{"id":41506,"date":"2017-04-20T23:53:23","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T05:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=41506"},"modified":"2017-04-21T11:52:29","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T17:52:29","slug":"mormon-leaders-trust-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/mormon-leaders-trust-issues.html","title":{"rendered":"“Mormon Leaders Have Trust Issues”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"USC — The USC Trojan Marching Band comes down Park City\u2019s Main Street in September 2014.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve spent more time than perhaps I should have down in the trenches, dealing with alienated and disaffected members as well as with never-Mormon critics of the claims of Joseph Smith and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>, and this<\/a> tallies with my experience:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mormon leaders have trust issues<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It isn\u2019t typically this or that specific historical or doctrinal issue that takes former believers out of the Church, but, more commonly, a suspicion that they\u2019ve been misled or even lied to. \u00a0This very often makes them quite bitter.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I think they\u2019re usually mistaken, and that their unfortunate bitterness is misplaced. \u00a0But that\u2019s the way things are. \u00a0And it\u2019s extraordinarily difficult to bring people back once they\u2019ve become cynical and embittered.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why I\u2019ve long argued that the best policy is full honesty and the open acknowledgment of human errors in <a href='https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/library\/mormonism' target='_blank'>Mormon history<\/a>. \u00a0Inoculation, if you will. \u00a0The claims of the Restoration are, I\u2019m convinced, quite strong enough to withstand serious scrutiny. \u00a0But the seed of the Gospel cannot survive, let alone flourish, in soil rendered too acidic by angry cynicism. \u00a0Preventive measures are imperative.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Joseph Smith was a true prophet, by the way.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Posted from Park City, Utah<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ve spent more time than perhaps I should have down in the trenches, dealing with alienated and disaffected members as well as with never-Mormon critics of the claims of Joseph Smith and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and this tallies with my experience: \u00a0 Mormon leaders have trust issues \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>"Mormon Leaders Have Trust Issues"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    I've spent more time than perhaps I should have down in the trenches, dealing with alienated and disaffected members as well as with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/mormon-leaders-trust-issues.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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