{"id":15491,"date":"2011-05-11T08:15:06","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T13:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=15491"},"modified":"2011-05-11T10:14:35","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T15:14:35","slug":"the-nom-end-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2011\/05\/the-nom-end-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Resolving Disharmony in the Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

NOM = “new order Mormon” — a general term for people who self-identify as Mormon, yet maintain unorthodox beliefs or practices. I mention this because there’s a bit of drama going on right now with John Dehlin. John is one of the most well-known church members associated with the NOM world (he does the Mormon Stories podcasts<\/a>) [update: to clarify, John doesn’t self-identify as a NOM — he says, “over the past year I’ve distanced myself from any particular model, and instead just want to help people find joy wherever they feel led.”]. Apparently he’s been called in by his stake president, and the two of them are working out whether or not his beliefs call for church discipline.<\/p>\n

John’s approach to this conversation has been to\u00a0present his work as a positive contribution to the church<\/a>, showing how he reaches out to members who feel alone and unsupported by the regular church structures. In a sense, John is working to demonstrate that there is a whole segment of members who want to be part of the church, but who find that the church is not meeting their needs. This is an interesting approach, but its success depends on whether church leaders actually want these uncorrelated Mormons to stay in the church.<\/p>\n

In group conflict, there is often a static faction (the side representing the status quo) and a dynamic faction (the side agitating for change). The static faction can respond in one of several ways to the actions of the dynamic faction. Here are three possible responses I see in this situation:<\/p>\n