This is not necessarily to call anyone out specifically, but just to point out we should follow the bretheren, especially when they explicitly state they are speaking as an Apostle:

“Today, I speak to you . . . as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. . . Sadly, responses to the pandemic have been politicized and contentious. . . The savior taught that the second great commandment after loving God was Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. As it relates to this pandemic . . . that means social distancing, wearing a mask and not gathering in large groups. These steps demonstrate our love for others and provide us a measure of protection, wearing a face covering is a sign of Christlike love for our brothers and sisters.”

We now have official, apostolic word. Considering that, at church, I predicted beforehand who would and wouldn’t be wearing masks based solely on their politics (and I was 90% on), this should settle the matter.

But, as sad experience tells us, it likely won’t.

Free to Believe: The Battle over Religious Freedom in America

By Luke Goodrich

Read this book. Now.

http://churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/religious-freedom/religious-freedom

Apparently, anti-church trolls have reported this link as violating “community standards” to facebook, so you can’t share it, link to it, or even PM it to someone with facebook.

To help fight this, if you have a facebook accout, try and share it. Fb will stop you, but will give you a link to explain why you think it does not violate community standards. Use that link (but be respectful and polite). Hopefully, if enough people do that, it will not longer be on the banned list.

[Edit for clarification: Only the specific page on religious freedom linked above seems blocked by facebook. This post is not claiming the entire Church’s website is blocked].

Since we’re getting into Paul’s letters in “Come Follow Me” and the authorship of Paul’s letters is sometimes a point of contention, I am going to share two quotes from excellent scholarly works that basically agree with my own views. I could write my own post, but these two authors do a much better job than I could:

We don’t sing the original lyrics anymore, likely because they are too Europe-centric, but they’re still way cool:

Ye saints who dwell on Europe’s shore 
Prepare yourselves for many more, 
To leave behind your native land, 
For sure God’s judgments are at hand. 
For you must cross the raging main 
Before the promised land you gain 
And with the faithful make a start 
To cross the plains with your handcart.