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My adult son and I have been playing this little game, and I think it’s fun. If you were president of the church for a day (and whatever changes you make become permanent) what would you change? Because I’ve played a bit I have a list and I’ll hold it for a bit (some of you can probably guess most of it anyway). So have at it. Obviously RMN beat us t the punch on eliminating HT and two hour church and he did some I probably wouldn’t have thought of like combining quorums. RMN is also overhauling the Sunday School cirriculum. That would be something I might’ve done. I’m interested to see how it’ll turn out, but it sounds like it’ll be more focused on specific topics, with scripture passages cherry-picked to support the Church’s views on those topics; i.e. the Church is taking more of a cafeteria-mormonism approach. 
I’d also try to be more open with Church history, maybe hire a couple of faithful historians to look into Church history, and try to help members come to terms with the more difficult parts. At the same time, I’d try to distance ourselves from the early Church, possibly by discouraging the use of the term “Mormon”. Check and check.
So what else would I change? I think I’d try to shift the focus on to helping well being, and I’d eliminate any requirement of affiliation with the Church to recieve help. I’d revamp the online programs for BYU-I, trying to further increase it’s capacity to provide convenient, cheap, yet thorough education to anyone who needs it. I’d also insist on training anyone who will at anytime be giving “counselling” to any other member. I’d also encourage classes on topics such as public speaking, or self reliance. Addiction recovery classes will be encouraged to all members (because everyone suffers from a handful of addictions), and will be offered weekly. I’d do all I can to remove the stigma. I’d also do all I can to remove all “guilt” from being a motivating factor in Church, and focus more on “volunteer” service rather than coerced service.
I would change the Missionary program were anyone volunteering for a full time mission (at 18) has a choice: 1. Proselyting – teaching & baptising.
2. Service Projects – helping in disaster areas.
3. Teachers – underprivileged countries.
4. Musical presentations & performances & teaching.
5. Historical guides – Nauvoo, etc.
6. Family History – temple workers
7. Or combination of any of the above depending on need & personal choice.
I am not talking about older or Senior Missionaries.
Here is my list: 1. 3rd bishopric counselor who is female (not the R.S. President or married/related to another member of the bishopric) and is called to assist in pastoral needs specifically for the women in the church. She would work hand-in-hand with the Relief Society presidency in making sure that the sister is cared for as needed and handle the interviews for the young women. If it worked on the branch/ward level, implement it on the Stake level.
2. Update temple wording to be more female friendly.
3. Update the Proclamation to shift from talking about the relationship with Heavenly Father to the relationship of Heavenly Parents. It does not feel right that the first sentence talks about how we are children of Heavenly Parents (plural) and then every mention of God following that is singular. I know the rationales behind why we don’t as a tradition do this, but it does not make sense to me.
4. I would create an online generalized course for leadership that covers the basics of a) organization in case of a natural disaster, b) organization in case of a shooting, c) basic basic mental health training (the equivalent of what EMTs do when they arrive at the scene), d) sexual harrassment/bias review, e) how to administer to additional needs family (or at least ask the questions to start and spearhead the dialogs with leadership).
5. Establish Faith Transition ministers (male and female, couples possible) to create the safe spaces for those who are transitioning. At least allow the branch presidents/stake presidents to have these names without stigma so that the leaders can advise the person to contact them as an additional perspective.
There are so many changes I would make that I think the proposition is too broad. Let me limit it to just: – I would disavow polygamy:
On Own Now wrote:
Polygamy was the single issue that led to my faith crisis. It is the first and foremost doctrine I would change if I was prophet/seer/revelator for a day. There are others, but I would be satisfied if I could make this one change before senior members of the Q12 figured out what was going on and tackled me to the ground, kicking and punching, behind the pulpit of the Conference Center.
On Own Now wrote:
I don’t feel that the church would completely fall apart.For the sake of argument, let’s say the Church came out with the following hypothetical Official Declaration 3:
“In the early days of the Church, Joseph Smith attempted to coalesce the doctrine of eternal marriage with the reality that many would be married more than once in this life. He came to believe and to preach that eternal marriages could be performed between a righteous man and more than one woman. Later prophets, including Brigham Young, followed the teachings faithfully, and polygamy grew to become a major characteristic of the Church. In 1890, the Church officially ceased the practice of polygamy. We now declare that while Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and other faithful leaders of the time tried to mesh their lives with the principles that they learned from God, that polygamy itself is not a doctrine of the gospel. We declare that a man should have one spouse and that a woman should have one spouse, and that it will be so in the eternities.”
