- TexasAbuelo on Conviction Without Conflict: The Power of a Gentle Answer: “You can’t imagine a Muslim attacking a Christian?? You need to get out more… Christians are often barely allowed to practice their religion in Muslim controlled countries. Even while living in countries like the USA and the UK where there is a wide berth of religious freedom- they tend to demand way more acceptance than they’re willing to afford others. Their separatism is well documented I agree with how LDS and other Christians should respond to attacks and have plenty of experience doing that — just be realistic in your jumping off point” Jan 18, 22:54
- on What Can We Learn from Visions of Glory?: “A brief note: I continue to be amazed at the members of the church who comment here who appear to be reasonably well informed and thoughtful that still cling to their COVID orthodoxy re: masks and so called vaccines (not to mention flawed mortality reporting) well after the facades have been dropped, the facts (many of which were known during COVID) re: masks and supposed vaccines and their lack of efficacy have long since been become public … perhaps this is some well meaning but mis-guided effort to justify their own lack of courage or common sense in the face of social pressures? It doesn’t bode well for LDS members’ future if they’ve surrendered so easily their willingness to reason and think for themselves on matters of public policy requiring a modicum of common sense. I guess going along with the crowd is still easier than standing alone” Jan 18, 22:45
- on 17 Thoughts About Resistance: “You might enjoy David Dennison’s Substack “Aged Well.” All-time champion translator of the right-leaning half of the country for liberals. I could never do it so well. My only question for you is: what do you plan to do after this? If a Democrat wins 2028 what should she do?” Jan 18, 22:12
- on What Can We Learn from Visions of Glory?: “I know many people who read the book and believed every word of it. They were not inspired to abuse or murder others. They were inspired to make extremely stupid financial decisions based on the claims in the book. The book undeniably caused great harm to many.” Jan 18, 18:59
- on What Can We Learn from Visions of Glory?: “It sounds to me like the issue with Daybell, Hildebrandt, and Ballard was more about DHB having some odd religious inclinations and using VG to head in odd directions. Still makes me wonder what’s up with DHB.” Jan 18, 18:19
- on What Can We Learn from Visions of Glory?: “Non-polygamous LDS Fundamentalism is a real thing, from Julie Rowe to Hannah Stoddard at the Joseph Smith Foundation. There is a real political/cultural schism going on in the Church. It became blazingly apparent during Covid, when the First Presidency was ignored and even ridiculed regarding masking and vaccinations. There is a schism on the political/cultural left, but it doesn’t really shake the foundations like the one on the Right.” Jan 18, 16:26
- on What Can We Learn from Visions of Glory?: “I haven’t read it, but I was expecting Visions of Glory to be somehow more lurid. It actually sounds more like afterlife narratives that have been circulating for 1000 years or so.” Jan 18, 16:12
- on Conviction Without Conflict: The Power of a Gentle Answer: “I’m not sure what church you grew up in, but calling the catholics the great and abominable church and forbidding children from playing with children of other faiths seems pretty far in the conflict camp #child of the 60’s” Jan 18, 16:11
- on What Can We Learn from Visions of Glory?: “Sussing out specific visions that could have inspired Daybell/Hildebrant/Ballard is beyond my pay grade, especially given how little I know about DHB’s worldviews. But I can speculate! Harrison—to his credit—was not creating a movement. He numbered himself as one of the 144,000 from Revelations; the book, however, made a bigger splash than he was expecting, and he seemed sincerely embarrassed that local church leaders frowned on it. As I point out, his visions align with expectations Latter-day Saints have about New Jerusalem, the Millennium, and changes to the earth when it is “rolled together as a scroll”. Pontius worked hard to position Harrison’s visions solidly within pre-existing Mormon beliefs. My guess is that DHB found common cause with Spencer as they were forming their own visionary identities. Hildebrant was preparing for some cataclysm, and Ballard was getting ready to be the President. The clearest connection I know of is that the Daybells imagined they possessed the power to discern people’s spirits, which justified some of their murders. “Spencer” is able to make these discernments during one of his NDEs. Problem is, Latter-day Saints speak of perceiving others’ “countenances” all the time! So you can see how pushing Harrison into DHB’s camp is extreme. Steve, you asked about guardrails: I plan to address that in a later post.” Jan 18, 16:10
- on 17 Thoughts About Resistance: ““I’m not saying they’re equivalent–I’m saying they’re both really bad. And whichever of the two is judged to be worse largely depends on one’s political bias. It’s not a bad litmus test, IMO.” If political bias is to be tested by some reference to policy (rather than a person) than I have to be your counter-example. The Republican platform fit mine to a tee, and even Trump Admin I was, as a policy matter, a pretty good four years in my view (with exceptions that reflect my very Mormon background). It is incredibly easy for me to see riots about people upset about police killings to be wrong, but that January 6th, which as an assault on the democratic foundations of our nation (the vanguard of the protest were insurrectionists in the truest sense, explicitly trying to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power), was so much worse than the Floyd riots. “if it was inappropriate for Sen. Lee to compare Trump to Captain Moroni (and it was) it is equally inappropriate to compare him to King Noah.” The biggest problem with Senator Lee comparing Trump to Captain Moroni is that you have to suspend all disbelief to see any likeness between them whatsoever, while the case that the way he runs the government is much like King Noah is a pretty easy one to make.” Jan 18, 15:43
