June 16, 2007,
Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City, Utah, 2007)
The Oasis Bookstore in Logan is run my a nice guy named Brad. It’s a Christian bookstore. And I think Brad named it the Oasis because he sees it as a spring of “living water” set amid the arid sands of Mormon* doctrine. I don’t know. I’ve always seen the place as that little cabin in the movie “Dances With Wolves” — the one where Kevin Costner is sent to keep an eye on the Indians.
Unlike Costner, however, there’s not much chance of Brad ever going native.
I stop by from time to time to check in on Brad. I buy a couple of pencils printed with the Ten Commandments and we talk shop for a spell.
For Brad and me, talking shop means talking religion.
We ask each other a lot of questions. The last time I was there, I asked a question that made him ponder longer than I thought it would. He never really gave me an answer. I asked:
“If the baby of an LDS mother is deathly ill, and the mother falls to her knees and pleads, ‘Father, please help us. Help my baby.’ would God be willing to answer that prayer?”
For me the answer was obvious. “Of course.” But for Brad, that answer carried implications. I’m guessing again, but I think it opened up a theological can of worms for him. Yet he has such a good heart he couldn’t conceive of God — or himself — saying “no” to such a prayer.
I’ve thought since that the question might be used to locate the heart in a variety of people — from Christian saints to criminals.
Those who disdain illegal immigrants from Mexico should substitute the words “illegal immigrant mother” for “LDS mother” and ask themselves the question.
Those who fear and loathe Muslims should substitute the words “Muslim mother.”
For those who have no use for blacks, Jews or Eskimos, ask the question with them in it.
And LDS people don’t get off the hook.
They might substitute the words, “loutish-evangelical-protester mother,” or “Saints Alive mother” or “communist mother.”
It’s a simple “yes” or “no” question. It’s not about doctrine, it’s about love. If you find yourself adding qualifiers such as “Which God did she pray to?” “By what authority?” or “How would the baby grow up?” you’re answering from your head, not your heart.
Would God always be willing to answer such a prayer? Common sense says probably not.
But then, in the end, the question is really not about God anyway.
The question is really about ourselves. What kind of people are we?
The answer we give says 20 times more about us than it says about deity.
Years ago, mothers would tell their daughters, “The quickest way to a man’s heart is throught his stomach.”
We might say the quickest way to God is through the heart.
Happy the day, Emerson said, when a person learns that what he was seeking outside of himself can be found within himself.
I think even my buddy Brad would nod in agreement at that.
* The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, cf. ldschurch.org for more information.