14. For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;

15. And He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

16. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

18. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,

19. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:14-19, New King James Version.

1. Realizing our sinful state, or our separation from God.
2. Having faith that Christ's atonement can rescue us from our separation from God.
3. Repenting of our sins, and seeking God's forgiveness.
4. Receiving God's forgiveness, symbolized by baptism.
5. Receiving the gift of God's Spirit (the Holy Ghost) to guide and transform us as we become "new creatures in Christ."

For the natural man [the selfish, egocentric human being] is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ...and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. Mosiah 3:19.

And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? And...if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now? Alma 5:14, 26.

• From Early Mormonism and the Magic World View: Talismans, amulets, treasure-digging, seer-stones, the Urim and Thummim, divining rods, astrology, and magic parchments used by the Smith family and in early Mormonism.

• Gold plates buried in a hill, guarded by an angel.

• Temple signs, tokens, and words which are revealed and spoken only in the temple, and which are needed to give one entrance into the Mormon Celestial Kingdom after death.

• The belief that wearing temple garments will protect me from both physical and spiritual harm.

• The Sacred Grove.

• Nauvoo.

• Jackson County, Missouri / Adamondiaman.

• Temples.

• The United Order.

• Early "adoption" sealings, in which rank and file Church members are sealed to apostles as spiritual fathers.

• Patriarchal blessings which declare one’s tribal lineage among the 12 Tribes of Israel.

• Priesthood ordinances (baptism, blessings, ordinations, etc.).

• The temple endowment and temple sealings.

• Families can be together forever, but only families "sealed" in our religious ceremony.

• Joseph Smith's doctrine of "The Plurality of Gods." History of the Church, 6:473-479.

• From the hymn Praise to the Man (referring to Joseph Smith): "Mingling with 'Gods' he can plan for his brethren." Hymns, 27.

• The Adam-God doctrine: Brigham Young's teaching that Adam is Heavenly Father: both the father of our spirits and the physical father of Jesus Christ, and the only God we have anything to do with. And the teaching that God/Adam was polygamous – that Eve was one of his wives whom he brought with him to this earth. Journal of Discourses, 1:46; Brigham Young General Conference Discourse, October 1854.

• From President Gordon B. Hinckley's January, 2002 interview in The New Yorker:

  I asked whether Mormon theology was a form of polytheism.

  "I don't have the remotest idea what you mean," he said impatiently.

  "More than one god."

  "Yes, but that's a very loose term," he replied. "We believe in eternal progression."

  By that he meant that human beings can evolve toward godhood by following the Mormon path.

• Polygamy in the early Church. While the practice was eventually discontinued, the doctrine remains in Mormon scripture. See Doctrine and Covenants 132.

• In "restoring" the practice of polygamy, Joseph Smith was actually restoring a practice from an ancient Biblical tribal culture that dates to approximately 1500 B.C.

• Brigham Young's maneuvering within the various counsels of the church after Joseph Smith's death, which resulted in his ascendancy to power. The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, pg. 173.

• Violence in the name of God the early church; the Danites; the Nauvoo Whistling and Whittling Brigade. See The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power.

• The Mountain Meadows Massacre.

• Oaths in the temple endowment to avenge the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and to teach one's children and one's children's children to do so. Oaths in the temple endowment ceremony to accept various forms of death as a penalty for revealing the temple signs and tokens. The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship, by David John Buerger.

• Brigham Young: "American Moses" and "Lion of the Lord."

• The Mormon Pioneers.

• Literal belief in all of the Old Testament myths (Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Moses and the 10 plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, etc.).

• Literal belief in the supernatural events of Jesus' life (he was the literal Son of God in the flesh, walked on water, raised the dead, was bodily resurrected, etc.).

• Literal belief in Joseph Smith's accounts of the supernatural events surrounding the founding of the church, as taught by the Church today.

• The Book of Mormon.

• The Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price.

• The Joseph Smith translation of the Bible.

• Ongoing revelation through Prophets and Apostles in General Conference.

• The Mormon Plan of Salvation.

• President Gordon B. Hinckley during his 60 Minutes interview:

  "It is demanding [Mormonism]. And that's one of the things that attracts people to this church. It stands as an anchor in a world of shifting values."

• The temple covenant to sacrifice all that we possess, even our own lives if necessary, in sustaining and defending the Kingdom of God.

