Something
happened during my musical studies while I was listening to John Mayer. I
wasn’t really thrilled about it, and the music was not doing it for me, but I
had an impulse to watch him perform, rather than just hearing the music. I
brought up a video of him playing live, and I felt something for him.
It’s
not that I like his music, or that I don’t shake my head every time he is
quoted, or anything like that, but somehow I saw him as a human and I felt
compassion for him, and I can’t despise him. Oddly, I have been able to see a
lot more of Mitt Romney, and I face no such obstacles.
Now,
at this time I am neither dissecting Mitt Romney nor the modern Republican
party, though that’s coming, but I mention it because I totally get the
animosity that people feel towards Romney, and I don’t blame anyone for that.
However, as an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints, and someone who wears garments, the jokes do bother me.
One
of the things that I wrote Friday in “Monsters” is that we sell our souls too
cheaply, and I think this happens because we don’t always consider the big
picture. You don’t like Mitt Romney, he’s a Mormon, they wear special
underwear, and the leap is made to comedy gold. I submit to you that the
problem with Romney is not the underwear or the religion. And of course,
there’s a growing tendency to mock any and all religion, which we will probably
get into eventually, but right now, let’s focus on the temple garments.
First
of all, no one thinks they’re magic. You will sometimes hear stories of people
being protected from physical harm while wearing them, but there are also
people who get harmed wearing them, and people who don’t get harmed while not
wearing them, so that’s really not a factor. The protection comes spiritually.
Wearing them means that I remember that I have made covenants with God—there
are things that I have promised to Him and that He has promised to me.
Lots
of religions have special clothing for similar purposes. You can make fun of a
Catholic wearing a crucifix or a Muslim woman wearing a veil, but you’re being
a jerk. I’m sure that at some point if we get a Sikh candidate for president,
there will be turban jokes, but that won’t make it right. Of course, those
things are out there to be seen, and ours are not, but I think the privacy of
the garment is an important point.
What
we wear is up to us. Technically it is possible to see the lines under the
clothes sometimes, where you can see that someone is wearing the garments, and
if someone is wearing more revealing clothing it is easy to assume they are not
wearing it, but really, it is private. There are several good things about
this.
“But
all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their
phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments.” Matthew 23:5
There
is not an easy way to get into a game of who’s righteous for us, at least not
based on the clothing. I don’t necessarily know if you have gone to the temple,
or if you’ve stopped going, or anything, and I shouldn’t. I have plenty to
worry about for myself.
And
I admit, I am not as on top of it as I could be. I don’t think about it every
day when I put them on, because I pretty much get dressed on autopilot. At the
same time, they are still there, for me to think about, they do affect the way
I dress, and they could affect the way I act. I don’t think that it is any
coincidence that my father stopped wearing his before he started cheating on my
mother, and that hurt him, and a lot of other people. I with he had let his
garments protect him in that way, and protect us.
“Magic
underwear” jokes are taking something that is really beautiful, and mocking it,
which I am against. Also, they are totally missing the point on Romney because
there are really important things wrong with him, and focusing on the trivial
can be harmful as a distraction. If he was sticking to an economic plan that
seemed like it would work, and grasped the nuances of foreign policy, and did
not show such utter disdain for those who are not wealthy, would you care what
he was wearing?
So
the jokes are wrong, but I will survive them, and there are other things that
are worse. More on that tomorrow.
http://www.mormontopics.org/eng/garments
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment