This is\u00a0THE lesson that I have learned regarding my misguided departure from the church. \u00a0I had worked myself into a position where the values and standards of the gospel had become a second language to me – second to the values and standards of liberal democracy. \u00a0The latter had taken the place of the former as my default mindset, the habitual patterns in which I automatically and uncritically thought, spoke and acted. \u00a0Through years of training and practice, I had come to evaluate and measure the church and its values according to those of liberal democracy at a deeply intuitive and emotional level rather than the other way around. \u00a0I had come to feel more repugnance, offense and moral indignation at the thought of somebody violating my liberal democratic values than if they had violated those of my Mormon upbringing.<\/p>\n
But this is not how I experienced it at the time. \u00a0Precisely because of the way in which I had internalized the values of liberal democracy I uncritically experienced these values as given and beyond question. \u00a0The values of liberal democracy were just “obviously” good and true. \u00a0Thus, when I decided to measure the truth of the church by the values of liberal democracy, I simply experienced this process as asking “is the church true?” – an honest and innocent question. \u00a0When I evaluated church policies and doctrine by the standards of liberal democracy, I very genuinely felt that I was asking “is this position\u00a0right?” \u00a0Similarly, when a person violated the rules of liberal democracy they were a bad person, but when another person violated the rules of Mormonism they merely had a different perspective on what was right. \u00a0The very act of\u00a0internalizing the rules\u00a0of liberal democracy had also repressed them and the more strongly I endorsed them the more I placed them beyond question or constraint. \u00a0Liberal democracy, in my mind, was not simply a tradition or perspective, but universal and timeless truth – a standing which should have been reserved\u00a0for God and His church.<\/p>\n
With hindsight, I can say with absolute conviction that one does not simply lose one’s testimony, even if it genuinely feels as if that\u00a0is what is happening. \u00a0Rather, one actively – albeit uncritically – beats down and erodes one’s testimony. \u00a0 Through training and practice, we gradually chip away at our\u00a0testimonies with the hammer of the liberal democratic values we are taught in school, on t.v. and in internet forums. \u00a0As we choose to evaluate and navigate the world around us by the tools of liberal democracy rather than those of the gospel, the latter not only atrophy from disuse, but are\u00a0purposefully\u00a0displaced by the former in their relentless\u00a0take-over and re-programming of our minds. \u00a0I cannot say it emphatically enough: the tradition of liberal democracy is not neutral, passive or benign when it comes to our religious convictions or any other set of competing values. \u00a0It is a god which is no less jealous or hungry for the souls of men (or women) than any other.<\/p>\n
As people in the bloggernacle critically evaluate and take inventory on their testimonies, I sincerely hope that they do not fall into the same trap I did. \u00a0Our testimonies do not lose their power, except in their\u00a0struggle against some other power – typically that\u00a0of liberal democracy. \u00a0If some such issue is placing your testimony of the church at risk, why not critically evaluate and take inventory on your testimony of that issue? \u00a0I know that it can be difficult and counter-intuitive to do, but instead of judging the church for it’s lack of concern for feminist issues or it’s lack of appreciation or tolerance for\u00a0open debate or some other way of measuring the church by liberal democratic standards, let’s instead measure such movements, values and institutions by those of the Lord and His prophets. \u00a0To paraphrase Jacob, to be a liberal democrat is good, so long as these values and standards are constrained by\u00a0the counsels of God and His prophets rather than the other way around.<\/p>\n