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Heresy Five: Conformity and Agreement with Church Leaders

On the flipside, some changes, though at times being cited as stemming from revelation, are not as easy to accept or bear. For myself personally, along with many others, this most recently was established in the form of the 2015 policy change regarding the baptism of children from same-sex couples. Though at first I accepted it without a second thought, and even defended it, I find it much more difficult now to stand in full support of it when witnessing the pain it has caused. I sustain my Church leaders, I support them in the position and capacity that they serve in as inspired men of God, but that being said, this is a hard policy -not doctrine- for me to accept with full cheer and faith, and it is my prayer that further light might come to explain, elaborate, change, repeal, or replace it. I understand that Truth can at times be hard, but it is my experience that the Gospel more often then not lifts individual’s burdens rather than becomes one of itself.

So when it comes to sustaining and supporting Church leaders, for myself, such is not predicated upon my agreeing with them. I sustain and support them according to the position that they are in, but like with the example of a one Orson Pratt single-handedly opposing Brigham Young and many of the Twelve on the attempted establishment of the Adam-God Doctrine, it is clear that one should only ever operate within the dictates of their own conscience and the direction of the Spirit rather than succumbing to the pressures of authoritarianism. I can happily say that despite the failings and mistakes of past Church leaders, at times on matters of doctrine, I hold them to be men of God and spokesmen of Christ nonetheless. If individuals are looking for infallible, inerrant, or unfailing leaders, just as within Biblical times, they will not find what they are looking for. Despite Moses never making it to the Promised Land, despite Joshua issuing and taking part in genocide, despite David making grave moral transgressions before God and man, despite Peter denying the Christ, despite Joseph Smith’s (at times questionable) involvement with polygamy and polyandry, and despite Brigham Young’s perpetuation of racism, I hold them all to be inspired men of God just as I extend to our leaders today. It is clear that the Lord works with us in our weaknesses, mistakes, short comings, and brokenness, and the Spirit can be our guide as we judge what is from and of God. Mortality offers no perfect or infallible path to God, the point is to do our best with what we have by studying out all things in our minds and responding to the promptings of the Spirit as we are so called.

As we are asked if we sustain our Church leaders, might we remember the joint definition of the word as,

1. to support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight of, as a structure.

2.to bear (a burden, charge, etc.).

3.to undergo, experience, or suffer (injury, loss, etc.); endure without giving way or yielding.

Sustaining then might be both a pleasant or unpleasant course of action, and such should be remembered as we sustain those we agree or disagree with in their inspired callings within the Lord’s Church.

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