This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I usually listen to classical music on KBYU-FM while I paint, and so, being too lazy to change the station, and a little curious, I listened to the Mormons' General Conference last weekend.
I liked the repeated emphasis on family and marriage. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a strong agent for goodness, even if it is way too obsessed about sex and guilt.
I didn't like how it set up LDS Church leaders as the conduits to God. They've got too much power if it is to pronounce God's judgment on anyone.
As a good, small-d democrat, I think God communicates directly to people, and a church is more an outgrowth of sovereign, God-touched people acting collectively on their spiritual understandings than it is God's overseer of Earth's humans, as if we were plantation slaves.
Whatever. This world needs good citizens, and there's room for Mormons, even if, in their fear of "exaggerated tolerance," they don't think there's room for others, especially gays.
Phil Fuller
Salt Lake City