I am bound and cannot escape.
I live in shadows and mists along the edges of that magical world of my childhood; a realm where all of humanity is enslaved by unhappiness and fear of certain destruction … unless … unless I play my part in God’s Plan for setting them free. He will do this with or without me, of course. So what I do or do not is ultimately about my own, personal salvation.
The thought consumes me. I can never be comfortable with “live and let live.” I was taught-and cannot forget it-that my belief is a principle of power and action. The responsible and honest position is not, “believe whatever you like, so long as it doesn’t infringe upon others,” rather, “belief will always infringe upon others so what we believe and the means by which we arrive at that belief are dreadfully important.” Convincing others of the universal vitality of my belief is no mere kindness but an act of reciprocity and self-preservation … a positive expression of The Golden Rule.
What I believe truly matters to me. It is real, and therefore should matter to you as well. I expect you’ll feel a kindred agreement … that is, if you truly believe. And this of course is where all the trouble begins.
By the way, did I mention that my belief is given of God?
You are bound and cannot escape.
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Update
A few comments from Facebook that I think add much to this topic:
William writes:
“Convincing others of the universal vitality of my belief is no mere kindness but an act of reciprocity and self-preservation” How would you feel about an atheist foisting his or her beliefs on you? The Golden Rule as taught in Judaism is about not doing anything, which includes saying anything, to your neighbor that you would not like if you were in their shoes.
Tina writes:
As an atheist this way of thinking makes me very nervous. All you have to do is look at history or the news to see the horrific results of those who are so committed to their belief system that they let their self-righteousness turn to conflict. I have no interest in turning anyone into an atheist, all I ask is that others dare to question their beliefs, to look at them through a filter of logic, reason and rationality. If you come through the other side unchanged, so be it. Science is a dynamic, changing system that reacts to new information. Religion can be very rigid as people feel they are betraying God simply by questioning. When I see people rolling eyes at evolution (a proven fact) while proclaiming their belief in creationism (relies completely on faith), I can’t help but find that intellectually lazy at best. One doesn’t have to discard their belief in God in order to embrace the realities of science. Sorry for the diatribe.
I am a fan of the “negative case” Golden Rule that William recommends. It’s quite different from the “positive case” taught to Christians and less troublesome indeed.
This post is pretty much meant as an expression of my personal difficulty escaping the way I was raised to think as a Mormon and a Christian. Once a missionary, always a missionary is a truism that’s a bitch to leave behind. And I’m extremely sympathetic to what Tina is saying here as well. I bite my tongue with my own children, not wanting to take anything from them that makes them happy or helps them feel like they belong. At the same time, I still feel the pain of my own disappointment and want to save them from the risk of going through it themselves.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you? Or, don’t do unto others what you would not have done unto you?
[Image credit: van Gogh – The Good Samaritan, via Wikimedia Commons.]
Helen might chime in here and correct me, but her formulation is: ‘Do unto others as they would want to have done to them’. Her claim is that we all want different things, so the Golden Rule results in us just steamrollering other people’s personal preferences and beliefs.
This post made me ponder the extent to which LDS theology is a system of ‘binding’. Those who most fully embrace LDS living are the most bound, voluntarily! This is exemplified by the information given about God, who self-declared: ‘I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say’: a two-way binding. To this mindset, escape wouldn’t be desirable.
And yet, where does this leave freedom? If everyone bound themselves successfully, there would be no exercise of freedom, and our humanity would fade away. Yet, I can’t believe that this would ever happen. Perhaps the unsuccessful effort is the expression of striving humanity in LDS practise.
“Perhaps the unsuccessful effort is the expression of striving humanity in LDS practise.”
I like that a lot. I think all our institutions and misc endeavors are expressions of striving. Another question might be, which of these represent institutionalized dead ends? I mean, I think institutionalization helps keep some useful things in place but also “binds” us to ideas in a value-neutral way. We could easily get stuck with the definition of insanity: “doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.”
Helen, I like your formulation of the rule. Good luck figuring out what others really want though … I hardly know what I want myself. :D
True, it’s hard to know what others want.. but we can at least try to do that.. and sometimes people tell us what they want (although they may not know exactly what they want either).. but that’s life!
C’est La Vie — I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately. It’s not the same as “live and let live” — more like “you can fight it but at the end of the day this is just how things work.” I like the pragmatism of it.
Thanks, Helen!