If the church came out with the above statement, I do not believe that the church would collapse. On the contrary, I believe there would be a collective sigh of relief. In addition, I think such a position would help to stop the bleeding that the church will otherwise continue to experience, as members grapple with supposedly infallible leaders practicing such abhorrent “doctrines”. I can’t think of a single person in today’s church that is glad for the still-existing doctrine of polygamy.
On Own Now wrote:
– I would disavow polygamy:
This is slightly off topic, but it troubles me too, that polygamy is still doctrine. We don’t practice it for the living, right now, but it is still practiced. Specifically, President Nelson is a polygamist according to the laws and doctrines of the Church, because he has both Dantzel White and Wendy Watson sealed to him as his wives. And according to LDS doctrine, they will both still be his wives in the next life. Assuming God accepts the LDS sealing ordinances as valid, President Nelson
isa polygamist, as are many of the Q15, in the only way that counts. Wonderful ideas! I think I would modify the position of the church towards LGBTQ individuals. I would emphasize that chastity is to withhold sexual relations until marriage.
Quote:“The ideal is a marriage between one man and one woman and this is the type of marriage that we solemnize in our temples. However, we do not live in an ideal world. There are many marriage and family situations that we recognize as less than ideal but we move forward the best that we can with the faith that God knows our situations and our hearts and He will accept our imperfect but good faith efforts in the final judgement. Same sex marriage is one of those less than ideal marriage and family situations that I spoke of earlier. Same sex attracted members can now be regarded in full fellowship (including temple attendance) under the same criteria as their heterosexual brothers and sisters.”
I’d encourage LDS retreat centers. We have our temples but nothing like that. dande48 wrote:
On Own Now wrote:
– I would disavow polygamy:
This is slightly off topic, but it troubles me too, that polygamy is still doctrine. We don’t practice it for the living, right now, but it is still practiced. Specifically, President Nelson is a polygamist according to the laws and doctrines of the Church, because he has both Dantzel White and Wendy Watson sealed to him as his wives. And according to LDS doctrine, they will both still be his wives in the next life. Assuming God accepts the LDS sealing ordinances as valid, President Nelson
isa polygamist, as are many of the Q15, in the only way that counts.
Precisely. Short of the Church’s disavowal, polygamy lives on (even if we no longer ‘practice’ it actively in the here and now). The fact is that we teach our young people that it is real and God-sanctioned, and you can’t possibly do that without creating a gender inequality; boys grow up being taught that, hey, they might have access to extra privileges some day, and girls grow up being taught that, well, you have to be willing to submit to the will of [God] like your faithful progenitors did. The clear and unavoidable derivative concept is that male > female.If I had one day – I would produce a ton of Thank You Notes. - For all the marginalized people’s – Thank you for being the most mature with us
- To all the lay leaders – Thank you for all the endless hours you gave up for the hope of this church
- To the Women – We owe you so much
- To unbelievers in all stripes – We mean it “Come Join With Us”
- To everyone who tried this experience and it didn’t work out. Thank you. That is huge sacrifice
- To the membership world wide. – Thanks for the tithing. We are good. Donate your tenth to a cause you that needs your help
I would focus my short tenure on teaching grace, and ensuring that it keeps getting taught. The church’s major problems and difficulties with repenting are all driven by shame. Grace removes unnecessary shame, which frees members to think and act according to truth and goodness without getting so hung up on their self-worth. If you’re looking for the atonement’s enabling power, this is it.
Reuben wrote:
Grace removes unnecessary shame, which frees members to think and act according to truth and goodness without getting so hung up on their self-worth. If you’re looking for the atonement’s enabling power, this is it.
Wow! I had never thought about it this way (nor do I believe that I have heard it taught that way). Thank you for the perspective.
1. Remove the one year penalty for getting married civilly in North America. 2. Allow Apostles to serve for a term, rather than for life. This is to allow the church to be more changeable than it is and also give hardworking men a break. Until recently, our gerontocracy is stifling us.
3. Expand LDS Social services so people can get help when they need it; return real value to the membership in this way.
4. Find a way to release the prophet when he is incapacitated and there is not a forseeable chance he can return to duty.
