LETTER: Church shouldn’t be concerned

Dear Editor,

It has come to my attention that one of the writers for this paper has been notified of the Mormon Church’s intention to excommunicate him if he continues to publish his views. Are they interested in changing his attitude in order to ‘save his soul’ or are they concerned with the expression of his views?

For the church, does it matter what this writer thinks? How many ‘members’ know other ‘members’ who are not only inactive but don’t share the church’s philosophies? Shouldn’t these members be rooted out as well? If the answer is yes then the church has a lot of excommunicating in its future.

If no, then it’s the sharing of an opposing opinion in a public forum that is unacceptable, never mind the view in question. In what esteem should we place an organization that stands up to the pulpit to espouse the doctrines of democracy and yet so quickly forgets that it’s own value system is incompatible with those doctrines?

How much ‘faith’ should one give to a church that denounces critical examination from within? The Mormon church’s policy is that no member should publicly question anything the church does.

Joseph Smith once said, “Let them [all men] worship how, where or what they may.”

The Mormon church takes exception to this statement. It says those who want to be members of the church must worship how, where and what the church dictates.

The church’s policy is to take aggressive action against broadcasted unorthodoxy while ignoring those who say nothing of their unorthodox views in public. It discriminates as it attacks the sharing of the belief but not the belief itself. While the church has the right to decide whom it will accept as members, I have the right to choose whether I want to be a member. If freedom of speech and of the press is cause for expulsion from the church then I welcome it. However, if church leaders decide to weed out members with unspoken heterodox views, the result of such a purge could indeed be catastrophic.

Anson Call