I’ll agree with the above statement for Deseret Books publications — however, I still aver that the above cannot be equated with “official approval” of, by, or for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That has been my sole point in this discussion.

Basically, it just means that the persons indicated found nothing objectionable. It doesn’t typically convey anything stronger.

However, the absence of information such as an indication of who, precisely, is “approving” DB publications and the conditions and standards for doing so make the analogy too strained for my tastes. Transparency is necessary for trust.

A confession that has the ring of truth, but no other merit.

By study and faith.
Study: scripture study, pondering
Faith: doing, living life

Don’t just think about these things, try to add them to what you do every day.
Also, awesome lesson. Definitely appreciated by most LDS artists, I’d wager.
Sometimes I fancy taking up a more innovative religious art career. So many good ideas to start with: #1, Abinadi was a young scrawny guy that had his whole life ahead of him.

I’d add #6 as priorities. The church spends money on all sorts of things, including humanitarian service—which is about the only thing some factions give any credit for (when they actually do). So how many resources would it require to overcome your (and other) barriers? What would be the net benefit of doing so? I don’t have an answer to that specifically, but I’m not positive that in the grand scheme of things what we need most of all is to have erudite teaching materials, as nice as they might be to some.

Ben S bemoaned the idea that most LDS adults don’t continue deep gospel study after college. I’d agree that is true, but intense scripture/historical/language study simply isn’t the priority for everyone. I’m glad for those who do this work and read many of their writings, but I have no interest in doing much of it myself.

I focus on web technology and languages, business, tax law (shoot me), education, entertainment promotion, etc., because it’s most useful to me. Should I spend that time in gospel study? What’s the opportunity cost? My husband is a world-class expert in multiple engineering specialties (blockchain, reputation, autonomous vehicles, fuzzy logic, etc.) and spends most of his time learning and consulting about those subjects. He enjoys intense gospel study and is an excellent, well-read scholar, but uses that in teaching gospel doctrine, family discussions, etc., and doesn’t take the time to blog, write, or discuss it online. Priorities.

Ben S.:

I didn’t realize we were playing with the No True Scotsman fallacy. My bad.

haha Ben, Ben, you’ve been blogging a long time. You should have seen that from a mile away!

But so is the head of the Trump campaign in Utah. What significant is said about an enterprise when you say that it’s being run by an emeritus General Authority?

I agree with Ben S. that publication by DB *is* a cultural indicator that an item has no overtly objectionable (heretical, pornographic, whatever) content, and therefore fits on the *range of authoritative approval” which is all the authority he has granted publication by DB — it doesn’t represent the full range, but it is o the scale.

Anecdotally, more books are purchased from DB to give as gifts than to read — if that’s the case, then the general LDS population seems to recognize the same “nihil obstat”: “I’m not interested in reading it, but it comes from DB so it’s safe to give to Mom/Grandma/my visiting teacher.”