When Mitt Romney released his taxes, it showed large donations to charity, including to his church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Members of this church are sometimes called Mormons. Three million dollars was donated to charity, with about 1.5 million dollars going to his church.

Mormons follow the Biblical commandment to tithe, so Romney, as a practicing and believing Mormon, pays at least ten percent of his income in tithing. The word tithe means a tenth, and so, to be fully practicing the law of tithing, a person who believes in and follows the Bible must pay a full tenth of his or her income. In addition, the Bible requires believers to pay offerings.

“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

“Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:8-10).

When Mormons join the church—or when anyone who believes in the Bible joins a church or makes a private covenant to follow God—they commit to pay an honest tithe and additional offerings. Mitt Romney has said that no one should be critical of a person who honors his financial commitment to God. In fact, he believes they should expect a candidate to keep commitments he has made, and particularly those made to God.

What does Mitt Romney’s church do with the tithing money? Tithing money is used to pay the costs of operating the church, funding missionary work, and performing humanitarian efforts. No tithing money is spent on salaries for church leaders. When Mitt Romney served as a bishop (a lay pastor) and later as a stake president (overseeing an area similar to a Catholic diocese) he was not given a salary. He held a secular job in his community and supported his family on his own. His church work was done after work hours.

Regardless of how much money the church takes in for tithing, the church’s leadership does not personally benefit from it. Even the full-time church leaders—the prophet and his apostles—do not receive a salary, one feature that makes them very different from the leaders of most churches. If they are unable to support themselves through private funds, such as pensions, they receive a modest stipend, but this money does not come from tithing. Unlike many churches, the Mormons do not include their businesses as part of their “ministry.” They operate a small number of for-profit enterprises on which they pay taxes, most operated under Deseret Management Corporation, a holding company organized in 1966. Funds for stipends come from these for-profit funds. A church leader who is wealthy has become so through his secular work, not his church work.

Money paid as tithing is carefully monitored. The Mormons do not have a collection plate and members place their contributions in envelopes and hand it to one of three leaders privately. When the money is counted and recorded, at least two leaders must be present. Audits are conducted at many levels, both locally and at the international level. These audits are done by ordinary church members who are not church leaders.

The Encyclopedia of Mormonism explains how controls are in place at Church headquarters:

“The Church has an Audit Committee composed of experienced businessmen who are not associated with the Church as employees or General Authorities. This committee reports directly to the First Presidency of the Church and works closely with the Finance and Records Department and the Auditing Department to ensure strict adherence to ethical principles and rigid financial policies and procedures. The Auditing Department also reports directly to the First Presidency of the Church and thus maintains its independence from all other departments. Its staff of certified public accountants performs ongoing audits of finance, operation, and computer systems for Church departments and other Church-controlled organizations. Responses to all audits are required and are monitored.”

The independent audit committee issues a report in General Conference each year. This is an international conference held twice a year.

Tithing is issued to congregations, stakes, and programs according to needs. Each organization receiving funds must submit a proposed budget which is reviewed. Money is distributed based on the needs of that group. Since all Mormons are volunteers, they are instructed not to spend money on their callings (volunteer church service) and so a budget is needed to cover the expenses of all programs. For instance, a Sunday class for children requires a lesson manual for the teacher as well as various teaching supplies—crayons, paper, flannel boards, chalk boards and so on. Boys who belong to a church sponsored Boy Scouts program have all their costs for dues and membership covered by the church. The church often sponsors community events which also require funding.

Of course, running a church has costs. Buildings must be safely built, maintained, and furnished, lawns must be cared for, and cleaning supplies must be purchased. Although missionaries pay for their missions, the costs have been equalized and so more expensive missions may require greater funding and teaching supplies must be provided.

The church operates a number of humanitarian programs. The better known fund is the Humanitarian Aid program, a registered non-profit which provides aid regardless of nationality or religion. This program sends in supplies during natural disasters. For instance, when Haiti experienced its devastating earthquake, Mormons sent in two planeloads, each containing 80,000 pounds of food and other resources just in January of 2010. Today, long after many other groups have left, the Mormons are still there serving the people. Typically, in a year’s time, the church will ship 12 million pounds of shoes and clothing, one million hygiene kits, and a million pounds of medical supplies to those in need. They train hundreds of people in the United States and around the world in employment skills and help them find work. It has spent more than a billion dollars in cash and supplies for humanitarian work since it began keeping records in 1985. This service is rendered in more than 185 countries. The church operates programs in neonatal resuscitation, efficient farming in developing nations, wheelchair, dental, and eyeglass assistance, immunization programs, clean water initiatives and other services that help bring better lives to those in need. 100 percent of the money donated to this program goes to the actual aid. The church pays administrative costs from other funds.

In addition to this international program, more money and time is spent in local congregations and areas. Days of Service are a popular activity for Mormon groups worldwide. These are days when Mormons, and those who wish to join them, tackle community projects in their own areas. Many local congregations make blankets, provide literacy and ESL programs, create kits for the homeless, and do other projects paid for from church funds but not recorded in the humanitarian aid statistics.

Mormons also care for their own members. One unique program is known as fast offerings. Mormons are asked to fast for twenty-four hours (two meals) if they are physically able to do so. This fast means no food or drink of any kind. They donate what they would have spent on food and drink to a fast offering fund to care for those in need who live in their own congregation. The funds are used to provide temporary assistance in food, housing, and other emergency necessities. If there is more need than a congregation can support, the church provides supplemental funding. Those who receive help are invited to participate in additional church service in order to preserve their pride and sense of self-sufficiency. Although the aid is nearly always worth more than the work provided, it allows the receiver to give something for it. In addition, since he helps others through his own contributions during good times, he has a stronger sense of community taking turns helping each other out.

Mitt Romney’s Mormon money is going to good use helping to run the programs of the church and to serve those in need.

By Amy Choate-Nielsen

Deseret News
Published: Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012 7:00 p.m. MST

David Letterman knows how to get a laugh.Like most comics, he riffs on the day’s news, deadpans the camera and revels in audacity.”Oh, did you hear about this?” the host of CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman asked his audience recently. “A campaign staffer on the Newt Gingrich campaign was fired because he was making negative comments about Mormons. I thought, now, wait a minute — isn’t Newt in favor of multiple wives?”
Laughter rumbled from the audience followed by applause. The polygamy punch line is a familiar one when it comes to poking fun at Mormons — as though Mormons and polygamy are synonymous in mainstream media. Ironically, the practice that’s most linked to Mormons is a practice most Mormons oppose, according to a groundbreaking new study of Mormons in America released Thursday by the Pew Research Center‘s Forum on Religion and Public Life.

According to the study, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unequivocally reject polygamy — only 2 percent said the practice is morally acceptable — evidence of a yawning gap in what Mormons believe and how they are perceived. Mormons’ opinions are overwhelmingly conservative, the study shows, but in many ways, their views are also surprising — especially when it comes to opinions on moral issues, divorce, homosexuality and polygamy.

