide our efforts to reach the truth, even in a revealed faith. Well worth a read.

Even the Savior learned this way.

Luke 2: 46, 27, “And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.”

While I'm sure He asked questions with a mind to learn with the object to teach, if we ask questions with a mind to do good with them (real intent), we will receive answers, and we will have answers to give others.

Also, the Savior exercised His mind, spirit and agency by asking questions, and His mind then synthesized even greater things, and this is one way He received grace for grace.

[Calm]

Cal, first and foremost thank you for that comment about my recent posts being less critical. I may backslide on occasion. As far as your wonderful as-all-get-out, mom ..she should read this board and comment.

Unfortunately technology scares her, I think Dad's monopoly on it throughout their lives in choosing and fixing mechanical things (he is a mechanical engineer) has convinced her she isn't any good at it...she certainly hasn't had any practice at a computer as Dad pretty much won't let her touch it...not intentionally, just gets annoyed if anyone alters his stuff and while in a lot of ways she is ahead of the pack when it comes to feminist (just the good feminism so no one has a cow) ways of doing things, she is very traditional in other ways...in part because her mother went the feminist route but did it manipulatively and put her own needs first rather than trying to make it work for everyone in the family...though Grandma had no teachers and so it is not surprising that she thought she had to act like men often did at the time to accomplish what she wanted to accomplish. Mom's biggest desire in life has been to figure out how to work together for everyone's goal rather than all getting behind the main man (or woman in the rare case) so that life is fair and just and beautiful because everyone gets to progress together...but it hasn't been too successful, society and even her own habits have so much inertia in them and it is one thing to know something is right and another thing to figure out how to put it into practice.

She wouldn't handle the negative stuff too well either, she so wants everyone to just get along....another of her dearest desires.

Edited January 9, 2013 by calmoriah

[Calm]

I'm a believer in the principle that asking questions is what keeps our faith alive. This essay is a solid reminder of that. Thanks for the link.

I think it is what keeps us alive literally...at least in our brains. I see older people who don't keep trying to find answers and just go for fun or comfort and they tend to become crystalized forms of themselves, acting on autopilot, not really experiencing anything new, just responding in ruts. I so want to die before I get that way. I see plenty of people not that way when they are older, so I have hope.

[Tacenda]

Unfortunately technology scares her, I think Dad's monopoly on it throughout their lives in choosing and fixing mechanical things (he is a mechanical engineer) has convinced her she isn't any good at it...she certainly hasn't had any practice at a computer as Dad pretty much won't let her touch it...not intentionally, just gets annoyed if anyone alters his stuff and while in a lot of ways she is ahead of the pack when it comes to feminist (just the good feminism so no one has a cow) ways of doing things, she is very traditional in other ways...in part because her mother went the feminist route but did it manipulatively and put her own needs first rather than trying to make it work for everyone in the family...though Grandma had no teachers and so it is not surprising that she thought she had to act like men often did at the time to accomplish what she wanted to accomplish. Mom's biggest desire in life has been to figure out how to work together for everyone's goal rather than all getting behind the main man (or woman in the rare case) so that life is fair and just and beautiful because everyone gets to progress together...but it hasn't been too successful, society and even her own habits have so much inertia in them and it is one thing to know something is right and another thing to figure out how to put it into practice.

She wouldn't handle the negative stuff too well either, she so wants everyone to just get along....another of her dearest desires.

Would she like helping other teachers by correcting papers or even going to the elementary schools and volunteering, if she is physically able?

[Calm]

She is not physically able, she has always had health problems (she wasn't supposed to have any kids, she had seven pregnancies and has fought the odds all her life through exercise and nutrition and alternative means first and on rare occasions needed surgeries and medicine but drugs and her don't get along so there is a high cost when she uses them as now she must to avoid pneumonia and such), they have become too much to control at this point even with the best self discipline so she is beginning to lose ground. She is 83 this year.

Edited January 10, 2013 by calmoriah

[Saints Alive]

As long as your motive is to find answers, asking questions is fine. It's those who asked questions designed to frame a discussion or demonize that I have problems with.

[Tacenda]

She is not physically able, she has always had health problems (she wasn't supposed to have any kids, she had seven pregnancies and has fought the odds all her life through exercise and nutrition and alternative means first and on rare occasions needed surgeries and medicine but drugs and her don't get along so there is a high cost when she uses them as now she must to avoid pneumonia and such), they have become too much to control at this point even with the best self discipline so she is beginning to lose ground. She is 83 this year.

