Three Real Dangers to LDS Church Members This session discusses three real dangers for LDS Church members: certainty, literalism, unwavering obedience to leaders. Certainty discourages inquiry. Literalism creates an atmosphere of skeptical rejection of many figurative, symbolic, or metaphorically rich possibilities-and this, in turn can lead to mistaken application of scriptural texts. Unwavering obedience to leaders (including the notion that even if leaders make mistakes, we are blessed by obeying them anyway) tends to foster an unhealthy culture of hero worship and a view of General Authorities as celebrities, resulting in our being distracted from the central figure of the Savior and sometimes promoting a mentality that leads to abuses of power.

Richard C. Russell, Elbert Peck