Introduction

The Human Condition

We are all so very human. Our wandering feet carry us along many curious and often frightening paths. Our untamed hearts pull or push us in unexpected directions. Our wide eyes marvel at the fleeting scenes of beauty and filth which unfold around us. Our grasping hands shape the environments and cultures we touch. Our unceasing voices speak much, yet too often say little. Our twitching ears are filled with the discordant noises of life. Our restless minds wrestle with the meaning of it all, desperate to forget the bitter and remember the sweet. Yet humanity occasionally manages to find itself, to gentle itself—to see, free, quiet, harmonize, and understand itself.

The writers of this book are brothers. We use the word writers because we feel that we are not the authors of any particular words of greatness. Instead, we are hunters and gatherers of knowledge. We till and seed the soils of our souls hoping to harvest wisdom.

We are native citizens of the world, yet we perceive the foreign nature of mankind's walk upon the Earth. Though our journey is not complete, my brother and I have found ourselves both on the side of right and clearly in the wrong often enough to have gained an abiding appreciation for the many profound lessons that can be gleaned from the human experience.

Origin of Our Writings

As a young man I, Aaron, chose to serve a mission to the people of Argentina for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In my idealism, I hoped to bring light and goodness to people who had been less fortunate. I like to believe that I left something of value behind for the people I came to love, but I returned deeply transformed by my experiences.

The new thoughts I learned to think and the tender feelings I came to cherish during my mission planted in my heart a seed of passion for sharing things of worth with others. I returned to a world that is far more complex and fast-paced than my mission experience had been, and I found it somehow the lesser for it. In spite of this, that latent kernel of desire swelled in my heart and grew. I began searching for ideas, experiences, and things of great worth. I wrote of them. I did not know to whom I was writing. I had not considered my audience.

After some time, I suspected that I might be crafting letters to my unborn children. I came to believe that my collection of writings could become a simple legacy that I might leave behind at my journey's end. I became convinced that stories of my life, my tempering experiences, and meaningful traditions, along with my humble understandings, precious beliefs, and faith-filled encouragement are the only meaningful inheritance I can bequeath to my posterity.

When my adventures with family and children began, my yearning to gather and then write of these things became a driving need. In my late thirties, I felt a strong urge to better organize my hard-learned lessons and happy discoveries in the form of a book or collection of letters. I am not finished learning, but I felt my experience and understanding was sufficient to truly begin sharing. Spending a few hours each night, as I could spare, I finished my first rough draft in a little more than six months.

I shared my collected works with my older brother, Jim. He has long been more than an example of manhood to me; he is a trusted friend. His comments, questions, suggestions, and assistance became such an important part of editing my letters that I realized they are as much the result of his life experiences as they are of my own.

Our long studies and preparations seemed to take on a life of their own. We quickly adopted the belief that such beautiful ideas and experiences must be shared in words of plainness. This philosophy became the title of our work. We understand that the publication of such personal things may open us to criticism and unforeseen consequences. We have long considered and earnestly prayed about our decision to act in accordance with our desires. We offer our Words of Plainness to you with hope, for they are the treasured things of our souls.

Relevance of Our Writings

The topics of our writings seem appropriate for our day and age. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members have become the subject of a surprising amount of social media coverage, both favorable and not. Debate over the Church's history, beliefs, and practices appears in popular tabloids, newspapers, books, television programs, online forums, and even in widely public political arenas.

Since the 1830s, newspapers and publications of detractors have called us "Mormons" or refer to our theology as "Mormonism" because we use the Book of Mormon as a companion to the Bible as a source of scripture about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Over the generations the term became culturally widespread. Some members of the Church even adopted the term "Mormon" to rob it of its derogatory intent towards our culture and beliefs. Why have recent Church leaders discouraged the use of the term? Why don't members prefer the term? Simply put, we aren't followers of Mormon. Along the same line of thinking, we don't worship Joseph Smith, and we don't replace the Bible with the Book of Mormon either.

With regards to faith and religion, it seems like common sense that if you want to know what a Baptist believes you should ask a Baptist. If you want to know what a Methodist believes you should ask a Methodist. This is also true for Roman Catholics, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and so on. It is equally true that not all Baptists believe the same body of doctrines or behave the same way. Likewise are the Methodists, Catholics, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and so forth.

In recent years, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have discouraged using the name "Mormon" to refer to the Church or its members. This is because it obscures the Church's Christ-centered identity and reduces a complex, Christ-centered faith to a nickname given by those who first coined it in derision.

