"… when our leaders speak it is for us to obey; when they direct we should go; when they call we should follow. Not as beings who are enslaved or in thralldom; we should not obey blindly, as instruments or tools. No Latter-day Saint acts in this manner; no man or woman who has embraced the Gospel has ever acted in this way; but on the contrary they have felt to listen cheerfully to the counsels of the servants of God as far as they were able to comprehend them. The difficulty is not in getting the Latter-day Saints to do right, but in getting them to comprehend what is right.”
In an Ensign article Elder Alma Burton stated,
"A member of the Church, through faith and prayer, can learn for himself that the business being transacted or the principle being taught or the person being presented by the Church leaders to be sustained is correct. Elder Erastus Snow claimed that it is our responsibility to know for ourselves. He declared that the leaders present the will of God to the people and the people have the responsibility to have this onfirmed by the spirit of the Lord to them as well."
I think this is true for any person who seeks knowledge from God. It's simple in theory: you desire to know the truth about something, you sincerely pray, you wait and listen for an answer, and if you're TRULY willing to act according to that answer, you will receive it and recognize it. You HAVE to be honest about whether you are willing to change your mind or actions if what you thought was true turns out to be wrong. That's part of learning what we need to learn here on earth. And none of us are right about everything, so we all have something to learn. Change can be hard, and admitting we were wrong can be difficult, but it's not impossible. It's all part of being humble and acknowledging that we don't know everything. There are so many teachings about this to help us. In an excellent talk Elder Hales counceled us to
"Live our testimony. We must obediently follow the Savior's teachings and the prophets' examples. Doubts about matters of religion that arise from a lack of knowledge can be constructively resolved. The solutions are instruction, study, and prayer, which result in increased testimony which drives out further doubts."
He goes on to say that
"Each of us will be tested, tempted, and tried for our testimonies and to find out if we will remain true and faithful through these trials of our faith. We also know, beloved brothers and sisters, that if we do not continue faithful in the testimony that is imparted to us by the Spirit, then the light dwindles until it is extinguished. A testimony must be constantly nourished and defended, or it will waste away."
I think that when you have doubts about something that you will either "waste away" like he said or become much stronger and firmer. President Hunter, in an adress to the youth (although I feel it applies to all of us), said,
"I have sympathy for young men and young women when honest doubts enter their minds and they engage in the great conflict of resolving doubts. These doubts can be resolved, if they have an honest desire to know the truth, by exercising moral, spiritual, and mental effort. They will emerge from the conflict into a firmer, stronger, larger faith because of the struggle. They have gone from a simple, trusting faith, through doubt and conflict, into a solid substantial faith which ripens into testimony."
I want to end by again saying that I do not think it is at all wierd or unusual to have an occasional (or more frequent) doubt or concern about something. Quite the contrary, I think every one of us has experienced this at one time or another regarding something, whether big or little. But I have zero tolerance for people who have doubts and then don't do something about it. Like the title of this post says, it's either true or it isn't. It really can't be both. If you have a doubt or issue with some doctrine of the church I urge you to do everything you can to resolve it. This is no time to be a fence sitter. Now is not the time to be chicken or reserved about discovering the truth. There is no middle ground on too many issues. We all need to figure out what we believe and what we need to do. Sometimes it just takes faith to know that something is right, especially when we don't understand it. If there is something you need to resolve please take care of it now. You won't be satisfied until you do. Don't be a fence sitter member of the church. Do everything you need to in order to decide what you believe. It's either true or it isn't. If you decide it's true, then please act accordingly and follow the teaching of the Prophets, even if you don't understand and even if it's not popular. Following the council of the church does not mean that you should be rude or disrespectful of others around you who believe otherwise. Everyone has a right to their own opinions. But you don't need to compromise what you believe to accomodate others. Just remember that this gospel is constant. There are some issues which are in direct conflict with the teachings of God. Please consider carefully where you choose to place your allegience and support. And don't be a fair weather member. You can't pick and choose which doctrines you want to believe based on convenience. I'm calling for an end to blogging and commenting on facebook and myspace and anywhere else that you're a member of this church but you don't believe or agree with certain doctrines or aspects of it. Make a choice one way or the other. People around you might not always love your viewpoint, but at least you'd be doing something worthy of respect, both from them and from God.
