Adam S. Miller - Letters to a Young Mormon

Adam Millers Letters to a Young Mormon frustrated me. Not that I didnt like it, because I enjoyed it immensely. No, it frustrated me because I only wish I had had such a book to read when I was a 1960s teenager with racing mind and hormones. And perhaps more poignantly, I wish it had been available when my children were passing through those difficult and impressionable years. Letters to a Young Mormon is both tender and gentle, and at the same time provocative and intellectually stimulating. Its disarming honesty is only surpassed by the significance of its messages. I recommend it wholeheartedly, for young and old.

Robert L. Millet

Former Dean of Religious Education
Brigham Young University

These letters read not like missives from a great distance or from lofty heights, but like the words of a friend who is just a little further along the road, sending back words of warning, encouragement, and the happy reminder to look at all the wonders along the path. No trail of breadcrumbsthese are small bright jewels to mark the way home.

Kristine Haglund

Editor, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought

Adam Millers Letters to a Young Mormon is faithful, smart, witty, well-written, and accessiblethe perfect book for any thoughtful LDS young person.

James E. Faulconer

Richard L. Evans Professor of Religious Understanding
Brigham Young University

Employing a witty, upbeat sense of life, the author teaches without being preachy and encourages deep reflection of serious messages in the gospel of Christ.

Deseret News

Too often we paint the gospel as a set of easy answers, a plan of guaranteed happiness. In fact, life can be very tough. I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins (Enos 1:2). This book prepares young Mormons to do that wrestling.

Times & Seasons blog

Miller writes with a directness and depth that will challenge youth and adult readers to delve a bit more deeply into their own thoughts and beliefs.

Association for Mormon Letters

Reading it, I felt less tired and more awakened to the climbs and depths of my life and faith.... I whole-hardheartedly love this very small and not so simple book; Ive passed it on to so many others and now I recommend it on to you. Letters to a Young Mormon is a thought-provoking, beautifully written collection of ideas, insight and inspiration by Adam S. Miller.

Segullah

For Samantha

Preface to the
Second Edition

I hope its obviousto you and, especially, my childrenthat Ive put my trust in Christ.

For a long time now, Ive been searching, high and low, for Christ. Like the woman who lost her coin, Ive been lighting lamps. Ive been moving couches. Ive been sweeping corners. And the older I get, the more urgent Christ feels. As Im rounding forty now, this need for him wakes me up at night. It follows me during the day. It keeps pace on my run, shadows me at work, and waits for me in bed. It feels like hunger, but hungrier.

My trust and my hunger, though, arent separate things. Theyre intertwined. In fact, as time goes on, my trust in Christ has increasingly taken the shape of a hunger for Christ. If I acknowledge, then, in the course of this book, that Christ is hard to talk about or that there are things I dont know, this doesnt mean Im faithless. Rather, such acknowledgments are just one more way of confessing my hunger and, thus, my trust. My unfinished search for Christ and my ongoing trust in Christ are two sides of the same coin: the sharper my need feels, the deeper my trust grows.

As John Henry Newman put it, its when the night is dark, and I am far from home that I most need to be led by Christs light. Its when Im caught in that encircling gloom that I must trust in Christ even as I do not ask to see the distant sceneone step enough for me.

Its true that some people can see far into the distance. And its true that some people have touched other worlds and received blazing revelations. But my spiritual gift, small as it is, is more like a brand of nearsightedness that, regardless of what Id like, has kept me focused on whats ordinary and close at hand. At least for now, one step will have to be enough for me. And while one step may not seem like a lot, its been plenty to hold me fast.

When I think about you, dear reader, I cant help but hope that you will be able to see clear to the horizon. But, if you cant, I hope that one step will also be enough for you.

For this second edition, I have added two new letters, one on the Sabbath day and one on stewardship. Rather than placing them at the end, Ive slotted them into the body of the book. Also, in addition to some light editing throughout, Ive clarified and expanded some of the material included in the letters on sin, science, and sex. I think the book is better for it. And, finally, while the second edition generally cites the King James Version, I also occasionally use contemporary translations for the sake of clarity.

My thanks, especially, to Lisa Roper, Blair Hodges, and Spencer Fluhman for their help with this new edition.

. Lead, Kindly Light, Hymns , no. 97.

Preface to the
First Edition

This book is composed as a series of letters. The letters are meant for young Mormons who are familiar with Mormon life but green in their faith. I imagined myself writing these letters to my own children and struggled, in relation to how we talk about things at church, to say my own piece about what it means to beas a Mormonfree, ambitious, repentant, faithful, informed, prayerful, selfless, hungry, chaste, and sealed.

The letters do little to benchmark a Mormon orthodoxy. That work belongs to those called to it. Here, my work is personal. I mean only to address the real beauty and real costs of trying to live a Mormon life. And I hope only to show something of what it means to live in a way that refuses to abandon either life or Mormonism.

Agency

Dear S.,

I dont know. And what I do know is mostly local, half-framed, and hard to say. You ask some tough questions that lack easy answers. But I dont think that this kind of not-knowing is, in itself, a failure. I think its just life. And, as Mormons, we cant hide from this not-knowing, because, more than anything else, Mormonism is a way of living rather than dodging life. Part of not dodging life is owning this ignorance.

But its also true that even if I knew what to say and how to say it, youd still have to work out the answers for yourself. You must bear wholeheartedly the fact that the work of living your life cant be done by anyone else. This is basic Mormonism. You are an agent loose in the world and, as Paul puts it, you must work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).

Youll be surprised at how true this is. From the near side of trying, it may look like things have been pretty well mapped out for you. Just stick to the plan. Memorize your Articles of Faith, get your merit badges signed off, complete your Personal Progress, get good grades, go on a mission, go to the temple, have a family, etc. There may be a few details here and there to handle, but nothing major. Youve got a map, you just have to follow it.

But once you get to work, youll be unnerved by the distance between the neat map in your hand and the rough terrain at your feet. Fighting to coordinate the two, youll be tempted to throw the whole thing over or, by way of compromise, to sit down and gossip about how great the map is. This latter kind of admiration is often mistaken for a religious life. Perhaps it is religious, but it is no life. Even sound maps are just maps. They are no substitute for real roads.