Editor’s Note: We at Meridian are pleased to present this 12-essay series on viewing the Gospel through a familycentric lens. For readers who still want to join the series, the first six essays can be found 1. here, 2. here, 3. here, 4. here, 5. here, and 6. here.
We wanted Richard to write a midpoint intermission and overview of the first six articles and a preview of the remaining six, and he has done that today.
As most Meridian readers know, the Eyres, for five decades, have focused their professional lives on strengthening families. This focus has ranged from writing New York Times #1 bestselling books to speaking to parents in more than 60 countries around the globe. But their true passion is for an Inclusive, Eternal Family Paradigm that can’t be fully shared or grasped without the insights of the Restored Gospel. And they feel that the reverse of that is also true: The Restored Gospel can’t be fully grasped or shared until it is seen through an Inclusive, Eternal Family Lens. The goal of this series of essays is to better understand and have more realistic expectations of both Church and Family. And “family” is broadly defined so that each article speaks to us all, whether we are single or married, parents or siblings, aunts and uncles or grandparents.
Author’s Note: The first half of this series has tried to establish in detail the “family-centeredness” of the Restored Gospel and underscore Elder Uchtdorf’s classic statement that “Our theology begins with Heavenly Parents, and our highest aspiration is to be like Them.” The remaining 6 essays will focus more on the practical applications of how we can implement and better live within this family paradigm. And I agree with Meridian that this midpoint is a good time to look back and look forward to where the series has come from, and where it is going. I continue to appreciate the inputs and feedback many have sent my pseudonym email Dr*******@***il.com and those comments will impact and be included when these essays become a book next year.
Intermission Time…
If you have read all of part of the first six essays in this series, I invite you to pause and elevate and look down from altitude at this brief overview. If you have missed some of these essays, you can click to them from the summary below.
Where are we going, and where am I trying to take you? Do we need a larger lens to view the Restored Gospel? Could that lens help us to see a bigger picture and a more comprehensive plan for all of God’s children? Does it all start, as President Oaks says, with Heavenly Parents? Is the larger lens an Eternal Family perspective and does that allow us to think more inclusively, to separate ends from means, and to begin to grasp God’s goal and the plan implemented by Christ? And can doing so give us a more realistic and accurate sense of what to expect from the Church and what to hope for our families?
As I talk to younger generations in the Church, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, I find a hunger for a more global perspective of belief, one that encompasses all of God’s children, one that is inclusive rather than exclusive, and one that mitigates or accounts in some way for the apparent inequality and ignorance and suffering in the world. And I probably shouldn’t single out Millennials or Gen Z as I say that, because the same hunger surfaces often in Gen X and in my own Baby Boomer generation. We all want to see as much of the big picture as possible in which we ALL fit into our Heavenly Parents’ plan–and we all want to avoid being part of a narrow or exclusive or limited perspective of God’s work.
I feel that the key to this larger lens is seeing ourselves and all of our spiritual siblings as literal and loved children of our Heavenly parents, and that is the root or trunk of this entire series.
Notice in the look-back below how each of the first six articles build on the ones preceding it and lead into the ones following it. Then with that same overview eye, take a look at the preview of the six remaining essays and how they sequence into each other and begin to move us from the theological to the practical.
Rather than trying to summarize the content of each essay here, I have simply stated the questions that each one attempts to answer.
Essay One: Making Sense of the Gospel through a Family Lens
An Introduction to a Weekly Summer series on Church/Family Connections
What is the Church and what is the family and what are they each in relation to each other?
Why will the earth be “wasted” or “cursed” if the hearts of the fathers do not turn to the children and vice versa? Is this series (and is this Church) more for those who are married than for those who are single? How unique is our belief in a Parental God? How is our eternal existence similar to a three-act play, and why does that matter? What bearing might a more family-focused perspective have on a faith crisis?
Read essay 1 here.
Essay Two: The Essential Paradigm Shift
I Thought the Family Supported the Church—I had it Backwards
What does “Family-centered, Church-supported” mean in our everyday lives? Which (family or church) is the “end” and which is the “means”? Is the Church an administration or a community? What are the unique (embraced by no other Christian Church) doctrines and insights of the Restoration with regard to family? Should we separate “marrieds” and “singles” or just see ourselves as spiritual siblings in different places on a covenant path that can accommodate us all?
Read essay 2 here
Essay Three: Our Familial Premortal Existence
How our knowledge of life before life changes everything
How is Christ the key to both the exaltation end we are pursuing, and the mortal means by which it is attained? How unique is our belief in literal Heavenly Parents? And how unique is our perspective of a life before life? How do these beliefs and perspectives impact our perception of the fairness and inclusivity of God? In what ways is our eternal story a family story? How is our explanation of the fairness of God similar to Hinduism? Must all covenants on the covenant path be made by all people in the same sequence? Why is the true and living Church so small with only 1 in every 1,000 of earth’s inhabitants being practicing members?
