...Solely Responsible for Content

I am aware that as a writer I am responsible for my views and that they do not necessarily reflect the views or position of others who may be attached to me or with whom I am affiliated by membership—such as my Church. Yet it should be obvious that everyone’s opinions are a reflection of what they have come to believe as a result of familiarization and association with some influential source.

For me it very definitely is my Church.

And so when I say, as did the Apostle Paul, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth…,” I believe in the content of that gospel as I have had it delivered to me, studied it and have interpreted it. I have striven to be a disciple of Christ in orthodoxy and orthopraxy (belief and practice) but from a Latter-day Saint point-of-view.

It is acknowledged, however, that even within an orthodoxy there are degrees—from the conservative to the liberal; and I lean more to an unabashedly conservative point-of-view. Therefore, I am rather closed-minded on some issues; that is, I believe that many issues, for me, after careful exploration, have been settled. I am also rather discriminatory; meaning that I intentionally try to discriminate between right and wrong, good and bad, helpful and hurtful, life-promoting and life-defeating and align my behavior with the ‘right.’ I sing often to myself one of our Church songs, “Choose the right when a choice is placed before you….”

I think there are absolutes or at least universal principles, therefore trying to be too ‘tolerant’ in one’s own convictions is an admission that one is ‘double minded,’ and as the Apostle James observes, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways,” or as Jesus (and Abraham Lincoln) said, “every kingdom divided against itself [mentally or philosophically] is brought to desolation; and every city or house [or person] divided against itself shall not stand.” Walking the borderline of any principle is not living the principle; so orthopraxy is very important to me. Therefore, when Jesus says, “he that is not with me is against me…” (Matt. 12:25, 30) it tends to bring one up short. It forces one to take a stand.

Though we must be ‘tolerant’ of those who do not see things as we do, for it is an article of my faith that, “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let the worship how, where, or what they may (Article of Faith #11), we had better come to some pretty clear convictions on “things as they really are.”

And sure conviction forces one to be solely responsible for the content of his character.