No marriage can survive an examination of the spouse’s faults, without equal or more time spent on the partner’s good qualities. This is true even if the examination is fair-minded and gives due weight to extenuating circumstances, excuses, and justifications.

No member’s relationship with the bridegroom can survive is they spend all their time reading attacks on the Church and defenses by apologists. Prayer and scripture study redress some of the imbalance. So does simply living the Mormon life. The Mormon life is actually an extremely powerful testimony of the gospel, but since we Mormons are immersed in our own life we sometimes need to have our attention called to it. That is one purpose of this blog’s On the Sweetness of Mormon Life series.

But when the negativity is intellectual or scholarly, there needs to be time spent considering the positive intellectual or scholarly case for the Church. The Saint who refuses to do so is *choosing* to lose testimony. Most Saints do not so choose, even if they are being knocked about by doubts, and will gladly accept positive material if offered.

Which is all to say that Dan Peterson has suggested the basic apologetic and positive texts that he thinks struggling Saints should read. His recommendations are good.