Since the LDS church has no professional clergy, it is not surprising that members get different results when they interact with their leaders in one congregation versus another. Geography alone may have a significant effect depending on the cultural background of your bishop/stake president. Although these leaders receive some sort of training during their tenure, it would seem that training is not quite as…correlated as the doctrines of the church. While one bishop might tell you to stop taking the sacrament because you said a curse word, I think most bishops would just tell you to watch your language and leave it at that. Some might even confess to using colorful metaphors themselves.

Last night, I played the priesthood roulette by telling my entire stake presidency that I am going through a faith crisis. It wasn’t my idea to have them all come visit me and my wife, but I figured it was better to put it out there than to let them operate under the assumption that I am a true, believing Mormon (TBM for short). I was pleasantly surprised that the stake president took it very well. First of all, when they just wanted to visit me out of the blue, I feared the worst. I thought they were going to interrogate me, asking why I don’t pay tithing or always wear my garments. I thought they were going to ask me why I have Starbucks in my fridge. I thought they might ask me to stop writing controversial posts on my blog. But they didn’t! Instead, the stake president thanked me for my candor and said that as he understands it, (and he offered this as the official church position) it is good to ask questions and seek understanding. As my stake president sees it, the increasing number of faith crises in the church is because of increased access to information (which he seemed to think is a good thing and not a bad thing). He didn’t ask me any uncomfortable questions or press me for details. He and his counselors just wanted to get to know me and ask if there was anything they could do for me. What they did for me was provide me the confidence that I can feel spiritually safe in my stake. After one too many difficult Sundays, I really needed that. While I agree with Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn’s assertion that “Whenever you gamble, my friend, eventually you lose.” I was reminded last night that sometimes you win. And those small victories really do matter. I don’t know what to expect when interacting with my bishop, but if my luck holds (and I am a super-lucky guy) then I think I can do this. Maybe I can be a happy, heretical Mormon.