Why are Mormons so defensive when questions about their faith arise? And how can we as a Church be more embracing of those who are different than us?
Mormon scholar Patrick Mason knows a woman who is considering joining the LDS Church. She has been attending meetings and regaling him with reasons she loves them.
"I thought that was my role," Mason joked on Friday during the 18th annual FairMormon conference at the Utah Valley Convention Center in downtown Provo.
The woman recently had one question about Church members in the congregation she visits: "I just don't get why they're all so defensive."
Mason, who holds the Howard W. Hunter Chair in Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University, thought her comment was more perceptive than she knew.