Episode 249 (Transcript): Big Ideas | Belief
Episode Transcript
Many thanks to listener Rebecca Bigelow for her work in transcribing this episode!
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SH: I don’t know though. I’m still doubtful of that because I don’t think that we consider the temple to be a place that lifts people who aren’t quite there yet. I think we consider the temple to be a place where you’ve already arrived at a certain level and you’re maintaining a certain level. I know a lot of leaders and members would probably argue with me on that.
They feel like they’re very much getting, you know, lifted and continuing to progress at the temple. Okay whatever. But if we draw lines around temple worship, and we do, we draw very specific lines around it, and they leave out those among us who are operating from desire or willingness, but lack of certainty.
Aren’t we specifically leaving out the man from the scripture story who sought the blessing for his son? Like he is not getting a temple recommend, I don’t think, the way things are in the modern church.
CW: Hi, I’m Cynthia Winward.
SH: And I’m Susan Hinkley.
CW: And this is At Last She Said It. We are women of faith discussing complicated things, and the title of today’s episode is Big Ideas: Belief.
Welcome back Susan.
SH: I’m so excited, Cynthia.
CW: I’m excited to be back. It’s been a minute.
SH: Yep, it has.
CW: Well, let’s go ahead as we begin Season 11 to talk about our theme.
We kind of introduced it a little bit for our last episode of Season 10. But we wanted to talk about Big Ideas this season. So is this gonna be a new franchise? Will it go past this season? We will see, but we’ve kind of had our franchise of “We don’t believe our own stuff”.
But then you and I have been talking the last three or four months about big ideas, meaning those ideas in our church that we kind of minimize or that we don’t really delve into, and yet, you and I are like, let’s take this idea that we make really small in our church, and let’s really go a little bit deeper and make it bigger.
SH: Is there a bigger idea in our church than belief, Cynthia?
CW: No.
SH: We’re not totally sure. There’s a reason that we’re starting here.
CW: Exactly. There isn’t a bigger hurdle that we have to overcome in our church than belief, and not just our church’s. I’m… I mean, that’s what it means to be a member of all these different churches we have. You subscribe to maybe their beliefs or values or, I don’t know, just their flavor of how they worship.
SH: Well, now you’re getting right into it. So just put a pin right there, Cynthia, because you’ve used the word belief, and you’ve used the word values, and you’ve used the word flavor, and we’re gonna talk about all of those kinds of things today. So I think we’ve probably touched on at least, if not completely unpacked all of these big ideas before, but I feel like just kind of taking them one at a time and really breaking them down. Talking about how they have operated in our faith lives and how they continue to operate in our lives after things have become complicated. I think that’s a value. It’s gonna be a value to me anyway. I’m kind of tired of conversations that are in reaction to the church, if you see what I mean? I wanna do conversations that I’m choosing because they mean something to me, and so I’m thinking of this as being one of those.
CW: Yeah. We’re simpatico on that for sure.
SH: I had a conversation with my husband over breakfast this morning where I said, oh, we’re recording today about belief.
And he said, well, that’s a paradox. You know, on the one hand, I think it means almost nothing at all. And on the other hand, it matters a lot. And right there is the crux of this conversation as I see it. Belief is something that doesn’t really matter that much to some people. And in some ways, I’m gonna… Spoiler! In my own life, belief is not the driving force, but I know it is for many members. I mean, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say maybe most members.
CW: I think so.
SH: Yeah. I mean, is there a bigger idea than belief for Latter Day Saints?
