- Mark Ashurst-McGee on Devotion in the Postinformation Age: “Very thoughtful and much appreciated.” Dec 3, 08:59
- on “It’s just Violence” Why I Think Sex Actually is Worse than Violence in Movies: “I agree with this. As someone who grew up not watching Rated R movies, it was strange to interact with active members who did when I left my house. I still don’t watch them.” Dec 3, 08:27
- on “It’s just Violence” Why I Think Sex Actually is Worse than Violence in Movies: ““For the most part I actually do think that sex in movies is worse than violence.” I tend to hold this thought as well. But hear me out. What if we’ve all been ruined in a way similar to but different than if we’d raised an entire nation for generations on porn? It’s 6 the only question you need to ask yourself. Can you imagine sitting down and saying to the Saviors, “this is a great one, let’s watch it for fun, and then how about we sing ‘more holiness give me’ afterwards?” It’s a seemingly impossible standard to apply that to our conduct all the time because quite frankly we love Babylon too much. But admit it at least. Let’s not make our sins better than others to justify them.” Dec 2, 23:14
- on Your Reactions to Church Yesterday, 11/30: “For the past 2 yrs our ward bishopric has used 5th Sunday Sacrament Meetings as Special Music Appreciation sessions. After the sacrament rite is completed, the congregants are invited to come to the microphone, say what hymn they especially like, why it speaks to them, and which verse they would like to sing. The congregation then sings that verse, et cetera until the end. It is easily the most enjoyable and anticipated Sacrament meeting of the year. My only nit concerning the entire process is that we have to end at 5 minutes to the hour, in order to have a CLOSING SONG ! I can’t imagine why they haven’t thought to skip that part of the usual format.” Dec 2, 20:32
- on “It’s just Violence” Why I Think Sex Actually is Worse than Violence in Movies: ““That said, when I hear about these incidents where people are shot for going to the wrong door, I wonder how many violent movies, “true crime” documentaries, and violent crime-focused news shows the shooters have watched recently.” Me too. And, on a slight tangent, whenever I see somebody weaving in and out of traffic I wonder how many people the Fast and the Furious franchise has killed.” Dec 2, 18:26
- on Your Reactions to Church Yesterday, 11/30: “We’ve had for 3or 4 weeks running an apparent moratorium on CFM as the assigned subject matter… and the Spirit of our Sacrament meetings has made a huge improvement…wow… first time in a long time I hear in this ward the spontaneous “wasn’t that uplifting, wasn’t her talk touching, that kid really moved me” even from the more cynical. I’ve been in this ward 24 years and its nice to see.” Dec 2, 17:11
- on “It’s just Violence” Why I Think Sex Actually is Worse than Violence in Movies: “Sexual content (assuming the viewer is aroused by it) stirs up a bunch of hormones that subtly influence our thoughts and behavior and are designed to help us “finish the job.” Those of us who are married have options for dealing with those hormones, and those of us who are older probably don’t feel them as keenly. But we shouldn’t forget that for a youth or young single adult, those hormones are both frustrating and can lead to more problematic behavior–including changing how they treat others. So yeah, it’s a problem. For violence, context matters so much that I’m not sure it’s useful to talk about it as a category. We should pay more attention to the messages that come with the violence in a given movie. Movies can do a great job of making us not care about the suffering of certain people or kinds of people. They often endorse very primitive notions of justice which are contrary to the teachings of Jesus. How many violent movies send the message “Making people safe requires a strong man who is willing to break rules, be ruthless, and make the bad guys suffer”? Is it any coincidence that we now have a president whose core message is “I am a strong man who is willing to break rules, be ruthless, and make the bad guys suffer to keep you safe”? People who would never commit violence as a result of watching a movie may be influenced by a movie to endorse those who will, especially if the violence happens out of sight, to people whose suffering they have been desensitized to, and in the name of some primitive notion of justice. That said, when I hear about these incidents where people are shot for going to the wrong door, I wonder how many violent movies, “true crime” documentaries, and violent crime-focused news shows the shooters have watched recently.” Dec 2, 15:03
- on “It’s just Violence” Why I Think Sex Actually is Worse than Violence in Movies: “I think one of the differences between sex and violence in movies (and other media) is that the latter is obviously fictionalized while former breaks the fourth wall. The actors may not love each other in the real world–but that doesn’t mitigate the direct transmission of sexual content to the viewer.” Dec 2, 13:28
- on “It’s just Violence” Why I Think Sex Actually is Worse than Violence in Movies: “Carey F: “The moral assessment of violence is fundamentally context-dependent.” I agree. The same could be said for sexuality as well, but in many more cases it can provide a temptation regardless of its context, hence why we need to be more careful with the latter.” Dec 2, 11:08
- on How Do YOU Think Eternal Marriage/Family Should Work in the Next Life?: “Last thought on plural sealings: perhaps I have misunderstood the phrase “time and eternity.” I once heard that “time” meant mortality, spirit world and millennium. I don’t think that definition is accurate. We stopped doing “time only” sealings in the temple 8 or 10 years ago. Per HB 27.3.3, the purpose of the temple is to administer ordinances for eternity, and therefore marriages “for time only” are no longer performed in temples. “For time only” clearly refers to mortality, which is why we’re free to remarry upon the death of our spouse. We aren’t “married” while we’re in the spirit world or during the millennium. Lots of choices and courting and relationship forming will be going on during that time. Then, presuming both parties choose to stay together, they will go forward as husband and wife in eternity. That’s the only way to reconcile plural sealings. Not sure why we don’t alter the sealing language a bit to reflect this, and it certainly does take away the romantic nature of the ordinance. However, I think it explains why we’re okay with serial monogamy.” Dec 2, 09:39
