To My Fellow Mormons...

To my fellow Mormons,

Please do not take this the wrong way, as I do not mean to disregard or belittle anyone's personal experiences with General Conference this past weekend. There were some good messages, from what I was able to catch. But I cannot help but feel a growing frustration with the general membership's attitude towards this event and its speakers. Although the First Presidency itself has affirmed that "not every statement made by a Church leader, past or present, necessarily constitutes doctrine," each word uttered is treated as though it has come directly from the Lord himself. Although the scriptures teach that anyone with a testimony of Christ has the spirit of prophecy, it is now understood that we should dedicate extra preparation twice a year to hear The Prophet (or 15 Prophets, depending on who you ask), as if carefully scrutinized, formulaic 600 minutes of words a year fed through a teleprompter, subject to change in the Ensign printing, are somehow more important than the 525,000 other minutes we could use in communing with the Spirit ourselves. And although "God has created man with a mind capable of instruction" (J. Smith), we are constantly fed a diet of kitsch and cliche, avoiding the real issues preventing us from establishing a Zion-like society that go far beyond pot use or pornography addiction--our inexplicable love for war, our insipid deference to the state, our callous accumulation of wealth--all things preventing us from truly living the gospel of love. (I include myself in these criticisms by the way.) Why can't we understand that a dependence upon "leaders," as was taught in the early days of the church, would cause us to be "darkened in our minds?"

Sincerely,
A Concerned Member