In her initial post, on faith, the word becomes an action verb--the will to move forward with courage and love that overcomes hate. She mentions Alice Paul, and shows images of the man who stood in front of the Tianamen Square tanks and a veiled Muslim woman facing down riot troops.
Kelly writes,
You may have heard that faith means accepting what you’re told, even if you see no rational reason to believe it. This is a rather shallow and diluted version of faith.
Faith is not accepting something even if you see no reason to. It is not taking another person’s word for absolute truth. It is not stifling questions or discomfort or doubt because you feel obligated to make yourself believe.
What I hope for when I talk to you about faith is a faith that transcends dogma and regulation. What I hope for when I urge you to have faith is a faith based on action and hope.
She ends with: "There is much that needs to be changed in this world. We are told that if we have enough faith, we can move mountains. Perhaps in our time, mountains aren’t what really needs moving. A world filled with violence and oppression, with so much potential for beauty, is what really needs to be moved. If you choose love, and you have faith in yourself, you can be powerful enough to start that motion."
Go there and discuss, but I'd also love to hear your comments here. The early comments encouraged NK not to forget the role of the Savior as the object of faith (which the two photographs probably don't help us with). Your thoughts? What's helpful about this approach is simply the way it's presented, that acknowledges the value's richness without diluting its doctrine. That approach could be adopted by any YW leader or teacher even without being a "resistant reader" of the manual's text. As I always said to my Laurels: a questioning faith is an engaged faith and an engaged faith is real faith.
Cheers on the first in this series, I look forward to more.
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