I am a growing person. As I experience different things in life and continue to learn, sometimes my opinions and views change or are refined. With this said, if you read something I have posted previously, it may or may not be my current view, but I don't have time presently to find and delete posts that have become outdated.
With this post however I want to address questions. I like questions. Questions give you something to study in seeking an answer. I think questions can be good. Some people who sign petitions or are vocal about their questions against things that are happening in the LDS Church use this to prove they are correct in questioning things. While I think questions are good, I don't think ALL questions are good. If you are taking an academic class- a stupid question (there are such a thing) would be a completely off-base question for the topic of the class. (For example, don't ask your Calculus teacher for their analysis of why the Roman Empire fell). And then on top of stupid questions there are rude questions. For example- let's say you're a music major and talking to someone who wrote a nationally used textbook for Physics. Don't ask the physics expert a question and phrase it in a way that implies that you somehow, studying music, know more about their life's work than they do. With these things said- I feel that questions are good, so long as they are not stupid or rude.
Now, let's start applying this to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The whole basis of this church is founded on the principle that we believe that God has once again called Prophets to be His mouthpiece. We are told in the Bible to judge between a true and false prophet by their fruits- so the fruits of Joseph Smith are the Book of Mormon and this Church. There are break-offs of the Church who believe that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet but that the succeeding prophets were not called of God. If you believe the current prophet is not called of God or that Joseph Smith and the first few prophets set up a faulty Church then perhaps you do not belong in this Church but a break off. If you do still believe that things are for the most part good and led by God then I just think you need to be aware of how you word your questions, and hold onto your faith whilst waiting for answers to your questions.
Prophets. They are men and still capable of making mistakes. They are human after all and to say they are incapable of making mistakes would be blasphemy since we believe Christ is the only perfect person to walk this Earth. I hold to this scripture, in Deuteronomy 18:20, "But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die." And D&C 1:38, "What I the Lord I have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same." These scriptures mean that the Lord will not allow His prophets to lead the Church astray. Does this mean that everything will be right? No. But we will be blessed for obedience and proper questions. Hold onto your faith that the Lord still leads and guides this Church and that any policy that may have faults in it will change (for policies of the Church CAN and do sometimes change). If the policy was made with a doctrine in mind, the doctrine will not change, but depending on the world and men, policies can change and hopefully will become better and better.
So let's talk about proper questions. If you truly believe that God leads the Church then you believe that whether it is by the Lord's voice or His servants it is the same. To question the Prophet in a way that challenges his authority, you are in essence saying that you know better than an all-knowing and perfect God and His choice to pick an appropriate mouthpiece. Be careful how you word your questions. Your same concerns can be addressed without challenging a perfect God's authority and choice in servants.
So what is the proper way to phrase a question? Think about your concern or problem with an issue. Ponder it and pray for understanding as to why the Prophets (in at least trying to do what is right) might have felt this was the right path. Pray for personal understanding and acceptance and to strengthen your testimony. Because of the faults of man, there are times when a mistake can be made and so even in your attempt to understand your concern may not vanish. But if you hold onto your faith that God leads this Church and will not allow the Prophet to lead the Church astray (this is different than a Prophet putting a bump in the path that may not need to be there) then you can trust that they at least had good intent in making any decision or policy. If you successfully complete this step and still have a question/concern, you should be able to at least phrase your concern in a way that doesn't challenge God as well as the Prophet/leader whom you disagree with.
Consider outside circumstances. For example, doctrinally we know there is nothing against blacks holding the Priesthood, yet there was a policy in place for a time that didn't allow them to hold the Priesthood. Was this a mistake? My theory is that it was not a mistake or fault of the Prophets. David O McKay wanted to change the policy long before he got the approval to do so. This tells me that it was in place for a reason, even if there was nothing doctrinally wrong with it. So here's the theory of me: maybe the world was not ready for it to happen. Let's take a different scenario. Why did people in the 1700s not have the blessing of the gospel? Was there something wrong with everyone living at the time? The answer is no. But the Lord was preparing the way for a time in which the Church could survive. He was working on a country that established religious freedoms. It was not a perfect country (as can be seen from the Civil War and many changes, amendments and extra laws to ensure the proper freedoms are indeed granted to all). I think the Lord waited long enough so that the Church could survive. Yet they were still persecuted because of religious beliefs. My theory on blacks and the Priesthood was that God was still working on the country, through the Civil War and Civil Rights issues with Martin Luther King, Jr and Rosa Parks to prepare them to accept what doctrinally was known- Blacks are equal to Whites. Perhaps if the Church had been granting Blacks the Priesthood before when they did it might have started persecution against the Church again. He did not wait til things were perfect to grant Blacks the Priesthood (as can be seen by ongoing racist problems) but perhaps He waited long enough that the Church would not suffer as a result. So, with your question, consider if there could be things outside of the Church that may justify making a policy that seems to postpone blessings of the gospel that doctrinally belong to all eventually. (For example, the new policy concerning children of homosexual parents- they are not permanently denied baptism. Children are not eternally condemned, if we believed this then there would be no purpose in doing baptisms for the dead for people who had encountered the Church in life. Agree with it or not, but the policy does not eternally condemn any.)
Third, the proper way to go about things. Let's briefly address the wrong way. The wrong way to go about displaying your disagreement is to shout loudly at conference "NO" when sustaining your leaders. There are many who disagree with things the Church is doing. Not all can come to the Conference Center. Even if everyone with concerns could come to the Conference Center to shout no, the Prophet and apostles would not have time to address each concern. All it does is disrupt the mood of conference. I'm sure someone would say, 'But if I don't shout, they won't know that I have a concern in such a big crowd'. True, but even with hearing you they direct you to talk to your local leaders. Might I suggest skip coming to Saturday afternoon's conference with the only intent of shouting no and going straight to your local leaders. It has to go through local leaders because the Church is too big for the people at top to one on one address every concern and still lead the rest of the Church. Sometimes local leaders don't pass on every concern because you have not phrased it as a genuine concern but more as a lack of faith in God to choose appropriate servants. This is why you should take time for my first two steps.
I loved my Mission President. He once told me a story about his Stake President and how he didn't think he was doing something right. He prayed for understanding and still felt uneasy. He was friends with the Stake President and so went to him and said, look, I know you're trying to do your best, and if you don't change your policy I will still follow it but I see possible problems with________. I learned from him that you can show that you trust in God to call proper servants. Because even local servants are called of God. If you have faith that God calls His prophet, then you have faith that he chose the right person to call lower leaders who are the right people to call others and others down to a Relief Society President. Granted you may not like everyone called for every calling but perhaps it is the right thing to do to give the person a chance to grow because God cares about every single individual. But you can trust in your leaders and still bring possible problems to their mind. Then they can pray to know what is right, knowing all the proper information and sometimes (not always) things will change.
I feel I have said everything I wanted to. Please remember the faith you do have and seek to understand "the other side" to either change your own opinion or understand it well enough so that your questions do not challenge authority but only the problems at hand.