Instead, Church officials have emphasized using the full name of the Church or "The Church of Jesus Christ" for brevity. Also, the term "Latter-day Saints" is preferred for referring to its members. This reflects theological accuracy, historical continuity, and respect for religious self-identification. Using precise language not only honors the beliefs of its members but also avoids reinforcing misunderstandings about their faith, practices, and relationship to broader Christianity. Our goal is to keep the focus of worship squarely on Jesus Christ, where it belongs.

In modern times, the human right to self-identification for cultures and individuals has become an important topic within national and international legal systems. More importantly, it is a matter of civility and correct social skills. Latter-day Saints reserve the same right as other groups and individuals to self-identify and invite the respectful use of the name and identity we embrace.

Are We Christians?

Many outsiders claim Latter-day Saints are not Christians. Some declare that we believe in the wrong Jesus. Do we worship a different Jesus? Do we teach a different gospel from other Christians?

Simply: the name of our church is The Church of Jesus Christ.

Specifically: Latter-day Saints follow Jesus of Nazareth, whom many religions embrace as the Christ, the promised Messiah, and the divine Son of God. To become members, we embrace the truth that we are all sinners, having fallen short of the glory of God. We accept that we need God's forgiveness. We have faith that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, that He died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead. We take His name upon us, make sincere covenants through baptism and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We labor to continue to turn from our sins, inviting God into our hearts and lives. We trust Jesus as our Savior and follow Him as our Lord.

Strangely: An enormous volume of misinformation and malicious propaganda exists about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and members of our Church. Importantly, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not claim that the Church as an institution or its mortal leaders are infallible or free from error.

During our long years as public school teachers, we struggled to convince students of the vital importance of using authoritative sources of information that have been developed from multiple perspectives when doing research and in the formation of lasting opinions. Gossip columns, hate blogs, and literature critical of the Church are tantalizing reads, but they seldom offer much in the way of actual credibility. Tracing the citations and sources of such information, one finds little more than hearsay and quotations either taken out of context or hastily borrowed from other unverifiable sources. Though false information might be presented energetically and even well-received by many, it remains fundamentally untrue.

Throughout history, it has been consistently true that the odd combination of ignorance and confidence eventually leads to suffering, oppression, bigotry, and hatred. We believe that it is essential to the character of each human being to search for truth, meaning, and lasting happiness—and that we must do so while upholding the virtues of honesty, compassion, and tolerance. Surely these are the noblest of emerging characteristics possessed by enlightened individuals and found within civilized cultures.

It is surely anti-Christian to bash, belittle, and discourage anyone's faith in Jesus Christ. No one has perfect knowledge of all truth, and all believers seek to follow Christ as best we can. Jesus said, "whoever is not against us is for us." Also, Christ condemned the Pharisee's spirit—certain, superior, quick to condemn. It poses a danger in every age, and none of us is immune to it. We must not claim to know more about what others believe than they do.

Accordingly, we claim the right to be the supreme mortal authorities over what we personally believe, how this makes us feel, and how we interpret the effects of living as Latter-day Saints within our own life experiences.

What We Hold in Common With Other Christians

Our Articles of Interfaith Discipleship declare, in full, what beliefs we hold in common with all who confess Jesus Christ. In brief, this is the gospel they proclaim:

What we trust for salvation

• God is the Eternal Father—loving, good, and sustaining—known truly only as far as He reveals Himself.
• Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah, Divinity made flesh, the living image of the Father's heart: sinless, crucified for our sins, risen on the third day, and the living measure of every witness.
• Salvation comes through Christ's grace and Atonement—saving us from sin and death and forming His image in us, from creation in His image to fellowship with Him as co-heirs.
• We do not reduce salvation to any single part. It is the whole work of Christ held together—grace and Atonement; faith, repentance, and the new birth; the Christlike virtues; and the Spirit's sanctifying, sealing work unto eternal life.
• The Kingdom is at hand. Eternal life is to know God and walk in fellowship with His Son, begun the moment we come to Him—not a reward withheld until death or perfection.
• The grave is not the end. Christ's resurrection is both the promise and the proof; every soul will rise and stand honestly before a merciful God, and what is entrusted to Him is not lost.
• Christ is enough—for the flawed, the weary, the wounded, and the searching, in every tribe and tongue and tradition. No soul is barred from Him for want of a perfect understanding.

How we follow as disciples

• We walk humbly, knowing in part—receiving gladly what God reveals plainly, leaving the secret things to Him, and binding no one's conscience with speculation.
• We search the scriptures by the Spirit, worshiping God alone and never idolizing the vessel through whom His word comes.
• We take Christ as our fixed point—the North Star—with the Spirit as our compass and scripture as our map, each calibrated always to Him.
• We become disciples by covenant: surrendering our will into His, taking up the cross daily, repenting when we fall short, and living the gospel rather than merely professing it.
• We live by God's grace as a transformative power, not a license to sin. Discipleship is a walk, a journey, a maturing, a becoming—doing good whether or not it is seen or rewarded.
• We receive every soul who comes to Christ as family, refusing to weaponize doctrine or defend the walls He never built.
• We deal gently with the weak and the searching, leave judgment to the one righteous Judge, and never stand between the Shepherd and His lambs.

