During my mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I met hundreds of people from all walks of life with every imaginable (and unimaginable) opinion. I came to realize the reality of this simple truth: you can't please everybody.
I reflect on this truth whenever a group of people whine that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn't exactly they way they think it should be. And a lot of times those are random, silly things that people are viewing through the lens of the latest cultural fads, instead of with the eye of faith.
What's next, vegans picketing the BYU and MTC cafeterias for serving meat products?
Environmentalists picketing the Church office building for producing too much trash?
Cheapskates picketing Deseret Book and the Distribution Center for charging money instead of handing out items for free?
Hollywood critics saying that Mormons are lame just because they don't always produce good movies?
When the LDS church was young, Joseph Smith started a bank in Kirtland. He was a prophet, not a professional banker. So it should have come as no surprise that his bank failed. But, consequently, many people who invested in the bank had a serious crisis of faith, seriously questioning Joseph as a prophet.
But it wasn't enough for them to stop attending church, or to disbelieve his sermons. They joined mobs that wanted to kill him. All because they were rudely awakened to the fact that even if this man was chosen by God, he still didn't know how to run a bank; they strictly adhered to the foolish belief that a divinely appointed prophet should also be a good banker. Then they became guilty of things that were much more damning than starting a failed bank.
Anyone who has a chip on their shoulder can find, or imagine, any grievance they want.
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