A great many of the truths we cling to depend on a certain point of view.

Democrats are not of the dark side.

Some people think that because someone votes Democrat or has liberal ideas that such a person could not hold a temple recommend. Is this possibly a valid view?

The sixth question in the temple recommend interview asks, “Do you affiliate with any group or organization whose teachings or practices are contrary to or oppose those accepted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or do you sympathize with the precepts of any such group or individual?”

Naturally, anti-Mormon and devil worshipers fall into the category of people whose views temple recommend-seekers should avoid sharing. But what about Democrats?

This may come as a surprise to some, but not all Democrats support gay marriage, abortion, or other issues on which the Church has taken a direct stand.

Some simply find that their personal opinions on other decisive issues, like fiscal policy or education, are more in line with Democratic ideals than Republican ones.

Every candidate and every political party has some good. Some of their ideals really don’t matter from a spiritual standpoint. Should the government favor tax cuts for the wealthy? There’s nothing about that in the Book of Mormon, and someone who votes Democrat is as likely to be voting for an innocent economic policy as he or she is for abortion.

There is truth everywhere, the Brethren have said, and it can be found in many places.

Neither candidate in this presidential election is an earthly incarnation of all things holy. Both McCain and Obama have their views, habits, and policies that might not be in line with the Church.

Both of them, for example, have campaigned negatively against the other candidate. Is that in accordance with the gospel? Who can say? Should one vote for either of them, then, since such behavior might well be contrary to the teachings of Christ?

If the sixth temple recommend question truly did eliminate from temple worthiness anyone who harbored sympathies with a candidate who might happen to hold some view that might be un-Christlike, a lot of members would find themselves without a recommend.

It’s a good thing that’s not the case.

Every time an election comes around, the Brethren remind members everywhere — both faithful and unfaithful, both tolerant and otherwise — that the Church is not partisan and supports no political party, only taking a stand on moral issues.

There are many reasons to vote Republican, and there are many to vote Democrat. There is truth to be found in many places, and Church leaders exhort the members every year to do their civic duties and vote for the candidate they think is most suited to lead the country. There’s nothing in the scriptures preventing anyone from voting one way or another.

There is, however, something about judging, and those who condemn others for their spiritually irrelevant political ideas might find it helpful to sit down and wonder who it is whose beliefs are out of line with those of the Church.

Hokey religions and ancient weapons

Part of being a returned missionary is the need to relate any topic to some event that happened on the mission. Let’s face it: two years in a miniature lifespan yields a lot of experiences.

Today’s mission experience: It was vogue to watch the Church-produced movies with investigators. The Navajo people especially loved it, perhaps because inside each ten-by-ten hovel they would have at least four hundred DVDs and a widescreen TV. I think I must have watched Finding Faith In Christ at least three dozen times on my mission.

In that movie, a character named Jonah is questioning Thomas (of the “Doubting Thomas” fame) why he believes that Jesus is the Christ. Thomas’s family says that Jonah needs to have faith.

“Faith,” Jonah repeats with a scowl. “It seems that is always the answer.”

And it is, really. We each have our perceptions of reality that hang almost entirely on faith, whether or not we choose to acknowledge it. Even the most staunch atheist has to admit that what he regards as truth in actually based on faith.

What do I mean by that? Well, to use an extreme example to illustrate a point, let me cite the fake world created by computers in The Matrix. (Nobody saw that, right? It’s R-rated.) For those who don’t know, in those movies, the world is false, simply an illusion created by computers keeping humanity in thrall.

I’m not suggesting that the world is a digital farce to keep us blinded to the truth. No, I’m simply pointing out that those who choose to deny the existence of God on the grounds that His existence can’t be proven ignore the fact that they themselves cannot prove their own paradigm of reality is absolute.

Have I lost you yet?

How can we know that anything is real? How can anyone prove that what they believe is true, religious or otherwise?

Everyone is going to be backed up against a wall of faith sooner or later, as President Packer once said.

Faith — it seems that is always the answer.

It’s all based on faith. The Church’s stand on Proposition 8 is based on faith — faith in what God intends marriage to be. That issue, of course, is complicated, and there are many points of view and many valid arguments for both sides. What do you think is right?

Nothing is absolutely certain without a grain of faith, without choosing something to believe in and planting that seed. I don’t care what you believe in — it’s a belief, nothing more.

There is only one source of absolute, unquestionable truth, and that is the Being whom we worship. For those who believe in Him, our faith is the path that will take us to him and confirm the beliefs we hold through faith.

It’s ironic, for those who would discredit the existence of God, that God is only way any belief, religious or otherwise, can finally be validated. It all comes down to …

Yeah. You guessed it.

Faith.

Do you remember your mother? Your real mother?

There are some who would say that the Mormons are sexist. They claim that since most of the hierarchy of the Church is male (let’s be honest, it is; have a look on the Conference Center stand), we’re an organization that doesn’t give the females the credit they deserve.

I’m here to say now that those people are wrong. Not only are females wonderful and an essential part of humankind, equal in every way to men, but one of them should also go with me to Guitars Unplugged next weekend.

Seriously, women are great. The best ones, you might say, are the mothers. Even beyond the fact that mothers keep the human race going, mothers are an indispensable part of the world. (But seriously, any takers for the Guitars Unplugged thing?)

Let’s dissect this for a second. The fundamental unit of society is the family, as The Family: A Proclamation to the World tells us so magnificently. A traditional family consists of a man, a woman, and children. Who keeps the father going? Whose primary job is it to take care of the kids? I think it’s the mother.

To sum it up — the mother is the foundation of the fundamental unit of society.

We as a church love mothers, and rightly so. Mothers carry a power we men will never have, and I’m not just talking about the ability to carry children. That ability alone is astounding — I cannot fathom carrying something like that for nine months without suffering some very ill effects. This only gives me an understanding and an appreciation for the burden that only women can bear.

The poet William R. Wallace wrote, “A mightier power and stronger / Man from his throne has hurled / For the hand that rocks the cradle / Is the hand that rules the world.”

Never underestimate the power of a good mother. They say that behind every good man is a good woman. I say that behind every good man are multiple good women — one of whom is his mother.

Few girls, and few mothers, are mentioned by name in the Book of Mormon. There’s Sariah, Abish, Mary, and of course Isabel the harlot. Nevertheless, our church holds in high esteem many great women. What of the two thousand nameless Ammonite mothers, for example, to be forever lauded in Mormonism as the perfect examples of motherhood?

Latter-day Saints revere God’s most marvelous creation. Why is pornography such a heinous plague? Because it defiles the image of the woman’s body.

We love women; we love mothers. No one could ever argue that Mormons belittle women when they read the following hallowed line from our hymn “O My Father”, which affirms with appropriate sanctity the glorious eternal potential of that great calling called mother:

“Truth is reason, truth eternal / Tells me I’ve a mother there.”