If We Really Are Truly Christian, It Has to Start Here

Marlin K. Jensen, former Church Historian and member of the 70, held a Q&A session a few years ago with a group at Utah State University. He spoke of church leaders needing to provide an “atmosphere of safety and a welcoming place”. He went on to say:


“If we really are truly Christian, it has to start there. Being less judgmental. Being more open and welcoming and inclusive…so, if that environment can be created, and... it should be, but often in the church, when someone comes with a bit of a prickly question, he’ll be met with a bishop who number one, doesn’t know the answer. Number two, he snaps and says, ‘Get in line and don’t question the prophet, and get back and do your home teaching.’ And that isn’t helpful in most cases. So, we need to educate our leaders better, I think, to be sympathetic and empathetic and to draw out of these people where they are coming from and what’s brought them to the point they are at. What have they read, what their thinking is, and try to understand them. Sometimes that alone is enough to help someone through a hard time. But beyond that, I think we really need to figure out a way to live a little bit with people who may never get completely settled.”