This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I'm an outspoken and sometimes noisy critic of the LDS Church. But I also love the church; it still has my heart. Yet I'm often accused of trying to tear the church down. I've heard this term deployed with impunity over the years. It's easy to say but it's intellectually lazy rhetoric to use about something so much more complex. Rather than tearing the church down, most critique comes from a desire for the LDS Church to mature into a safe and trustworthy faith system that holds its members with more love than fear.
As it happens, few people I know who raise concerns about the church are enemies of the church. They love the church, or once loved it, but they are disappointed in it. That has something to do with the fact that the church for some has become spiritually lifeless, and they want spiritual life.
Church for many has become robotic, dreary and dull, and they want to come to church to feel awakened to something more.
Church for some has become a fearful place filled with intolerance for difference when most people want to be surrounded by goodness and compassion for everyone, a place of confusion where narratives they once held sacred have shown to be tenuously connected to real events, an intolerable bastion of patriarchy when they want more for their precious daughters than to grow up limited by male authoritarianism.
Church for many has become a corporation concerned more about its political and economic viability than its spiritual and social relevance.
I was horrified by the term "church broke" used in a recently leaked video of a Quorum of the Twelve 'Update'. I understand that this designation, alongside the label "priesthood broke," are bestowed upon those who unquestioningly obey their up-line of authority, those who have been tamed and broken in by the church system.
Using the terms "church broke" or "priesthood broke" is not clever. It's cynical and cruel, and using it as a yardstick for measuring another's worth in the church is unbecoming anyone who claims authority and power from God.
How about we celebrate and elevate those who aren't "church broke" but are "church woke"? How about we stop promoting those who sniff around church leaders for scraps of approval and seek out contributions from those who can stand nose to nose with church leaders and speak truth to power?
Wouldn't we all be so much better off with healthy partnerships and dialogues that challenge us to think and grow rather than with the sometimes spiritually parsimonious hierarchy we currently have. I feel sure that that is exactly what Jesus would want of the church that bears his name.
I'm saddened that the church has for many become spiritually untrustworthy. Yet those who some might think are tearing the church down are generally not. They are likely expressing their desire for a church that more closely reflects their understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Right now it feels like open season on the doubter, the questioner and the critic. Bishops, stake presidents, area and general authorities who are targeting and disciplining those in faith crisis need to be bought under control. They are doing untold damage to individuals and families when for the most part these same people, branded apostates and enemies, are often simply aching for a more transparent, honest, inclusive and kinder community. And with every soul who is chased out, the church becomes less safe and loses more of its potential to become truly good.
Perhaps the following from non-Mormon, Pamela Gawler-Wright, Director of BeeLeaf: Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy in London could provide us all with both hope and perspective:
"My respect for the LDS Church has been so elevated by reading the intelligent, moral and challenging words of those members calling to the leadership to answer and reform. Such educated and spiritually informed voices of dissent reveal that the Mormon Church is in many ways a fertile, nurturing ground of healthy, contributing people. This dignified uprising publicizes the potential of LDS as a power for influential good in a way that I never would have known were it not for the beautiful voices I've heard of Mormon scholars, Mormon LGBT and Mormon feminist voices. Forgive me if this is voyeuristic from one not part of your church — but be proud of your heritage and grasp this time of change and opportunity. You contribute to the world outside of your church by such courage to question and challenge and even overthrow."
My hope is that we can change our narratives and find value in dissent and critique; power in the humility that will come with it; and reconciliation in a community so desperately divided.
Gina M. Colvin lives in Christchurch, N.Z.