Still Pioneers after 161 Years

It was 161 Years ago today that Brigham Young entered the Salt Lake Valley and declared "This is the Place" for the Mormons to settle and live in peace. Today the membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is recognized as one of the fastest growing religions in the world.

It baffles me though, how misunderstood we are still to this day. We are very much still pioneering our way through the wilderness of ignorance and misunderstanding and trying to establish a place of peace.

Several months ago I struck up a casual conversation with a woman as we both walked across a parking lot toward our respective cars. She was very friendly as I suppose she found me to be and for quite a while we stood chatting at our crossroad point, neither one of us wanting just yet to end our conversation and separate to our cars. Our enjoyable conversation was religious in nature, but then she learned that I was LDS. Suddenly this new found friend started bringing up points of contention. I tried to keep the conversation as it was, sharing with her that I was a fellow Christian who also loved and served Jesus Christ. She never saw it that way. After pushing several points, she ended the conversation by telling me that she felt sorry for my deception by Satan and that she would pray for me. (Which is fine, I could always use a prayer).

I was sad that I lost a friend before I had the chance to make one. Here we had two women, both who love Jesus Christ, both who accept Him as their personal Savior, both who feel desirous to serve him and love him all the days of our lives, two women who could encourage each other and rejoice in a mutual knowledge of Christ's grace and goodness. But Satan is good at what he does, isn't he? Instead of celebrating our common feelings, he had inserted somewhere in this woman's teaching that Mormons believe in a different Jesus Christ, so therefore no Mormon is a Christian.

One of the ministers often heard on Christian radio spends hours of air time teaching others how to confuse and "catch" Mormons in their words and he prides himself in the fact that he has been the instrument in making several missionaries leave their missions. Now I have heard his testimony of Jesus Christ, and I've heard him talk about some of the desires of his heart, which I believe to be good. I think he's a good man, and I am baffled that he would feel the need to attack us as the enemy. I ask myself, "Why are you so threatened by us? Even as I hear what you teach about us, do you have any idea what we teach about you?" Brigham Young said:

"The Kingdom of God consists in correct principles; and it mattereth not what a man's religious faith is; whether he be a Presbyterian, or a Methodist, or a Baptist, or a Latter-day Saint or 'Mormon' or Campbellite, or a Catholic, or Episcopalian, or Mohammedan, or even pagan, or anything else, if he will bow the knee, and with his tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ, and will support good and wholesome laws for the regulation of society, we hail him as a brother, and will stand by him while he stands by us in these things...for we have long sought to find a people that will work in righteousness, that will distribute justice equally, that will acknowledge God in all their ways, that will regard those sacred laws and ordinances which are recorded in that sacred book called the Bible, which we verily believe, and which we proclaim to the ends of the earth." (Brigham Young, 3/15/1848, quoted in Ensign April 1971, pg. 43)

I can imagine that every pioneer who was forced to leave their homes asked themselves the same question I do, "Why are you so threatened by us?" I wonder if today's personal extermination decrees aren't just as damaging as yesterday's public ones.

But, this blog isn't about having all the answers. But now that I've gotten my word in edgewise, and in the spirit of "carry on, oh Pioneers!" I wrap up with a quote Bruce R. McConkie's GC 10/84 address: "The church is like a great caravan--organized, prepared, following an appointed course, with its captains of tens and captains of hundreds all in place. What does it matter if a few barking dogs snap at the heels of the weary travelers? Or what predators claim those few who fall by the way? The caravan moves on. Are there storms that rage along the way, floods that wash away the bridges, deserts to cross and rivers to ford? Such is life in this fallen sphere. The caravan moves on. Ahead is the Celestial city, the eternal Zion of our God, where all who maintain their position in the caravan shall find food and drink and rest. Thank God that the caravan moves on!"

Carry on, carry on!