{"id":39478,"date":"2019-11-29T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T17:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=39478"},"modified":"2019-11-29T11:56:26","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T16:56:26","slug":"taking-president-hinckley-seriously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2019\/11\/taking-president-hinckley-seriously\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking President Hinckley Seriously"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-39481\" src=\"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/4CF47E16-7EB6-4122-95D4-DADC67782CD4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"260\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/4CF47E16-7EB6-4122-95D4-DADC67782CD4.jpeg 260w, https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/4CF47E16-7EB6-4122-95D4-DADC67782CD4-160x205.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px\" \/>In the April 1997 General Conference Pres. Hinckley said everyone deserves \u201cthree things: a friend, a responsibility, and nurturing with \u2018the good word of God\u2019\u201d[1. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchofjesuschrist.org\/study\/general-conference\/1997\/04\/converts-and-young-men?lang=eng\">Gordon B. Hinckley,\u00a0Converts and Young Men, General conference, April 1997<\/a>]. If local leaders take this seriously, then:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who doesn\u2019t think they are worthy?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who hasn\u2019t resolved a serious sin?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who doesn\u2019t wear garments?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who doesn\u2019t pay their child support?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who smokes or drinks?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who doesn\u2019t pay their tithing?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who doesn\u2019t keep the sabbath day holy?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who supports teachings contrary to those of the Church?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who doesn\u2019t follow the teachings of the Church with their family and others?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who don\u2019t obey the law of chastity?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who are living in a same-sex relationship?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who don\u2019t sustain the General Authorities?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who don\u2019t have a testimony of the restoration?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who don\u2019t have a testimony of Christ?<\/li>\n<li>What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who is an atheist?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>Please repeat the above questions in the following ways:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Who in our congregation can be a friend to someone who \u2026<\/li>\n<li>What \u201cgood word of God\u201d should be presented to someone who \u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<p>I\u2019m sure many will suggest that some of the people above aren\u2019t worthy, or don\u2019t come to church anyway. Do you really think that is what President Hinckley meant? And while his talk was oriented toward converts, are you really going to argue that less active members or those who are struggling with the Church should be given different attention from converts?<\/p>\n<p>If we are serious about welcoming people, don\u2019t we need to make them part of our community?<\/p>\n<p>If local leaders are serious about involving everyone in their units, won\u2019t they have answers for most of these questions ready? If they don\u2019t, how likely will it be that everyone will be integrated?<\/p>\n<p>Now let me take this a step further. If we don\u2019t have someone coming to our meetings on Sunday who smells like cigarette smoke or liquor, or who is violating some commandment, shouldn\u2019t we be asking ourselves \u201care we being welcoming enough?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the April 1997 General Conference Pres. Hinckley said everyone deserves \u201cthree things: a friend, a responsibility, and nurturing with \u2018the good word of God\u2019\u201d[1. Gordon B. Hinckley,\u00a0Converts and Young Men, General conference, April 1997]. If local leaders take this seriously, then: What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who doesn\u2019t think they are worthy? What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who hasn\u2019t resolved a serious sin? What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who doesn\u2019t wear garments? What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who doesn\u2019t pay their child support? What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who smokes or drinks? What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who doesn\u2019t pay their tithing? What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who doesn\u2019t keep the sabbath day holy? What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who supports teachings contrary to those of the Church? What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who doesn\u2019t follow the teachings of the Church with their family and others? What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who don\u2019t obey the law of chastity? What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone who are living in a same-sex relationship? What responsibilities\/callings can be given to someone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":39481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mormon-life"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/4CF47E16-7EB6-4122-95D4-DADC67782CD4.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39478","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\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39478"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39495,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39478\/revisions\/39495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}