Brad O.

I'd be interested to know how many LDS members consider themselves more than 50% liberal. I bet that number is 10% or less. Each person I know who has left the Church did so as a result of an extremely liberal social issue. That is the whole reason I asked the original question. Brad O.

Republican because the recipients of the gifts need to work hard all year and be a good boy or girl. The lazy bad kids don't get squat.

I've been in a "bah-humbug" mood this Christmas also. But it wasn't until I donated a gift to some abused/neglected kid on Toys for Tots that I snapped out of it. Providing service to others is definitely an avenue to acquire great happiness in life. However, I think it is critically important that we do our due diligence to ensure that we are actually helping someone in need rather than enabling them to continue feeding an addiction or encourage laziness. What is the point of performing service if it hurts the person you are serving? Brad O..

I've seen it time and time again... people expect members of the LDS Church to be perfect. Someone should have informed this person that LDS members are not perfect from the very beginning and saved 2RM a lot of time. Perfection does not exist anywhere, so if that is what you desire, you have a long search ahead of you. :) Brad O.

This makes a lot of sense to me. However, in any organization or group on this planet, there are going to be some people in that organization that will offend or push you away. I realize that people in my ward and in the Church are imperfect and not let that get in the way. Maybe it is easy for me since I'm naturally conservative. I guess if the Church was filled with "mostly-liberals", the situation would be much more challenging. :) Brad O.

Thank you for your comments. Jane_doe asked me if there are any specific areas coming up with my "liberal-minded" relatives. I prefer not to get into specifics because I don't want this thread to evolved into discussing these topics as they've all been discussed here before. I can say that I have noticed a combative and hostile attitude towards various Church policies. I don't agree with every Church policy myself... however I do realize that these policies are necessary, just as policies are necessary in any organization. My homeowner's association and place of business have policies that I don't agree with also, but I realize that these policies are necessary for a large number of different-minded people to co-exist as a community. Backroads brings up a major cause of my frustration.... I see many "liberal-minded" people demanding changes in the Church, which I think is reprehensible. This is something I'm seeing more and more in American society in general too.... 1. A person joins a religion or other group 2. That person doesn't like one or more things about that religion or group 3. That person accuses the religion or group of being unfair, racist, sexist, or similar to manipulate that religion or group to change to accommodate their specific desires. As a "mostly conservative-minded" person, this type of behavior angers me greatly. I think anger is really the only reasonable reaction to behavior such as this. Brad O.

Hi, I'm LDS and I have a "mostly-conservative" mind. This means I consider myself 25% liberal and 75% conservative. Over the past few years, nearly everyone in my immediate family who has a "mostly-liberal" mind has fallen away from the Church (and I'm not exaggerating.) Before they fell away, some of them put forth great effort to convince me that you can be liberal and a member of the LDS church. Needless to say, now I am almost completely convinced of the opposite. This whole situation troubles me greatly and I find myself agonizing over it regularly. I wish my family could all just be happy members of the Church so we could continue to have that in common. At this point, I never even talk to my family about the Church except maybe mention that I gave a talk or one of my kids gave a talk. It feels weird because we used to talk about the gospel all the time. This is going to sound bad, but my experiences with my family has given me an extremely negative and tainted view of being "mostly-liberal." I guess the way I look at it is that if being "mostly-liberal" means you reject and get offended by the great things taught by the Church, being "mostly-liberal" must be a bad thing. I do not understand the hostility towards the Church from my family in recent years at all and I think they are just being manipulated and misled. Is my conclusion wrong? Is it possible to have a "mostly-liberal" mind and be a happy member of the Church. Brad O.