{"id":1424,"date":"2004-10-06T11:26:06","date_gmt":"2004-10-06T15:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=1424"},"modified":"2009-01-20T12:44:46","modified_gmt":"2009-01-20T16:44:46","slug":"more-on-authority-etc-at-nine-moons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2004\/10\/more-on-authority-etc-at-nine-moons\/","title":{"rendered":"(When) are bloggers permitted to criticize church leaders?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This topic has come up in recent posts around the bloggernacle. For example, Rusty at Nine Moons discusses an instance where<\/a> a bishop committed all of the men in the ward to “1) To never watch an R-rated movie ever again. Also, to never watch a PG-13 rated movie without his wife\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s permission. 2) To use the internet (at home presumably) only with his wife\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s permission (by assigning a password on the computer that only the wife knows).” The comments to Rusty’s post <\/a>include a number of attacks on him for posting criticism of the Bishop. (e.g., “did you pray [before posting this critique] . . . I can say with absolute certainty that you could not have<\/a>“). Meanwhile, Steve at BCC wonders whether he is allowed to criticize conference talks for style<\/a>. (The BCC commenters, perhaps inured to Steve’s views, haven’t yet asked him if he prayed before posting them, but I suppose it’s just a matter of time). <\/p>\n

So let’s see what people around here think. Is it permissible for a blogger to comment on (perhaps critically) statements by a church leader? Is it permissible in some situations and not others? (When?) And, of course, why or why not? [Note — this topic is open to several different interpretations; please keep our commenting policies <\/a>in mind. Thank you.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This topic has come up in recent posts around the bloggernacle. For example, Rusty at Nine Moons discusses an instance where a bishop committed all of the men in the ward to “1) To never watch an R-rated movie ever again. Also, to never watch a PG-13 rated movie without his wife\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s permission. 2) To use the internet (at home presumably) only with his wife\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s permission (by assigning a password on the computer that only the wife knows).” The comments to Rusty’s post include a number of attacks on him for posting criticism of the Bishop. (e.g., “did you pray [before posting this critique] . . . I can say with absolute certainty that you could not have“). Meanwhile, Steve at BCC wonders whether he is allowed to criticize conference talks for style. (The BCC commenters, perhaps inured to Steve’s views, haven’t yet asked him if he prayed before posting them, but I suppose it’s just a matter of time). So let’s see what people around here think. Is it permissible for a blogger to comment on (perhaps critically) statements by a church leader? Is it permissible in some situations and not others? (When?) And, of course, why or why […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,18,54],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-1424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn","category-general-doctrine","category-mormon-life","tag-church-organization-and-structure"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6556,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions\/6556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}