• Working for the cause of Zion; building the Kingdom of God on earth; preparing for the literal Second Coming of Christ.

• The threefold mission of the Church: preaching the gospel, perfecting the Saints, and redeeming the dead.

• Working to create eternal families.

• "In the Church we are not neutral. We are one-sided. There is a war going on, and we are engaged in it. It is the war between good and evil, and we are belligerents defending the good." Elder Boyd K. Packer, The Mantle is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect.

• "Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually." Moroni 7:12.

• Who's on the Lord's side? Who? Now is the time to show.
  We ask it fearlessly: Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
  We wage no common war, cope with no common foe.
  The enemy's awake; Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
  The powers of earth and hell, in rage direct the blow
  That's aimed to crush the work; Who's on the Lord's side? Who?
  Hymns, 260.

• "And now my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." Helaman 5:12.

• The 10 Commandments.

• The Word of Wisdom.

• The Law of Chastity.

• The requirements for a temple recommend, and the temple recommend interview process.

• Rules for full-time missionaries.

• "...wo unto them that seek to hide their counsel from the Lord! ...their works are in the dark; and they say: Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? ...behold, I will show unto them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that I know all their works." 2 Nephi 27:27.

• "...there is none else save God that knowest thy thoughts and the intents of thy heart." Doctrine and Covenants 6:16.

• From The Family: A Proclamation to the World, in defense of traditional gender roles: "By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children."

• From The Family: A Proclamation to the World, in opposition to homosexuality: "All human beings – male and female – are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."

• "He [God] does not have to be spiteful or vengeful in order that punishment will come from the breaking of the moral code. The laws are established of themselves. Crowning glory awaits you if you live worthily. The loss of the crown may well be punishment enough. Often, very often, we are punished as much by our sins as we are for them." Elder Boyd K. Packer, in Conference Report, April 1972.

• The Church's priesthood structure – from the Prophet and Apostles down to local Bishops.

• From Elder Ezra Taft Benson's Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet :

  1st: The prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything.
  4th: The prophet will never lead the Church astray.
  5th: The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time.
  7th: The prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual.
  11th: The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich.
  14th: The Prophet and the First Presidency – follow them and be blessed; reject them and suffer.

• "Obedience is the first law of heaven." President Joseph F. Smith, Journal of Discourses, 16:247–248. Elder Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine , pg. 539.

• "When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done. ...To think otherwise, without immediate repentance, may cost one his faith, may destroy his testimony, and leave him a stranger to the kingdom of God." Ward Teacher's Message for June, 1945, Improvement Era, 48, June 1945.

• "You keep your eyes riveted on the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. We will not lead you astray. We cannot. ...If someone tells you that they have received revelation that the First Presidency and the Twelve have not received, run away from them." Elder M. Russell Ballard, When Shall These Things Be?, BYU, 12 March 1996.

• Elder Harold B. Lee's counsel to Elder Boyd K. Packer when Elder Packer was appointed to be the supervisor of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion: "You must decide now which way you face. ...Either you represent the teachers and students and champion their causes or you represent the Brethren who appointed you. You need to decide now which way you face...some of your predecessors faced the wrong way." Talk to the All-Church Coordinating Council, 18 May 1993.

• "O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God [as given through his earthly priesthood leaders], for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. But to be learned is good, if they hearken unto the counsels of God." 2 Nephi 9:28-29.

• The hierarchical (non-democratic) nature of the current decision-making process in the church. While there is a process of "common consent" in place whereby rank and file members have the opportunity to vote to sustain or not sustain actions taken by priesthood leaders, in actuality the exercising of dissent in this way is extremely rare, and does not change the outcome of decisions that have been made. Even if a majority of members were to vote not to sustain an action, that vote would not be binding on the priesthood authority who made the decision. As the Encyclopedia of Mormonism explains:

  "Because of the emphasis on divine and prophetic leadership and because of well-established norms and values in decision-making procedures, public dissent on a proposed calling or policy is unusual. There are, however, mechanisms for accommodating dissent. Normally, if one or more members find the proposed action objectionable, the dissenting member or members are asked to meet with the presiding officer privately to make known the reason for the question or objection. After considering the objections, presiding officers are free to pursue whatever decision they believe to be right." Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Volume 1, Common Consent.