For more detailed information, read the full Articles of Interfaith Discipleship.

Our Credentials as Latter-day Saints

My brother and I have spent our lives within the culture and practices of the faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, yet we feel the need to offer some few credentials which establish our general worthiness to represent regular, ordinary, everyday members of our Church and that we live a reasonably common Latter-day Saint lifestyle.

Our Conversion and Upbringing

We were born to Lutheran parents. Our mother investigated and eventually chose to convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many friends and relatives questioned or even opposed her decision. She was baptized while she was pregnant with Aaron, the younger of the two writer brothers. James also later converted. Our childhoods were strongly enmeshed in the culture and society of Church members. We actively and regularly attended worship services and participated in the Church's Primary and youth programs.

Priesthood and Service

We were both formally ordained to the "Lesser" Priesthood in our adolescence. We were successively set apart in the offices of Deacon, Teacher, and Priest. We feel that we faithfully officiated in these offices by preparing and passing the emblems of the Lord's Supper, collecting fast offerings for the poor, home teaching our fellow members, baptizing those who came into the Church, and assisting in assorted temporal responsibilities.

As young adults we were both ordained to the "Higher" Priesthood. We were both set apart as Elders and performed as such. We were both called and set apart to full-time proselyting missionary service. We both received our temple endowments, whereby we made sacred covenants (promises) with God in His holy temple.

We have been married to our wives in the Temple of the Lord. We have done our best to raise our children to walk uprightly before the Lord. We have been called and set apart in many positions of service throughout our lives in the Church. Currently, James is serving as a High Priest in his ward. Aaron is serving as an Elder in his ward. We anticipate, God willing, a lifetime of service to our fellow members and to all God's children.

Our Lives as Latter-day Saints

We worship with our congregations. We fast and we pray. We read and study the Scriptures. We have paid tithes and given offerings. We have attended and officiated in temple worship. We are not perfect, but we continually repent and seek to align our lives with God's will. We strive to cultivate the fruits of the Spirit: patience, kindness, love, charity, peace, joy, meekness, etc. We seek to obtain the gifts of the Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 12: wisdom, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues. We study with open hearts and minds.

We seek to be of service to our fellowman. We seek to be forgiving, slow to anger, and to avoid unrighteous behaviors. We seek to be good neighbors. We seek to be good friends and good examples, even if no one is watching. We seek to be humble and teachable. We seek to be genuine disciples of Jesus Christ. We bear public witness that Jesus Christ lives, that He loves us, that He has made it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins, and that all are invited to come unto Him and be sanctified of their sins and made righteous if they will but have faith in Him, repent, be baptized, and follow Him to the end of their mortal journey.

Christ-Centered Plainness

Kinship with All Believers

We as Latter-day Saints happily recognize the light and goodness found in all people who search for truth, meaning, and lasting happiness. We feel a close kinship with all those who believe in Jesus Christ. We do not discourage their faith. Faithful Latter-day Saints who understand the core teachings of the restored gospel do not condemn others; rather, we humbly believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of us all. If you cannot agree with the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we plead with you at least to believe in Christ. If we all heed the Savior's call, "Come follow me," we will undoubtedly find ourselves together in His kingdom at last.

We truly believe that all Christians have more in common than what divides us. However, if any of us dare to persecute one another over differences in doctrine and silly rumors—as though we were truly wise in any way—we will undoubtedly find ourselves both unworthy and uncomfortable upon leaving this life to stand in judgment before God. Jesus said that those who are angry with a brother without cause are in danger of judgment. Further, Jesus "came not to condemn the world." Do we, then, have any right to condemn one another? Are any of us better or wiser than He?

When Latter-day Saints invite others to investigate the Church, we do not attempt to take away what light and faith they have. Rather, we invite all to come and see what the Lord has done in our lives in the hope that we can add to the light others already possess. A vital point to make is that those who think that Latter-day Saints believe only members of our Church will reach heaven misunderstand our doctrine of God's expansive mercy and multiple degrees of glory.

When Faith Is Tried

Some who come to these writings arrive with a settled faith. Others arrive in the middle of a hard season—when the faith they were given no longer fits the questions they have come to ask, and they cannot tell whether what is shaking is their belief in God or only the frame that once held it. If that is where you stand, we want to say it plainly: doubt is not the same as departure, and the loss of an old certainty is not the loss of Christ. The treasure and the vessel that carries it are not the same thing. A vessel may crack without the treasure being spilled.

