Since I was a child learning how to read, I have been reading the Book of Mormon. I still open it and read it. But I have never studied it harder than when I was a missionary in California. It was in the last 6 months of my mission that I really started to look deep at it, and when I did, I kept finding things that didn’t belong. This bothered me... My initial doubts in the book started as a missionary because I was bothered by the persistent realization that the contents of the Book of Mormon served its author, Joseph Smith, and his 19th Century audience more than they served the characters in the text.
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Earlier today several key leaders of the LDS Church called a press conference to discuss religious freedom and nondiscrimination legislation for the LGBT community. I have to commend the Church generally for a tone and policy that is radically improved from even just 5 or 6 years ago when I was a student at BYU. But as a whole, I found their statements lacking and ultimately hypocritical. Having experienced anti-gay bullying at the hands and mouths of LDS members, leaders, and official publications, statements implying they have always been against such persecution, feels more like a slap in the face than a sincere change of heart.
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