At a meeting of a joint committee appointed by the Church to study the attitudes of youth toward religion the chairman reports, "It is generally conceded that there is a strong tendency for our young people, many of them, to take an attitude against our orthodox beliefs." He cites a prayer published in the Delta Phi [an LDS fraternity] Bulletin:
"Dear God, our Father, we remember before thee this Sabbath morning the great free souls who have been crowded from Thy Church-noble men and women whose spiritual freedom was greater to them than life.
Bring them back, Father, into our communion again. Touch their hearts with understanding. Help them to forgive us. And we pray Thee, Father, touch also our hearts, for we have become hard and cold with our own self-righteousness.
Our hearts are now filled with sorrow and remorse for our sins. "We have crucified many and driven them out of Thy Church, thinking we did Thee service. And now before our eyes this morning this vast procession marches, made lonely through our exclusiveness, crushed by our ignorance. Help us to make our Church inclusive-not exclusive; creative -not preservative.
Help us to be tolerant with intolerance. May Thy Church, through us, be a light unto the world, a light of freedom and peace, love and good will, where personal character and social justice may not die out."
[Source: http://www.advent-adam.com/jakestand.html (cached, based on http://amzn.to/extensions-power)]
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