Morality

Mormons also take a significant stance on moral issues in other areas, such as divorce, sex outside of marriage and consumption of alcohol.

Although teachings from the LDS Church emphasize the importance and eternal nature of the family, only 25 percent of Mormons surveyed said divorce is morally wrong, according to the study. That means Mormons are slightly less morally opposed to divorce than the general public.

“For Catholics, divorce does not exist. They think it is not only wrong but it is impossible,” said Matthew Bowman, member of a board of expert advisers to the Pew Research Center for the study and author of “The Mormon People,” a book on the history of the LDS Church. “That has not been true for Mormons. There is theological space for divorce within Mormonism. It is undesirable, but Mormons recognize it is sometimes necessary and sometimes the right thing to do.”

Other moral views revealed in the survey — 54 percent said drinking alcohol was morally wrong, compared with 15 percent of the general public — set Mormons apart, Bowman says. The assumption on the part of non-Mormons is that if Mormons think drinking alcohol is wrong, then they must think everyone who imbibes is morally flawed. That apprehension can make people suspicious of Mormons, and wary of an elitist attitude, he says.

Differences in moral viewpoints can create a stumbling block for Mormon acceptance — not only in high-profile arenas, such as a presidential election, but also in communities.
“What you find throughout the report is a tension,” said David Campbell, assistant professor at Notre Dame and an adviser on the study. “Mormons like to use the phrase, ‘Be in the world but not of the world.’ They are certainly living their lives in the world. They are active and involved in their communities, but they have these beliefs and practices that set them apart a little bit, and sometimes there is conflict.”

Homosexuality

Mormons have some of the most conservative opinions when it comes to homosexuality. The survey asked Mormons if homosexuality should be accepted by society or discouraged by society, with an option for neither, both or “don’t know.” The response — 26 percent said homosexuality should be accepted, 65 percent said it should be discouraged — puts Mormons as the least likely to say homosexuality should be accepted by society. But a 26 percent acceptance rate, with roughly 1 in 4 Mormons saying homosexuality should be accepted, might be surprisingly high to some.

Of particular interest is the fact that only 8 percent of Mormons surveyed identified themselves as liberal, and 66 percent said they were conservative. That means some of those who said homosexuality should be accepted also identify themselves as politically conservative, Bowman says. That distinction illustrates the complexity of Mormons’ opinion on sexuality — that it is rooted more in religious precepts than politics.
Still, it’s difficult to draw a conclusion about Mormons‘ views on homosexuality based on the study, says Pew Research Center adviser Terryl Givens, professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond.

“Results need to be viewed cautiously,” Givens says. “Official LDS pronouncements insist there is a distinction between (sexual) orientation and behavior, but the survey blurs that difference, probably leaving many Mormons unsure how to answer that question. What is clear, however, is that Mormons are trending toward greater acceptance of same-sex relationships, just as society as a whole is, although by a much smaller percentage.”

Polygamy

At one point 120 years ago, some Mormons practiced plural marriage, hence the association between Mormons and polygamy. The practice was discontinued in 1890, but the cultural association persists, perhaps in part because Mormons are sometimes confused with members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, a polygamist group not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In the October-November 2011 study of a national sample of 1,019 Mormons, 86 percent said polygamy is morally wrong. That’s a number that surprises Bowman.

Were it not for the confusion surrounding Mormons and the FLDS Church practice of plural marriage, Bowman says that statistic might not be as high.

“It’s my experience that Mormons have a fraught relationship with polygamy,” Bowman said of the study results. “There is a sense that rejecting polygamy identifies a member of the LDS Church and distinguishes us from the fundamentalists. That is a cultural signifier as much as a theological statement.”

Some who responded to the survey, 11 percent, said polygamy is not a moral issue.
Email: achoate@desnews.com

The Pew Foundation survey of Mormons released this past week confirms that U.S. Mormons are more conservative (66 percent) compared to the general public (37 percent), and on most issues, they closely track white evangelicals. But immigration is one issue that sets Mormons apart from their evangelical counterparts.

Asked whether immigrants are a strength or a burden, 59 percent of white evangelicals said they were a burden, while only 41 percent of Mormons felt the same, compared to 44 percent of the general public. The result is surprising given how staunchly conservative Mormons are on nearly every measure. Interestingly, 50 percent of white mainline Protestants and 49 percent of white Catholics also tilt against immigration, though neither group is as uniformly conservative as evangelicals or Mormons on other measures.

Dan Cox, Research Director at the Public Religion Research Institute in Washington, D.C. sees several reasons for the surprising result. He points first to demographics to explain why Mormons are more open to immigrants than are white evangelicals. “White evangelicals are significantly lower on the socioeconomic scale than most other religious groups. Those who are more economically vulnerable are more likely to see newcomers as threats,” he says.

The Pew results validate the socioeconomic explanation. The key is a strong link between Mormon religious commitment and socioeconomic status. Eighty-four percent of Mormon college graduates are highly committed to the Church, but just 50 percent of those with high school education share that same level of commitment. This socioeconomic gap also translates to immigration: 50 percent of less committed Mormons see immigrants as a burden, against 36 percent of highly committed Mormons.

Cox also points to age as a key factor, noting the surprising anti-immigration sentiment among mainline Protestants and white Catholics. “Both of these groups tend to be older than the general public,” Cox says, “and we find that younger people are much more open to immigration.” Sure enough, Pew finds that 49 percent of Mormons between the ages of 18-49 see immigrants as a strength, while just 39 percent Mormons over 50 say the same. The Mormon youth movement has an impact on the results: according to a 2009 Pew study, 41 percent of the general population was over fifty years old, while just 34% of Mormons fall into that category.

Cox also thinks culture is a factor in the Mormon tendency to be more tolerant of immigrants, citing in particular the outward focus of the LDS church and the percolating influence of missionaries returning from foreign lands. “When you have more interaction with someone,” Cox notes, “you have increased comfort with them.” One statistic conveys the impact of this element of Mormon culture: 70 percent of the 33,000 students at BYU are bilingual.

Theresa Martinez, a non-Mormon sociology professor at the University of Utah, emphatically seconds Cox on the outward focus. “I’ve taught over 7,000 students,” she says, “probably about half of them LDS, with a large proportion of those return missionaries, and half of those from Latin American missions.” Her students express strong attachment to the peoples and communities they served, Martinez says. “And after that, you are not the sheltered little Mormon kid, and you understand that life is much bigger than your backyard.”

