Personal Reflection 2

Ben Finch

I have learned a lot in this class. One major perspective shift that I had is that this class has changed my perception about what it means to be a prophet. I feel more sympathetic to the difficulties of perceiving God's will through our broken, mortal perceptions. Before this class, I had created this strange divide in my mind between ancient and modern prophets. For some reason, I was more willing to offer more grace and forgiveness to ancient prophets while heralding modern prophets as basically infallible. Studying about the early Latter-day Saints has really shifted that perspective and granted me more sympathy to Latter-day leaders. I also loved learning about the origin of the priesthood and temple ban. It is good to have more clarity on that topic, even though it's still does not feel fully "resolved" in my mind. I also did not know a lot about polygamy and women's roles in the early church before taking this class. Learning about the struggles and complexity with that issue brought some more understanding in my mind.