Some discussion has come up in recent threads over how members are to reconcile church teachings with political beliefs. To date, the political beliefs examined have been largely liberal ideas which are seen by at least some as conflicting with church values.<\/p>\n
However, the church also takes positions that may be seen as counter to conservative ideas. One recent example is the church’s decision to prohibit members from bringing guns into church, even where the members are licensed concealed-carry permit holder. (See the BYU article about the policy<\/a>, link via the Pollyanic Steve Evans<\/a>). What is a strongly pro-Second Amendment, gun-rights church member (there are quite a few such members) to think of that policy? And for that matter, he may be a strong second amendment proponent, and see any rolling back of gun rights as a negative event. In the worst case scenario, this missive could be the start of a move by the church in favor of gun restrictions. What would church members think if church leaders instructed them not to own or use handguns, period?<\/p>\n What should our hypothetical figure do? Should he vocally protest the church decision? Quietly tell his bishop he thinks it’s a bad idea? Keep bringing his gun to church anyway? (Will certain bishops and stake presidents give tacit approval of violating the new rule?) Or should he keep his mouth shut, put his concerns to one side, and follow the rule? At the broader level, if (when) members disagree with church leaders, does the proper resolution depend on whether they think church leaders are being too liberal or being too conservative?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some discussion has come up in recent threads over how members are to reconcile church teachings with political beliefs. To date, the political beliefs examined have been largely liberal ideas which are seen by at least some as conflicting with church values. However, the church also takes positions that may be seen as counter to conservative ideas. One recent example is the church’s decision to prohibit members from bringing guns into church, even where the members are licensed concealed-carry permit holder. (See the BYU article about the policy, link via the Pollyanic Steve Evans). What is a strongly pro-Second Amendment, gun-rights church member (there are quite a few such members) to think of that policy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-politics","tag-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6053,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions\/6053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nFor example, as the article points out, a church member may believe he needs his gun for protection going to and from church. He may believe that it is best for a law-abiding, gun-possessing member to be present in services to prevent criminals from harming members. <\/p>\n