not fit all.

I hope [LDS leaders] turn the emphasis to Jesus Christ, the primary object of our faith and the only truly reliable common denominator for a global church. We can worship and serve Jesus in distinctively Mormon ways — in our temples, in family home evening, in Primary songs, in missionary service — and also in ways that reflect humanity’s God-given diversity: women as well as men, drums as well as pianos, Democratic Socialists in Norway and conservative Republicans in Puerto Rico.

Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune Members of the congregation listen during the morning session of the 186th LDS General Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City Saturday April 2, 2016.

Member retention

Armand Mauss, retired LDS sociologist in Southern California • The future ofthe church in this century is going to depend ultimately on the ability of its leaders, policies and teachings to cultivate loyalty to the church as an institution. Such loyalty, in turn, will depend on how each member makes the “cost-benefit” assessment of his or her membership. …

In the 19th century, the LDS Church commanded the kind of loyalty that would cause people to leave their families (or even nations) in the process of their religious conversion. In the 21st century, people with gay loved ones are more likely to leave the church than to turn on their children. …

In the modern world, neither entering nor leaving the LDS Church involves the cost that it once did. Converts are often baptized after only a few weeks of proselytizing