Religion and Community

This is mostly a rant about the operation of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints.  

In general  our church focuses on doctrinal teachings and how we're different from protestants or catholics,  etc etc. In practice, based on my own observations of people I know who join the church and nonmembers I know who have had some degree of exposure to the church,  the community and general loving atmosphere created by members within the church  is just as important as any actual doctrine.

This is completely contrary to what the church teaches even though meeting friends and common believers gets mentioned but not focused on when we teach about the sabbath. The whole idea of a church being a community is mentioned in the scriptures in a few places, yet its not something that we really focus on teaching.  The church teaches doctrine and belief and faith, and that is always what has kept me in the church; I could care less about community and making friends in the church, blah, blah, blah. Then again I am strange and actually enjoy being alone.

It does makes sense that community is such a big part of the church; all religions throughout history ultimately  have been a set of communal practices to one degree or another. The essential nature of community within the church is the only way to explain YSA(young single adult) wards. Spanish and other foreign language wards make sense to some degree because the service is actually in a different language,  but YSA wards only make sense if the church cares more about young people being part of a community of their peers than the actual doctrines of the church.

This juxtaposition simply really annoys me because I care about the theology of the church and don't think the presence of a community should be any part of why someone joins the church or even participates in the church. It irks me so!!!