Comments on: I Am A Child Of God…No, Really.

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:29:29 +0000

Super Great post. Loved it! And all the follow up comments.

By: Cliff

Cliff — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:20:09 +0000

I had read that post. I generally agree with it. I think one possible response is that guidance is only part of the role of the Holy Ghost. A major function that is often overlooked is the Holy Ghost as Purifier and Sanctifier. There are also the Gifts of the Spirit. There is a lot of elements involved when we talk about “The Gift of the Holy Ghost” and some of them might have higher standards of worthiness than others.

By: M

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:44:12 +0000

Apparently, the link didn't work. We'll try again: The Universal Holy Ghost

By: M

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:43:13 +0000

Someone else in the bloggernacle was asking the same question recently. You can read the discussion around the post here:

By: M

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:20:29 +0000

I have no conclusive answers on any of those questions either, which is why I suppose I posed the questions I did in the first place.

I think ultimately God demands our best and what exactly that is is between us and him.

I do think that we need to be somewhat careful in drawing conclusions from our experiences too quickly. There may be long-term consequences to things we might think seem inconsequential at the time. We don’t want to be like Cain, who after murdering his brother, felt a burden lifted, and then declared, “I am free.”

Important choices in our lives should not always be made to escape hard things.

Rather they should be based on our personal consultations with God and the spiritual information that we derive from them.

But at the same time, we should not assume that God will not invite us to take risks that go against the grain and perhaps all of our preconceptions. Sometimes God has ways of making good things come out of weird situations.

Anyway, still nothing conclusive, but simply some thoughts that came to mind while reading your “comments.”

By: Cliff

Cliff — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:27:39 +0000

To be honest, I don’t know the answer to a lot of the questions you raised in your comment. I don’t know if the Holy Ghost would have left me (or left me completely). I’ve read stories of people leaving the Church who felt that the Holy Ghost didn’t leave them once they came out. All I know is I felt that Heavenly Father wouldn’t leave me. The details, I’ll probably never really know.

“Why don’t bad things happen to bad people” can be a difficult one for sure. Even “why don’t people seem to face negative consequences for breaking the commandments?” or even “why are some people happier when they leave the church?” can be rough. In the end there is a lot of stuff I don’t know.

Like, a lot.

By: JT

JT — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:41:07 +0000

This post really got me thinking. I think this touches on the real core of what makes this issue so difficult, although I think it still kind of misses some of the really difficult questions. Probably because the answers are unknown. You say that God would still be with you if you had made a different choice. I think that is absolutely true. But what do you mean by that, specifically? In Mormon terms, would the gift of the Holy Ghost stay with you? Would you still feel his influence in your life regularly?

I keep writing additional questions and thoughts, but there’s a bit too much of it to be coherent in a single comment. Let me just also say that I think a much harder question than “Why do bad things happen to good people?” is “Why don’t bad things happen to bad people?” I personally find it a much greater challenge to my beliefs to see someone rejoicing in sin daily and seeming to be happier than the many faithful members, than seeing a righteous person experience tragedy. Anywho… just some thoughts.