A Story to Tell: The Encroaching Fear of Nothingness or How Mormons have a Lock on the Market of Meaning

Having made my share of snide remarks about the sloppy use of vocab, analogies, and their obsessions with suffering, etc. within Latter Day Saint grassroots culture, I have to say this: most of them are ultimately fighting the greatest enemy: nothingness...meaninglessness. I believe the gospel is adaptable...even moldable to the greatest problems of the day. In Joseph Smith's time, outright athiesm simlpy was not en vogue...certainly, new theories that would provide the intellectual stimulus for nihlism (in an eternal sense) were beginning to surface (Marxism, Darwinism--both biological and social, etc.). At the time, it was most important to carve out a place in the free market of religions, an already crowded market place at that. This would explain the more aggressive proseltying tactics (let's face it: our ancestors loved to Bible thump).

Few people really believe the Bible that much these days (see this Harris Poll for stats on this...only 1/3)--the traditional foundations of Christianity in America are not what they once were. Where they can be found, I am not sure. But what is taking its place? The once authoritative voice for orthodox Christianity is no longer sturdy...what happens when individuals get slammed with life, death, marriage, divorce, etc.? Given the traditional foundation's absence, believers are left with nothing but their own personal whims. And this works for many...they can (unconsciouly), comfortably believe in their whims within the framework of the absurdly subjective culture of deconstructionism...true, their beliefs can be torn to shreds, but so can everyone else's, they say...why can't we all just get along and let ourselves live in our own faith (which really means, our own "delusion)? This, my friends, is not faith...it's preference. Faith is not much of a faith if you don't believe it to be transportable to others. If you believe the eternal cosmos exist only in your mind, I regret to inform you that your cosmos are not much of a cosmos.

This is the real enemy...the fear of nihlism...and we do whatever it takes to avoid it...ranging from fly fishing to hiking to mass-attending to (in its more horrific forms) drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. And, my friends, Mormons have a lock on that market...no one else can better tell us of "the plan." True, most will make some token gesture: "I know God has a plan for me." Why the plan exists, though, they don't know. Why did God create man? They don't know...non-Mormon theologians essentially say that he created us for his own good pleasure (which requires that God take pleasure in suffering...awkward). We suggest that God created us to become like him. Indeed, those outside the faith think it blasphemy, think it against God's nature for him to have peers. We, on the other hand, insist that God's nature require that he have peers. For most, the plan comes down to "God created us, worship him...period." That's not very encouraging for people who are looking a cancer patient or refugee in the eye.

In other words, friends, we don't just have a message to share...we have a story to tell.