Representing Belief

In the article, Marilynne Robinson says something about Christianity and judging others that really stood out to me. She said, “The Bible, Christianity, should have inoculated us against this kind of disrespect for ourselves and one another. Clearly it has not.” This reminded me of a thought I’ve been pondering lately. Sometimes, members of the Church (and any church, I suppose) are the worst culprits when it comes to judging others, even though it is something we are directly taught not to do. It can be hard to find the right balance between keeping yourself out of harm’s way and judging another. This is one of the challenges we face when trying to represent belief in a respectful way. I think what Marilynne Robinson might have been saying is that we must somehow find the middle ground between standing up for our beliefs and respecting others.

Sometimes it is best to avoid direct confrontation when it comes to personal beliefs. Unless somebody is challenging your beliefs in a way that makes it harder for you to live by those beliefs, than perhaps people should just quietly live by what they believe. There’s no use is creating unnecessary conflict. This doesn’t mean, however, that everyone should be embarrassed and shy with their beliefs. You can share what you believe without being forward and rude. The idea is to have somebody consider for themselves what you say, not to force something on them. It is for this reason that I think subtly should be encouraged when sharing beliefs. Your message will come across stronger by being a good example. I know that’s a super Mormon phrase, but generally people are more willing to accept real-life example as opposed to words on a page. The “Meet Your Farmer” film we watched in class is a good example of both of the things (which are really the same thing, if you think about it) I talked about above. The farmer in this film didn’t talk about what he believed specifically, as far as religion and philosophy goes, but his actions made it clear what some of his beliefs are. He explained that he did some of the things he did because of his family, and then we see him working on the farm with his kids. These words and images had a stronger impact on me than if someone were to just tell me that they think family is important.