Totally your fault

INSTAGRAM: “Two people, one sacrament meeting, totally opposite experiences. The difference? An attitude of worship.” –@ldschurch, the official Instagram account of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 15 October 2016. [source]

QUOTE: “True worship will transform ordinary Church meetings into extraordinary spiritual feasts. It will enrich our lives, broaden our understanding, and strengthen our testimonies.” –Dean M. Davies, First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, in General Conference, October 2016. [source]

COMMENTARY: When I first saw this image posted on the church’s official Instagram page, I couldn’t believe how perfectly it describes the lived Mormon experience. The Mormon church makes all sorts of amazing claims of the power of God, and then blames the members when those powers aren’t seen in reality. Is sacrament meeting boring and you can’t feel the spirit? Well, you must have a shitty attitude. Did the Holy Ghost not help you get a testimony of the Book of Mormon? You must not have tried hard enough. Do your prayers go unanswered? You need to pray harder. Did it take you a week to get over a cold even though you got a priesthood blessing? Sorry; you just didn’t have enough faith. It is true that Mormonism is both good and unique. But where it is good, it is not unique. And where it is unique, it is not good. Don’t let the Mormon church fool you. Your yearning for a connection with the divine is inherent in you. It is not something the church brings into your life. If you make a boring church meeting into a spiritual feast, that’s because you are amazing, not because the meeting was. But what do I know? I’m just another apostate.