While the seeds of openness are embedded in the culture, others note that Church leaders recently gave a gentle push in that direction. Last year Utah illegal immigration hard-liners were poised to copy Arizona’s stern immigration policies, when centrists—with quiet but clear support from Church leaders—turned tables with widely-noted legislation that will allow some undocumented workers to obtain drivers’ licenses and work. In the fall of 2010, the Church also stated support for the principles of the The Utah Compact, which urges humane and measured solutions at the federal level.

And yet, divisions within the LDS community remain. Utah House Rep. Chris Herrod of Provo, a leader on anti-illegal immigration efforts in Utah, considers himself pro-immigration, noting that his wife is from Ukraine, his sister-in-law from Korea, and his business partner from Ethiopia.

Herrod points out that the Pew study addresses immigration per se, rather than illegal immigration, and says he has often been puzzled when debates on the two issues become muddled. “I believe in immigration,” he says. “It’s the melting pot that has made the country great. But lately we seem to be splitting into a bilingual and bicultural nation. We need to give equal chances to Africans, Asians, South Asians, and Eastern Europeans, and we need to get back to those core beliefs, where you adopt the language and blend the cultures.”

Richard Davis, a political science professor at Brigham Young University, sees the Church position last summer as impacting dialog on this issue within Utah and among U.S. Mormons. “For years the drumbeat was all about illegal immigration and the need to enforce the law,” he says. “The Church has nudged the agenda. Now it’s more about how we treat people, however they got here.”

Charles Morgan, a BYU sociologist who studies immigration, sees culture and Church positioning as mutually reinforcing. Morgan notes that the “closer the contact you have with a group, the more likely you are to have compassion and see them as equals.” Like Davis, Morgan also sees the Church’s positioning as significant: “The Church is projecting a positive image of immigrants, and I think this is resonating with the more devout Mormons.”

Morgan points to Arizona, where a Mormon state senator from the heavily Mormon Mesa area, who was president of the Senate and had authored the state’s controversial immigration policy, was replaced in November by another Mormon in a recall election. The new senator, Jerry Lewis, was encouraged to run by LDS members in the Mesa area who were concerned with what they saw as a harsh tone on illegal immigration.

Jason Labau, who researches Arizona political history at the University of Southern California, also sees recent Church policy and underlying cultural factors as reinforcing. “This is a much longer shift,” he says, “and it stems from the missionary experience. Several friends I grew up with in Arizona are staunchly conservative, and the only issue we see eye to eye on is immigration. They served missions in Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico, and they see these people as equals who are looking for something better.”

Eric Schulzke is the director of the Apollo 13 Project (a13.org), a prisoner reentry initiative based at Utah Valley University. He can be reached at eric[at]a13.org.

Additional Resources:

Mormon attitudes on immigration

Full Series Mormon Pew Study: Mormons in America

When people struggle to know whether or not God and Jesus Christ are real, they often ask in frustration, “Why doesn’t God just show Himself?” It sometimes seems to them that if He wants them to believe in Him, that would be the simplest way.

Why doesn’t God just show Himself? To understand the answer to this question, we first have to examine why we came to earth. For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are sometimes called Mormons, the explanation of life’s purpose begins even before birth. What happened to us before we were born explains why God seldom shows Himself today.

Mormon beliefs tell of a time before the world was created. God created our spirits. This is one reason Mormons consider God to be literally their Heavenly Father. Our spirits weren’t housed in bodies yet, although they had that form, but we did have our personalities, talents, and interests. In other words, we were uniquely ourselves. We lived with God during that time, getting to know Him and letting Him get to know us.

While this was wonderful, this experience didn’t allow us the full range of opportunity and experiences God wanted us to have. As a perfect Father, He knew we needed to  have challenges, tests, and hard experiences to become everything we could be. We know from our own experiences that we don’t entirely learn who we are until we live away from home and until we’ve faced some trials. If our parents make life too easy, we become spoiled and don’t develop fully.

To receive the full experience God planned for us, we needed physical bodies, families, and a chance to develop faith. Faith is the answer to “Why doesn’t God just show Himself?” While we lived right in God’s presence, we didn’t need faith to believe in Him. However, faith is an important part of life’s experiences. When we learn to have faith in things we can’t see, it dramatically improves our life experience. Learning to have faith can help us learn to love and to commit to a family even in hard times. After all, we can’t see or scientifically measure love and we can’t see into the future to know how family life will work out. So much of that is based on faith. With faith, we can have the courage to take risks that enhance our lives—trying a skill we’re not sure we’re good at, giving ourselves uplifting experiences outside our comfort zone, or making wiser choices.

There are many possible things to believe in, but when we’re forced to sort through them and make choices about what to believe and what to reject, we improve our ability to make wise decisions. The ability to make good decisions helps us in both our temporal and spiritual lives.

And so, God told us that if we chose to come to Earth, we would lose our memory of our time in His presence, and even of His existence. However, He would send along a toolkit that would help us to know it happened, if we chose to open the kit and use it.

One gift God gave us is the Spirit of Christ. Every person has this gift at all times. We can also receive promptings from the Holy Ghost, and after baptism and confirmation by someone with the proper authority, we can have the Holy Ghost with us all the time, as long as we are living worthy of the presence of the Holy Ghost.

Harold B. Lee, a past Mormon prophet, explained the Light of Christ or Spirit of Christ in this way: “Every one of you born into this world enjoys the blessing of this Light that shall never cease to strive with you until you are led to that further light from the gift of the Holy Ghost that may be received only upon condition of repentance and baptism into the Kingdom of God.” (See Decisions for Successful Living, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1973, p. 144.)

God cannot show Himself to most of us because we agreed to come here in part to learn how to have faith. By having all of us learn faith by seeking out God and Jesus Christ, God is able to create a plan to help us learn. Of course, just as it is with anything we want to learn, we must make a choice to learn faith and we must commit ourselves to doing so.

The Book of Mormon, which God commanded ancient prophets on the American continent to create, was written to serve as a second witness of Jesus Christ. It is meant to be used with the Bible. It is structured much like the Bible, in that a variety of authors wrote the book and the book is filled with both stories and sermons designed to help us gain faith. One of the most famous sermons on faith in this book was given by a prophet named Alma. Alma taught listeners to conduct an important experiment that would help them gain faith. This experiment is as valid today as it was anciently.

Alma’s sermon was preached to a specific group of people called the Zoramites. The Zoramites had once been followers of Christ, but had somehow become sidetracked and had corrupted the gospel. They became very worldly and were entirely focused on wealth. They believed wealth was proof of God’s approval on a person. They believed this so strongly they would not allow the poor into their churches. Their services were nothing more than a celebration of how wonderful they were and once they went home, they gave no further thought to God until the next week.

Unfortunately, they taught there was no way to worship God except inside their churches. The poor, being excluded, felt they were lost forever due to their poverty. When Alma and his missionary companions arrived to preach, the poor asked Alma what they could do to be saved. Alma taught them that what they needed was not to get inside this corrupt church, but to have faith.

