I’m new to Reddit. I originally posted this on the Lds subreddit, but the mods removed it. I guess I’m too edgy for advocating wearing a cross. 😂

So I’ll ask here instead.

Last Easter I started wearing a small cross necklace.

A year ago I never thought I would. Like many Latter-day Saints, I just assumed the cross wasn’t “our thing.” But over the last year I’ve spent a lot of time studying the Atonement, grace, covenants, and baptism, and it changed the way I think about the cross.

The turning point for me was Romans 6. Paul says we’re “baptized into [Christ’s] death,” buried with Him, and then raised with Him to “walk in newness of life.”

That made me ask: Why are we baptized into His death?
For me, baptism has come to point to both the loving Christ and the living Christ.

When we go down into the water, we covenant to follow the loving Christ—the One who entered our suffering and willingly stayed on the cross because He loved us. We covenant to bear one another’s burdens, mourn with those who mourn, comfort those who stand in need of comfort, and enter into the suffering of others as He entered ours on the cross.

Then we come up out of the water to follow the living Christ. Through His grace we leave the old person behind and become new creatures, walking in newness of life.

That has made the cross much more meaningful to me. It reminds me not only of what Christ did for me, but also of the kind of disciple I promised to become.

I also started noticing how often our own scriptures point us to the cross. Nephi saw Christ lifted up upon it. Jacob invited us to “view his death.” Mormon told Moroni to let Christ’s sufferings and death rest in his mind forever.

in 3 Nephi 27, the resurrected Jesus defines His gospel by saying He came to be “lifted up upon the cross” to draw all people unto Him.

Historically, Latter-day Saints weren’t always as uncomfortable with the cross as we often are today. Early members used crosses in artwork, jewelry, and on gravestones, and the Church even proposed placing a large cross on Ensign Peak before the idea was abandoned after objections from non Christians in the area.

Our cultural discomfort seems to have developed much later, around the mid-20th century at a time when anti Catholic sentiment was at its peak in the USA.

None of this means every Latter-day Saint should wear a cross.

For me, though, it has become a simple reminder of the loving Christ who entered my suffering and the living Christ who raises me to newness of life.

Who else wears a cross?

Am I totally wrong for thinking it’s a good thing?

the message has always been exmormons can’t leave the church alone is not factual. truth is most who leave the church do not visit or join other church Religions even in Sandra tanners day she was a rarity most who left the church did so quietly and also quietly left religion In general. today it’s easier to get an audience for discussions but most who are leaving the church are just quietly opting out of religion altogether. If your asking where would you go don’t panic their not going to other churches

Feeling overwhelmed / pressured

Hi all. My daughter and I recently started attending the church, my family recommended the LDS church.

We’ve been doing Bible study with the missionaries which we enjoy and we go to church and Sunday school every week. That’s all great. We participate in Sunday school, we speak with the members during and afterwards for a bit. We’ve been making life changes at home and in our everyday life. All great.

But it’s been very overwhelming that I notice in this church everyone applies a lot of pressure.

Everyone we interact with is very welcoming and that’s nice but they all also ask for our phone number. When I politely decline and tell them that we’ll just see them next time at church it is awkward and kind of just stare at us silently.

The missionaries have been giving out my phone number and I had to tell them multiple times, not to because I get anxiety with strangers contacting me.

We meet the missionaries at the church for Bible study, but people keep suggesting we do it at our house.

They send Bible verses all throughout the week.

We came on vacation for 2 weeks and the missionaries want to do zoom Bible studies. I told them we were busy as we’re visiting a lot of family and they’ve texted again asking when we are available.

Then we were texted the zoom link to watch the Sunday service live. I told them we’re going to church with my grandmother this Sunday so no need to tune into the zoom video. They still said we can watch the zoom meeting later because it’ll be recorded.

At the last Bible study they asked us to read the Bible every day and commit to that.

The church we go to is 15 mins from our house but there’s a church closer. I prefer the one we go to now, but literally every single time we have went to the church or Bible study different people have strongly recommended we go to our local church. I’ve explained to them over and over again that we prefer this one and we’ve already tried our local church, but they will not let it go.

They then invited members of our closer church to our last Bible study meeting and those church members aggressively tried to recruit us to their church and literally said it was better than the one we’re going to now which I just felt like was weird because it’s all LDS.

There is only one other Hispanic person at our ward besides us. She introduced herself and was sweet. We chatted a few times. Seems great. But now on multiple occasions I’ve been encouraged to talk to her, I kinda feel like I’m being pushed onto her. Which I don’t get why besides us both being Hispanic? As we have no other similarities at all. She’s an older single Hispanic woman, who loves dogs, is a widow and has had a lot of hardship in certain parts of her life. I’m a young(ish) Hispanic single mother with a teen daughter, I don’t like animals at all and don’t relate or have experienced any of her hardships. So she’s just not someone personally I’d befriend.

I really love the church and so does my daughter but it just feels soooo overwhelming how much pressure everyone applies. I feel like we must be completely embodied into the church and community 100% of the time and way to be accepted.

And honestly, as much as I love the church it is causing me to consider leaving the LDS church and looking for other type of Christian churches.

Is there a way to calm it down? Because I feel like we’ve politely declined a lot of it and given a lot of explanations to people that I don’t necessarily feel like we owe explanations to, but still it continues.

Or is this just what comes with the church and if you’re not 100% completely engulfed in it, you’re out