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Candice Wendt's avatar

Susan, I absolutely adore this piece about waking up and personal choices in religion. I've also been in conversations online and in person in which I feel like it has been implied that staying religious or involved with a flawed faith institution is an inferior, less developed point to be at. Sometimes it buys into the all or nothing thinking-- faith is true, or its not. The adult to adult respect for others' personal choices regarding faith and spirituality you are talking about is something I value so much. Sometimes I have told friends with different beliefs that what I want is to meet in the middle where none of us claim to know the mysteries of the universe-- none of us know definitely whether there is an afterlife, whether Joseph Smith saw God, etc. I love that space of all being humble and treating each others as equals leaning into the mystery. One time an atheist friend told me her kids were scared of dying and then being nothing. I told her honestly that my kids were scared of dying and living forever. We talked about how neither of us knows the truth for sure and how our families can find comfort in the uncertainty and in realizing that whatever happens after death, we're in it together.

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Tawna Allred's avatar

Love this so much! I see it happening with Republicans vs Democrats too and I wish we could give each other the space to trust each other. I think of Brene Brown’s question (I forget which book) that asks, “Do we believe people are doing the best they can?” That makes all the difference in the world. I am still working on my faith crisis lesson for the fifth Sunday in June, and this is my goal too…to help us understand we’ve all gotten to our place of worship honestly. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻Our dialogue would be so much better if that was our core belief.

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