The Challenge of Building a Religious Learning Community Genuine communication rests on acceptance of the peer principle. We each possess equal privilege to speak and share equal and reciprocal obligation to listen. This peer principle can lead to meaningful dialogue, deliberation, and ultimately to a place of mutual trust. Then, even if consensus cannot be achieved, deliberation can show us a way forward based on the discovery of common ground and the respect we have for one another. How might we Latter-day Saints do better in encouraging more openness and honesty when we engage each other? And without this type of communication, can we really gain genuine intellectual, emotional, and spiritual convictions about gospel truths?

Jeffrey Nielsen, Michael Stevens