Come As You Are

Sisters and Brethren,

Nirvana said it best: Come as you are.

We wish to extend a warm welcome to anyone and everyone, regardless of what you think, what you do, and how you look.

If you want to be part of the church family, yet you don't literally believe there was a flood and Noah put every animal on a boat...that's cool! And if you DO believe it, great! Who cares? What good is a family if there isn't a little dinner table drama every once in a while? Are you skeptical about Mormon doctrine? Church history? Come on in! But be respectful, and remember we're all just trying to find our own path to God, or at a minimum, a path to goodness.

Come as you are!

Come with your tattoos, mohawks, piercings, suits and ties, long-sleeves, heavy metal, root beer, green jell-o, jokes, beards, homeopathy, scriptures, subversive bonnets, anger, laziness, love, respect, mistakes, hopes, dreams, disbelief, quirks, home-schooled kids, zeal, crying babies, sunburns, tobacco-stained fingers, and everything else that makes you YOU.

Just come. We are lucky to have you at all!

Sometimes we get a little excited over whether someone is wearing a white shirt, or whether a sister is wearing slacks. We declare that these things are not important. Not even close!

What IS important? Lifting, supporting, encouraging, welcoming, loving, helping, embracing.

Left-wing, Right-wing, or Ron Paul fanboy, it's all good!

You are all welcome.

Sincerely,
FFP

The New Era of Marriage

Sisters and Brethren!

So much going on up here at LDS HQ it's crazy. Just some brief thoughts on same-sex marriage.

How do you spell backtrack??? We've been heavy handed with all the voter measures on SSM, and we have mixed feelings on the results. On the one hand, we feel like we took a stand for what we believed. On the other hand, we're not all that sure we believe the right thing...does that make sense?

Our notion of eternal marriage has always assumed procreative compatibility. But then we were like, what if eternal procreation is different from our earthly bedsheet romp? What if there's some part of God's plan that somehow makes it all work out? He does, after all, work in mysterious ways, right? His thoughts are not our thoughts, etc?

And maybe causing kids to commit suicide out of shame is not really ideal?
And maybe tearing families apart over this issue contradicts our family first message?
And maybe we're making enemies of people who are just normal folks, trying to live their lives the best they can?

And maybe we do need to draw some lines when it comes to forcing our beliefs on others...there are some whacked out religions that we certainly don't want legislating on us! Blood transfusions anyone? How about illegalization of birthday parties? Yikes!

So brace yourselves for change on that. Again, we'll lose at least half the membership if we don't do it right. People are psycho over this issue, and that was not our intent. And just because Packer keeps filling the blooper reels doesn't mean we all think the same way. Dude likes to freestyle sometimes, just think of him as your sweet old grandpa who once or twice a year tosses out some racist remark that turns your skin inside out.

In the meantime, love everybody. Reach out, lift up, hold hands, embrace each other. It's cool. March in parades if you want! It's all cool folks.

Sincerely,
FFP

Opening Remarks

Good morning sisters and brothers throughout the world! We wish to express our deepest love to all of you as a group and to each of you as individuals.

Let's get a few things straight right off the bat.

We are just a bunch of dudes, OK? We are trying to do the best we can.

We love God, and we seek to serve God. And we hope we are being inspired along the way. We think we are.

So we apply our human experiences and wisdom, add in a dash of inspiration, plus a pound of good intentions --then a lifetime of learned bias, pride, and fear fall into the mixing bowl while we're not looking-- and what comes out is what comes out.

It's all a work in progress.

Some of you are really devoted to everything we say. We are flattered! But please don't feel obligated to volunteer for every assignment when someone lays the guilt trip on you. That's not what we're trying to accomplish. And some psycho stuff sometimes comes out at Conference, for which we apologize. Stick some people behind a pulpit and they just start freestyling. Have you ever been to a testimony meeting? OK thank you.

We know our history is less than perfect. Sometimes we have tried to hide true events because we have feared they would draw attention away from all the good we've done. That's changing, and we are learning to embrace our own imperfections.

Stick with us. We are striving for good, and we're getting there. Join us on this journey. Bring all your faults, weirdness, emotions, personality, sense of humor, mistakes, inspiration. Because we're bringing ours and that's what makes us all a family.

Sincerely,
FFP