Comments on: Faith, Hope, and Charity in an Age of Doubt

By: Anon.

Anon. — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 15:54:32 +0000

Dave, one thing in particular the people I worked with have mentioned . . . they expected me to hand them 20 pages of answers and I listened and guided them to material that was more trustworthy than that which had been edited in an intellectually dishonest manner. That’s a problem many with faith crises don’t acknowledge.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 14:33:03 +0000

Thanks for the story, Anon (#6). Bravo for your local leaders for taking a positive and active approach to help people in that stake. I understand why it is so rare that local leaders take an active response like this given (1) a penchant for denying and ignoring rather than acknowledging a doubt crisis in a particular ward or stake; and (2) the difficulty in recognizing that the usual line of counseling, bishops and stake presidents, don’t have answers to provide and are often inclined to implement a “preach, don’t listen” response rather than a “don’t preach, just listen” tactic.

By: your food allergy is fake

your food allergy is fake — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 13:53:50 +0000

Fantastic way to serve, #6, and great idea from your stake president.

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 04:18:33 +0000

I (and some others) were “called” to assist those going through such faith crises under the direction of our Stake President. We didn’t receive direction or even get set apart (since its not an official calling). We could get a blessing from him if we wanted (and I did). We had both men and women and each had their area of experience, whether it was history, doctrine or other. Once the person was referred, there was no official follow-up or reporting and no time-frames given. The President only asked us (I’m assuming us, since there were only one-on-one meetings with him or telephone calls) to let him know if something major happened. There was a high success rate in helping those who were willing to call us. There were those of course, who didn’t. The most rewarding call I ever had. My rule of thumb was to simply listen and my only request was for them to tell me what they were reading (or watching online) so that I could do it with them. Occasionally, FARMS or FAIR material was helpful, many times not. Boyd’s essay was good and I can’t recommend Patrick’s book highly enough. None of those I helped are “back” where they were, but what they have found is more solid that what they had before, although it is in more limited areas. I’m confident that life will build on that over time. This is a great program. Frankly, the President hasn’t made many referrals lately. People have kind of gotten over the “fad” or they’re dealing with it in their own way (although those who made an exodus have only rarely come back).

By: Dog Pface

Dog Pface — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 18:19:18 +0000

I think these points are useful. Even when doubt moves to rejection post crisis.

By: Julie M. Smith

Julie M. Smith — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 01:46:19 +0000

Boyd’s post is great.

Let me add: don’t tell them to “just have faith.” (I get the sense that local leaders do this quite often, perhaps because they simply don’t have any other insight, perspective, knowledge, or framing to offer.)

If they are in a faith crisis, they are in a situation where their faith is *not* sufficient to go mano a mano with Book of Abraham historicity or whatever. If it were, they wouldn’t be in the crisis! Telling them to “just have faith” is about as helpful as telling a person to “just have food” during a famine. It’s also a violation of the admonition to seek learning BY STUDY as well as by faith (D & C 88:118).

By: EBK

EBK — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 21:24:02 +0000

ji,
I don’t think those two things are mutually exclusive. Someone can be in the midst of a genuine faith crisis that has deeply hurt them and want others to avoid that hurt. Not everyone who wants others to stop believing is being disingenuous.

By: ji

ji — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 18:52:42 +0000

I generally agree, provided, the faith crisis is genuine and not an attempt to dissuade others from believing or continuing to believe.

By: christiankimball

christiankimball — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 18:51:30 +0000

I thought Boyd’s piece was quite good, especially in speaking to the friends, family and leaders. Having spent time on both (all?) sides of these discussions, I would suggest that from the doubter’s point of view it would be helpful to put a little more emphasis on “don’t think or act like there is only one possible outcome” or “allow room for different answers.” It’s there, implicit (and arguably explicit in “Don’t judge, don’t preach”) in Boyd’s essay, but it’s such a hard lesson to learn or hear that (I think) it needs more punch. We doubters shy away from conversations where we think we know the whole dialogue before it begins.