There are several types of people who grow up in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’m only going to concentrate on two: Those who implement every facet of the gospel and those who learn absolutely nothing regardless of decades in the church.
Last week, an acquaintance of my husband’s was tazered to death in Salt Lake City, in front of his wife, by Salt Lake police officers. It was a tragedy, for all concerned. The immense sadness my husband and I felt was at the reports of the funeral of this man who had grown up in the church. He’d left the fold a long time ago and indulged in a criminal lifestyle. His friends and acquaintances were gangsters and his funeral service was incredibly sad. All his friends could talk about were the criminal activities that they felt comprised “good times” gone past.
A standard LDS funeral service is full of sadness, but rife with love, hope and understanding that this is not the end. Often the good things the deceased individual has done in his or her life are extolled, hearts are lifted and we are reminded of the eternal aspect of things. By the same token, those who have wasted their lives and done nothing to improve their lot in life bring great sorrow to the Latter-day Saints around them. You see, we know what they have tossed away so cavalierly.
My own ex-sister-in-law grew up in the church, never gained a testimony, and never learned one iota of the gospel. When the time came for her to rely on her own testimony, not that of her mother’s, nor that of her husband’s, she fell and she fell hard. Her older sister, who had left the church, was there to scoop her up with untold numbers of lies and vicious twisting of gospel principles and my ex-sister-in-law has been lost since that time. She and my brother were divorced and she raised her children in a violently anti-Mormon home which affected them so adversely they are still paying the price to this very day.
I don’t know the solution to this. Some seek the Lord, some do not. But if any within reach of my words will listen, I beg of you, come back to the fold. Seek the Lord and know that the promise He holds is far greater and sweeter than the false beauty Satan tempts you with — Come home.