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mormongandhi

So I am not Gandhi, and I am no longer a member of the LDS church – but I call myself “mormongandhi” nonetheless. The nickname is intentional, as it probably is an oxymoron to most people. The small letter cases are also intentional, because it has become important to provide other ‘mormongandhis’ in the LDS church, and also more generally within the LDS movement, a place of refuge, a haven of peace, where we can express our nonviolent faith. I still consider myself to be a mormon, culturally and spiritually – even though as yet I haven’t joined the Community of Christ.

My main reason for leaving, and it is unfortunate to say, was due to the LDS church condoning violence, and also justifying the use of violence by its members against citizens of other states. In fact, I couldn’t believe my own ears when Gordon B. Hinckley said that members in uniform will not be held accountable before God for the people they kill in line of duty… My mother always taught me that the reason I was given free agency is for me to choose to do what is right – and yet, at times we see that LDS contemporary culture is itself at odds with the teachings of Jesus. That is why I make the difference between being a Latter day Saint and being a Latter day Satyagrahi. The latter of the two is committed to nonviolence.

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my educational background

I have spent two years in the Norwegian Air Force, working as a basic training officer. Because of that, I have taught 300 young kids how to use guns, and of that I am ashamed (see anti-nephi-lehi conversion story). I am fortunate however to never have served in the battle field, and grateful that I never had to make that choice. This is my point – it is a choice – for which we will be held accountable. I chose to spend a year on a mission for the LDS church in 1999, and returned to Norway due to poor health a few days before we all entered the new Millennium.

My new-found conviction in relation to the principles taught in the restored gospel of peace are informed by the years in which I did a bachelor’s in peace and development studies at the University of Bradford. My main interest was in religious peacebuilding, exploring the positive role the Churches can play in society, and many of the articles on this blog are taken from a final year dissertation on the same topic. My main concern was to find my own voice within the mormon faith, conscious that unless we all work at it, it will be difficult to change the mindsets of those that are bent on leading us and the attitudes and behavior of those who tend to follow them, with regards to the use of violence.

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the source of my nonviolence

The source of my nonviolence comes from believing the words of Jesus in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. You have to use those books together, like they say, and not just read them. There is a reason why the Sermon on the Mount is such a central text in both books. Mormons should therefore be twice as committed as anyone else to those same teachings.

I appreciate the warnings of the prophets – mostly referred to as presidents of the church – and the advice we receive from apostles too. For this reason, I quote widely from their talks and conference addresses. I see no contradiction in that. I love the Temple and its rituals, and am not therefore a stranger to what is taught there. I miss it. I do. I am saddened however that too many members fail to see the rituals and the teachings we receive there as an elongated Sermon on the Mount.

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my intentions with this site

My intention with this blog is to love my opponents in the faith – those who still practice the saying: an eye for an eye. I want to do good to those who have difficulty showing love, to bless those who speak evil of others whom they do not know, and my prayer is that latter day saints would see us, the mormongandhis, the jesus radicals, the anti-nephi-lehies, the pacifists, the nonviolent practitioners, the LDS anarchists, as co-partakers of the fruit and that through our words and our actions they too might be converted – not the other way around.

Someone once said: ‘it is better to be alone than in bad company. It is even better to be in good company than to be alone’. Being a minority within a minority has never been easy for anyone (a nonviolent practitioner in a violent faith in a predominantly secularized society), and these are difficult questions to grapple with – emotive questions. I share the little I have come to know in the spirit of humility, motivated by brotherly love. I hope that one day, we will all come to see him – the other (black, muslim, female, gay person with disability and internally displaced with nowhere to go, victim of war and/or prisoner of conscience) - as he is, and see that he is a man like ourselves (D&C 130:1).

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let’s discuss what matters most

If you wish to contact mormongandhi for more information about latter day satyagraha, please use the contact form below and submit. An email will automatically be sent to my email address.

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