5. Allow women to hold SS President, WML and other positions.
6. Continue working toward a kinder, gentler culture, with a focus on building community.
7. Do an annual survey of members to find out how well the church is meeting the spiritual and community needs of members; implement strategies based on such feedback.
8. Refocus efforts on new membership and retaining existing members; get away from this constant chasing of the less actives; it is draining, returns few results, hurts testimony.
9. As a corollary to #8, focus on making programs good. Implement quality initiatives to improve the experience of being an active Mormon. This could mean things like a) itinerant speakers in the stake that are really good speakers who travel from Ward to Ward b) better training and support for teachers c) updated classrooms with better technology for teaching and learning d) more interactive curriculum materials.
10. Shorten Sacrament meeting to the Sacrament, a couple hymns and one of the itinerant speakers. Maybe a youth speaker, but keep it short.
11. Give the extra time back to SS and PH/RS.
I’ve enjoyed reading the inputs on this thread. We are a creative, tinkering group. I would like to key off of something SD said…
SilentDawning wrote:
7. Do an annual survey of members to find out …
You know, one thing I dislike about the Church is that average members have absolutely zero say in asking for any change in the Church. The Church just doesn’t think of information as flowing up, only down… Jesus -> RMN -> FP -> Q12 -> Church -> Members. The only way that anyone is able to get the Church to consider changing its position on anything is via visible protest (Let Women Pray, Ordain Women, Sam Young…). Because only protest is effective, the Church essentially invites an unpleasant and unseemly style of dialogue.I’d love to have the Church establish some mechanism to let people speak and be heard. A lot might change, if that were possible. I think this thread is evidence. There are all sorts of things we’d like to see changed, but our only outlet is to talk to each other. I don’t think what we say here has any influence on the Church. Actually, I suspect our voices are viewed more akin to scoffing coming from the Great and Spacious Building, than to the harmonies of the Tabernacle Choir.
I’ve enjoyed the comments as well. I think an exercise like this is useful for us here because we get to talk about what our concerns are. My peeves are probably different than some others. Some we tend to hold in common, others seem more specific to individuals or a smaller part of the population, but I think all are valid if it’s what’s keeping people from engaging. Here are some of mine (no particular order):
1. Remove the November Pox and end anti LGBQT+ rhetoric
2. Call women who are in presidencies “President” (including MP wives) and allow them to be SSP, WML, etc. (likewise men could be PP).
3. Remove the the one year waiting period for temple marriage, make it all the same worldwide
4. Remove the tithing and WoW questions from the TR interview (keep church attendance and the other questions)
5. Clarify that tithing is not on gross, encourage people to pay what they feel comfortable with (which could be net or less) and recognize donations to other charitable causes as tithing.
6. Eliminate all ancillary programs, traditions, and pseudo-doctrines like food storage, emergency prep, etc.
7. Emphasize grace over works and de-emphasize check box programs
8. Revise Doctrine & Covenants to remove sections that were primarily to individuals, not containing “new” doctrine, and section 132. (Like the Talmadge/Grant selections book of the 1930s) – keep the following: 1,2,4,7,13,18,19,20,22,27,29,38,42,43,45,46,50,56,58,59,63,64,65,68,76,84,87,88,89,93,98,101,107,110,119,121,124,130,131,133,134)
9. Completely and unabashedly disavow polygamy, including in the next life, and racism.
10. Change the endowment ceremony to remove sexist language and other sexism including doing away with the women’s veil.
11. Shorten the endowment to include a briefer overview of the creation and signs and tokens. Further shorten it to only the signs and tokens for those going through for the dead (about 1/2 hour).
12. Change and remove archaic and Machiavellian mission rules, including contact with family.
13. Focus missions more on service, eliminate tracting/street contacting totally.
14. Allow a choice of mission service time between 6 months and two years for all missionaries (young, old, male, female) with missionaries in the field being allowed to extend if they choose (but not more than 2 years total).
15. Focus sacrament meeting even more on the sacrament, include more music in SM, make talks more like homilies and limited to 10 minutes with a focus on the core principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (no more than two 10 minute homilies) and eliminate testimony meetings on fast Sundays
16. Hold no meetings other than SM and SS/PH/RS/P on Sunday except perhaps a brief (<1/2 hour) bishopric meeting (including no "firesides" or bishops SED)
17. Eliminate youth interviews with bishops/SPs except TR interviews and then the parent or another child advocate MUST be present.
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