It’s All About Perception
A Facebook friend asked a question about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . She has a friend who has left the Church because he feels all it does is guilt people into not doing bad things. My friend, on the other hand, remains faithful because she doesn’t see any attempt at guilt, only loving encouragement to be the best person she can be. Ultimately, these alternate foci would have the same outward results, but inwardly, the directions are obviously worlds apart. Her question, therefore, is a request for others’ opinions on the subject. As my response is characteristically verbose, I figured I’d post it here. 😊 The way I see this is as a matter of perception. Allow me to share a story from my own personal history: I joined the Church of Jesus Christ when I was 16 years old, and given my age, was introduced into a quorum of priests . Our quorum advisor, Brother Hurst, frequently taught us that despite the great power in our Priesthood office, we of ourselves were nothi