The Myth Makers & The God Makers

This past year, I've discovered Facebook. It is amazing. It is far superior to MySpace on many levels. Like many new media, it is dominated (right now) by younger adults. There is a small debate going on in the "Community of Christ is NOT Mormon's" group. (Yes, the name has problems).

I respond to a young LDS woman who asserts that Mormons are indeed Christian, but they are also the one true church.

Taryn, you are passionate about your faith. That is admirable. I wish more people felt as strongly as you do.

You aren't being vindictive. Are you "slamming" my church? I don't know, but you are essentially saying my church is in apostasy and the only true church is yours.

I understand where you are coming from. I use to believe that about your church too. Yet God keep revealing to me more truth and and I found God's Spirit of Grace alive in other churches and with other people.

I am in the Community of Christ today because it does not discount the experiences of other Christians as naive or incomplete.

Both the Book of Mormon & the Book of Revelation say in the end there will be 2 churches. I believe that. I also don't believe it is one the institutional churches that exist today.

Joseph Smith was a true prophet, but Joseph Smith was wrong too. I think if you can understand the truth in that, you can begin to understand why I am a member of the Community of Christ.

The paradox of faith. Jesus is fully human and fully divine. Joseph Smith is a true prophet and a false prophet. God is three persons, yet truly one one.

I believe in the holy catholic and apostolic Church. (My mom hates this line in the creed because she was taught that the Roman Catholic church was going to be one of the two churches in the end. She was taught it was going to be the Great and Abominable Church of the Devil.")

While writing this entry, I found an article online by Stephen E. Robinson, on Nephi's "Great and Abominable Church." Robinson asserts that:

Once we understand that the term great and abominable church has two uses, the one open (inclusive and archetypal), the other closed (exclusive and historical)

I need to read the whole essay more carefully, but on this point, Robinson nails it. There are dual meanings to this phrase, both a symbolic reading and a literal reading. (I've known that Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell are key to understanding the Book of Mormon and the Book of Revelation.)

Hugh Nibley, a great LDS apologist wrote a book "The Myth Makers" to defend the church from fundamentalist Christian attacks. The of those anti-LDS attacks was called "The God Makers." (a book and a movie). What is ironic is that from a archetypal perspective, both titles accurately describe the church and the church's attackers. (And yes, I'm not being specific about the church, because that is my point.)

Every church has myth makers and god makers. Every religion has myth makers and god makers. So does every movement against a church or religion or a people.

The challenge for us is to discover the true myths which reveal the nature of the true God.