A different Q15 ----------Question #2

[Guy]

The atonement on our behalf is a wonderful concept, but no, I don't have a testimony of that.

[ulmite]

No. The only things I would comfortably call sin are deliberate serious physical or psychological injury, and so the concept of the Atonement I've got is hardly useful to me.
Though I could get on board with Terryl Givens' idea of the Atonement, no testimony for it.

[SeeNoEvil]

Church members are asked 15 questions during private temple recommend interviews with church leadership.
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But since you are essentially anonymous on this site, how would you answer those same questions here?
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Each day, for the rest of May, please share your honest response to each question, based on what you believe right now.
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2
Do you have a testimony of the Atonement of Christ and of His role as Savior and Redeemer?

I don't have a testimony of the Atonement of Christ and of His role as Savior and Redeemer. It wasn't also so. I never realized just how much my life was controlled by magical thinking until I started asking those critical questions right after my shelf fell. I needed to find out just what was left, if anything, of my beliefs... my core foundation. I started with the Articles of Faith #1. That is as far as I got. I began by writing about just who God and Jesus Christ was. Half the way down the page I realized I could not and did not believe that there was a God. Without a God there couldn't be a Jesus. And without that belief there was no Atonement. Up until 2011 my entire life had been devoted to the church. I taught in all the organizations women were allowed to teach in. Was a seminary teacher. Dreamed of going on a mission when I retired. And in all the countless lessons on the Atonement of Christ I prepared and presented at church, for talks, in FHE, etc.... the Atonement never made sense. Now I know why I went through so much mental gymnastics to make sense of this church, God and his son.

[Ghost]

This is a tough one. I'd have a hard time truly adopting a nuanced view in this case, but I also don't want to simply say yes or no.

I do have an intellectual conclusion, but I remain resistant to stating it as my view. So I suppose my approach is to dodge the question for now.