Harvard LDS Student Explains Mormon Faith

14 Feb

Harvard LDS Student Explains Mormon Faith

Posted by Jenna, Under Religious

I never intended for Saturday afternoon to become “LDS Media Time”, but I’ve been receiving a steady stream of links to videos about the Church from my friends, and I’m always left with a deep seated desire to pass them on to all of you after I’ve finished watching them.

I must admit I’m very jealous of the girl you are about to hear from. Her eloquence, knowledge, and poise under pressure really give me something to look up to and work toward. Maybe if I was smart enough to be accepted to Harvard I would also be able to spout off such appropriate and intelligent answers in front of an audience.

Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.

One thing I wanted to touch on, was her statement about truth in other Churches. I took a class titled “World Religions” at BYU, taught by a former Greek Orthodox (quite possibly the smartest human being I’ve ever been priveleged to meet face to face), and he had much the same view that Rachel has about truth. Someday, I will write a more eloquent post on the subject, but I’m so impressed by how well she answered the question. She helps the concept of modern revelation make so much sense.

I’ve been working my way through all of the videos, I love hearing people my age explaining their own faiths (I guess I’m starting to understand why so many of you enjoy reading my posts!)

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8 Comments

kaitlyn says:

February 14, 2009 at 3:19 pm

Thanks for sharing

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abbie white says:

February 14, 2009 at 3:55 pm

I love this video. She does such a good job. I watched it a few months ago and it made me confident when talking about my religion. Thanks for posting it.

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Meg says:

February 14, 2009 at 4:17 pm

Thanks for sharing. She is a smart young lady. Loved her statement on how because she believes her church is true, she is not saying others’ are false. Though it was hard to hear she doesn’t believe in the Trinity and that Jesus is her brother. We other Christians don’t believe that Eve “fell” many of us believe Adam’s job was to protect the perfect garden and he failed to be on guard. Then she failed in only not leaving one apple alone, she could have had everything else. This is a huge lesson in the bible, how when we are asleep in our relationships, “snakes” slither in….

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Sophia says:

February 15, 2009 at 12:32 am

I saw this a few months ago too- she’s great. You’ll enjoy this Jenna- have you watched the one with Joy (I think that’s her name)? She’s the Christian panel member, and the interviewer said, before starting Joy’s interview “it was crazy, we didn’t have a Christian panel member until two days ago, and I was thinking 80% of Americans are Christian, we have to have a Christian!”. And Rachel leans into the mic and says “I’m Christian” in a polite but kind of “um, we JUST had an interview where I talked all about Christ” way. I know that’s probably not what the interviewer meant to imply, but I really got a kick out of Rachel saying that

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Jenna Reply:
February 24th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Yeah I definitely had a hard time watching that part. The interviewer seems to pride herself on being objective, but she didn’t really seem to listen to anything Rachel said?

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R says:

February 15, 2009 at 12:32 pm

I watched these after seeing the link in your comments. And I completely agree with Sophia: I cringed when the head of the panel said that about needing a Christian. Even though I understood what she meant, it was her job to be “open” and accept each view as it was offered by the students, so it seemed that she failed with Rachel. I did think the questions were a little off, but it gave me more for you.

1. Would you consider someone Mormon if they weren’t “practicing”?

2.How does one justify saying that being a missionary is so crucial that all males must serve, but then say that God has unique callings for all of us, so some (most?) women don’t need to carry out this crucial work? To me that implies that men should also have individual callings which may preclude serving as a missionary. I guess that part of it is that I’ve never encountered an LDS missionary who wasn’t a man in a suit, and it was a strong part of what made me so biased against your faith growing up. I know you have your reasons, but they’re not obvious, so I’d be happy if you’d explain.

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Jenna Reply:
February 24th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
1. I would consider them inactive of less-active, but still a member of the church.

2. Definitely a great topic for a Sunday post I think!

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Cate Subrosa says:

February 16, 2009 at 5:29 am

Wow. What an amazing young woman!

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