Applying Santa to Mormonism

[Brent]

SPOILERS! If you believe Santa exists and lives--Run away! Run away!

Santa isn't real. We know that. You may have a traumatic story of a teacher or brother or evil cousin who crushed your Santasy in classroom or at a family gathering. Sorry if this dredges up bad memories BUT your Parents/Grandparents/Frightened Instructor all probably gave you the same excellent advice.

"Santa might not be real but he lives in people's heart. He's not a thing but an idea."

Now apply that simple logic to Mormonism. "Mormonism isn't true but it lives in peoples hearts. It's not a thing but an Idea."

You might argue that believing in a mythical character is bad for kids, that they need to confront reality. I would disagree. I would disagree because if we embrace the fantasy we can then embrace the ideals. Is Mormonism true? No more that Santa is real. However, like Santa, there are some wonderful ideals in the LDS Church. These include: family values, self-reliance, care for the sick and injured, generosity, patience. Now, like Santa I would argue that corporate needs have diluted or even banished some of the best ideas but, hey, Santa is a money making machine and the corporate nature of the church knows that too. Good things get twisted.

I would offer this (yes, condescending) idea for dealing with oppressive LDS relatives this time of year: If a three year old says, "I believe in Santa" how much time and energy should you devote to smashing that belief? Why fight? Santa isn't real, this you know. But the ideals behind hime are pretty sound and at the end of the day reality will catch up to Junior. I would guess that a majority of active Church members (TBM) have little or no knowledge of, or belief in, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They love the idea of families being together forever and of their assured salvation through works. Most of the works they believe in are harmless and good at the core...like Santa.

Think about that annoying MIL or Cousin as a three year old who really, really believes in Santa. Things will go better.

Merry Christmas!

[2bizE]

Brent, I really like this concept. Not only does it makes sense to me, the concept is easy to share and understand. If you explain this to a TBM they could easily understand the idea.

[Hagoth]

If you take it a step further, there is quite a bit of resemblance between Santa and Elohim:

White man with a white beard
Lives in a real place within our universe that it just out of our reach
His residence sits at at an important axis of revolution.
Magical powers
Faith is essential in making him part of your life
Is not limited by normal laws of physics, particularly where rapid travel is concerned
Is immortal, all-seeing and all-knowing
Keeps track of good and bad acts and will reward us accordingly
Has invisible spies who take notes of every action
Is seldom seen but is said to make special appearances to worthy people
Has human spokesmen (never women)
and so forth

[Corsair]

If you take it a step further, there is quite a bit of resemblance between Santa and Elohim:

I certainly see some unflattering parallels between Santa and the LDS version of Jesus:

• Given credit for temporal blessings that are probably best attributed to good people who love you
• Adherents arguably spend way too much money on them
• The idea of a universalist, "saved by grace/goodness" version of each is openly decried by their more excitable followers
• Used as a threat against children who lack good critical thinking and moral reasoning skills
• Non-believers are frequently ordered to "play along" with the myths when dealing with the most fervent believers
• Talking about pagan aspects to their respective major holidays is not appreciated
• Often portrayed as a fairly good looking, Scandinavian white guy
• Showing either as a different race is considered mildly tolerable at best, but an incarnation of liberal conspiracy at worst
• Talking about how their original, mortal versions were likely short, darker skinned, men of Middle Eastern descent annoys fervent believers

[MerrieMiss]

You might argue that believing in a mythical character is bad for kids, that they need to confront reality. I would disagree. I would disagree because if we embrace the fantasy we can then embrace the ideals.

This is exactly where I am in terms of my faith journey. I believe myths are important. Essential, actually. I've wanted to write a post on it for some time, but I've worried I wouldn't be able to get my thoughts down right. Maybe after Christmas I will.

Since my faith transition coincided with having children, I have struggled and turned the idea of Santa over and over in my mind, trying to know what to tell my kids, knowing how hurt I was to find out the truth about Mormonism.

I have come to this conclusion: I believed in Santa as a kid and I kind of figured out he wasn't real on my own. When I confronted my parents, they owned up to it and everything was fine. Had the same thing happened to me in the church, had I had questions, concerns, doubts, etc., and had I been met with complete honesty, I probably wouldn't have felt so terrible to learn the truth. It was the intentional lying that went beyond having a little fun and playing a childhood game that ruined it for me, which just goes to show, you never really grow up in the church.

(We do a very toned down version of Santa at our house. I've never explicitly told the kids who Santa is, they seem to have figured it out on their own. They don't seem too interested in him and I let it go. If and when they ask me about him, I'll tell the truth. It's the same approach I'm taking with the church at this point.)

[Hagoth]

The Tooth Fairy scared the hell out of me. The idea of some glowing winged miniature woman sneaking into my room and taking parts of my body that were stuffed under my pillow gave me the creeps. But I stuck it out for the money, as we so often do.

[MalcolmVillager]

Thank you all for sharing on this thread. When my parents discovered my FC, they wrote me long letters to testify and bring me back. I wrote a long letter back to them. I used the same Santa logic with them. I described how when I saw my dad doing the Santa stuff it burst my bubble, yet I didn't go around telling my siblings about it. I still love Christmas and Santa, and all they represent. I treat the church the same.

In fact just because we have some names of apostles, it doesn't mean the existed any more than the names of the reindeer mean they did/do.

Anyway, Christmas is a culture in an of itself. Why fight it. The church is a 365 day a year myth culture that also would be fruitless to fight.