• "If we want to know how well we stand with the Lord, then let us ask ourselves how well we stand with His mortal captain. How closely do our lives harmonize with the words of the Lord's anointed – the living prophet, the President of the Church, and with the Quorum of the First Presidency?" Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet, by Elder Ezra Taft Benson.

• Being found "worthy" in the judgment of my local priesthood leaders to have a temple recommend makes me an approved, belonging insider – a "card-carrying" member of the Church.

• "...prepare ye the way of the Lord, for the time is at hand that all men shall reap a reward of their works, according to that which they have been – if they have been righteous they shall reap the salvation of their souls, according to the power and deliverance of Jesus Christ; and if they have been evil they shall reap the damnation of their souls, according to the power and captivation of the devil." Alma 9:28.

• "Therefore, I must gather together my people, according to the parable of the wheat and the tares, that the wheat may be secured in the garners to possess eternal life, and be crowned with celestial glory, when I shall come in the kingdom of my Father to reward every man according as his work shall be;" Doctrine and Covenants 101:65.

• "And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" Alma 5:14, 26.

• Need I say more?

• Close-knit Mormon wards and neighborhoods, where one's entire social sphere is made up of members of the church.

• "S/he's not a Mormon, but s/he's a really nice person."

• While we know the pow'rs of darkness
  Seek to thwart the work of God,
  Shall the children of the promise
  Cease to grasp the iron rod? No!
  True to the faith that our parents have cherished,
  True to the truth for which martyrs have perished,
  To God's command, soul, heart, and hand,
  Faithful and true we will ever stand. Hymns, 254.

• From Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s talk entitled Seven Deadly Heresies: "There is no salvation in believing a false doctrine. Truth, diamond truth, truth unmixed with error, truth alone leads to salvation. ...Gospel doctrines belong to the Lord, not to men. They are his. He ordained them, he reveals them, and he expects us to believe them. The doctrines of salvation are not discovered in a laboratory or on a geological field trip or by accompanying Darwin around the world. They come by revelation and in no other way. ...We are called upon to reject all heresies and cleave unto all truth. Only then can we progress according to the divine plan." Talk given at BYU on 1 June 1980.

• Elder Dallin Oak's caution against "alternate voices" and their "magazines, journals...newspapers...lectures, symposia, and conferences" because their content has not been approved by the Church and therefore lacks the "spiritual quality control that allows members to rely on the truth of what is said." Ensign, May 1989, pg. 27.

• Elder Boyd K. Packer’s 1993 statement on gays, feminists, and intellectuals: "There are three areas where members of the Church, influenced by social and political unrest, are being caught up and led away. I chose these three because they have made major invasions into the membership of the Church. In each, the temptation is for us to turn about and face the wrong way, and it is hard to resist, for doing it seems so reasonable and right. The dangers I speak of come from the gay-lesbian movement, the feminist movement (both of which are relatively new), and the ever-present challenge from the so-called scholars or intellectuals." Talk to the All-Church Coordinating Council, 18 May 1993.

• Statement from the First Presidency, following the "September Six" excommunications in the fall of 1993: "In light of extensive publicity given to six recent Church disciplinary councils in Utah, we believe it helpful to reaffirm the position of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. ...We have the responsibility to preserve the doctrinal purity of the Church. We are united in this objective." "Statement Released by First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve," Ensign, January 1994, pg. 75.

• "We have heard men who hold the priesthood remark that they would do anything they were told to do by those who presided over them, even if they knew it was wrong. But such obedience as this is worse than folly to us; it is slavery in the extreme; and the man who would thus willingly degrade himself should not claim rank among intelligent beings, until he turns from his folly." Millennial Star, 14:38.

• "...Now those men, or those women, who know no more about the power of God, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, than to be led entirely by another person, suspending their own understanding, and pinning their faith upon another's sleeve, will never be capable of entering into the celestial glory, to be crowned as they anticipate; they will never be capable of becoming Gods. They cannot rule themselves, to say nothing of ruling others, but they must be dictated to in every trifle, like a child." Journal of Discourses, 1:312.

• One of the most important things in the world is freedom of the mind; from this all other freedoms spring. Such freedom is necessarily dangerous, for one cannot think right without running the risk of thinking wrong, but generally more thinking is the antidote for the evils that spring from wrong thinking. ...we call upon you students to exercise your God-given right to think through every proposition that is submitted to you and to be unafraid to express your opinions, with proper respect for those to whom you talk and proper acknowledgment of your own shortcomings.

