In the day's news review, I encountered a piece from mormontimes.com. The title of the article is "Make no assumptions, LDS Doctrine has to be said" (click here for the article). The title grabs me because I like argument and assumptions are critical underpinnings that often make or break the argument a person is making. However, the article makes a far more poignant point in its argument.
The bottom line is that we Mormons, in our religious talk give a large portion of our words to ancillary gospel principles (word of wisdom, tithing, priesthood, fasting, work, marriage, etc) that she sheer volume of words given to those subjects leads the listener to believe that those subjects are most important. The truth of the matter is that Jesus Christ and his Atonement is at the center of it all. The problem is that we Mormons just assume that others (inside and outside the church) know that instead of saying it.
I think in this matter we would do well to take our cues from our prophets and make explicit the ties between the ancillary gospel principles and the Atonement. Don't presume that anyone 'just knows' how the pieces fit together. There is great power and great beauty in simple statements of testimony which illustrate the connection between all the "stuff" we do as Mormons and the mission of our Savior and Redeemer. Don't let the message get lost. We know we are all here because of Him; let us not shy away from saying it.
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