A Piano and an Orchestra

I sometimes hear members of our church use an analogy from the music world to compare our church with other religions or faiths. They suggest imagining someone trying to play a piano with missing keys compared to a person playing on a piano with a full set of keys. The idea is that our church has all of the principles and doctrines necessary for salvation and that others are missing some of those important truths. While I believe that our church is the only true church of Christ and does indeed contain the fullness of the Gospel, I'm uncomfortable with the piano analogy. I believe that there are good Christians, exemplary Muslims, faithful Jews, and people of various faiths and denominations who live their lives in a manner that is absolutely praiseworthy. To imagine them as playing on a piano with missing keys would be a mistake. I'd like to propose a different analogy.

One of my favorite classical compositions is Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition". He originally wrote it as a work for solo piano. Maurice Ravel later transcribed it for orchestra. It takes a high level of mastery and talent to play the original piano composition. The video below is of Andreas Boyde playing the final 2 "pictures" of the exhibition.

It is without doubt a skilled and masterful performance. It makes me exhausted just to watch it!

Now, here is a clip of Myung-Whun Chung conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. It is the same two sections of the composition, "Hut on Fowl's Legs" and "Great Gate of Kiev".




So what is my point? I believe that people who are not members of our church are like the piano solo. Their lives can be full of goodness and beauty, and it can seem to them they are missing nothing at all. On the other hand, the gospel and doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offer to add a greater richness and depth to their lives in the same way that an orchestra arrangement adds a richer, fuller, and grander sound to a piano composition.

President Gordon B. Hinckley offered the following invitation:
"We recognize the good in all people. We recognize the good in all churches, in their efforts to improve mankind and to teach principles that lead to good, stable, productive living. To people everywhere we simply say, ‘You bring with you all the good that you have, and let us add to it. That is the principle on which we work’ ”
(from a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, 17 Feb. 1998. “Excerpts from Recent Addresses of President Gordon B. Hinckley,” Ensign, Aug 1998, 72)

I believe that with all of my heart. Come and see for yourself.

Mormon.org