Approve, Approved

A common concept that leads people to have problems with religion is the concept of faithful obedience. The idea that we follow blindly, because to do otherwise would be to show a lack of faith in God and in his appointed leaders, brings many people to be turned off in the belief that their free-will is being taken away. Though we do stress obedience as the way to get to heaven (much like an airplane pilot or a heavy machine operator would stress obedience to do a job safely), we do not believe in blindly following someone without putting any effort into finding out if they are worth following.

This does not mean that if someone isn't perfect or qualified by the world's standards that they are not approved of by the Lord. The qualifications for having a leadership role in God's church in spiritual guidance is described by the following criteria in Romans 14:18:

18 For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.

In other words, are they doing their best to be in tune with the Holy Ghost and to follow the commandments. However, there is also a stipulation that once we have been given a job to do in God's Kingdom that we don't slack off. In Doctrine and Covenants 107:100 it reads:

100 He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved shall not be counted worthy to stand. Even so. Amen.

I once knew someone who left the church because she got offended by how a church leader treated her sister. I don't know the particulars, but the sister was leaving the church and her bishop had tried to talk to her, and I guess he wasn't blessed with the best social communicative skills and came off harsh. The sister got offended, and then my friend got offended along with her, declaring that the church couldn't be true because it says we have to follow guys that come off as "jerks." I don't know what happened to this friend, but it was really depressing for me to watch this happen. Leaders come and leaders go, and I hold onto the belief that I didn't join this church because my leader at the time happened to be really great people person, so I'm not going to leave it because I happened to have for a couple of years a bishop that was rude.

When someone is called in our church to a leadership position, their names are presented during church to the congregation for a "sustaining vote," and we all raise our hands to accept them and support them in this job. When we raise our hands we aren't saying that they will do a great job exactly to our specifications, like we would in an election, but we are pledging ourselves to help and support them as well as accept their responsibility and authority over us. We are "approving" them, and approving our belief in God's ability to give revelation in our day.