LDS culture tends to communicate disapproval of doubt, say the professors, sometimes to the point of causing someone with questions to feel that he or she is unfaithful or unworthy. If someone musters the courage to raise a question with parents or friends and is met with shock or disgust, he or she is often left feeling alone.
“If they can’t find an open, candid, and supportive place to work through honest questions, that’s tragic,” says Fluhman. “We stigmatize doubt to the point that people feel guilty for even having the questions. That’s not conducive to spiritual growth.”
Sammy Jankins wrote:Keeping the faithLDS culture tends to communicate disapproval of doubt, say the professors, sometimes to the point of causing someone with questions to feel that he or she is unfaithful or unworthy. If someone musters the courage to raise a question with parents or friends and is met with shock or disgust, he or she is often left feeling alone.
For your consideration.
Sammy Jankins wrote:Keeping the faithLDS culture tends to communicate disapproval of doubt, say the professors, sometimes to the point of causing someone with questions to feel that he or she is unfaithful or unworthy. If someone musters the courage to raise a question with parents or friends and is met with shock or disgust, he or she is often left feeling alone.
For your consideration.
Warren Beatty's Stunt Double wrote:Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters—my dear friends—please, first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Latter-day Saints have experienced crises of faith throughout the history of the Church, but the number of those asking hard questions or finding themselves in faith crisis has increased with the advent of the Internet, Fluhman says. “The information explosion has exposed Latter-day Saints to a wider range of information about their faith and about their past.”
Cope has found the same situation. “More students are coming across information on the Internet that they haven’t been exposed to before,” she says. “They do not know how to process these new details and in many cases feel a betrayal of trust. ‘Why hasn’t anyone ever told me this?’ they ask.”
The professors say the issues that most often come up include polygamy, women and the priesthood, race and the priesthood restriction before 1978, sexual orientation, and the translations of the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham.
Parents of children in this age of information have a serious obligation to be as informed as possible, say the professors. Parents don’t have to be academics or have all the answers, but they can be conversant in the issues that come up most frequently.
Fence Sitter wrote:I love this quote from the article.Parents of children in this age of information have a serious obligation to be as informed as possible, say the professors. Parents don’t have to be academics or have all the answers, but they can be conversant in the issues that come up most frequently.
So, if the Church isn't supplying the information, and actually encourages members not to look into them, just how are the parents supposed to even know what the issues are or that any exist?
Fence Sitter wrote:So, if the Church isn't supplying the information, and actually encourages members not to look into them, just how are the parents supposed to even know what the issues are or that any exist?