For Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, or Part Five, click on that part to go there.
Time for a visit to Elder Harold B. Lee's next talk in the April 1971 Conference - remember when sometimes people had to speak multiple times? Those were intense weekends for them, no doubt.
This is from his talk, "The Iron Rod.":
The Quote
“What people come to religion for,
is an ultimate metaphysical hunger,
and when that hunger is not satisfied,
religion declines …
the moment that clerics become more worldly,
the world goes to hades the faster.
“… Religion represents the accumulation of man’s insight
over thousands of years
into such questions as the nature of man, the meaning of life, the individual’s place in the universe.
That is, precisely, the question at the root of man’s restlessness.
“Man seeks something to end his state of confusion and emptiness …
in the latest parlance, an antidote for aimlessness.
We do not know if the truths of religious tradition
can be interpreted to satisfy this need,
but we are sure that here,
not in political activism,
is religion’s path to relevance.”
Okay y'all - this quote happened in the 1960s - over sixty years ago! Do things ever really change? I've seen issues with this concept into at least 2022. What's going on?
Take a Look at Identity
I could not locate the original quote from Rabbi Hertzberg - not at Columbia University, not at the Wall Street Journal - but he wrote many other books relating to his Jewishness and the importance of knowing and respecting the tradition you hail from.
I doubt highly there's any one pure tradition any of us can pull from at this point. There's always something to celebrate and something to feel sorry for in any tradition. In my own faith, we have had our moments as well.
People are people, and even a perfect tradition with people in it is going to go askew sometimes. Particularly when it comes to politics.
Religion fulfills a certain role in life. Science fulfills a certain role in life. Politics fulfills yet another role. Yet if we try to confuse one for the other, we get ourselves in trouble. They all have a place, and an order that needs to be respected. I think we're getting better at recognizing that over time. I know I am.
It all comes down to identity, really, and we all carry multiple identities. My main ones are child of God, child of the Abrahamic covenant, and disciple of Christ. From there, I carry woman, wife, mother, sister, grandma, science fiction writer, health nut, and any number of others as I join different groups where I feel acceptance.
These identities can change to some extent, but certain parameters come with each one. Accepting those parameters, instead of seeking to destroy and remake them before we really even understand what we're doing, is usually a better way to go if we want the full benefits of those identities.
If we're unsure if a particular belief system or faith works for us, we can always try it on, and see what comes of it. Time will provide a way to tell if it works for us, or not. Like a flower growing in a garden is proof the seed was good. If we get weeds instead, no bueno. Easy.
Did I say easy? Scratch that. Not always easy, but a very worthwhile endeavor.
