Kindle Notes & Highlights
Therefore, each member has to do the hard work of determining what this history means for them, and how they incorporate it into their testimony of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
from every possible point of view.
It is important that you know the content in these essays like you know the back of your hand.
Some may wonder: If I study these issues, will I risk losing my faith? If
I teach these issues, will I risk hurting others’ faith? The honest answer is: Yes. Faith can always be challenged, but becoming more literate in our history doesn’t need to threaten our faith.
Faith is a lifelong pursuit and involves incorporating new life experiences into our belief without being sheltered from the complexities of history, culture, humanness, uncertainty, and all that life brings us.
The Church was restored to help us come unto Jesus Christ.
We should always keep Christ as our focus,
The doctrine of Christ (see 2 Ne. 31; 3 Ne. 11:31–35; and 3 Ne. 27) is simple and summarized in the injunction to “come unto Christ by having faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement” and to believe in “repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.”
The gospel of Jesus Christ is inclusive enough
for a wide spectrum of different beliefs
We need not presume our superiority. Rather, we are a people tasked with a commission. We have good news and good ways to share it. This, however, does not preclude the Lord from commissioning others in their own roles. The God of heaven and earth is not so small as any number of clans have presumed. The Church is not the only source of that which is good, true, and beautiful—after which we are invited to seek.5 His hand is everywhere.
I know Church members who believe this way without having experienced a dark night,
“For now we see through a glass, darkly,” with hope that one day the darkness will give way to light, for “then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Cor. 13:12).
We also need to avoid wrongly implying that faithfulness is to unquestioningly follow leaders.
“I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.”
fewer are aware that when President George Albert Smith learned of it, he immediately and indignantly repudiated the statement.
“Even to imply that members of the Church are not to do their own thinking,” he wrote, “is grossly to misrepresent the true ideals of the Church.” Regrettably, this myth persists in the minds of many Latter-day Saints, even as leaders disavow infallibility and urge upon members personal responsibility.
understand the principle of self-governance
All we have to do is take the time to put it on the agenda, to invite people who have concerns to educate us, and to be humble in responding to what they say.
you see that we all belong.
In my family, I don’t have to hide my beliefs and behaviors out of fear of being rejected. I don’t “fit in” with my family—I belong.
[i]t is incumbent upon us to shape the culture that characterizes [the restored gospel of Jesus Christ].”
I’ve wondered why we are so quick to put down divergent views. It might be rooted in our persecuted past, in the exclusive view we hold of the restoration of the gospel, in our view of the eternal battle between good and evil, or perhaps in fear that others’ doubts will somehow harm our family or our own belief. Whatever the reason, judgment and criticism too often seem to permeate our culture, causing people to feel as if they cannot belong.
fear
Fear will never lead to a sense of belonging.
All too often our so-called strength comes from fear, not love; instead of having a strong back, many of us have a defended front shielding a weak spine. In other words, we walk around brittle and defensive, trying to conceal our lack of confidence. If we strengthen our backs, metaphorically speaking, and develop a spine that’s flexible but sturdy, then we can risk having a front that’s soft and open. I believe it comes about when we can be truly transparent, seeing the world clearly, and letting the world see into us.
we will be overwhelmed by it.
“Our Heavenly Father is far more merciful, infinitely more charitable than even the best of his servants, and the everlasting gospel is mightier in power to save than our narrow finite minds can comprehend.”
I am not fearful of the truth or the plan. I have confidence in the love that brought about the Creation and is at the core of the Atonement. Because of that confidence and security, I also feel confident that we can find more ways to help people authentically belong.
by making concerted efforts to be open with others and their experiences.
is to not come in with assumptions or preconceived notions, keeping an open mind, an open heart.
It is always surprising if you keep your mind open and your heart open. You find out lots of wonderful things about people that you might not have ever expected. But when you’ve experienced, when you’ve seen, when you’ve opened your heart to other people, you see that we all belong.
All Church members ought to feel that they belong. Whether they are gay, straight, Republican, Democrat, childless, single, divorced, educated, black, Native American, poor, young, or old—or whether they have doubts—we want all to sing with authentic feeling “I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” If we accept the responsibility of making our homes and church meetings more welcoming and loving places, withholding judgment as much as we can, then we will have taken a major step forward in building a bridge that those in a faith crisis will want to cross.
When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion—its message becomes meaningless.
Finding meaning is more than developing a belief in a God and a Savior; meaning exists when we can find reason and purpose in the challenges we see in society.
how to be more effective at expressing love, compassion, and vulnerability.
We have way too much “follow the prophet,” ”pay your tithing,” “go to the temple,” and a host of other peripheral distractions, and not anywhere close to enough talk about Jesus Christ, Savior and Redeemer, and the core values he taught. He’s an afterthought in this church, no matter how much we want to crow about our name!
When our discussions connect Christ’s teachings to our real, everyday lives, we find meaning.
