“I Didn’t Say It Would Be Easy” and other things that really bug me. (Along with a few more baby pictures, of course.)

It seems almost sacrilegious to post about anything other than baby Kate right now.  After all, what else in my life can compete with this kind of cuteness??

Those are pictures that make my heart more than happy.

And if I wasn’t going to talk about that, I could talk about our afternoon at my sister Andra’s house, where we kept trying to leave and she kept enticing us to stay just by being her normal awesome self.  And how after Russ made death bars for her daughter, she gave him a massage.

(Right before that happy look on Russ’s face he was crying.)

 

But I’m not.  Because even though all of those things are true and it seems like I should be just marinating in the baby-liciousness of this moment, the baby is at the hospital and I am here (and should be in bed) and there is something on my mind.

 

#1) Russ & I were just up in the bathroom getting ready for bed.  (You see, I was headed there but now I’m delayed just a bit.)  I’d read him some interesting bits from a church magazine article I was reading when he responded to me,

Well you know, He didn’t say it was going to be easy…

to which I interrupted (and not really nicely)

Oh PLEASE don’t say it!!

but he did anyway, and finished,

He just said it would be worth it.

 

Yep, he did.  He said that.

Now you may wonder why this would bother me.  It bothers me because it’s NOT TRUE.  Jesus said a lot of things.  But this is not one of them.  So I think we should stop attributing it to him.

 

#2) Tonight we had dinner with Russ’s awesome brother & sis in law.  (Every trip to Utah reminds me that I truly hit the jackpot in the in-law department!)  I was talking about the kids going on trek last summer, and how we’d watched a movie about the handcart pioneers before they went.    Then I told them how much it bothers me when people tell the story about the three 18 year old boys who rescued one group of handcart pioneers by carrying them across an icy river, and later died from the exertion and exposure of that experience.  I’m sure that you know the quote I’m talking about.  Well it turns out that someone at BYU Studies did a little more researching on this, and in 2006 published an article about it.  This is what he said,

The evidence indicates that more than three rescuers braved the icy water that day. Of those positively identified as being involved in the Sweetwater crossing, none were exactly eighteen. Although these rescuers helped a great many of the handcart pioneers across the river, they carried only a portion of the company across. While some of these rescuers complained of health problems that resulted from the experience, most lived long and active lives that terminated in deaths that cannot be definitively attributed to their exposure to the icy water that day.

It seems to me that if this was published 9 years ago, we should be done quoting it now, don’t you think?  Especially since it was publically declared that their exaltation was secure, and some of them grew up to not be very nice people…

 

#3 And in the same (almost exact) vein.  There is a beautiful story of a handcart pioneer, Francis Webster,  who defends the decisions made by the Martin & Willey handcart companies to leave so late in the season.  I’m sure you know the one I’m talking about, but if you want a refresher, you can read about it here starting about 1/3 down the page where it reads “I heard a testimony once…”  Part of me really loves this story and the honest sentiment it describes.  I love the idea that this man felt his experience in the handcart company had deepened his faith.  But the truth is that part of the story that is told isn’t accurate.  He is quoted as having said,

We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that Company utter a word of criticism? Not one of that Company ever apostatized or left the church because every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with him in our extremities.

Now from what I’ve read this quote about what Francis Webster said wasn’t written down until 40 years after he said it, so who knows how exactly it was remembered.  Maybe he said it that way and maybe he didn’t.  But the point is that we are still teaching it this way.  And Br. Webster, in that day and age, would have had no way of knowing whether or not all of the members of the handcart company stayed in the church because they all scattered to different places after arriving in Salt Lake.  As it turns out, more than a few members of those companies did leave the church.

 

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By now you are probably thinking that if these things bother me, I’ve finally lost it.  But I really do have a point here.

My point is, I want my faith, and even more importantly my children’s faith, grounded in truth.  Not in inaccurate stories or platitudes. 

You’re probably still thinking that I’m getting upset about something that’s not that big of a deal, and I get that.  But to me it’s significant.  I want my kids hold on to the things that Jesus actually did say.  Not in a little convenient phrase that someone invented.  And even more importantly, I don’t want them to base any part of their belief in God, or their gratitude for their pioneer ancestors (because my children have them, even if I don’t) on things that didn’t happen.  I don’t want my children deciding that difficult or traumatic experiences will automatically solidify your faith.  Or that carrying people across icy rivers qualifies them for exaltation.  I want them to be inspired by truth and reality, not by sensationalism that makes truths pale in comparison.

And I think that as soon as we become aware that we’ve been believing (and quoting in general conference) things that are inaccurate we should make a real effort to correct them.  And we should probably take them out of the sunday school manuals.

 

PS—If you’re interested in a more accurate and very inspiring story of Francis Webster who was really an amazing person, you can read about him here.

PPS—Another Mormon Urban Legend, which fortunately has been corrected, was the quote attributed to President Hinckley, in which he said that the youth born today were generals in the war in heaven.  I guess because this was supposed to have been said by a prophet a letter was sent to every church congregation in 2008 telling people to cease and desist using this “quote.”  And to correct it if it was used!

PPPS—Sometimes I ask Russ if he knew I would be so _________ (difficult, tired, cranky, emotional, etc) when he married me.  He always says yes…that he knew it wouldn’t be easy, but that I was worth it…