"...Preserve, then, the freedom of your mind in education and in religion, and be unafraid to express your thoughts and to insist upon your right to examine every proposition. We are not so much concerned with whether your thoughts are orthodox or heterodox as we are that you shall have thoughts." President Hugh B. Brown, An Eternal Quest, BYU Address, 13 May 1969.

• "I admire men and women who have developed the questing spirit, who are unafraid of new ideas as stepping stones to progress. We should, of course, respect the opinions of others, but we should also be unafraid to dissent – if we are informed. Thoughts and expressions compete in the marketplace of thought, and in that competition truth emerges triumphant. Only error fears freedom of expression...This free exchange of ideas is not to be deplored as long as men and women remain humble and teachable. Neither fear of consequence of any kind or coercion should ever be used to secure uniformity of thought in the church. People should express their problems and opinions and be unafraid to think without fear of ill consequences...We must preserve freedom of the mind in the church and resist all efforts to suppress it." President Hugh B. Brown, An Abundant Life: The Memoirs of Hugh B. Brown. An Eternal Quest, BYU Address, 13 May 1969.

• "For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves." Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-28.

• "The Documentary History of the Church unfortunately as printed does not contain all of the documentary history as it was written. Brother Roberts made some changes in it. We do not know always what the changes were...so that, as an absolute historical source, the printed Documentary History is not one that we can invariably rely upon. ...Brother Roberts' work is the work of an advocate and not of a judge, and you cannot always rely on what Brother Roberts says. Frequently he started out apparently to establish a certain thesis and he took his facts to support his thesis, and if some facts got in the way it was too bad, and they were omitted." J. Reuben Clark statement, 8 April 1943, in "Budget Beginnings," 11-12, Box 188, J. Reuben Clark Papers, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

• "When Elder Packer interviewed me as a prospective member of Brigham Young University's faculty in 1976, he explained: 'I have a hard time with historians because they idolize the truth. The truth is not uplifting; it destroys. I could tell most of the secretaries in the church office building that they are ugly and fat. That would be the truth, but it would hurt and destroy them. Historians should tell only that part of the truth that is inspiring and uplifting.'" D. Michael Quinn, "On Being a Mormon Historian (and Its Aftermath)" in Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History, 1992.

• From President Gordon B. Hinckley's 13 April 1997 interview in the San Francisco Chronicle:

  Q: There are some significant differences in your beliefs. For instance, don't Mormons believe that God was once a man?
  
  A: I wouldn't say that. There was a little couplet coined, "As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become." Now that's more of a couplet than anything else. That gets into some pretty deep theology that we don't know very much about.

From President Hinckley's subsequent October 1997 General Conference Address:

"You need not worry that I do not understand some matters of doctrine. I think I understand them thoroughly, and it is unfortunate that the reporting may not make this clear."

• From President Gordon B. Hinckley's January 2002 interview for The New Yorker:

  "When I asked him to characterize God's connubial relationship, he replied, 'We don't speculate on that a lot. Brigham Young said if you went to Heaven and saw God it would be Adam and Eve. I don't know what he meant by that.' Pointing to a grim-faced portrait of the Lion of the Lord, as Young was called, he said, 'There he is, right there. I'm not going to worry about what he said about those things.'"

• The public image cultivated and advertised by the Church: that living the Mormon gospel makes people happy, prosperous, and successful.

• From a 29 January 2008 Deseret News article entitled, "Gordon B. Hinckley – Long legacy," by Tad Walch:

  "'Mormons are regular people,' President Gordon B. Hinckley said during a 1995 interview on 60 Minutes that thrilled American church members who longed for their neighbors to see them as normal. The moment he told Mike Wallace, 'We are not a weird people,' was the high-profile zenith of what scholars inside the church and out say was a successful 73-year effort, first as the leader of the church's publicity committee and later for almost a quarter century as its de facto president, to change how others viewed the church."

• The Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the church's considerable but undisclosed wealth.

