People are constantly trying to figure out how they can be in Mormonism while trying to reconcile where they stand versus where the Institution stands.  In spite of the fact that the Church has always struggled to define itself, it’s history, it’s theology, and even the Word of God when it isn’t; we still seem to try to mesh our lives with the standards and interpretations it has declared.  This seems like a fruitless endeavor.  If the Church can not define itself or God’s doctrine and theology correctly then it is a moving target that we are trying to mesh our lives with.  There is a better framework.  This requires us to begin deciphering what is actually the Word of God and more importantly what parts of the Word of God is binding on us by the rules God has set within the Church.  Once we realize the very small box of things that God seems to have stated directly and that GOd and the Church have imposed on us as binding and that we have accepted by common consent as binding we realize just how much in the Church isn’t binding.  Once we do that the Tent of Mormonism gets really big and makes way more room for diversity and almost entirely squashes most of the things we believe imposes conformity and causes us moral tension…… most things.

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