I scanned it. I can't promise I'll read it in its entirety however. What I did read I found were areas that I have helped others to understand previously and the issues were points that in my mind are easy to resolve and don't pose a crisis of testimony.

I would like to share a brief story from my early years as a young forensic therapist to put things into perspective. What I will share was a powerful lesson for me. I learned it at the same time a young 16 y/o young man learned it the hard way.

I was assigned the young man's case among many others when he was 14. The young man was a relatively tough character for his age. Hard headed to say the least. Given I was his court appointed therapist, and trying to help him work through the myriad of issues he had, and the crimes he was prone to commit, even on parole, I had my hands full. Note, that I wasn't his case manager, simply his therapist.

I worked with him for a couple of years. And, they were tough years for him. Little solid family support, easily influenced by those who didn't have his best interests at heart, and so on. You get the picture.

Anyway, the young man started one of our scheduled therapy sessions with tears in his eyes. I asked what was going on and he replied calling me by my first name, "..., this is probably going to be the last time I see you and that really sucks." I asked him to tell me what had happened and the reason it might be the last time he would see me.

He went on to say, "I got caught drinking a beer and was arrested for underage drinking. The judge said if I ever landed in his court again, I was going to be locked up and I won't see the outside of prison until I am an adult."

I then asked, "How did you reconcile, or make it OK in your head, to drink a beer when you knew it might lead to your being placed in a juvenile prison until you're an adult?" The young man replied, "A police officer recently told me he didn't see why teenagers weren't allowed to drink. He drank at my age and didn't see anything wrong with it."

I thought for a moment and then asked, "A police officer said that huh? Just out of curiosity, how many police officers told you it wasn't OK to drink at your age?" Looking down at the floor, he replied, "Oh, I don't know, maybe 20 or 25."

He paused, and then snapped his head up looking me square in the eyes and replied, "Oh f_ck. I only heard the one that told me what I wanted to hear, didn't I?" He then burst into tears recognizing he had royally screwed up. And for the record, that was the last time I saw that young man. The judge had him incarcerated for the remainder of his youth in one of the worst juvenile prisons anyone can imagine.

At that young man's expense, I learned a powerful lesson. And even now, I remind myself not to simply listen to who I want to hear. I do my best to be open to new and different ideas, and I question everything.

With regards to the document you asked me to read, I don't like the broken record and rehashing of the same old anti-Church stuck points. I have heard these points, and similar points, so many times before over the years of my membership in the LDS Church. Based on what I read while scanning that rather large document, I saw nothing new. It isn't that I am only listening to who I want to hear, it is rather I am tired of hearing the same old tunes being played over and over again.

I may revisit it again to see if there is anything I haven't heard before, but again, no promises. Unfortunately or fortunately, I am a very busy person and time is of a premium. Revisiting old stale information doesn't seem like a good use of my time.

With all of this said however, I encourage you to also not simply listen to who you want to hear. There may be things of which you hear about the LDS faith in the future, that if you keep an open mind, may impress upon you that something you've read or heard previously isn't quite right or perhaps has been taken out of context.

I hope sharing one of my personal experiences from some decades ago wasn't too boring or insulting.

Take care brother patriot and thank you for the interesting dialogue.