Just a thought or two on being a Mormon

I was sitting in my high priests group meeting earlier today, and, as I looked around, I thought what a good group it was to be with.  I counted at least eleven or twelve former bishops sitting around me, for example, and I know of many remarkable acts of service associated with most of them.  I’ve known several of these men for decades now.

The lesson for the meeting focused, among other things, on service.  It included a film clip from President Uchtdorf about a young girl, Eva, going very much against her will to spend a summer with her great-aunt Rose — and learning a great deal from the experience as she comes to appreciate her aged relative.  (See here.)  It also included a clip from Elder Dale G. Renlund in which Elder Renlund, a newly sustained member of the Twelve who had previously devoted his professional career to cardiology, told a touching story of losing a young man named Chad and of what he learned from the experience.  (See here, with the specific story beginning at about 2:00 in the video.)

It occurred to me, sitting there, how different an experience I was having than the one I often read about online.  Perhaps I spend too much time reading the words of mockers who deride Mormonism, criticize and ridicule its leaders, sneer at the moronic fools who believe its claims and rejoice over any and all gaps that they can find (or imagine themselves to have found) between our professed beliefs and our actual behavior, who regard the Church of Jesus Christ as, at best, silly and stupid and, at worst, evil and hateful and cruel.

I understand that not everything is roses.  I grasp the fact that some have grievances against local Church leaders, for instance.  That some feel condemned for failing to maintain the standards taught by the Church.  That some feel marginalized, or believe that others for whom they care have been marginalized.

But the Mormonism that I know is a community in which, to a remarkable degree, the Saints “live together in love” and “weep for the loss of them that die” (Doctrine and Covenants 42:45), in which men and women “are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort” (Mosiah 18:8-9).

I’m a convinced believer.  Still, I understand that many cannot accept the truth claims of my church.  But I cannot understand those who regard its members with hatred and contempt.

The Latter-day Saints are good people.  I’m privileged to be counted among them.