Exclusivity

 (an email to Thummim's daughter when she was questioning the importance of the "Gift of the Holy Ghost" referred to often as GoTHG)

Exclusivity

My thoughts specifically on the topic of “exclusivity”:

I think we emphasize, or perhaps hyper-focus on, “exclusivity” in the church too much. It is obvious, from my perspective, that women regularly perform “miracles” on par with “Priesthood-holders” and that people from other faiths experience spiritual guidance and direction on par with the guidance and direction received by “those bestowed with the GoTHG.” I don’t believe it’s necessary to draw a line that undervalues the experiences of others in order to make our experiences feel more “legitimate” or “valid.” 

To be perfectly honest, the expressions of exclusion around the GoTHG, the Priesthood being only for male-gendered humans, “the only true and living church on the face of the earth with which God is well-pleased,” and “a chosen people” all give me an icky feeling (or at least feel like an incomplete, mortal-skewed, interpretation of something bigger).

It makes more sense to my mind and heart that God would be working with people within the languages and cultures that have arisen around the world and giving his stamp of approval to EVERY GOOD THING that they do that aligns their wills closer to His in whatever degree. I don’t imagine Him tsk-tsking the Muslims for expressing their desire to follow His will by taking a pilgrimage to Mecca or God raising an eyebrow at the Buddhists that attempt to live a life free of base desires by committing to a practice of regular meditation.  I think some of the practices found in other faith traditions might be on par or even better-than our version of “receiving the GoTGH” - but ours is a GOOD thing to do! 

The GoTHG is a way to demonstrate humility and submission to something larger than ourselves, and take on the commitment and responsibility to follow a power bigger than ourselves. I like the dual symbolism of the physical (external) act of baptism bookended with an internal resolve to change our “insides” (the way we see and think before we decide to act). I like the symbolism of the acceptance of the “fire” that accompanies the GoTHG because in many ways it is committing to trials and difficulties that will “burn away our impurities” as we try to walk the path of following a higher, holier, power that will create friction (heat) with our baser natures. 

It’s beautiful symbolism, but it’s not, imo, the “ONLY” or the “BEST” symbolism for the process people follow to make real, deep, commitments to living better lives and changing their hearts. By focusing on/giving a lot of time to the “exclusivity” topic/question we might be missing “the forest for the trees.”

As legitimate counterpoint, I think there might be some good reasons for “exclusivity” being tossed into the mix on these topics. The best I’ve been able to settle on (so far) is that, at certain times throughout history, it was necessary to galvanize people under a united banner of identity to accomplish some of God’s purposes. 

The kind of unity necessary to the task brought with it the less-desirable side-effect of excluding others, but that exclusion was not/is not “doctrinal” to God’s plan. There is a larger discussion to be had here around “identity” in-general including “identity politics” and how that might differ from “identity in religion.” But I’ll save that for later! ;-P