• "We had five people excommunicated in properly constituted councils last fall in Utah and you would have thought to read the papers that the whole church was coming unsewed. It isn't. I took occasion to note that in October, when those five were excommunicated, there had been in that same period 5,140 baptisms – convert baptisms – right here in the state of Utah. Now that's a pretty good ratio, no matter how you figure the odds." President Gordon B. Hinckley speaking at a BYU Nineteen-Stake Fireside on 7 March 1994.

• In 1995 the Church hired a top New York City agency, Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, and redesigned its logo and enlarge the words ''Jesus Christ'' in its formal name.

• On the Church's new "Truth Restored" ad campaign:

  "Developed by the Church in conjunction with Brigham Young University's advertising department, the ads – inside publications such as Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report and Sports Illustrated, and targeted at specific geographic markets – are a departure from the faith's long-running 'Homefront' series.

  "In surveys or pretesting done before the campaign began in those markets, results showed 63 percent of respondents didn't know the main claims of the LDS Church. So in an all-out media blitz, the team sought to 'have people keep bumping into our message...'

  "After three months of intensive media in those markets, surveys were done again and showed that many more people than before 'felt it's possible to answer life's deeper questions,' Kelly said. 'This was thrilling as an advertiser. People were actually looking for answers and also described the main claim of the church, that Christ's church and its teachings have been restored.'" "New LDS ad campaign," Deseret News, 4 April 2008.

• On 1 March 1975, President Spencer W. Kimball announced plans to build a temple in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The problem of determining priesthood eligibility in Brazil was nearly impossible due to the mixing of races in that country. The temple was completed in September of 1978. Earlier that year, in June of 1978, the First Presidency released a statement announcing that, "all worthy male members of the Church may be ordained to the priesthood without regard for race or color."

From President Gordon B. Hinckley’s 60 Minutes interview on 7 April 1996:

Mike Wallace: Church policy had it that blacks had the mark of Cain. Brigham Young said, "Cain slew his brother, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin."
President Hinckley: It's behind us. Look, that's behind us. Don't worry about those little flicks of history.
Mike Wallace: Skeptics will suggest, "Well, look, if we're going to expand, we can't keep the blacks out."
President Hinckley: Pure speculation.

• The 1990 temple endowment changes: Women are no longer required to covenant to obey their husbands, but instead covenant to follow their husbands as their husbands follow the Lord. Also, Eve is no longer explicitly blamed for the Fall, and several references to Adam were replaced with references to Adam and Eve. The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship, by David John Buerger.

• LDS Philanthropies.

Joseph Smith; Modern-day Prophets, Apostles, and Revelation

The claim to be the Latter-day Restoration of Christ's one true church, and the only church on earth with legitimate priesthood authority to act in God's name

The Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price

Ordinances and Sealings, Temple Marriage, and Eternal Families

• The Mormon History Association
• Dialogue
• Sunstone

• The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past
• An Insider's View of Mormon Origins
• The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power

• Because it's still the best church we know of.

• Because we've had genuine spiritual experiences of Christ in the Church.

• Because we've experienced much good in the church, and we still want that goodness in our lives.

• Because we have an inner conviction that this is where we should be, where God wants us to be.

• Because it is our spiritual family and our spiritual heritage.

• Because we love the Mormon faith and/or the Mormon people.

• Because we want to be part of a close knit Mormon community.

• Because it's still the best way we know of to raise a family in today's world.

• Because of what it would do to our loved ones if we left.

• Because our employment or business success in some way depends on it.

• Because we are afraid to leave.

When holy men of God write or speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, their words "shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation" (Doctrine and Covenants 68:4).

• We may come to see scripture not as a literal history of God's interactions with humans, but rather as a history of humans' understanding of God – as a record of human beings trying to make sense of their world, or express their most profound experiences.

• We may come to view scripture as a historical or literary document, rather than as the divinely authored word of God.

• We may appreciate the value of the teachings found in the scriptures without having to take them literally.

• We may look for symbolic, rather than literal, meaning in scripture.

• We may reject the value of scripture altogether.

• The idea that black skin is the result of a God's curse.

• The negative things Paul and other New Testament writers say about women.

• The sexist language throughout scripture that refers to God and all of humankind in exclusively male terms.

• Paul's statement in the New Testament that slaves should submit to their masters because their masters' authority over them comes from God.

God the Father is the Supreme Being in whom we believe and whom we worship. He is the ultimate Creator, Ruler, and Preserver of all things. He is perfect, has all power, and knows all things. He "has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's" (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22).