He challenged them to experiment with faith. He assured them that all they needed to get started was a desire to have faith—just a desire, and nothing more. God could take that desire and grow it into something wonderful.

He praised them for being humble, but pointed out they were humble out of necessity. He told them they would be blessed even more if they were humble by choice as well. Humility is essential to gaining faith in God. By accepting they were not the greatest and highest power in the world, they could learn to obey God and accept His will, even if it wasn’t what they hoped it would be. This would allow them to repent when they sinned, and repentance allows God to forgive through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Alma then tells them something that helps us understand more about why God can’t just show Himself to us:

“17 Yea, there are many who do say: If thou wilt show unto us a sign from heaven, then we shall know of a surety; then we shall believe.

18 Now I ask, is this faith? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for if a man knoweth a thing he hath no cause to believe, for he knoweth it.”

19 And now, how much more cursed is he that knoweth the will of God and doeth it not, than he that only believeth, or only hath cause to believe, and falleth into transgression? (See Alma 32:17-19).

From this we see many people, even then, wanted signs—proof. But if you have proof, you don’t need faith. Furthermore, your punishment for failing to keep the commandments is far greater if you have proof of God’s existence than if you only have faith in it. Greater knowledge comes with greater responsibility. In addition, history has shown that having a sure knowledge doesn’t really convert the heart.

In an early Book of Mormon writing, we learn of a family that had four sons when the story began. The two oldest were self-centered and unfaithful. When they abused or tried to kill their brother, angels came to them multiple times. Despite seeing angels and many miracles, they were not truly converted. They continued to deny what God wanted them to do and to disobey commandments. They had proof, but they had no real conversion in their hearts.

This is why Alma found it so important to teach his students that they needed faith. He told them their faith would not be a perfect knowledge—if it were, it wouldn’t be faith. He compared the growth of faith to a seed. First, they must plant the seed in their hearts and not cast it out by choosing to not believe. The seed would then, if it was a good seed (meaning if God was real), begin to swell or grow in their hearts. When they felt this swelling feeling, and felt their souls enlarge, they would know it was a good seed—signs of the reality of God.

Alma reminded them that seeds bring forth their own kind. An apple seed will grow an apple tree. A seed of faith in God will grow faith in God and in itself, then, will prove that God is real. Satan cannot bring forth joy and peace, and that is what you feel when you are praying to know if God is real.

This part of the experiment leads to perfect knowledge, but only in one thing—whether or not the seed was a good one and capable of changing you. If we plant a tree seed, we have to nurture the seed to get the best results. Faith also has to be nurtured in order to grow. If you neglect it, it will die, not because it was bad, but because you didn’t take care of it.

Nurturing the seed of faith requires prayer, scripture study, and pondering of gospel truths that are learned. It requires us to agree to act on whatever God tells us, even if it isn’t what we hoped to hear. Alma warned his listeners that developing a strong faith requires a long commitment, just as growing a tree does. However, it leads to faith in God and eternal life. The rewards are more than worth the work involved.

Once we have faith, we no longer need God to appear before us. Our hearts, and the Spirit of Christ, will tell us everything we need to know.

In the Book of John, we learn, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (See John 1:3.)

It is clear, then, that anything that exists was created by God, and so God made Satan. However, he wasn’t Satan at his creation and he was not created evil. The prophet Isaiah helps us to understand what turned Lucifer into Satan and demonstrates that he is not the being God created him to be: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” (See Isaiah 14:12.)

In other words, Satan, as created, was not evil. God does not create anything that is evil. The creation accounts in Genesis consistently remind us that everything God creates is good. How did Satan go from being a good creation of God to being the source of evil?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are sometimes called Mormons, teach that agency was an essential part of God’s plan for us. From the very beginning, God gave us the right to choose for ourselves. Although He made rules for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden concerning the tree, he did not lock it up where they could not get to it. In fact, he put it right in the center of the Garden, where they would see it often. They were free to choose to eat from it, and they did.

Agency explains how Lucifer became Satan. Mormons believe that God first created our spirits and allowed us to live with Him in Heaven prior to the creation of the Earth. This makes Him very literally our Father, and it also means we began to develop our characters and personalities prior to birth. We did not have bodies, but we did have personalities, and the ability to choose whom to become. Some worked hard to become as much like God as possible. Some did not. Some were power-hungry, even then, and it appears Lucifer was one of these. The events that would occur demonstrate he was popular among a certain type of spirit and that he used that popularity and his agency to cause others to make poor choices, even then.

Mormon beliefs talk of a great meeting held in Heaven in which we were told of the plan to create an earth for us. We would all, in our turn, go there to live for a while. We’d gain a body, come to earth through a family, and have agency. We would not remember our time in Heaven, but we would be given the ability to feel God’s presence and counsel to us if we listened and were anxious to do the right thing. Through what would be known as the Spirit of Christ, we would be able to discern truth from lies if we chose to do so. The Holy Ghost would be available to help us on Earth. With this help, we would be expected to search out the truth and then commit to live it.

Of course, we wouldn’t be perfect, and the Law required perfection in order to return home. To this end, God would provide a Savior who would come to earth through a mortal mother, with God as His father, and live a sinless life. He would then make a voluntary sacrifice on our behalf, known as the atonement. This would allow us to overcome death and to repent. It would make it possible to overcome the demands of the law through mercy. Jesus Christ volunteered for this calling, saying he wanted all the honor and glory to go to God.

Lucifer, however, did not like God’s plan. He used his influence to try to convince us to replace God and Jesus Christ with him. Lucifer said he would take control of our lives on earth, controlling every movement and thought so we could not possibly sin. In that way, no atonement would be necessary (relieving him of the need to suffer on anyone’s behalf) and we’d all come home safely. In exchange, however, he wanted us to let him take God’s place and receive all the honor and glory.

Lucifer’s plan was a selfish one, designed to win him a position of power and authority without undue sacrifice. This was a sharp contrast to Jesus’ proposal, which asked nothing for himself. However, perhaps because Lucifer was popular, or perhaps because his plan seemed to offer security and an easy route to success, one-third of God’s children chose Lucifer as their leader, rejecting both God and Jesus Christ.

They were not allowed to come to earth as a consequence. They will never receive bodies or families, and because they rejected the atonement before they even came to earth, they are not allowed to benefit from it. They were cast out of heaven for their efforts to overthrow God and His plan. All the remainder of the spirits in Heaven began to prepare for mortality.

However, Lucifer’s work was not done. He became Satan and he was angry at being cast out of Heaven. He was also miserable, having been denied what even he knew was a wonderful opportunity—even though he made the choices that led to it. He was determined to make every who had refused to follow him miserable.

His role in our lives today is to try to get us to reject the great plan of salvation we once embraced, to disobey God’s commandments, even to choose not to believe in God or Jesus Christ. He is determined to undermine God’s work.

