Several months ago I found myself chatting with a Jew. I mentioned to him that I had left the church of my youth; I believe the specific word I used was "renounced". He was in shock that I would renounce the faith of my family. I tried to explain to him that I didn't believe it was true. His reaction surprised me a bit; he asked me what that had to do with it. He didn't believe Judaism was true either--he didn't believe that Moses really parted the Red Sea or that Elijah was going to return or anything else. In fact, he said that nobody believes those things. But he felt it was his duty, honor, and privilege to pass on the cultural heritage that had been passed on to him. Doing so was such a sacred duty he couldn't imagine somebody doing otherwise.

What made me think about this was a post I read at RFM a couple of weeks ago. The subject was Dr. Laura. Somebody said that an 18-year old Mormon called up Dr. Laura with a problem. The problem was he didn't believe the church was true and didn't want to go on a mission, but he didn't want to disappoint his family either. Dr. Laura's advice was that he should go on the mission and follow the church of his youth and stop being so selfish. She said it was immature and selfish for somebody to leave the church in which they were born (the big irony of this is that she is saying, in essence, that it is virtuous to stay in the religion of your birth, and thus morally wrong to leave. Thus, the kid was supposed to virtuously remain in and practice his religion by spending 2 solid years trying to convince others to commit the vice of leaving the religions of their youths).

The person at RFM who was relating this story put it under the title, "How Dr. Laura almost killed me." He said that when Dr. Laura gave this kid this advice -- that he should go along with Mormonism even if he didn't believe it--he got so mad he started screaming at the radio, lost concentration of his driving, and drove off of the road and almost got into a major accident.

So we see a pattern developing here--both of these Jews believe that religion is a sacred culture that through major sacrifice has been passed to you, and that you therefore need to honor and pass it on to your children.

This concept of honoring the religious tradition of your parents is a value that exmormons ostensibly don't espouse. Furthermore, many of them actually go one step further and actively "fight" against the church that they left by trying to make members uncomfortable by exposing various esoteric details of the religion's past. Not only do they disgrace the tradition by leaving it--they go one step further and fight against it. And I think there is some truth to the observation that Mormons are more likely to fight against their church when they leave it then people who leave other faiths. Thus the cliché, "you can leave the church, but you can't leave it alone."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded in the spring of 1830. But the driving value of the church goes back 10 years more. In the spring of 1820, Joseph Smith didn't want to join just any church, but rather wanted to join the right one--the true one. So he studied, meditated, and prayed to find out which church was the true church. I argue that the value of belonging to the "true" church is more fundamental in Mormonism than the Mormon Church itself.

The church was established by people who left the false churches they found themselves in favor of what they believed to be the truth. Throughout the church's history, the sacrifices that Mormons have made for what they believed to be the truth should be held in reverence by all.

And that is what Mormonism is all about.

The church itself isn't a culture that was passed on to us that we pass on to others. It is an expression of what we believe is the fundamental nature of truth and reality. We value the truth so much that one of the main missions of the church to proclaim the gospel to anybody who will listen. We make huge sacrifices to convince the world that we have a better way.

In a sentence, Mormons believe more than anything else that the truth matters. It matters so much that we have to be willing to leave economic well being, friends, family, and even our religious heritage to embrace it. It matters so much that we must leave the comfort of keeping our beliefs private and proclaim them to those who see things differently.

We see then that people who leave the church but don't leave it alone aren't fighting against the culture and ideals in which they were raised. Rather, they are embracing it--they are honoring the integrity of the true believers of the church throughout its history by actively living and preaching the truth that they see.