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Rolly: Suggestions for new Mormon leaders — casual Fridays at the temple, cosplaying apostles, Facebook Live sacrament meetings

Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Paul Rolly.

With the change in LDS Church leadership, the opportunity comes for new social policies that don’t compromise the faith’s eternal doctrines (blacks in the priesthood is a good example).

So, with an eye toward retaining the more progressive-minded Mormon millennials, here are a few tweaks that might make sense as President Russell M. Nelson and his team tackle the challenges facing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

• Adopt gender-neutral church greetings. How about “Saint Smith” instead of “Sister Smith” and “Saint Jones” rather than “Brother Jones”?

• Sponsor casual Fridays at the Salt Lake LDS Temple so unworthy people strolling through Temple Square could pop in without a “recommend” to use the restroom.

• Make a strong statement during General Conference that opioid abuse is worse than medical marijuana.

• Relax the no-beard policy at Brigham Young University. Allow, say, Brigham Young- or John Taylor-style whiskers, but forbid full-on Lorenzo Snow or Joseph F. Smith ones.

LDS Church Presidents, from left, Brigham Young, John Taylor, Lorenzo Snow and Jospeh F. Smith.

• Look the other way when regular BYU students, not just high-profile sports stars, get tattoos.

• Have a Political Diversity Day twice a month ­— perhaps on alternating Mondays with family home evening — to encourage faithful Mormons to watch MSNBC for two hours and share with the family nationally syndicated columns by Dana Milbank and E.J. Dionne.

• Conduct sensitivity training in LDS Primary classes that teach children it is wrong to throw rocks at classmates whose parents had Hillary Clinton signs in their yards.

• Shift the focus of bishop’s interviews with young Mormons from talking about sexual practices to assuring them that if they vote for a Democrat, they won’t go to hell.

• Invite the apostles to dress, cosplay style, during one General Conference session to better connect with younger generations. Nelson, for instance, would be a fine Dumbledore. Dallin H. Oaks could be Gollum, and Dieter F. Uchtdorf would make a great X-wing pilot.

• Hold virtual sacrament meetings via Facebook Live.

• Give participation trophies to those serving partial Mormon missions.

• Allow parents to cover their young adult children’s tithing obligations.

• Ease temple recommend interviews by always saying, “You tried your best, and that’s all that really matters.”

• Do home teaching through inspirational Instagram posts.

• Change men’s and women’s restroom signs in meetinghouses with signs that say: “We don’t care, just wash your hands.”

• Find better music.

• Introduce other inspiring texts (maybe “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games”) into Sunday school lessons.

• Cut the Sunday meeting block by two hours.

• Ease up on the Word of Wisdom by rewarding temple attendance with an after-session wine social. It could be confined to red wine and just one glass per templegoer. After all, many doctors preach that such a practice is good for the heart. Besides, it also could make those members feel more closely connected to the dead non-Mormon imbibers for whom they were just vicariously baptized.