Although Satan is allowed to try to make us sin and reject the opportunity to return home to God’s presence, there are some things he cannot do. He cannot force anyone to sin: he can only encourage sin. He cannot prevent anyone from knowing the truth who is determined to know it: he can only try to keep us from wanting to know. Satan cannot remain if we tell him to leave. In the New Testament, we can look to the example of Jesus Christ to know how to handle Satan’s temptations and lies. When Satan tried to tempt Jesus, Jesus simply refused to pay any attention to him and ordered him to leave.

Satan then, began life as we all did, as a child of God. He used his God-given agency to reject God and the gospel and chose instead to live a selfish life harming others. While he is temporarily allowed to try to carry out his revengeful goals, we are under no obligation to give him power over us.

Mormons (a nickname for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) believe that God knows everything and sees the future. Mormons also believe we have free will—the right to choose for ourselves. To some people, these seem to be contradictory ideas. If God knows everything that will happen, doesn’t that mean it is all predestined and out of our control?

To understand how we can have free will and still have a God who knows the future, we need to have a clear understanding of our relationship with God. Let’s begin with what Mormonism teaches about our life as God’s children and then learn why He gave us free will.

Mormon beliefs tell us that God created our spirits and we lived with Him before our births. We didn’t have bodies, but we were ourselves. We spent time with God, getting to know Him. He also got to know us and this is important to understanding the answer to the question.

When it was time to come to earth, God promised we would still have the free will we’d had since the moment our spirits were created. We could choose to do right or wrong, but we couldn’t choose the consequences of our actions, either to ourselves or to others.

This tells us free will is very important to God. As much as He loves us, He knows we need to make our own choices, in the same way all parents must eventually let their children make choices, even if they are bad ones.

And yet, God sees the future. How does that affect our agency? There is an excellent discussion of this topic in an official Mormon lesson manual for college students. You can read the discussion here—scroll to the heading “Moses 1:6—All Things are Present in Me.”

In this discussion we learn that God isn’t bound by time in the same way we are. He can see the past, present, and future as easily and as clearly as we see the present moment—and with a perspective impossible for us to achieve.

Pick up a book of history or a biography. As you are reading this book, you know what choices the people in the biography or history made. You didn’t cause them to happen. The participants in the events made choices of their own free will. You know what those choices were and what the consequences were because you read about them after they happened.

In this same way, God can actually see the future, as if he were visiting it or reading about it from a future perspective. He is not just guessing or predicting what will happen. But this also means He can see the results of the choices we make. He knows that if we make Choice A, Result A will happen. If we make Choice B, Result B will happen.

We are free, as we go through our lives, to make our own choices. God isn’t sitting in Heaven controlling us like puppets. He knows what we are going to choose because He knows us so well from His time with us both before and during mortality. He also sees further down the road to know the results of our choices—but we are making the choices, not God. He is only seeing what we choose.

Because He is able to see what we are going to choose, He is able to make plans for us. If he sees we are going to make a mistake, but also sees that we will eventually realize we did make a mistake and decide to repent, He can plan to bring some good out of the errors we made. If He knows we are going to ask Him for advice before deciding, and that we are actually going to take the advice He gives, He can look ahead and decide what He should advise us to do.

James E. Talmadge is quoted in the discussion referenced above. He was, at the time of this quote, an apostle. He said:

“Many people have been led to regard this foreknowledge of God as a predestination whereby souls are designated for glory or condemnation even before their birth in the flesh, and irrespective of individual merit or demerit. This heretical doctrine seeks to rob Deity of mercy, justice, and love; it would make God appear capricious and selfish, directing and creating all things solely for His own glory, caring not for the suffering of His victims. How dreadful, how inconsistent is such an idea of God! It leads to the absurd conclusion that the mere knowledge of coming events must act as a determining influence in bringing about those occurrences. God’s knowledge of spiritual and of human nature enables Him to conclude with certainty as to the actions of any of His children under given conditions; yet that knowledge is not of compelling force upon the creature” ( The Articles of Faith, 12th ed., [1924], 191).

This time, instead of reading a history book, let’s imagine time travel were possible. Suppose you were able to travel to the future to see what your life will be like in twenty years. The life you see will be the result of all the choices you have made to that moment you are visiting. You’ll also see how twenty years of decisions have affected others. When you return home, you can choose to follow the path you saw on your time travel journey or you can choose to avoid what you saw by making other decisions. The fact that you saw the future doesn’t mean it has to happen. It means it would happen if you made those same choices throughout life, but of course, you would be free to do otherwise, even though your future had already been seen.

God knows you so well He knows what you are going to choose, but He is not doing the choosing. You are. He is simply seeing what you are going to choose so He can plan for you. When you use a GPS system to navigate a winding road, you can use the machine to see the road ahead. You didn’t build the road or choose the path, but you know what is coming. God is doing the same—looking ahead to see what is coming, but not building the road. Although God knows everything, you are potentially able to prove Him wrong; however, he knows you so well, He knows when you will decide to go a different direction. However, the choice is always yours.

God is strongly involved in our lives. He has a plan for each of us, a plan we are free to choose or reject. Some things that happen to us are part of the plan, but other things just happen, the result of our choices or the choices of others, or even just chance. We are asked to pray to Him for guidance so that when there are crossroads, we can decide which ones to take. This gives us the best chance of navigating life successfully. Doing so doesn’t guarantee a life without trials, because that is impossible, and keeps us from growing. It does promise that we will be in God’s hands as we travel through life and that those things that happen won’t interfere with God’s plan for us. The things He needs to have happen to us will if we seek His help in our choices.

Having agency is a wonderful and powerful gift, one that comes with great responsibility, since our choices affect our own lives and the lives of others. However, it is reassuring to know God can see ahead and help us successfully make the choices we need to make—if we take the time to ask for help.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are sometimes referred to as Mormons, does not consider homosexuality a sin. Rather, it is the practice of homosexuality that is considered sinful, and this is an important difference.

A gay Mormon who does not act on his tempations is a member in full standing.

This is not a “punishment” for people with same-sex attraction. Everyone who has ever lived has struggled with some type of temptation. We are all called on to reign in our temptations and to gain self-mastery over the body and mind. It is part of the growth process we were sent here to experience. Mormons teach that the greater the trial, the greater the blessings will be for overcoming them.

The “Mormon Church” doesn’t advocate any particular type of treatment or even suggest whether treatment is an appropriate course to follow for agay Mormon. This is for the individual to decide through study and prayer. They also do not recommend marriage as a “cure.” (An individual Mormon might do so, but this is his or her own opinion, and not a church teaching.) As Gordon B. Hinckley said when he was the Mormon prophet, this would not be fair to the spouse. However, he said that if a gay Mormon can be appropriately attracted to someone of the opposite gender and can control the other tendencies, marriage is acceptable. If not, the person must remain celibate throughout his life.

