As many of you know, I have been very, very interested in finding a healthy Mormon spirituality, and for the last 6 or so months I have been very interested in Community of Christ. I have loved getting to know their doctrines and traditions. It was a breath of fresh air to get to know such a wonderful branch of Mormonism and Christianity so well. I would recommend to anyone leaving the LDS church to make a pitstop in Community of Christ to see if it resonates with you.
However, I don’t think Community of Christ is going to work out for me personally anymore.
As many of you know, I am a very unorthodox person; I find a lot of spiritual fulfillment through entheogens and I am polyamorous. Right from the get-go these things conflict with a lot of the culture in Community of Christ. I would be allowed to be baptized into Community of Christ, but I would never be allowed to be more than an average member. I feel like Community of Christ suffers from what most religions right now suffer from: outdated tradition and a good ol’ boys club.
- Outdated Tradition: There are many people within Community of Christ that don’t want things to move forward in better ways because they like their traditions as they are. One instance I can think of is when I talked about how the Snufferites use technology to facilitate their common consent and ratify new scripture whenever the situation arises. I suggested that Community of Christ switch to something like this, because CoC only has the opportunity to do so once every 3 years right now. Most people were firmly against such an idea, because they like the tradition of seeing each other for World Conference. There were a couple of people that seemed open to it, but they seemed to give concessions whenever the other opinion was challenged. This is just one of a couple instances of how tradition is a roadblock to progress within Community of Christ.I think over time Community of Christ will inevitably create a system that allows for easier ratification of scripture. Additionally, the younger generation of Community of Christ largely recognizes the need to give up some traditions so that more people benefit from the community. Its a long fight that must be done, and it will inevitably happen.
- Good Ol’ Boys Club: Priesthood works a little differently within Community of Christ. Namely, priesthood is more like a calling. For example, you can be called to the priesthood as a deacon and then be released, and then you no longer have the priesthood. The priesthood is chiefly used to organize communities, perform rituals, and help move the theology forward. As it stands now, race, gender/gender identity, and sexual orientation aren’t a factor in you getting the priesthood in most places.The priesthood was originally only held by men, and was a “good ol’ boys club”. Only the priesthood was allowed to make rules regarding how the priesthood operates, and that excluded a lot of people. Women and LGBT folks have fought hard for generations to have access to the priesthood in Community of Christ, and now they’re at every level of the church (which is super cool!) However, I think that the good ol’ boys club will have a lot of difficulty accepting even ethical non-monogamists, such as myself. Community of Christ was founded with a huge cultural bias against any sort of non-monogamy (including the ethical kind) because they wanted to distance themselves from Brigham Young and the LDS church.I think as time goes on Community of Christ will fundamentally restructure how it’s priesthood works, and it will allow for polyamorous people like myself to be leaders in the community. I know a lot of the younger generations, who are not allowed into the priesthood today for one reason or another, disagree with a lot of these decisions and in many regards believe that they do have the priesthood. I have a friend who told me that they would feel comfortable giving a blessing even though they’re not an ordained elder.
Just a couple weeks ago I was saying that I was ready to be baptized into Community of Christ, but today I don’t want to be anymore. That said, Community of Christ is an amazing group of people, and I would 100% recommend it to anyone who is exiting the LDS church. They provide a community that I think a lot of ex-LDS folks would find comforting and familiar.
I know I am way out there in terms of spirituality. There are very few people who talk about using entheogens as spiritual tools. The best comparison of who I am and what Community of Christ is that I’ve been able to draw is between the 2 Buddhist schools of thought: Mahayana (“Big Vehicle”) and Theravada (“Little Vehicle”). Mahayana is known as the “Big Vehicle” because it tries to get as many people towards enlightenment (but maybe puts limits on some people by doing so); you can think of it like a bus. Theravada is known as the “Little Vehicle” because it gets super dedicated and intense people towards enlightenment; you can think of it like a little sports car. Community of Christ, to me, would be like Mahayana when I’m looking for more of a Theravada.
I would be ecstatic if Community of Christ were to move forward enough to where I would feel comfortable officially joining, they’re just not there right now. I also don’t feel the need to fight for these things within Community of Christ, because I would rather grow myself spiritually than help an entire organization grow. Moving forward I am going to focus more on things that I know bring me valuable spiritual experiences, which is why I’m switching back to my “Entheogenic Mormon” flair 😉
That said, I am not going to completely cut off my relationship with CoC. The LGBT advocacy group “Harmony” has been an incredible support as I have been trying to make heads or tails of Community of Christ. I am giving a sort of devotional in a meet up this coming Tuesday. John Hamer’s lectures have been incredible and I will continue to watch them anytime he gives them – preferably live because he does Q&A. I will still have an ear to the ground of Community of Christ.
TL;DR: Community of Christ is great, but not enough for me. I would recommend it to others.