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Home » The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints » Current Church Doctrine » Mormon Guilt (A discussion of he greatest deception slowing the progress of Church members)
Re: Mormon Guilt [message #1779 is a reply to message #1770] Sat, 29 December 2012 20:53 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
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Okay. JustMe and Ashleyd, you make a very good point. You are correct! Guilt is a tool, a step to repentance. We should feel guilt from time to time. It is a very Telestial thing, to be sure. It is hopefully what motivates us to move out of the Telestial kingdom.
It is much less of a Terrestrial tool, but still useful to help us repent. But at some point in our spiritual progression, repentance no longer means feeling guilty and changing our evil ways. It means changing from being good to becoming better, from being better to being more effective, more spiritual, more enlightened. At this point, repentance has little, if anything to do with guilt. It has more to do with earnestly wanting to become like God. At this point, we are more Celestial or at least upper Terrestrial. We have no motivation to do evil.
What we are talking about in the posts above is the tendency that modern-day ministers inside and outside of the Church have in creating an evil, depressing, godless pit of guilt for helpless victims to wallow in without any hope or means of escaping. In this case, sons and daughters of God [we mortals] are depicted as depraved, void, and evil beings who have very little, if any light, who must constantly welter in their guilt because they are so innately wicked!!!
We should feel guilt for sin and transgression. But once we have repented, we must be able to feel peace. Furthermore, once we have had a mighty change within us and our motivation is to do good continually, there is very little guilt. Instead, we look upon our errors and mistakes with patience and forgiveness and forbearance, just as we should look upon the mistakes and errors of our fellow beings. Because we are so motivated to do good continually, we instantaneously repent when we see our weaknesses. It is hard to feel much guilt when one repents so quickly!
So, Ashleyd, you are correct in pointing out that guilt is one of Satan's greatest tools!!!!! How can it be one of his greatest tools and one of God's greatest tools? It is to be used to extract us as quickly as possible from our erroneous ways rather than pin us to the bottom of hell.
So Dragon is pointing out how religions use guilt to control and spiritually starve their constituents rather than to inspire them to peace and perfection. Governments are prone to do the same thing. The Truth makes us free of guilt, not enslaved to it.
You see, when you feel guilty for yelling at your kids, and then you beat yourself up and get all depressed, you are of no use to anyone. You are not blessing your children and loving them [fixing the problem or "repenting"]; you are wallowing [I say this with sincere love], you are wallowing like a pig in your wonderful, ucky, sticky, all-encompassing guilt [to be a little sarcastic]. Your guilt has become an idol, an altar at which to worship your inabilities and your weaknesses. This is not a step to repentance [change]. It is a step in belittling a child of God [you]. It is a step in preventing change [repentance]. How can you repent, when you are having so much "fun" beating yourself up with the club of guilt!!! You are celebrating your inabilities instead of removing them. You are allowing your weaknesses to control you, rather than you overcoming them.
When we see a weakness, it is then that we feel remorse and then and there determine to put our hand in God's and remove it from our lives. We don't embrace the guilt-we embrace a new life without the flaw that we have now become aware of. We embrace the change until it becomes permanent. We visualize ourselves without the flaw, and we become a being without that particular fault. I hope you can see how different this is from embracing the guilt and making it the emphasis of repentance. The emphasis needs to be on the change, the new self, the greater light, the freer, more peaceful creature. The religions of our day emphasize the guilt, not the actual change. It is that simple: change the emphasis.
I have spoken very plainly here, only in the spirit of love and instruction. I suffered much depression over the years because I did not understand this principle of changing the emphasis of repentance to "change" rather than "guilt." I know whereof I speak, and I speak to free you of your guilt by giving you hope that you can alter your perception of repentance. Repentance is meant to transform us, not enslave us in our own depravity. So, anyway, you are correct that guilt is a part of repentance, but it is not the biggest, most important part-change is the biggest, overriding part of repentance. If you have read this far, thank you for your patience. I sincerely hope that it is of benefit to anyone who is mired in their own guilt.

Bishop

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