Mary Gladstone: A Gentle Rebel Book

This little book of essays by Richard L. Bushman deals with Church (meaning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) issues that one is unlikely to find anywhere else. Those essays are found in the last two of the three parts of the book. The first part deals with Bushman's personal relationship to and thoughts about the Church and is, in my opinion, the more valuable part of the book. There are many memorable quotes I could cite, but I will content myself with just this one from page 43: "The Mormon truth, above all, tells us how to be good and helps us to get there. Faith and repentance are wrapped up together. The goodness that I see in Mormon lives, and day after day in my own life when I construct myself as the scriptures direct, is every bit as real as the abstractions of scientific scholarship. I can, if I wish, cast an aura of rationality over this belief in an effort to explain and justify myself to my academic colleagues. Our valiant apologists will go on defending the faith with scholarly evidence, to keep up our connection with the academic establishment. But I hold to my beliefs not because of the evidence or the arguments but because I find our Mormon truth good and yearn to install it at the center of my life." (italics added) I find this testimony much more effective than all those I've heard that state, in one form or another, that they know the gospel is true because it has been made known to them by the power of the Holy Ghost. That is well and good, and I'm glad there are people who have that kind of knowledge, but to me the real power of the gospel brought to light through Joseph Smith in these latter days is the goodness it produces in us when we "install it at the center of [our lives]." I value that because that is also the basis of my belief.