“Faith is a gift and a precious commodity in any age, but an increasingly rare one in our modern world,” Patrick Mason writes in his book, “Planted.” It is for this reason that Mason also states that, “How we deal with doubt in the Church today is one of the most pressing tests of our collective discipleship.” That is not limited to how we approach our own doubts but also how we seek to be compassionate toward others as they face their own doubts. 

Note: “Planted” was published prior to the emphasis on using the full name of the Church. Please excuse any reference to “Mormonism” as a result. 

“This is one of the reasons why God restored the Church in the modern age, because he knew precisely the ways that our social bonds would erode in the 20th and 21st centuries, and the Church is one of the great answers for that. So is it hard sometimes? Yeah, but I think one of the great aspects of the restoration is the we’re put in wards that are geographically defined, we do not choose who we go to church with. And that puts us in company with people of different classes, different races, certainly different genders. People have different life experiences, people that we would never choose to associate with. That's the laboratory of love. That is the school of discipleship. That's what's going to make us as Christians.”

Show Notes:

2:42- Why Address Doubt?

4:40- Faith: An Individual Experience

8:00- Fortifications

11:46- Faith That Grows With Us

16:00- Hanging On To What We Do Know

18:32- Peaks and Valleys

21:37- A Test of our Collective Discipleship

28:44- Creating Space For Honesty

33:40- Fallibility

39:15- A Church That Hangs On To Us

41:53- Different Disciples

45:05- The Holiest Thing That Presents Itself To Our View

47:30- Grateful To Be A Latter-day Saint

48:48- What Does It Mean To You To Be “All In” the Gospel of Jesus Christ?