While this might seem unfair or impossible to some, Mormonism teaches that we must not engage in intimate relationships outside of marriage. This means that there are many gay Mormon people who are celibate, often their entire lives. It must be remembered that to a Mormon, life on earth is only a very small portion of an eternal life that began before birth and continues after death into eternity. In the eternal scheme of things, this life is short and the sacrifices we are willing to make here are more than rewarded in the next life.

Mormons believe that marriage and family are eternal. Marriages created here on earth can continue forever if the family is willing to do the hard work to create an eternally successful family. Those who do not have the opportunity to marry in this life will have the opportunity to do so in the next life. Mormons believe that whatever the cause of homosexual feelings, they are only temporal, meaning they will not exist in the next life. This is the reason they do not support gay marriage. There is no possibility of a gay couple finding themselves still attracted to each other in the eternities and God will not allow the marriage to continue. This is unfair to the couple, but also to any children they have. Their eternal family cannot continue as it did on earth, breaking ties that might be important to those children. An eternal family is worth waiting for, since most people are very unhappy when they aren’t with those they love. A gay Mormon with a testimony accepts the challenges he experiences and many remain in the church, keeping the commandments, and living very satisfying lives. One does not have to be married to have a good life.

Passing laws cannot alter truth. We can’t, for instance, legislate science and pass laws outlawing gravity as discriminating, since birds can fly and we can’t. We can’t legislate how much water a given plant needs. In the same way, although we might pass laws changing what marriage is, this will not in any way alter the truth or the eternal consequences of ignoring eternal truths. God created marriage and only God can define it. We’ve all seen, in our lives, people who have discovered they’ve made a serious mistake and cried out “Why didn’t someone try to stop me?” People who want to preserve the definition of marriage have both a spiritual mandate to preserve God’s laws and a compassionate mandate to help people not make heartbreaking mistakes.

Mormon leaders have counseled members to separate the gay Mormon from the sin. They are taught to treat people with homosexual tendencies with love and respect, regardless of whether or not the person acts on his temptations. However, loving the person does not require approving of the actions. Few would argue that we need to accept—or even legalize—everything everyone wants to do. Society must have standards and allowing people to do anything they want to do, regardless of the consequences to themselves or others is to have no standards. No one lives in isolation. The choices we make, particularly in terms of family, always affect others.

The Mormon position on same-gender attraction then is to love the individual without condoning the inappropriate choices and to help people understand that their primary identity should not be their sexual orientation, but their role as a beloved child of God. It is this identity that should determine our actions. As the current Mormon prophet, Thomas S. Monson, says, decisions determine destiny.

There have been black Mormons since the 1830s. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the true name of the church commonly called the Mormon Church) accepted black people as members and did not segregate their congregations. They were officially opposed to slavery, which upset Missouri when they lived there. The newspapers published complaints that Mormons had a plan to convert and bring to Missouri free blacks at a time Missouri was trying to enter the United States as a slave state. Missouri, which beat free blacks entering the state, saw the Mormon plan to increase the black population as justification for increased persecution of Mormons.

There have been black Mormons since the earliest days of Mormonism.

The Mormon Church was organized in 1830 and the first black Mormon was baptized in 1832. His name was Elijah Abel. He would also receive the priesthood and become a seventy, a high-ranking church leader. Abel is believed to have escaped slavery through the underground railroad. He would help to build the temple in Salt Lake Temple and served several missions.

Elizabeth Jane Manning was another early black Mormon. She converted in the late 1830s and, as a teenager, led a group of black Mormons to Illinois, where the Mormons then lived in a city called Nauvoo. Upon arrival, she and her family and friends were taken into Joseph Smith’s home to stay until they found jobs and homes of their own. Joseph Smith was the first prophet and president of the Mormon Church. When everyone but Jane found a job and a home, Joseph Smith and his wife offered her a job working for them. She continued to live with them until Joseph was murdered by a mob, at which time she went to work for Brigham Young, the second Mormon prophet. In Utah, she and her brother had reserved seats at the front of the tabernacle for important meetings because of their high level of service to the church.

In 1833, God gave Joseph Smith a specific revelation that slavery was immoral: Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another. (See Doctrine and Covenants 101:79.) In 1842, Joseph Smith wrote in his journal that he believed the slaves should be freed, educated, and  given equal rights. The next year, he contradicted the popular belief of the time that blacks did not have souls. He said that they were merely products of their environments and that given the same opportunities as white people, they would have the same level of accomplishment. When Joseph Smith ran for president, he proposed that public lands be sold to purchase the freedom of all slaves, and that slavery should be abolished by 1850.

It has long been a matter of controversy that at some point in Mormon history, black Mormons were denied the  priesthood and access to the temples. The first record of this occurred in 1853, when Elijah Abel was denied permission to receive his endownments (special ordinances) in the Mormon temple by Brigham Young. The following year, Young secured the freedom of a Mormon slave, Green Flake.

We do not know what led to the change in policy. Many efforts have been made, beginning very early in church history, to trace the procedural change in order to understand whether it was a revelation or a policy, but without success. The change was never canonized as official doctrine.

In order to understand this, there are several principles of Mormonism that must be understood. The first is that of agency. Mormons believe that agency is absolutely critical to our lives on earth. We are here to make choices and to be held accountable for those choices. God will not interfere with our agency, although others might interfere with it. If a person makes a poor choice, everyone affected lives with the consequences of those choices. In reverse, we often benefit from the good choices of others.

Second, a prophet is also a person. He is a product of his own time, culture, and circumstances. As you read the Old Testament, you’ll see that the prophets were ordinary people. They spoke according to whatever wisdom they had at the time. This is why we sometimes see prophets making scientifically inaccurate statements—those weren’t prophecy; they were opinion or knowledge based on the beliefs of the time. Prophets have agency, just as we do. When an official doctrine doesn’t exist, prophets, like the rest of us, are free to make our own choices.

Third, as we study the Bible, we learn God never gave his priesthood to all people. The Aaronic priesthood initially went only to men of one family and they couldn’t have a blemish or disability. Jesus did not even allow the gospel to be preached to certain groups of people. Why? We don’t know. God never said why. We do know He acts in wisdom for His own purposes and does not owe us an explanation for everything he does.

Fourth, there is a difference between practices and doctrine. Practices change. Truth doesn’t. As an example, the name of the women’s auxiliary has changed a few times over the years and the nature of some of the meetings has altered. The specific classes taught by the auxiliary on Sunday sometimes changes. These are practices and change to meet the practical needs of the church at that time. However, the essential roles of women have not changed because those are based on eternal truths. Because nothing was ever put in writing at the time of the change, we do not know if the changes were practice or truth.

