Mormon Culture

“A problem related to perceptions of Mormonism’s monopoly on truth is the impression that Mormons claim a monopoly on salvation. It grows increasingly difficult to imagine that a body of a few million, in a world of seven billion, can really be God’s only chosen people and heirs of salvation. That is because they aren’t. One of the most unfortunate misperceptions about Mormonism is in this tragic irony: Joseph Smith’s view is one of the most generous, liberal and universalist conceptions of salvation in all Christendom.”

Terryl and Fiona Givens

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“Don’t be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good. Sometimes we work overtime making the gospel of Jesus Christ miserable to live. Let your life be your trumpet.”

Rand Packer  |  BYU Education Week, August 1992

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“Your chances for a happy and lasting marriage will be far greater if you will date those who are active and faithful in the Church.”

Gordon B. Hinckley  |  “Four B’s for Boys,” Ensign, Nov. 1981, 41.

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It is a mistake to think that Mormonism is about Mormonism. Mormonism is not about Mormonism. And if we try to force Mormonism to be about itself, we paint ourselves into corners and lose track of the very thing we are trying to say. . . . In my experience, Mormonism comes into focus as true and living only when I stop looking directly at it and instead aim my attention at Christ. Instead of aiming at Mormonism, I have to aim what Mormonism is aiming at. Otherwise, I’ll miss what matters most.

Adam S. Miller  |  Letters to a Young Mormon' Unplugged

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Neal A. Maxwell Headshot

“We live and teach amid a wide variety of individual personalities, experiences, cultures, languages, interests, and needs. Only the Spirit can compensate fully for such differences.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell  |  That Ye May Believe (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1992), 39.

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“The pressure to conform to what we see as a dominant cultural orthodoxy is often more imagined than real. A silent majority may be more receptive than we realize to our yearnings for greater authenticity, honesty, originality, and individualism. Brigham Young was. ‘I am not a stereotyped Latter Day Saint,’ he said, ‘and do not believe in the doctrine. Away with stereotyped ‘Mormons!'”

Terryl and Fiona Givens

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“The Lord said that this is the only true and living Church upon the face of the earth with which He is well-pleased. I didn’t say that. Those are His words. The Prophet Joseph was told that the other sects were wrong. Those are not my words. Those are the Lord’s words. But they are hard words for those of other faiths. We don’t need to exploit them. We just need to be kind and good and gracious people to others, showing by our example the great truth of that which we believe.”

Gordon B. Hinckley

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Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the LDS church

A young returned missionary sister from Hong Kong told me recently that when she and her companion asked an investigator if she believed in God, the woman replied, “I didn’t until I met a member of your church and observed how she lived.” What exemplary missionary work! Asking every member to be a missionary is not nearly as crucial as asking every member to be a member! Thank you for living the gospel.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland  |  "Witnesses unto Me"

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