Brother Peterson closed with the story about the prominent New Testament scholar Krister Stendahl, who was Lutheran bishop in Stockholm, Sweden, in the early 1980s when construction of an LDS temple was announced in that city. "As commonly happens when Mormons build a temple, there was complaining, puzzlement and some opposition among the local people. The now-deceased Bishop Stendahl, who had Latter-day Saint friends and had visited Brigham Young University, reacted dramatically and quite unexpectedly."
The Lutheran bishop called a press conference and held it in an LDS stake center. There, he outlined for the Swedish press three principles that should govern discussions of the religious beliefs of other people:
1. If you want to know what others believe, ask them. Don't ask their critics or enemies.
2. Compare your best with their best, not their worst with your best.
3. Always leave room for "holy envy."
"Regarding Mormons and their temples, Bishop Stendahl suggested baptism for the dead as an object of 'holy envy,'" Brother Peterson recounted. The Swedish bishop lamented, "We Lutherans do nothing for our dead."
"At a minimum, observing Krister Stendahl's three principles would eliminate much of the religious strife in a world that is growing ever smaller and more interdependent and that can no longer afford such conflict," Brother Peterson remarked.
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