QUOTE: “Latter-day Saints are not asked to blindly accept everything they hear. We are encouraged to think and discover truth for ourselves. We are expected to ponder, to search, to evaluate, and thereby to come to a personal knowledge of the truth. Brigham Young said: ‘I am … afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security. … Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates.’” -Dieter F. Uchtdorf, in a CES Devotional, 13 January 2013. [source]
QUOTE: “We will not and cannot lead you astray. … When the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve speak with a united voice, it is the voice of the Lord for that time.” -M. Russell Ballard, in General Conference, October 2014. [source]
COMMENTARY: I’m sick and tired of troublemakers calling the LDS church a cult. A cult would try to convince members that its leaders were infallible, while a church would say that only God was infallible. A cult would encourage members to follow the prophet no matter what, while a church would tell people to listen to the prophet and then follow their conscience. A cult would say things like “when the prophet speaks, the thinking has been done,” or “the lord will not allow his prophet to lead the church astray.” It’s obvious, though, that the church encourages members to take what the prophets say to the Lord and then refuse to follow it if it is not in harmony with the Spirit. If you don’t believe me, just go to your bishop and tell him that you disagree with the policy preventing children of gays from being baptized, and see what he says. I just tried this, and … oh, shit. I was told that the prophet is always right and that it wasn’t my job to question him, but rather to sustain him. Well. I’m not sure how exactly to interpret that. But one thing is certain: the church is most definitely not a cult. But what do I know? I’m just another apostate.