Finally, Mormons believe that we are never punished for things that are beyond our control. No black Mormon is denied eternal blessings or the ability to return to God or to be saved because of the ban. In the eternities, God makes up for the deficiencies of earth life. Therefore, while the ban created a temporal trial, it would not have a negative eternal impact on black Mormons. In fact, where there are greater challenges, there are greater blessings, so those who chose to join the church despite the ban will most likely receive greater blessings for having done so.

Mormons do not know whether or not God instituted the priesthood ban. They do know He allowed it to continue. Why? He didn’t feel we needed to know that. There have been many theories, but they are only theories, even when spoken by Mormon leaders. Remember, Mormon leaders are also people and they are allowed to have opinions, just as the early prophets of the Bible were. They did not canonize those statements, so they were not doctrine, nor were they official policy. They were opinions. Some people took them as doctrine, but that did not make it so. Scriptures show us many times when God allowed people to make choices that weren’t necessarily wise, but which recognized their agency and which allowed them to learn from their choices.

Despite this ban, there have always been black Mormons in the church. Each one had to pray and receive his or her own confirmation that the church was true. Most also prayed to understand the ban and each received a personal confirmation that everything would be okay in the eternal scheme of things and that they need not worry about it.

Bruce R. McConkie, a source of some of the opinions about the priesthood ban that were taken as fact, spoke openly of this when the ban was lifted in the 1970s. He wrote,

“People write me letters and say, “You said such and such, and how is it now that we do such and such?” All I can say is that it is time disbelieving people repented and got in line and believed in a living, modern prophet. Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world.

We get our truth and light line upon line and precept upon precept…. We have now added a new flood of intelligence and light on this particular subject, and it erases all the darkness and all the views and all the thoughts of the past. They don’t matter anymore” (Bruce R. McConkie, “New Revelation on Priesthood,” Priesthood (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1981), 126-137).

McConkie’s statement makes clear another critical Mormon belief. We believe in continuous revelation. In t he Bible, there was not just one prophet. There were many prophets, one after another. They did not all teach exactly the same things. Noah was taught to build an ark. Moses was commanded to take the people into the wilderness. The Law of Moses was enacted, even though earlier Jews were not required to live it and Jesus taught that it did not need to be lived after his mission ended. This didn’t make Moses a false prophet. He was simply doing what prophets do—they teach eternal truths to the extent the people are ready to receive them. The people of Moses’ time needed a different type of law than did the early Christians. Just as Jesus didn’t repudiate Moses’ calling as a prophet, Mormons believe God will reveal truth as we are prepared to receive them or as they meet the Lord’s needs for that time. He doesn’t always explain, but we can pray for our own reassurance that everything is under control. We needn’t take any human’s word for it.

Today, there are black Mormons throughout the world and who are serving in high level church positions. Some, like Gladys Knight, are famous. Most are just ordinary people living a life of faith and service.

When people talk about Mormonism, they often focus in on small things that are not important, aren’t taught currently, aren’t even practiced today. By doing so they miss an opportunity to understand Mormonism as it lives today and even as it was originally taught.

To understand Mormonism, you must focus on core doctrines, those things which are canonized as official doctrine and taught consistently. While church practices sometimes change, truth does not.

There are a few guidelines that can help you evaluate whether or not a teaching is a core doctrine—or even a true doctrine of Mormonism.

First, it is important to understand that every word spoken by a prophet is not necessarily doctrine, particularly in the earliest days of the church. In the beginnings, the church was run much more informally. People talked among themselves and sometimes others took notes and published those conversations or informal speculations of church leaders.

The Journal of Discourses is the usual source for speculations by people of other religions. Journal of Discourses is not an official church publication and is not used as a source of official doctrine. It was compiled by people who took notes of speeches, prayers, sermons, and other events in shorthand and then transcribed them. However, not all the transcriptions were accurate. None were evaluated by or approved by church leaders as being official pronouncements of doctrine. It was privately published in England to provide income for the owner of the journals, although Brigham Young approved the project as a way for European Mormons to find out what was going on in Utah. It was basically the equivalent of a newspaper. Today, the Mormons own Deseret News, but articles that appear in the newspaper are not considered official doctrine, and neither are articles in the Journal of Discourses. With the availability of modern technology, many errors have been officially documented.

Because the church was small, even in General Conference, today a very formal event, people were free to ask questions. Because Mormonism focuses on continuing revelation and learning “line upon line” much of the doctrine was not yet known. Therefore, leaders sometimes speculated about possible answers. These speculations did not become doctrine unless Brigham Young or other prophets prayed and received confirmation of the truthfulness of the doctrine. Otherwise, it was just personal opinion and even a prophet is allowed to have an opinion.

So how does one know if something is an official doctrine? Both official Mormon websites, Mormon.org (intended for people who are not LDS) and LDS.org (aimed more toward Mormons but open to anyone) contain official statements of doctrine. Look for official announcements there.

It is important to remember that not all doctrine is given equal weight or importance in Mormonism. It is also important to remember that in a church that does not refuse to allow God to continue to speak and to lead, doctrine is given in increasing steps, what Mormons call learning line upon line. This means Mormons have, over the years, been given doctrine suitable just for one time period or doctrine that might be considered beginner doctrine. As the church membership grew and people became more informed about the gospel, God gradually added to their knowledge. An easy way to understand how this works is to read the lesson manuals written for children. Although the same subject might be covered in each age group, older children are given more complex information because they are ready for it. Mormons are taught by God in increasingly sophisticated stages.

Joseph Smith outlined thirteen Articles of Faith that explained the core beliefs of Mormonism at that time. These are still taught and even memorized by children. Reading them can help earnest students of Mormonism, those determined to learn only what is true about Mormons, to recognize core doctrine. The first Article of Faith is the very core of Mormonism:

“We believe in God the eternal Father, in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.”

This creates a foundation on which all other doctrines are based. The first Article of Faith makes possible the fourth, which succinctly summarizes the core of Mormonism:

“We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Faith in Jesus Christ is critical to the mission and doctrine of Mormon beliefs. Repentance, the second portion of this article of faith, refers to Mormon belief in the atonement of Jesus Christ and the importance of both grace and repentance in the process of living a Christian lifestyle. Baptism, performed after the manner in which Jesus was baptized, allows people to be forgiven of their sins and is a result of grace, which came to us through the atonement. The Holy Ghost was a gift Jesus Himself promised to send to His followers once He was gone.

Another principle of Mormonism is that of continuing revelation. Nowhere does the Bible state that once Jesus died, God would no longer be willing to communicate with His children or to send them prophets. While the apostles lived, they received revelation and guidance from God and functioned as apostles, seers, and revelators. Once they died, God did withdraw for a time, an event known as an apostasy. It is not that God is not willing to have prophets on the earth at any given time, but mortals are not always willing to accept and honor prophets. When this happens, they are the ones who remove the gift of prophecy from the earth. This happened frequently throughout the Bible and happened for the longest period of time after the apostles died.