We know this road because we have walked it. We had to learn, slowly and sometimes painfully, to tell the difference between the gospel of Jesus Christ and the culture that had grown up around it—the inherited assumptions, the borrowed certainties, the things people had added to what God actually said. We do not say this to fault the faith that raised us; we say it because every vessel that carries the treasure is an earthen one, ours included. What we found, when we stopped clutching the frame and reached instead for Christ, was not less faith but more—and a deeper respect for sincere believers whose path looks nothing like our own. The work can be frightening, for the one who walks it and for those who love them. Walk it anyway. Surrender to Christ, seek the best gifts, and trust that the God who began the work is faithful to finish it.

And to those who remain settled while someone they love begins to wander: we know that you worry, and that the worry is love. But hear the consolation before you let the fear harden. The Shepherd does not forget the one sheep that strays; He leaves the ninety and nine and goes after it until He finds it, for it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. His reach is longer than your arms, and longer than the grave—He has other sheep that are not of this fold, and He remembers even those who never knew His name. You may trust Him with the ones you cannot reach.

And because you may trust Him with them, you are freed—from the burden, and the danger, of appointing yourself their judge. Guard your own heart here, for the measure you give will be the measure you receive. Do not let grief curdle into indignation, or let love for the truth become a club; the Good Physician does not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax, and neither must we. This is not indifference to truth—error is still error, and we are called to restore the wandering gently, watching our own hearts lest we also be tempted. The honest question, when another's faith falters, is never only "What is wrong with them?" but also, quietly, "Lord, is it I?"

Underneath all of it is one plain truth: we know in part, and He knows in full. We cannot see the end of anyone's story; He can, and He loves them more than we do. That single humility is enough to keep the doubter walking and to keep the faithful from the wrong spirit. We have written more fully about these things elsewhere—about partial knowing, about the treasure in broken vessels, about the long reach of Christ toward those who wander, and the lament of the God who would gather them—and those pathways will be waiting whenever you are ready for them.

Finding Your Way Through Our Writings

These writings have grown into something larger than a single book. They live here as a study you can move through at your own pace, gathered into two volumes—and everything in them is meant to lead you toward the same Person.

Volume 1 of our writings is for everyone who will consider Jesus Christ. It begins with the foundations of faith, moves through the life and character of the Savior, and arrives at the practices that shape anyone who follows Him. It asks no prior beliefs of you and presses no membership upon you—only a willing heart. Whatever your tradition, or if you carry none at all, this volume is meant to meet you where you stand.

Volume 2 of our writings is for those whom the Spirit moves to go further. Here we open the fullness of what Latter-day Saints believe—the covenants, the nature of God, the Plan of Salvation, and the hope of our eternal inheritance. We have placed it second on purpose. We would rather you meet Christ with us first, on the ground we already share, than ask you to weigh our distinctive claims before that friendship has had time to form. This is not concealment; it is the order in which we ourselves came to understand, and the order in which we believe these things are best received.

And these pages are more than words to read. You can listen as well as read, pause to reflect or to record your own witness, and follow the deeper study pathways and companion essays wherever a question opens beneath your feet. The Writings page will always be your map: it shows you where to begin and what has newly arrived, so you need never wonder what comes next.

Our Plea to You

Our work has been to gather plain and precious truths that God has revealed concerning His personal nature and His will for mankind. We generally write in our own words and according to our own understanding, but we cite the sources of truth. We draw from the inspired teachings of prophets and apostles of God, both ancient and modern. We quote holy scripture—the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price—which contain the word of God. We encourage you to study the references from which we have drawn in performing this labor of love.

We plead with you not to be offended by the fact that we may hold some ideas different from your own. More importantly, we implore you not to rebel against the idea that there is a higher authority than mankind, or against the idea that we all ought to obey commandments of God. We encourage you not to reject the idea that mankind needs to be saved. At the very least, we need to be saved from sources of unhappiness: ignorance of life's purpose, the consequences of wandering from wisdom's path, and our estrangement from our Creator.

My brother and I take great joy and comfort in what small light and knowledge God has given to us. We feel as if we have awakened from a deep sleep, made new and somehow more whole by our acquaintance with God and His Son. We openly confess our own imperfections and limitations. We do not seek to set ourselves up as a source of light for the world. Rather, we seek to remind all humanity that God is the light by which all may see in the dark.

What you get out of reading our Words of Plainness depends entirely upon what you are looking for as you study them. We hope that you find in our writings encouragement and inspiration to believe in God and in His Son Jesus Christ. Our prayer is that you will be blessed by the Spirit and grace of God as you consider our words, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.