There are a lot of good people in this church, but the crazy members that I always hear about online are really making our church look bad to people who haven't had any negative personal experiences.

There is a concerted effort to make this a prominent perspective among those who are ill-informed or ill-experienced with our faith. Many of these users have made it a part time job to go around online promoting the most negative narratives about our faith as possible. They are very invested, some of these people making money off these efforts.

There is going to be a time where we all learn the truth and many people are going to be very embarrassed about the sorts of lies they were told and perpetuated and realize, unfortunately, those lies were something they ended up believing as well.

I don't fret about it, I just do my best to share whatever positivity I have and remain positive despite whatever negativity is thrown my way. Whatever happens we should focus on promoting whatever good we can and not hold these perspectives against people. As Jesus said, "turn the other cheek."

/r/latterdaysaints Thread