• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FAIR

2022 FAIR Conference videos are now available to watch!

  • Find Answers
  • Blog
  • Media & Apps
  • Conference
  • Bookstore
  • Archive
  • About
  • Get Involved
  • Search

Keeping the Faith 4: Mike Parker–Navigating difficult doctrinal, historical or political issues

November 21, 2012 by SteveDensleyJr

https://media.blubrry.com/mormonfaircast/www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Mike-Parker-Audacity.mp3

Podcast: Download (29.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

A long-time member of FAIR, Mike Parker, addresses a variety of questions related to apologetics and gospel learning: Where should gospel teaching begin? To what extent should teachers bring up and address troubling historical or doctrinal issues? Should missionaries tell investigators about such issues before they are baptized? What should be the goal of a Gospel Doctrine teacher or missionary? How can a faithful member navigate the challenges that are posed by difficult doctrinal, historical or political issues? Mike provides his insight on this issues and many others.

Filed Under: Anti-Mormon critics, Apologetics, Podcast

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. TheodoreB says

    November 21, 2012 at 8:47 pm

    It was good to get to know you better, Mike.

  2. Dr_Angel_Face says

    November 29, 2012 at 8:36 am

    Good stuff Mike. I appreciate your comments and your thoughts.

  3. mkprr says

    December 3, 2012 at 6:39 pm

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I particularly liked the following quote:

    “When I know by the spirit that the gospel is true, and I do, then it’s a matter of simply being flexible and not setting rigid expectations of how the Gospel is supposed to be.”

    and

    “ Sometimes I have to modify my view of how the gospel works, or how church history works.”

    I think these principles are key to building a testimony that endures.

  4. Mike Parker says

    December 3, 2012 at 7:54 pm

    Thank you for your feedback, mkprr. I hope I articulated clearly what I believe.

    One of the biggest problems we’ve seen at FAIR are the consequences of “fundamentalist” thinking among many Latter-day Saints: They expect the gospel or the Church to operate in a certain way, and when they learn or experience something that goes counter to their preconceived notions, they don’t know how to deal with it. Being open to receiving new truths and new perspectives is, in my opinion, a key to having an enduring testimony.

    Joseph Smith publicly stated:

    I have tried for a number of years to get the minds of the Saints prepared to receive the things of God; but we frequently see some of them, after suffering all they have for the work of God, will fly to pieces like glass as soon as anything comes that is contrary to their traditions: they cannot stand the fire at all. How many will be able to abide a celestial law, and go through and receive their exaltation, I am unable to say, as many are called, but few are chosen. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith 331.)

Trackbacks

  1. 22 November 2012 | MormonVoices says:
    November 23, 2012 at 6:17 am

    […] http://www.fairblog.org/2012/11/21/keeping-the-faith-4-mike-parker-navigating-difficult-doctrinal-hi… […]

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to Blog

Enter your email address:

Subscribe to Podcast

Podcast icon
Subscribe to podcast in iTunes
Subscribe to podcast elsewhere
Listen with FAIR app
Android app on Google Play

Pages

  • Blog Guidelines

FAIR Latest

  • FAIR’s Countdown to Conference – 3 Days!
  • Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 10: The Early Church – The Witnesses [C]
  • FAIR’s Countdown to Conference – 4 Days!
  • FAIR’s Countdown to Conference – 5 Days!
  • Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5–6

Blog Categories

Recent Comments

  • Robert Martin on Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 10: The Early Church – The Witnesses [C]
  • Sarah Allen on Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 9: The Early Church – The Witnesses [B]
  • Dan Bradshaw on Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5–6
  • Debby Elliott on Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5–6
  • Stw on Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 7: The Early Church – The Translation [C]

Archives

Footer

FairMormon Logo

FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Our Friends

  • BYU Religious Studies Center
  • BYU Studies
  • Book of Mormon Central
  • TheFamilyProclamation.org
  • Interpreter Foundation
  • Wilford Woodruff Papers Project

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • iTunes
  • YouTube

Donate to FAIR

We are a volunteer organization. We invite you to give back.

Donate Now

Donate to us by shopping at Amazon at no extra cost to you. Learn how →

Site Footer

Copyright © 1997-2023 by The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of FAIR, its officers, directors or supporters.

No portion of this site may be reproduced without the express written consent of The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc.

Any opinions expressed, implied, or included in or with the goods and services offered by FAIR are solely those of FAIR and not those of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) Logo

FAIR is controlled and operated by the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR)