Addressing Change in the Church
My active wife has recently been bothered by the sleeveless garments, not because of the change itself, but the lack of justification or apologies for prior stances. While flipping through the Crisis of Conscience, I found a quote that might be of interest here:
>"Each...major change, fails to face up to the problem of the original false reasoning and misuse of Scripture that makes change necessary. Rather, it consistently seeks to cast the change in the light of evidence for putting trust in, and being submissive to, the system that gave the wrong understanding, not only gave it but insisted on it and took action against any not accepting it. In each case...one sees clear and regrettable evidence that the change results, not from pure love of truth or deep devotion to Scripture or compassionate concern for people, but comes instead when the previous position has become precarious, difficult to sustain, sometimes embarrassingly...or, in other cases, when interests in avoiding taxation or other restrictions are at stake" - Crisis of Conscience, pg 394, 4th edition.
Interestingly, this quote was about another faith, not the LDS church. With that, I leave the following questions: How can the church better admit when it has been wrong? Can it do so without compromising it's original truth claims? How can we collectively and individually resist the tendancy for self-preservation and instead be repentant and honest when we are wrong?