Another string of thought

Attending a session of general conference at the conference center I noticed people around the building, non-patrons holding signs and/or yodeling rants. Because I have the unfortunate tendency to be extremely critical of people who I consider of little intelligence, I have been pondering the extend of the blatant hypocrisy and confusion that is exhibited in these "protesters". To clarify, by "intelligence" I mean use of knowledge, or supposed knowledge. Now of course this is an unfortunate tendency that I do this because in itself it is a form of hypocrisy, in that firstly I myself am obviously not perfect and have faults of intelligence, second I am assuming things that I do not know (since I am not the people who i criticize) and third I am making judgments on those assumptions, which is something I am in no place to do. There is, however, nothing wrong in holding opinions, so long as they are open to consideration of every aspect available and do not become a permanent receptacle of hatred. Anyway I shall continue.

My first exposure to these picketers were the pickets - people silently holding signs. Every one of these people that I saw were of a different Christian religion, or, I should say more accurately, outwardly professed so. These signs had slightly differing messages: scriptures about Christ being the Savior, others about false teachers, ignorant followers... Their intended audience was most likely people going into the conference center. Do they have trouble reading the lettering on the building? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So we're on the same page with Christ being the Savior. False teachers? Considering our teachers get their teachings come from the scriptures, this accusation labels the Bible as false. Ignorant followers? Everyone is different. Some members may have a simple testimony or may still be learning about the church. However, I personally know many very learned, talented, and thoughtful (may I add "intelligent") members of the church, scholarly in thought and with a realistic and thorough testimony of the living Christ. Overgeneralizing picket signs? Oui.

Moving closer to the part of the building where our entrance was, I overheard some people (talking about overgeneralizing, every single person I saw in the objecting party was a man who was either old or old and fat. coincidence? probably) on a megaphone gritando rants, of which I caught "you reject the Bible, you reject the God of the Bible, and in the end God will reject you". These people would do well to study the religious group they're being payed to protest against. The defining clause: We believe the Bible to be the word of God. There aren't too many jumps of logic to be made between that and the fact that we believe in the "God of the Bible", namely, Jesus Christ. It's also in the name of the Church, but as that seems to escape the logic of these people, we'll make do with an equally obvious clue: our basic beliefs, stated in the Articles of Faith.

After the session I came outside and experienced a most alarming dialogue. While passing one of the larger activists holding down a chair, someone passed and said "we love you" in the midst of whatever he was saying. This poor man replied "no you don't, you don't even love yourself." How sad this man does not read and/or understand much of the Bible. 1 John chapter 4 may do this fellow some good, and remind him of the hypocrisy of spewing hateful judgments against people he doesn't know.

"And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also."

 Now of course we all make mistakes, and where we try to follow the commandments we slip. This man, however, seemed to have acquired this adamant attitude towards the church previously, and I would venture that dislodging this attitude would be something of a miracle. NOT to say impossible, for miracles do happen, and it's just my opinion anyway.

Here ends my string of thought.