I haven't posted in a while, but that's mostly because my faith is changing lately and I'm really searching for the voice I want to have moving forward. I'm not sure if Ezekiel Evanson is the part of me that should be speaking, mostly because I feel like my real voice should be a voice that encourages understanding and cooperation between Mormons and everyone else. I feel like I should be an advocate for the Church, mostly because we focus on the negative things more than we should. I'll post more later, but I wanted to share a small thought from conference. A couple different talks spoke briefly about how some people on the Internet overemphasize the faults of the Church and church history. Initially I thought, "Oh sure, there's the church defending itself and tearing down its critics." Then I evaluated whether or not it really was true or not.
Here's my conclusion. The church is NOT the church I was lead to believe growing up. However, it does a lot of good. It's not perfect, nor are its members, but its still beneficial. Religion is super personal, and I think that if the LDS Church can bless the lives of its members, that's a good thing. Critics tend to be extreme, and focusing on anything negative too much taints your vision of how things really are. I'm going to stay a member of the Church, but I'm doing it my way. I report to God, but will respect the leaders of the Church. I don't see the leaders of the Church as these highly esteemed holy men like I once did. I see them as men like me who have greater responsibilities than I have. My job is to make the world better within my sphere.
