The Body of Christ

Maybe it's because I'm an anatomist, but I really love the scriptures about the Body of Christ.  The fact that I'm writing this post about this topic this week is not a coincidence.

Members of the LDS church--all members--are parts of the Body of Christ.  In this body, sometimes we look at the hand, the beautiful, perfectly-manicured hand, and think that all is fine and healthy.  Meanwhile, there's a big gaping wound in our thigh, but instead of wondering "what's going on here, and what can we do to fix this?" we just focus on how good the hand looks as we lose all of our blood.

I can't pretend to have my ear close enough to the ground (or to Heaven) to know exactly why this is happening, but here is one hypothesis:  members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are forgetting where the emphasis lies.  Are we caring too much about "The Church" and taking our focus away from "Jesus Christ"?

Those words are bigger than all the other words for a reason, guys.

Despite my scientific, feminist, rainbow-flag-waving, Diet-Coke-swilling ways, I consider myself a pretty "non-controversial" Mormon, but there have been some things about "The Church" that have kind of freaked me out.  I've had less-than-pleasant experiences in the Temple, some of the more political stuff doesn't quite jive with my personal convictions, and there has been many a General Conference address that has sent me into a big depression spiral.  Come to think of it, I've had many experiences that could be anecdotes in my "why I'm leaving the LDS Church" story.

But I'm not leaving the LDS Church.

Why not?  Sometimes I think it would make perfect sense, and I know that few people, even in the church, would blame me for it.  The reason is this:  I believe in Jesus Christ.  Those two words that are bigger than all the other words in the church's logo are the reason I'm still here.  He is my Savior and he died so that he could understand all of my doubts and struggles and crises of faith and that he could help me fix all of my weaknesses and shortcomings so that I can become a little more like Him.  I know that no matter how weird or confusing or frustrating the LDS church can be, Jesus Christ is at the heart of it, and when we let all of the nitpicky, not-really-doctrine-but-its-been-a-cultural-tradition-for-so-long-that-we-assume-that-it-is stuff fall away and just focus on Jesus, we will find Him there.    

Furthermore, I might like to add that the Body of Christ is not on a diet.  We don't have to cut back or cut out to fit into some theological bathing suit.  There's room for everyone.*  Seriously.  Everyone.  That's kind of how the whole Jesus thing works:  He died to heal me and you and my gay friends and my feminist friends and my atheist friends and even the people who aren't my friends whom I don't even like all that much.  So let us be a little bit more like Jesus Christ, the Savior, the Healer.  Let us heal the gaping wound in our body so that we can get back to sitting on the couch, eating Fritos, and becoming a morbidly obese Body of Christ.  

*I really wanted to link to the song from Pete's Dragon, but I decided to keep it churchy.