However, the Bible assures us that God will do nothing except through his prophets. (See Amos 3:7.) This means that in order to prepare us for the return of Jesus Christ, another core doctrine of Mormonism, God must restore prophets to the earth. He did this when He chose Joseph Smith as His first prophet in the last days. Today, the Church is led by Thomas S. Monson, the Mormon prophet.

There is no question as to the need for a prophet in today’s world. A short drive around most towns will show a large number of churches, all with conflicting doctrine. Clearly, original doctrine has been corrupted over time—this process started even during the New Testament times, leaving the apostles to regularly fight to overcome misunderstandings in doctrine. Without a prophet, no man can do any more than just guess at what God wants of us today or of what specific doctrines mean. Modern-day revelation is key to giving people a fair chance to prepare for the Second Coming.

Another core doctrine of Mormonism is family life. Mormon beliefs include strong teachings on the sacredness of the family unit. Families were planned by God to help Him further His work on earth and are one reason we came to earth. Mormons teach that God’s plan for families today are that families consist of one mother and one father and are meant to last forever. Mormons can be married in a Mormon temple and have their marriages “sealed” for time and all eternity. This means they do not get a divorce at death, but continue the marriage forever if they live worthy of God’s greatest blessings. In addition, parents and children are joined together forever, something most people instinctively understand, even if they say they don’t believe it. Listening to comments at a funeral often reveal a deep belief in eternal families. (“Mom and Dad are together again.”)

Central to Mormon doctrine is the Plan of Salvation. It is the story of our eternal life and unifies the most important teachings of the Mormons.

Our stories began when God created our spirits. We lived with Him as spirits for a very long time, learning truth, learning to love God, and deciding what kind of person we wanted to be. Eventually, as is the case with children living at home, we could progress no further without leaving home and going out “into the world, one God and Jesus would prepare for us. He explained that when we went there we would lose our memory of our time with Him because this journey was about faith. However, we would gain bodies and families and the Spirit of Christ would go with us to help us recognize truth if we wanted to find it.

During our time here we would face trials—different trials for each person—and we could choose our responses to them. Agency was, in fact, key to the experience. Our choices would, as Mormon prophet Thomas Monson likes to say, determine our destiny. However, we could not choose the consequences of those actions.

God knew we would all sin, and He wanted to make it possible for us to return to Him even when we did sin. He loves us and wants us all to make it back home. For this reason, He promised to send a Savior who would live on earth for a time, teach the gospel, and take our sins on Himself, saving us through grace. This grace would allow us to rise from the dead, repent, and make it back to God if we kept the commandments. Grace cannot be bought—we do not have, in ourselves, the power to bring about resurrection or forgiveness. However, the Bible is very clear that only those who keep the commandments and who repent of sins will be allowed to return to God.

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). The Bible warns us that faith without works is dead. If you say you believe and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are saying only words unless obedience follows the words.

Some were unwilling to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, preferring Satan’s unscriptural promise to save people without any risk of any kind. That meant we would also have no agency. We would simply be puppets of Satan and this would render life meaningless. One-third of the spirits chose to follow Satan and were denied the chance to come to earth. All those who were willing to make a commitment to Jesus were allowed to be born.

Life here on earth is not easy, but it is designed to allow us to have opportunities for growth. It allows us to seek out and find truth if at all possible.

But of course, it is not possible for everyone. Some people live their entire lives never having heard of Jesus Christ—some because they lived before He was born and some because the gospel simply never reached them. Over the centuries, theologians have debated what happens to those people. Would God unfairly punish them for something out of their control?

No, of course not. God is loving and fair and He sent us here. This means He will give everyone a fair chance to accept or reject His gospel. Those who die without being given that opportunity will receive it after their death—not a second chance, but a first chance, the only way a loving God would choose to do it. They can, just as we can, accept or reject Jesus Christ’s teachings and accept the blessings and consequences of their choice.

The Plan of Salvation is a kind, loving, and brilliant plan by our Heavenly Father, designed to give us an opportunity to become everything He intended us to become.

As you continue to study official church websites, take note of what Mormons are being currently taught in their classes. The lesson manuals are all openly online. Those teachings are the core. Mormons are impacted only by core doctrines—those taught by current prophets that affect our eternal salvation.

Brigham Young University, also called BYU, is a university in Provo, Utah. It is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are also known as Mormons.

BYU Honor Code helps students live a Christ-like life.

Although a student does not have to be Mormon to attend BYU, most students are LDS (Mormon.) Any student, whether or not they are Mormon, must sign the honor code and then live what it says. For BYU, unlike some universities, the honor code is not a PR tool or a suggestion, but a serious way of life. Students know about the honor code before agreeing to come to the university and they have given their word to live it. Not doing so results in suspension. The university puts this code above all other considerations and will enforce it even when the person who violates it is the star of a sports team. Some newspapers have noted that most schools who suspend a student for violating an honor code or even for breaking a law will do so during exhibition games or some other time that won’t hurt the team. BYU has gained attention several times for removing a student permanently from the team at great risk to their own success in the world of sports.

The Honor Code is perhaps one of the strictest in the nation. It applies to both students and staff, with the only exception being that non-Mormons do not have to attend church. Students agree to:

Be honest

Live a chaste and virtuous life

Obey the law and all campus policies

Use clean language

Respect others

Abstain from alcoholic beverages, tobacco, tea, coffee, and substance abuse

Participate regularly in church services

Observe the Dress and Grooming Standards

Encourage others in their commitment to comply with the Honor Code

It should be noted that no one, even Mormons is required to attend a Mormon-owned university and so students are electing to attend and to follow the rules. They must be living these standards at the time of acceptance and are required to continue to live them even between semesters and when off-campus.

Living the Honor Code helps students to uphold the standards of the Mormon Church, but it does more than that. Students learn self-discipline and they learn the importance of keeping their word. The Honor Code, simply because it is strict, allows students to learn the value of setting and keeping high standards, whatever the cost. While much of the nation considers standards outdated, we continue to see the consequences of not having any. Many political leaders resign due to their unwillingness to live up to moral standards of marital fidelity. Business leaders get carried away by greed and violate the law, ending a promising career with a prison sentence.

College years are formative. It is when many young people are choosing how they will live and who they will be. Living the Honor Code can help students get through this time safely and to become aware of the value of living with honor. While many students are using their first years away from home making mistakes they will have to cope with the rest of their lives—unwanted pregnancies or diseases, drug or alcohol addictions, even criminal behavior—a Brigham Young University student who lives the Honor Code gives himself time to grow up, get into the work force, and become mature enough to evaluate the long-term consequences of his choices. Young adults who develop the habit of living with honor go on to have successful and happy lives as honorable adults.