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,

No hands but yours, no feet but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion looks out on the world;

Yours are the feet with which he goes about doing good;

Yours are the hands with which he blesses humankind now.

To commit sin is to willfully disobey God's commandments or to fail to act righteously despite a knowledge of the truth (see James 4:17).

The Lord has said that He "cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance" (Doctrine and Covenants 1:31). Sin results in the withdrawal of the Holy Ghost. It makes the one who sins unable to dwell in the presence of Heavenly Father, for "no unclean thing can dwell with God" (1 Nephi 10:21).

Other than Jesus Christ, each person who has ever lived on earth has broken commandments or failed to act according to knowledge of the truth. The Apostle John taught: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, [Jesus Christ] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:8–9). Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, each person can repent and be forgiven of these sins.

Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God the Father in the flesh. He was the Creator, He is our Savior, and He will be our Judge. Under the direction of our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ created the earth. Through His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and by giving His life on the cross—that is, by performing the Atonement—Jesus Christ saves us from our sins as we follow Him. Through His Resurrection, Jesus Christ saves us from physical death. Because He overcame death, we will all be given the gift of resurrection.

"...to atone is to suffer the penalty for sins, thereby removing the effects of sin from the repentant sinner and allowing him or her to be reconciled to God."

"The only way for us to be saved is for someone else to rescue us. We need someone who can satisfy the demands of justice—standing in our place to assume the burden of the Fall and to pay the price for our sins. Jesus Christ has always been the only one capable of making such a sacrifice."

As Jesus Christ ascended into heaven at the completion of His mortal ministry, two angels declared to His Apostles, "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11). Since that time, believers have looked forward to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

When the Savior comes again, He will come in power and glory to claim the earth as His kingdom. His Second Coming will mark the beginning of the Millennium.

The Second Coming will be a fearful, mournful time for the wicked, but it will be a day of peace for the righteous.

• If Jesus is the unique Son of God in a way that I am a not, how am I ever supposed to be come fully like him? He is different than me in a fundamental way that is beyond my control. If he is a half-God and half-human, and I am 100% human, how can I ever become fully like him?
• Who is it that demands "justice" in the form of someone suffering and dying in our place because we are imperfect? Why would God demand this? Didn’t He know when He fathered our spirits that we would not be perfect? If so, why does He demand that either we are perfect and sinless, or else someone must die?

• What is it about God that makes him unable to view our sins with "the least degree of allowance," when he knew from the start we would all be imperfect human beings, except for Jesus? What kind of parent sets up a system in which He demands something from His children that He knows from the start they will be incapable of achieving?

• Why is it that God cannot tolerate having imperfect and/or "unclean" people in his presence? Isn't God bigger than that? Is the Being or perfection of God so fragile that it can't exist in the presence of an imperfect child?

• Were all of us perfect in the pre-existence, before our mortal birth? How did God tolerate our being in his presence then?

• Why would a parent set up a system that says, in effect, "I know that all of my children except one will make mistakes and be imperfect. If the perfect one agrees to suffer punishment in place of all of the imperfect ones, then I’ll forgive the imperfect ones and let them back into my presence." Does this make sense?

• How does having someone else be punished in our place teach us anything? How do we learn and grow from our mistakes if someone else suffers and pays for them?

• At orange we may also become interested in evidence from academic sources outside of Mormonism about early Christianity and the historical Jesus. Examples of this include the work of The Jesus Seminar, the recently discovered Nag Hammadi texts, and Elaine Pagels' work.

• We may conclude that many of the miraculous events in Jesus' life were added to the scriptural record by others, long after his death.

• We may conclude that Jesus never claimed that he was the unique Son of God in a way the rest of us are not.

• We may conclude that the whole amber version of the atonement is a human construct developed by religion to control people's behavior.

• We may conclude that it's not possible, based on the evidence available at this point in time, to draw definitive conclusions about the historical Jesus.

• We may conclude that it's possible Jesus may not have been a real historical figure, but rather was a synthesis of several ancient God myths. For example, Jesus as portrayed in the book The Jesus Mysteries.

• We may conclude that the transforming power of Christ's atonement that we have experienced in our lives may be independent of the literal truth of the events of Jesus' life as told in Christian scripture. The Jesus story may be a transformative mythic archetype that speaks to us on a deeply intuitive level.

