Simple Utah Mormon Politics

Although I am as comfortable with my testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Christ's gospel as I am in my own skin, I realize that there are people who aren't. But whether someone leaves or questions their testimony of the LDS Church is not a litmus test for whether they are my friend or not.  I hope they always will be. I recently read an article about those who question or leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I was especially struck by this poignant thought that the article contained: "I worry that many younger Mormons are going through a very difficult and at times traumatic break from the Mormon church without resources and support that might have better informed their decision about staying or leaving or anything in between. "

I listened to almost all of the interview with Jeremy Runnells the other day on Mormon Stories.  The following comment was submitted, but was not accepted by the blog editor.  I include it here.

As Mormons, perhaps under the influence of Enlightenment thinking, we seem to subconsciously accept the idea that nothing good occurred during the "Great Apostasy" or the Dark Ages. That's not really correct.

Was it ever an LDS doctrine that blacks were less faithful in pre-mortality?  NO.

A friend of mine recently claimed that leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ didn't have much to say about peace in the world during the last LDS General Conference.  From a political perspective, that's right, they didn't.  But they had a great deal to say about how lasting peace comes to us.

Here's what grace means from an LDS perspective: Grace justifies us, it sanctifies us, and it grants us God's power to become stronger.

I recently had yet another conversation with yet another friend about the topic of accepting callings from LDS Church leaders.