Enjoy every minute you can with her, or is she in Canada? Love the Canadians!

[Glenn101]

A person does not gain a real testimony without a trial of faith. Years ago, I thought I had a testimony, but now I realize it was just the beginnings of faith. My testimony has been gained through a series of hard knocks, seemingly one right after another, but in reality interspersed with periods of relative calm. It is those times of hard knocks where I have actually gained or strengthened my testimony.

It is okay, actually necessary, to ask questions if one is to gain a real testimony, else it will flee at the first sign of trouble. But I have also learned that I must ask theright questions, the onesthat are really relevant. Once I have received my answer, it is time to move on to the next one, and not continue revisiting the same question over and over.

Glenn

[Calm]

Enjoy every minute you can with her, or is she in Canada? Love the Canadians!

7 hours away (which is a major drive for me and mainly an issue with having to increase medications into the yellow warning zone), but doable if I have a decent place to stay once or so a year) and she just called to say she loved the blog. Edited January 10, 2013 by calmoriah

[Tacenda]

A person does not gain a real testimony without a trial of faith. Years ago, I thought I had a testimony, but now I realize it was just the beginnings of faith. My testimony has been gained through a series of hard knocks, seemingly one right after another, but in reality interspersed with periods of relative calm. It is those times of hard knocks where I have actually gained or strengthened my testimony.

It is okay, actually necessary, to ask questions if one is to gain a real testimony, else it will flee at the first sign of trouble. But I have also learned that I must ask theright questions, the onesthat are really relevant. Once I have received my answer, it is time to move on to the next one, and not continue revisiting the same question over and over.

Glenn

I get stuck on questions because there are no answers. The thing I feel good about now is just being able to move on without the answers and not feeling guilty for having questions, thanks to this thread. Edited January 10, 2013 by Tacenda

[Maidservant]

It think it is impossible to have faith without questions. Having questions for God is a fundamental act of faith. A person without questions cannot grow, or in my opinion. If we want to prepare for our full potential (as termed the celestial kingdom), then how can we become that kind of human being without knowledge and practice, and how can we have knowledge unless we are taught directly from the Lord, by our first questioning him?

I was blessed with parents who taught me to thinking anything, say anything. I was encouraged to go where my thoughts and questions took me. I was answered according to the best of what they knew. I was never made to feel punished, disappointed or that I couldn't avail myself of materials from any quarter. I was trusted with my own accountability for thoughts and information and the relationship I made with this information to life and God. One of my parents rejected the Mormon church (although we are now re-baptizing him from across the veil and this is a joyous time for us all including him); and one of my parents has the sweetest, firmest testimony of the church always has always will. Both of them lived with charity and acceptance for all kinds of people.

Thus, for me, questioning, exploring, even fighting with God I experience as being done WITHIN my covenant and WITHIN my walk with God and WITHIN my "activity" in the Church. I have never experienced questioning or even doubt as an act that places me OUTSIDE or AT ODDS WITH my covenant, my faith, etc. It functions as a deeply satisfying, constant conversation with God. It IS my fundamental experience that God is real--this back and forth talking.

It doesn't mean that everything is always a bed of roses. I have a lot of struggles and when I discuss these with God, I'm not always very nice and pick a lot of fights. And my prayers over the last couple of years, instead of so much specific questions (although I still have those), I have been asking God to Show Me What He Wants me to Know . . . and my goodness, that has been scary! Really scary! I have had to trust sooo much (really hard!), because the information he has gradually been showing me has blown apart a lot of my previous belief systems, and I'm often in a lot of transition between what I "used to know" and what I'm "starting to know" and I have to keep going back to 1 Nephi 11:17. But these breakdowns are what I think God WANTS to happen to me, so that I have my eyes opened and understand what he and WE are really trying to do here on this planet. God WANTS me to challenge him, because he wants me to be accountable and completely own what I believe, not believe just because I think it is required of me by an external authority. Quite often I feel I am challenging God (i.e. saying that such-and-such is not right), or more accurately what I once thought was God, and after some time of these struggles, I then hear "That's right. That ISN'T ME. Now let me show you ME."

Anyway, something that helps me is to find one fundamental belief that I can throw a rope around, and one that helped me for a long time was that "I am a daughter of my heavenly Father". When I didn't understand something, or found my belief in something else shattered, I would return to this belief for some stability and peace.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Maidservant