• The transforming power of Christ that we have experienced in our lives may be the power of unconditional love to transform hearts and lives, rather than the power to meet God's demands for justice or perfection.

• Christ's "at-one-ment" may be the ongoing working of God's Spirit within us to make us at-one with God, not by overcoming some refusal on God's part to allow imperfect beings in his presence, but rather by transforming our hearts with his love, so that we can love as God loves. Jesus said, "As I have loved you, love one another. By this shall all people know you are my disciples, if you have love one to another." John 13:34-35.

47. ...charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

48. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Moroni 7: 47-48.

• The story that the Buddha was born out of his mother's right side, took seven steps, and announced that this was his last birth.

• The story that Dionysus, also called the Son of God, was born of a mortal virgin woman, who was impregnated by one of Zeus' lightning bolts.

• The stories of Osiris and Attis, human/divine God-men who died and were resurrected on the third day.

• The story of the birth of the Hindu God, Shiva: Brahma and Vishnu were arguing about which of them was the more powerful God. Their argument was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a great blazing pillar whose roots and branches extended beyond view into the earth and sky. Brahma became a goose and flew up to find the top of the pillar, while Vishnu turned into a boar and dug into the earth to look for its roots. Unsuccessful in their search, the two gods returned and saw Shiva emerge from an opening in the pillar. Recognizing Shiva's great power, they accepted him as the third ruler of the universe.

• A sense of community, family, and belonging.

• A sense of the sacredness of the natural world as an expression of the Divine.

• Seasonal and nature community celebrations.

• Sacred spaces for contemplation.

• Shared rituals understood as a symbolic expression of deeper truths.

• A symbolic understanding of polygamy:
  1. There is only one Witness. It is the same Witness that looks out on the world through each one of us.
  2. The Manifest World is made up of countless forms.
  3. Emptiness or Witnessing awareness is often characterized as masculine.
  4. Manifestation in its multitude of forms is often characterized as feminine.
  5. Nondual awareness happens when the Witness collapses into everything witnessed, into all of Manifestation.
  6. In other words, nondual awareness is realized (or, the kingdom of God is entered), in the marriage of masculine Emptiness (singular) and feminine Form (plural).

• A symbolic understanding of polytheism, and of the "couplet," As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become:

As man is, God once was; [Before the Divine in each of us awakens, it is asleep and knows itself only as a human form.] as God is, man may become. [Each human being can awaken to his or her true nature as divine Christ Consciousness.]

• Individual empowerment and authenticity. The freedom, strength, and courage to speak our own truth.

• The courage to face and overcome obstacles and fears.

• Openness to new spiritual adventures.

• Being willing to do spiritually what the Mormon pioneers did: explore new spiritual territory and understanding, even if it means remaking the tradition we grew up in (as our Mormon forefathers and foremothers did with their various Christian backgrounds).

• Openness to new sources of truth and wisdom.

• The creation of new sacred texts, born of today's spiritual understanding and experiences.

• Dedication to a cause greater than ourselves, and the willingness to make conscious sacrifices for it.

• A sense of meaning and purpose in life.

• Finding joy in service to others.

• A commitment to principles of honesty and integrity, and the discipline and responsibility to keep our commitments. (The integrity and discipline developed in Amber can help us handle Orange's greater behavioral freedom in mature and responsible ways.)

• The desire and commitment to become a better person, and the experience of "dying" to our old self and being "born again" many times, into increasingly higher states of consciousness and stages of development, until we are ultimately "born again" as our True Self.

• Amber Spiritual Experiences:

At the amber stage of development many Mormons have experiences of God's Spirit, love, and forgiveness. We feel the affects of Christ's atonement in their lives. We accept and begin the process of being born again, as a new creature in Christ. And this makes us better people than we were.

Sometimes in the move from amber to orange, these experiences are dismissed. In orange, they may be dismissed as mere "emotional" experiences, with the accompanying rationale that a temporary emotional experience is not a good compass for discerning ultimate truth. At green, we may consider these "emotional" experiences to be culturally learned responses.

But at 2nd tier, and in the context of the integral model, these foundational amber experiences can be reclaimed, and re-interpreted through the integral lens.

