[Insert Grinning Emoticon Here]

(Originally written April 28, 2015)

We are about 1400 miles into our trip, but it doesn't seem that way. So far things have been very smooth except for some tantrums we have had to endure. Many of the tantrums are adult tantrums, to be honest, brought on by the fact that we don't read each other's minds as well as we think we do.

Today has been the strangest day by far. I should have known things would be "off" for us when in the first one and a half miles into Provo, Utah we saw 9 or 10 Latter-Day Saints gathering buildings. I am not exaggerating, but I wish I was. Those buildings outnumbered any type of church building 10 to 1. Amazing.

We decided to go to the LDS main temple complex in downtown Salt Lake City just to explore for a few minutes. We saw what we expected, smiling faces and locked rooms. The best way to describe what I felt being there was like is being smiled at with a deceitful smile, like a spider welcoming an unsuspecting fly nearer and nearer to its silky home.

The main area we explored was a Visitor's Center which is architecturally designed to lead a person deeper and deeper into the LDS view of the world. The main floor displayed the Hall of Fame stories of the Bible all pointing to Jesus. Good so far. Like the Guggenheim in New York, there is a ramp that winds upward around the building to a large, stark white statue of what I would call "Cosmic Jesus." I cannot describe it any other way than that because, frankly, it kind of creeped me out. He was too sterile...unmarred by any touch of our sin. 

Finally, we traveled to the depths of the building which held the exhibits that show Mormonism's distinctiveness: Joseph Smith, the Living Prophet, eternal families, and a strong emphasis on work and "works." It was as if this part was hidden away like Sloth from the Goonies: family, but not family you take to dinner parties. If a person went that deep in the building (and therefore, into their theology) then that person is probably sympathetic to their beliefs...or lost.

I couldn't make eye contact with the missionaries walking around the building, because they over smiled and I felt like I had to over smile back.  It was the smile of men and women who are told that their smile will gain them eternal rewards and favor with their (literal) Father in heaven. 

(To be fair, they were very kind to us and were good ambassadors of their belief system.)

As we are driving out of Utah and to Idaho, Adrienne and I have been reflecting on what we saw since we left and do not know what to make of it. On one hand, the more a person is taken into depths of the Gospel of Jesus as found in the Bible (alone), the more that person will find the One they saw on the "main floor." If the good news of Jesus death and resurrection leads us into new life, "going deeper" only deepens our understanding of and affection for Him.

On the other hand, when a person digs down deep into the heart behind the teachings that the LDS church proclaims, what that person will find is not a gracious smile that says "You are home," but a spidery grin that says "You are caught." 

[Father, please give us the compassion of Jesus for our deceived friends. Please also lead us out of the lies we are comfortable in believing.]

"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12)

On to Idaho...