The LDS church, which evolved out of the religion Joseph Smith started, is making some very serious mistakes. (I do not take the stance of some Ex-LDS that the LDS church is all wrong.  There are important truths found in the LDS religion and not in anyother Christian religion.) Surprisingly these errors actually can be seen providing a benefit to many of the members and ex-members as they work to reconcile their beliefs and personal principals with these errors.  I want to list a few and show how some great good can come from the situation produced by these mistakes.

• 1. Members are given many rules and goals to achieve and taught they are indications of righteousness.  But this is wrong: true spirituality comes from within. Not from payments, not from attendance, not from going to the temple, nor from holding callings and serving a religion.  I’m not saying any of that is bad.  But it does distract one from serious spiritual growth and actually communicating with the divine.
• 2. Another serious error is treating women as lesser beings much as the LDS once did Blacks.
• 3. Also judging  and condemning a LGBTQI  individual as unworthy is heartless.
• 4. Misusing substancial financial contributions to support leadership and to buy political influence can be alarming.

The actual list is much longer.  So the benefit?  Love grows greatest as it stretches across divisions.  Many members are seeing these mistakes. They are correcting their beliefs and behavior accordingly.  This deconstruction creates divisions between themselves and those, still blind to the errors, whom they love.  This is a great challenge to relationships.  On this side of the veil it may not seem to matter that much.  It seems that fixing the church is paramount. But to the contrary, I have been assured that these problems provide important challenges to individuals developing real love.

Learning to love is a process that comes well before matters of religion.  Going through the process of first rejection, then tolerating, coming to understanding, and finally embracing  differences is critical to developing love. Regarding the enormous spiritual benefits which come from facing and overcoming great divisions; there have been times when I wanted church Leaders to make the situation worse. Almost I would that they return to their racist past. I’d like the face of male chauvinism, already blatant, to become even more pronounced.  Let them do something financially more foolish. This would cause many more people to question their faith and make loving across the widening divide even more challenging.

But for the individuals learning to face the truth and trying to stay close to their loved ones; I encourage those facing these growing differences to strive to find the unity of love in spite of the temptation to cut one another off.   Keep the relationship!  Treasure the chance to love one another even in the face of looming divisions.