For example: If the four quadrants, and the "I, we, and it" perspectives inherent in the quadrants, are actually inherent aspects of reality on the manifest or relative side of the street, and if the Witness or I Amness or Christ Consciousness is the inherent nature of reality on the unmanifest or Absolute side of the street, then human experiences of God or Spirit in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person are real experiences of actual realities.

If this is the case, then our amber experiences of God and/or Christ's atonement may be authentic experiences of spiritual realities. The experiences may be real, even if the amber interpretation of those experiences turn out not to hold up over time.

For example, many Mormons have the experience of feeling God's love and forgiveness when they repent of their sins and seek forgiveness. The experience is real. But the transcendent reality behind that experience may not be a bearded, white-haired God who cannot tolerate any unclean thing in his presence forgiving us because Jesus suffered in our place and thus satisfied God's demand for justice. Rather, the transcendent reality behind that experience of total love and acceptance may be an encounter with the 2nd person aspect of God or Spirit, out of which everything in existence arises, including each one of us and our many sins. This is an experience common to all of the world's spiritual traditions, though it may be interpreted differently in each tradition.

Many Mormons also have experiences of personal transformation that enable us to better live Christ's teachings, to become more Christlike. Our hearts may be softened, so that they are more patient, and feel more love toward others. We may become less selfish and more giving. We may understand this transformational force to be God's Spirit helping us to better live the commandments. The reality behind this experience may be what happens, in any tradition, when we surrender our individual desires and interests to a higher purpose or cause, and move up one or more stages on the vertical axis of the Wilber Combs Lattice. We become what we surrender to. When we surrender ourselves and our lives to Christ as we understand him, the result is that we become more Christlike.

In the integral model, experiences of God are a subtle state phenomenon. God is an aspect of our own transcendent nature that appears as other in gross and subtle state experiences. So the ideal of Christ that we surrender to, and thus become more like, maybe be what our own deepest I Amness or Christ Consciousness looks like when it is projected outward, onto the historical person of the awakened Master, Jesus.

Thus a 2nd tier integral view can allow us to reclaim our deepest and most transformational experiences in Mormonism, experiences that made us genuinely better people. If, on the other hand, we did not lose these experiences when we moved into orange and green stages of development, the 2nd tier integral view can allow us to understand those experiences in a wider context, and build on them.

• A commitment to discovering spiritual truth through our own direct experiences.

• A willingness to put new ideas to the test, in order to discover new truths and new spiritual practices.

• The desire to be involved in bringing about progress, and creating new and innovative spiritual pathways and practices that are the most effective available at the present time.

• Openness to discussion and willingness to revise principles as new evidence comes to light.

• A belief in our ability to awaken spiritually, and acceptance of personal spiritual responsibility for oneself.

• A sense of personal empowerment, and the conviction that each one of us can have a positive impact in the world.

• A commitment to make life in the manifest world the best it can be for all people.

• Group decisions made democratically, by true "Common Consent."

• Openness to diversity, and the willingness to explore spiritual understandings and practices from other traditions, and to use them to enhance our own spiritual development and community.

• Openness to each person's individual ideas and spiritual experiences, and the understanding that all of our ideas and interpretations are partial.

• Tolerance for differences and alternative lifestyles and behaviors, so long as they do not harm others.

• A commitment to inclusion and equality on all fronts: gender, racial, socioeconomic, etc., and to the global well-being of all people.

• A commitment to the well-being of the natural environment and all sentient beings, and to live in harmony with Nature.

• A commitment to physical, emotional, and psychological balance and well-being.

• A commitment to peace, both within and in the world.

• An exploration of higher states of consciousness.

• An acceptance of all of the previous stages of Mormonism – magic, mythic, rational, and pluralistic – without contending with any of them. The ability to let the amber institutional Church and church members be amber, orange liberal Mormons be orange, and green pluralistic Mormons be green.

• A vision of how all of the previous versions of Mormonism fit together in an evolutionary pattern, and a commitment to work for the healthy coexistence of all of these versions of Mormonism.

• Offering pathways into 2nd tier for those who are ready, without seeing individuals at any of the previous stages as being "wrong."

• The ability to integrate conflicting truths, and to tolerate and even enjoy paradoxes and uncertainties.

• An understanding that different solutions work at different stages of development, and that what may be workable or useful at one stage of Mormonism may not be useful at another stage.