With the blossoming of the Internet and social media, it is now much easier for individuals and groups to gather around common causes. Among the LDS causes are some relatively minor ones like dress standards for girls at Church camp, women being able to attend Priesthood Meeting, and the quality of Deseret Book’s publications. But there are also more serious issues like women being given more responsible ecclesiastical positions, women holding the priesthood, funding for Brigham Young University, lack of transparency with Church finances, and the Church’s judicial process. Plus, there are serious doctrinal issues with some Mormon conservatives.

Women Being Given More Responsible Roles: Even more conservative members of the LDS Church are starting to lobby for higher visibility and more responsible roles for women. Based on recent successes, feminism in Mormonism seems to be gathering serious traction. And from a practical perspective, it would seem that limiting the role for half the adult members is counterproductive.

Women Holding the Priesthood: The idea of women holding the priesthood seems to be moving from the fringes to a wider level of support. There is still not a ground swell of support for the movement, but the idea seems to gathering momentum.

Funding for Brigham Young University: Some are starting to question whether the major funding going to BYU is appropriate. For example, is it fair to heavily subsidize upper and middle-class members while providing only loans to students in developing countries?

Lack of Transparency in Church Finances: The LDS leadership, since the time of President David O. McKay, has been hesitant to share information about how tithing and other monies are spent. This issue has started to come to a head as investments in things like a SLC mall are being questioned.

Fairness of the Church Judicial Process: With the recent excommunication of attorney Denver C. Snuffer Jr., there is going to be increased scrutiny on the Church’s judicial processes. Are they fair? Do they need to be fair? Who should be allowed to attend?

And I’m sure there are other concerns that I have left off–like LGBT issues–from this summary.

These are times of increasing change. Is the senior leadership of the Church going to be able to handle all the pressure which comes from improved forms of communication? The Internet and social media have allowed members with similar ideas to come together and interact. This makes possible a wide variety of initiatives and protests.