Ronald A. Rasband told members at General Conference on Saturday to stop trying to force their wayward loved ones back into the fold and instead turn their despair over to Jesus Christ. Speaking in the afternoon session at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, he said the harder people push, the more they can widen the break with family members who have stepped away from the church.
The message landed on the first day of the church’s twice-yearly gathering, when millions of members were tuning in from around the world and looking for direction that spoke to the moment. President Dallin H. Oaks, 94, presided over the sessions, with a keynote speech expected on Sunday, giving the weekend’s opening day a clear sense of sequence: first the counsel, then the larger statement still to come.
Rasband’s appeal was personal and blunt. He told listeners to give Christ their grief for loved ones who have gone inactive, saying people can preach, cajole, argue, demand, lecture, ignore, or even send conference talks to try to change a heart, but “to no avail.” Those efforts, he warned, can deepen the rift. His answer was simpler: “I’ve got this!”
That kind of pastoral instruction stood out because the Saturday sessions left untouched the conflicts pressing outside the conference hall. The gathering came amid continued fighting in the Middle East, Ukraine and parts of Africa, along with inflation and affordability problems at home, but church authorities did not address those pressures directly. Instead, the talks stayed on familiar ground, with denunciations of gambling, calls for more full-time missionaries, and praise for fasting, temples, testimony and tithing.
The gap between the world outside and the words inside the Conference Center was hard to miss. The church has nearly 18 million members, and many were hearing a message that framed grief as a matter of faith and agency rather than pressure or persuasion. Whether that counsel lands with families living through separation is the test now, and Sunday’s session under Oaks is the next chance for the church to answer the larger questions left hanging on Saturday.
