Room in the Church for Non-believers?

[Anonymous]

Roy wrote:

DarkJedi wrote:

but I hope they can see that there is room for those that don’t think/believe in the same way they do.

I think one difficulty is that we have a strong conviction in the correctness of our beliefs. I believe that there is room within our current doctrine for us to be wrong or at least limited in our understanding. There is much that we believe has not yet been revealed. What would be the purpose of further light and knowledge if we already had all that we needed to know?

I believe that there is some room for this humility in our doctrine but our culture highlights confidence as the better condition. How can there be respect for/room for multiple perspectives when only one is seen as right and true?

I think one of the things that gives me some hope in this respect is the idea of the “ongoing” restoration or the restoration as a process as opposed to an event. While ensconced in the Articles of Faith I don’t think church leaders (of the Q15 variety) talked much about the idea until recently. Granted many of the things are very subtle and may even go somewhat unnoticed by the masses. Some examples might be the change to any baptized member being able to be a baptism witness (as opposed to just certain priesthood holders) or that 11-year-olds can actually be ordained (instead of the hard and fast 12 years old). When we start to combine the (policy) changes there are surprisingly more than we might think. I do think church leaders have been careful in introducing change so as not to shock the Old Guard and at the same time I’m sure some have been thrown into a state of confusion over things they thought were concrete truths. I think people have embraced ministering to some extent, but I also know some who are still stuck in home teaching mode (and may not get out of that rut for a long time).

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