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Celebrating Christmas with His Teachings of Absolute Inclusion

Christmas Manger

December 21, 2015

Christmas Manger

by Carol Lynn Pearson

Carol-Lynn-Pearson_cropped

Carol Lynn Pearson, Mormon poet, playwright, and advocate for women and LGBT people within the LDS Church.

The gospel that Jesus brought to earth is the “good news,” the “tidings of great joy.”  I still have the Bible I was given at my baptism, a “red-letter” version with all the words actually spoken by Jesus right there in red ink.  I loved and still love seeing those words leap off the page with their “good news.”  When Jesus left, his followers had to interpret those “red letters.”  Doctrines and policies were established—they came and they went.  If they proved to be “good news,” they stayed.

In our particular church, some doctrines and policies have proved harmful and have been left behind, though some are still with us.  Recently some policies that are devastatingly harmful have been put in place.  They are not “good news” and they will not last.  We will stand with the “red letter” words of Jesus himself, following his radical policies of absolute love and absolute inclusion.  These are the words and the actions we will celebrate this Christmas, for these are the “tidings of great joy.”

Update: The policies Pearson refers to in this article did, in fact, not last. They were reversed in April of 2019. This special Christmastime insight reminds us of what is really at the core of being a follower of Jesus Christ and that policies do come and go, but that which truly brings forth good fruit will always be rooted in the words of the Savior.

 

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