Gettin' Right With God

I went to a full block of church today for the first time in probably at least a year. In Latter-Day Saints church, this includes sacrament meeting (partaking of the sacrament, speakers from the congregation, hymns), Sunday School (instruction), and Priesthood meeting (all the dudes, more instruction). I'm definitely on the outside fringe of most church-going Mormons, so it can be a struggle to stay devoted to attendence in times when I feel so out of place. Whether it be my qualms and questions with the way the organization of the LDS church has distorted the historicity of its own roots and past or my own personal interpretations of what means what within the canon of scripture, I always have had a difficult time in my attempts to be a Mormon. Usually, if I decide to try again with renewed vigor or on an epiphanous high, there is a brief honeymoon period where I'll shake off comments that I consider ignorant from the person teaching the lesson or I'll remember to find the subtle positive spiritual moments I usually have vs. the magnanimous ones that I seem more privy to in the solitude of nature and literature.

What always brings me back (I've been an on-again, off-again, semi-active church member for about eight or nine years now) is the community. As weird or off-base or just plain messed as I think their own personal interpretations can be, as estranged from a strong sense of faith that is apparent in others as I might be, communal worship fills a void in my life. If there is anything Mormons are good at, it would be community. You can pretty much fill up every night of the week with worship and activities within your congregation if you choose. And while I tend to avoid a lot of the non-Sunday activities when I participate in church at all, there is something so beautiful, so near to perfect as is imaginable in people joining together, striving to lead better lives, to better understand the existential, to offer a hand and a hug. 

So in that spirit, here are some songs that came to mind today as I contemplated my situation. The final one, Randy Newman's "God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind) is a wry, cynical take on God - I always loved a quote of his I read in an article, (paraphrasing) "I don't believe in God, except on days when I'm really sick."


Sufjan Stevens - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (from Hark! Songs for Christmans Vol.II)
Lucinda Williams - Get Right With God (from Essence)
Randy Newman - He Gives Us All His Love (from Sail Away)
Randy Newman - God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind) (from Sail Away)

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