In Mormonism, Christ's work of atonement is generally seenas operating on two related but distinct planes.  I propose that as a basic schema, we should see it as working on at least three planes.  Traditionally, Christ's atonement (1) gathers up and reunites human bodies with human spirits through the resurrection, and (2) reunites or reconciles human beings with God.  This is sound Biblical doctrine.  But in light of Joseph Smith's revelations, it seems essential to see the atonement as being at work on at least one additional plane: Christ catalyzes not only the reunion of bodies with spirits and humans with God but, additionally, he gathers and seals husbands to wives and parents to children.  Christ's work will not end until the whole human family has been gathered together in "one."

Adam S. Miller, Rube Goldberg Machines, pg. 3-4

While suffering may indeed be a soul-making process (some psychological research indicates this to be true), it is not inflicted for this “greater good.” Perhaps it is not that God allows our hearts to broken, but, in many cases, He simply cannot prevent it. But because of the love He has and the at-one-ment He seeks with us, His own heart is broken and yearns to heal both ours and His. Atonement is about unity, unity is about love, and love is about vulnerability.

Walker Wright, Mourn With Those Who Mourn: The Weeping God and Me

I have known people who have rejected the Church because they have overestimated its nature and purpose, and have grown disappointed when the Church did not satisfy the functions that they have privately imposed on it.  Is it possible to overestimate the Church if it truly derives from God?  In my judgement, yes.  Some have misunderstood the Church as an end to be served for its own sake, which is in essence a kind of idolatry.  The Church exists, instead as an instrument through which together we may serve God and His children.  I have heard others express their disappointment by making the unremarkable ovservation that, "I don't get anything out of it anymore."  Though it is certain that most Latter-day Saints could strive more earnestly to reach for the profundities that are accessible through the gospel, it seems to me that such comments as "I don't get anything out of it anymore" in part reflect a loss of vision on the part of the speaker.  When Church members assemble, the idea is at least as much to give as to "get," to contribute as to be spoon fed.

-Philip L. Barlow, "The Uniquely True Church" (pg 252) A Thoughtful Faith

What are we to do then about what seem increasing divisions in the church centered around the efforts of some Mormons to join in the multicultural and feminist revolution? One frequent response is to quote Christ's command, "I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye ar not mine" (D&C 38:27), as a way of condemning those whose otherness and interest in diversity seem to bring division. I don't believe, however, that Christ means "Be all alike in the Church or I will not accept you," but rather "Be like me by accepting each other in the Church, even if you're not all alike." He is asking us to be one in our acceptace of diversity, not as a denial of diversity.

As evidence for this crucial interpretation, I offer the following: Just before making that command, Christ pleads, "Let every man esteem his brother as himself." He then retells a story of a man who has twelve sons and who claims to be no respecter of persons, a just man, but nevertheless, "saith unto the one son: Be thou clothed in robes and sit thou here; and to the other: Be thou clothed in rags and sit thou there (D&C38:25-26)...Finally, Christ concludes, "This I have given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you be one." Clearly, to be like Christ rather than the man in the parable, we need to learn to love unconditionally and treat equally all the members of our church and human families, no matter how different they are.

-Eugene England, Making Peace (pg. 190-191).

"You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself flows in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars: and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than so, because men are in it who are evey one sole heirs as well as you."

-Thomas Traherne, Centuries of Meditation

quoted in Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard (pg. 217)

"One night in 1945, on a Navy vessel in Pacific storm, my relief on bow watch, seasick, failed to appear, and I was alone for eight hours in a maelstrom of wind and water, noise and iron; again and again, waves crashed across the deck, until water, air, and iron became one. Overwhelmed, exhausted, all thought and emotion beaten out of me, I lost my sense of self, the heartbeat I heard was the heart of the world, I breathed with the mighty risings and declines of earth, and this evanescence seemed less frightening than exalting. Afterward, there was pain of loss--loss of what, I wondered, understanding nothing."

-Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard (pg.43)

"Hast thou attuned thy being to humanity's great pain, O Candidate for Light?"

-Mahayana texts (Tibetan)

Quoted in Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard (pg. 34)

"All the Jewish people are one body and one soul...If one part of the body hurts, the entire body hurts--and the entire body must come to the help of the part that hurts."

-Chaim Potok, My Name Is Asher Lev (pg. 132)