{ This picture is totally unrelated to this post; we took it on a trip to Orcas Island in June. I just think it's funny.}Two Sundays ago, a man in our ward stood up and gave a talk. In introducing his talk, he said something I found highly inappropriate. He said, "I hope nobody will crucify me for saying this, but..." and then went on to express his disapproval of one of the general authority's talks from last conference - the very talk he was supposed to be basing his talk on. He basically said that he felt he could have written the talk better than Elder ____ and that the talk felt to him like the introduction to a 900-page textbook on the subject - but the general authority had neglected to write the rest of the book. Blasphemous, I know.
But the most shocking part to me was the word "crucify." It stunned me, hearing it used so irreverently from the pulpit. But the worst part is how that word has stuck with me these last 2 weeks. I have found myself forming sentences in my mind that use the same phrase. I am repulsed by it, and yet it still comes to my mind before I can stop it.
Why is that? Why is it that things that disgust us stick with us for so long? It's like a scene in a book (a terrible book, that they are now making a movie of) that made me close the book in horror...and yet I have never forgotten the exact wording of a particular sentence. It comes to me periodically to haunt me.
I know that I can't go through my life avoiding bad things, as they are inevitably all around us. I am trying my best to exercise the mental power to cast out those thoughts as soon as they enter. But darn that man in my ward for putting that word into my mind in the first place. I will forever think of that word when I think of him, and I will forever think less of him.
9 comments:
I bet he didn't want to talk in church again and that was his way of forever getting out of it. If it works I'm sure Scott will be trying it the next time he talks. Ok seriously, I have to agree that that is not what you want, or need, to hear at church. It will always stick with you unfortunately. Just like the love talk I heard in Alabama that the only part that ever comes to mind is the lady talking about beating her kids when they were little. I guess we are all just human.
Wow I can't believe someone had the nerve to criticize an apostle in church. First step to apostasy...
Yuck. I hate experiences like that. I hate when church is awkward. I hate when you can't get a situation from returning to your brain. I hate the space it takes up in my brain.
Box it out, girl. Box it out.
I wonder why does the word crucify bother you? Crucifiction was merely a form of execution used for the gamut of offenses considered to be criminal from theft to murder. If the man had said "kill" or "execute" or "knock my block off", would it have made any difference. He exagerated sure, but I'm sure you were just exagerating when you said "darn that man" which is just a euphemism for damn that man. Surely, you aren't asking God to damn him, are you?
WOW, analyze much????
Charles, not you.
Where was the bishop in all of this? Were any comments made after his talk? I agree that especially in Sacrament meeting the use of crucify should be used in a reverent tone.
Where was the bishop in all of this? Were any comments made after his talk? I agree that especially in Sacrament meeting the use of crucify should be used in a reverent tone.
Where was the bishop in all of this? Were any comments made after his talk? I agree that especially in Sacrament meeting the use of crucify should be used in a reverent tone.
Post a Comment