- Jonathan Green on Why We Shouldn’t Minimize Our Differences: An Evangelical Perspective on the Restoration: “Kind of rolling my eyes here. The Evangelicals are Traditional Christians because their heresy is 300 years older than our heresy? Yeah, okay, sure. He might want to ask his Catholic and Orthodox friends if “priesthood” is just a quaint archaism for them. “My way of explaining how one is equal to three (good and correct) is incompatible with your way of explaining how three is equal to one (bad and wrong)” is comical, especially since it’s based on a few opaque creeds that took shape many centuries after the New Testament, and LDS doctrines without much or any scriptural basis – we don’t even have a complete record of what was said in the King Follett sermon, and there’s no canonical support at all for belief in a Mother in Heaven. I mean, I like the LDS doctrines and think they’re true, but maybe we could all step back and be more humble about how much we think we know about the nature of God, instead of elevating it into an area of essential distinction. I have no particular interest in being accepted by or acceptable to Traditional Christians, and I think the differences in theology are real and valuable. But I reject the idea that Evangelicals, heirs of the single most consequential schism in the Christian faith, are in any position to claim to speak for Traditional Christianity. The Protestant Reformation was a big deal! It led to religious wars for the better part of two centuries. I think an honest look deeper into Christian history would find LDS doctrine doing a lot of things – not everything, but a lot of things – that turned up at various times in various Christian communities over the centuries. Acknowledging that would do more to help Evangelicals understand their LDS neighbors than pounding on early medieval creeds.” May 13, 04:53
- on Every Decade is a Decade of Decision: “Good post, I think we need to remember there are many groups at Church we have to be careful not to take for granted. The old men in EQ sit on hard chairs in a gym segment. The empty nesters are often not engaged beyond Temple and family history work. The members in Primary and Youth are disconnected from the adults. The time intensive calling folks are near burn out. The members on the margin are at risk of falling away. Women are often undervalued by default. Building and maintaining community is hard.” May 12, 20:29
- on Every Decade is a Decade of Decision: “To be clear, the 70-year old who decides it isn’t true is most certainly not the typical experience, it was just one particular scenario I thought would be particularly hard. I get that it’s usually a more gradual process across years or decades where one gradually sorts out what they like from what they don’t.” May 12, 13:07
- on Every Decade is a Decade of Decision: ““…I can’t imagine what it would be like to decide in your 70s none of it’s true…” I don’t think this is how it works, and I hope this is not the prevailing mindset among those who study activity demographics. I think that some (many? most?) of those who seem to disaffiliate in their later years do so because of irrelevance — they themselves are seen as irrelevant in their wards because of their age or for some reason no longer fitting the preferred pattern, or the lessons they hear in their meetings are irrelevant to daily reality. Lily’s first sentence resonated strongly with me. With regard to the second, the constant emphasis on pay, pray, and obey seems problematic. Rather than extracting from the members, it seems to me that church attendance should refresh, replenish, and recharge — rather than thinking that members exist for the church, it seems to me that the church exists for the members. It might be fruitful for the church’s demographers to shift from a true/untrue binary, if they want to better understand and to help resolve.” May 12, 11:33
- on Every Decade is a Decade of Decision: “As a current nonbeliever who left belief in the church over the course of my 30s, I don’t think you should feel too sad for people who leave religion later in life. I learned a lot from growing up in the church, and I don’t think it was time completely wasted even though I don’t believe it anymore. Life just happens, and I think people should be proud of following the truth as far as what they knew. Making a decision like that later in life can take an enormous amount of character, courage, and self-knowledge that people can be very proud of. I know I’m coming from the other side of the issue to some extent, but I wish the church spent less effort trying to “keep people in the church” at any cost and spent more effort on helping people develop skills of evaluating truth claims and build moral character regardless of where they end up. I actually don’t think very many more people would leave the church as a result and both members and ex-members would be better off as a result.” May 12, 11:13
- on Every Decade is a Decade of Decision: “The older I get the closer I feel to God and the more I think I understand His character. But the Church has made itself largely irrelevant to me with its constant emphasis on the youth and marriage and families.” May 12, 10:07
- on Every Decade is a Decade of Decision: “I suppose I get the general sense of this. But the chart needs value markings and larger type. (Former marketing research guy.)” May 12, 07:02
- on A widow’s mite of chastity: ““27 Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him,” The Sadducees, BELIEVING ONLY IN THIS EARTHLY EXISTENCE, are so threatened by Jesus’ ability to influence & reduce their authority over people, that they send spies/hecklers into the crowds to publicly expose/humiliate him by asking what they perceive as unanswerable questions. However, it backfires as Jesus is able to use these as teaching moments to expose them. He completes answers and then introduces the new topic regarding specific common behaviors & motivations of fraudsters/liars to help us identify truths. Then in the audience of all the people he said unto his disciples, 46 Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts; 47 Which devour widows’ houses, and for a shew make long prayers: the same shall receive greater damnation. 21 And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. 2 And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. 3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: 4 For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had. If when reading you do not include the beginning of this new topic starting in Luke 20, it almost seems like either 46-47 or the statement of the widow’s mite stands alone, without a strong continuity, beginning or end to either the prior answered question or the following 21:5 new question regarding the decadent opulence of the temple. So, the question is, what was the connected point of the widow’s mite applying the previous description of fraudsters/liars 20:46-47? I think it has more to do with 1st, it exemplifies the perspective of those who believe in eternal life & those who don’t. The widow’s mite was a metaphor of her testimony; a belief that the things of this life are of little value compared to the blessings of life eternal. Whereas, all the Sadducees wealth & power was tethered to this existence only, so they would do anything & everything to keep it. So when seeking clarification of the question of chastity, or any question, is to accept that there is a difference between questioning to gain truth/knowledge, seek & you shall find & searching for support of your already accepted position. Also, who/what are your sources. Who benefits? By their actions you shall know them. Are your choices based on an eternal or life ends here, perspective? If your perspective is from an eternal standpoint, then you will also have to accept that not all questions will be answered quickly because learning is an eternal process, but we already have some of these tools provided here to continuously learn & assess with the promise of Knock & it shall be open to you, not argue amongst yourselves & just figure it out on your own.” May 11, 10:28
- on A Review: Legends of Deseret Album: “They have some that are going through final proofs. I know that they will be releasing them with the physical CDs. They have put a PDF of liner notes with the digital versions of previous albums, so I’m hoping they will just add those retroactively.” May 10, 21:54