Read essay 3 here.
When We Say “Heavenly Father” We Mean It (literally)
What changes with believing in Heavenly Father literally rather than metaphorically or merely as a term of respect? Does a Father God imply a Mother God? What do we know about Them? In what ways is our belief in Heavenly Parents the “trunk” of our theology? How might the unity of our Heavenly Parents mirror the unity of the Godhead? And how can it inform us regarding what our marriages should strive to be? What percentage of Christians believe in a Parental God and how can that conviction impact our love and our lives? How do you think the world would respond if our belief in Heavenly Parents was a prominent part of our missionary marriage?
Read essay 4 here.
Essay Five: Good Parents Love All Their Children Equally
And God is not the Exception, but the Example
What parts of the Church seem exclusive; what parts seem inclusive? Are some of the things that look exclusive to outsiders actually more vastly inclusive than we can imagine? How does timelessness the key to Divine Inclusivity? How is the family-tree of our Heavenly Parents similar to a huge Banyan tree? How do impressions of Divine unfairness and favoritism begin? What do we need to know to correct them? Does the fact that half of adult members of the Church are single mean that we should talk less about marriage—or more? Why is the true and living Church so small with only 1 in every 1,000 of earth’s inhabitants being practicing members?
Read essay 5 here.
Essay Six (last week): The Versus and the Ampersand
Why do Gender Discussions Emphasize the V. Rather than the &?
What do “versus (vs)” and “ampersand (&)” mean? Which best describes our present world? Are there any vs. in the Godhead? Or between our Heavenly Parents? Or are both the perfect &? Where is the & most needed and where is the vs. most destructive? How does the first story in the Bible and in the Temple suggest the Divine ampersand? What is a “perfectible entity”—one that can dwell with God? How is “equality” different than “oneness?” Which of the two is a vs. concept and which is an & concept?
Read essay 6 here.
Essay Seven (next week):
NOTHINGNESS
How Disappearing can Help you See and be Seen
Are the things we usually read as admonitions or challenges in King Benjamin’s classic speech actually not admonitions at all, but promises? Is there one single admonition that actually yields all 17 of the promises? What is the purpose and the value of praising God? Why and how is “Humble without being compelled” better than “Compelled Humility?” What is an example of each? Why might the attitude or spiritual characteristic of Nothingness have more impact on a family than methods or techniques?
Read essay 7 here in Meridian next weekend, July 26-28
Essay Eight:
Home Economics and the Cult of the Individual
How Society Suffers when the Family is no longer its Basic Unit
Why do “marrieds” do better financially and psychologically than “singles?” What do the nearly identical scriptures in all five standard works admonish “Turning the Hearts”? What is the shocking warning that goes with the admonition? Is it accurate to think of Family as Financial Incentive? Who are the two demographic groups with the strongest families? And why are there not more connections between those two groups? What are the dramatic differences between a culture centered on commitments and family and one focused on “freedom” and the individual?
Coming the weekend of August 2-4
Essay Nine:
3-Generation Family Management
Why it Takes Parents and Grandparents to Raise Kids Today
In what marked way does the American definition of “family” differ from the world’s definition? Were the 50s the good-old-days of families? Even in the face of statistics that show family decline, why are the best families and marriages in history existent now? What trends and demographics suggest that grandparents need to be more proactive today? How inclusive is a three-generation family and is anyone, single or married, left out of that larger family definition?
Weekend of August 9-11
Essay Ten:
Leaving the Church Compared to Leaving a Marriage
How our Culture Breeds an All-or-nothing Attitude
How do the imperfections in the Church compare with the imperfections of marriage? How is “leaving” one similar to leaving the other? How do unrealistic expectations contribute to both? Why can it, looking forward, seem so right to leave; and then, looking backward, seem so wrong? When one “leaves the house” of marriage or of Church, must he vacate the neighborhood, or can he stay on the porch? How do false expectations contribute to both “leavings?” How can time (or timelessness) prevent panic in both?
Weekend of August 16-18
Essay Eleven:
The Paradigm of Progression
The Entity’s Journey toward Completion is the Unending Story
Is this earth a courtroom or a classroom? Is agency the one thing we have that God has not given us? Does that make it the one thing we can give God? What is a perfectible entity? How does time (or the absence thereof) contribute to fairness? How unique is our perception of eternal progression and how opposite or compatible is it with eternal rest?
Weekend of August 23-25
Essay Twelve:
The Four Gates to the City of God
How Love, Joy, Peace and Beauty become Portals to Heaven
What did Keats mean when he said “Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know?” Is beauty a hallmark of God? How does it relate to Love, Joy, and Peace? Would you agree that they are the four portals? Or are there other more important and effectual gates? Does it matter which of the four you enter, or do they all connect inside? Which might be your best access?
Labor Day Weekend, August 30-September 2
See you here next weekend for the “how to” of Nothingness…
And thanks for thinking a little with me each weekend this summer.
