“Listen, here's what I think. I think that we can't go around... measuring our goodness by what we don't do. By what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think... we've got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create... and who we include.” Father Henri - Chocolat
These words came to mind with poignancy this weekend. Why is that? No, it wasn’t the Christmas season, but the act of denying my daughter’s father his right to hold her during a blessing. He is not a member of the Mormon Church and as such doesn't “hold the Priesthood”. Because of this he was “unworthy” to hold his daughter while my father (her grandfather) gave her a blessing. In one unchristian act a man “acting with the authority of God” wounded my husbands heart and undid all my years of trying to help my husband come to love the Gospel of Christ as put forth in the LDS church.“Don’t bother sending missionaries – ever” he said and “I thought when we got married I wouldn’t have a problem raising our children LDS, but now . . . “ Thanks to one Pharisee who was so compelled to follow the rule book instead of doing what was right, my family has been hurt. I can’t help but agree with my husband, however, what kind of a Christian church excludes the father of an innocent child! It is interesting that we – who let Kathryn be blessed for her sake – were the more Christian party in this whole thing. All he waned to do was HOLD HER ON HIS LAP! Instead they held her in a circle and bounced her so she cried and fussed the whole time.
I’m taking a break from going to church; not that I was terribly active to begin with, but when a wound is struck in the name of Christ, a wound that was wrong, that wound bleeds ever so much more and I don’t need to rub salt in it.
