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Containing 3,876 Articles Spanning 260 Topics Ex-Mormon News, Stories And Recovery Online Since January 1, 2005 |
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| Today, GBH is in Finland, dedicating yet another completely unnecessary temple.
Some exerpts from Deseret Morning News of today: "He noted how Finland has drawn recognition for creating the most competitive business climate, the least corrupt government and the finest school system in the world."Business is the first thing he mentions? Of course. How appropriate. "He also noted it is the only country to repay war debts to the United States" Isn't that pretty old stuff? But of course, he would remember it first hand, being from the bygone era himself. "and praised the ability by most residents to speak three languages."What utter BS. They do NOT speak three languages. Finnish is the mother tongue of more than 95 %. Most don't even speak the TWO official ones. Swedish is not an option for Finns, you MUST study it and also pass tests before you can serve in government owned institutions & positions. But most ordinary Finns DO NOT SPEAK SWEDISH. Many do understand English but speak it poorly. So claiming that "most speak three languages" is just poo-poo. "President Hinckley lamented that after 59 years since the land was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel that there are only 5,000 members out of a population of 5 million."News for you, Hinkster: There aren't even 5000 members. The official state statistics say there were 3278 members INCLUDING children under 8, in the end of 2005. And the numbers are getting lower year by year. (You are not allowed to be a member of more than one religious institution, and all Finns are registered.) So, if the 3278 is the total number of Mormons, I guess the real ACTIVES number is even lower. Many do fall into inactivity even in Finland, without reporting it to anyone. "He expressed hope that the recent temple open house — where more than 50,000 visitors were hosted — will prepare others for the church."Yeah, well. He must know the hope is pretty weak. Yeah, the Mormons counted the visitors to be over 55000, but consider this: Some 3000 wanted the gratis BOM and were foolish enough to give their names and addresses to the Mormons. OF ALL THOSE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF VISITORS, ONLY 91 WANTED MISSIONARIES TO VISIT THEM FOR TEACHING. "The five countries of the Helsinki Finland Temple district constitute the largest geographic area of any temple, crossing at least 12 time zones and five languages with approximately 20,000 members."Yeah right. 20,000 members. You wish. |
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| Not to say that the source of the following, the "Church of Christ Reincarnated," is the reincarnation of all that is good and true, but this is offered up by said group for consideration:
"From 1848 until 1978 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints taught: *Negroes are the descendants of Cain, and fall under the Curse of Cain, which is a denial of the priesthood in mortal life. *Negroes were less valiant in the War in Heaven, and, as punishment, were born into Cain's lineage. The [Mormon] Church, via its official spokesmen, is now starting to DENY it ever taught these things. In a 1997 interview on the Australian COMPASS TV program, President Hinckley was asked: COMPASS: "What was the reason for that? [i.e. denying Blacks the priesthood]" HINCKLEY: "I don't know what the reason was." (COMPASS, aired Nov. 1997, Australian Broadcasting System) _____ Hinckley [has] worked for the [Mormon] Church since 1930. He [has been] a General Authority since 1951. He was in Quorum of the Twelve meetings when the priesthood ban was discussed, for at least three decades. He was an Apostle during at least 27 years of the priesthood ban. In 1949 the First Presidency issued this statement (signed by all three members): "The attitude of the Church with reference to Negroes remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandement from the Lord, on which is founded the doctrine of the Church from the days of its organization, to the effect that Negroes may become members of the Church but that they are not entitled to the priesthood at the present time." (The First Presidency on the Negro Question, 17 Aug. 1949) This is NOT all. Don Jesse, the OFFICIAL spokesman for the LDS Church, issued a letter in 2003 which DENIED that the Church ever taught that Blacks are cursed or the descendants of Cain. Read it: http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/blackmor... The [Mormon] Church has become "The Party," as George Orwell wrote, rewriting the past: "The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the LIE became the truth." (George Orwell, "1984," chapter 7) [Interested readers are urged] to [personally] contact LDS Public Affairs. Call them and ask [at]: 1-800-453-3860 (LDS Church Offices. Ask for Public Affairs) |
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| My favorite part of this video is when Gordo says, "JESUS SMITH".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngszEa... |
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb26n1CnnjM |
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| Quote, "President Hinckley outlined four ways young women can ensure virture as a staple in their lives: prayer, study, tithing, and church attendance."
(Deseret News Sunday 3/25)
TITHING??? Now I think I've heard it all. Follow the money is correct. President Hinckley certainly knows how to cover the money game. Throw it into a completely unrelated topic and voila....those revenues will increase. I don't think he cares about the virtue of young women. He cares about the bottom fiscal line. It is so apparent that the leadership is all about revenue. My General Conference prediction is that tithing will be the most discussed topic, followed by retaining the converts that the church is losing in droves. Virtue and tithing....GBH knows. He knows it is all a corporational ploy. If he was really concerned he would NOT have mentioned money. |
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| Our newspaper reported on the recent Young Women's General Conference, and according to the story, Gordon B. "Bee" Hinckley had this to tell them (I'm paraphrasing, because I don't have the article in front of me):
If you want happiness and success in this life, there are only four things which you must do.
Pray often is a euphamism for "don't think for yourself, but assume that some higher being is going to tell you what to do. In the absence of answers, turn to the scriptures, the teachings of the prophets, and the counsel of your priesthood leaders." If prayer was all about gratitude, then I might be more merciful toward this admonition, but my experience is that prayer in the Mormon church is primarily for two purposes. First, to tell God what you want, and second, to receive "personal revelation" from God regarding what you should do. "Should I wear slacks, or a skirt? Better ask God!" Subsequently, when I hear 'pray often,' I am inclined to hear, "Give your mind over to us." Always attend your church meetings means, "Always do all the things the church would have you do. The institution of the church requires enormous sacrifices of time from it's members, WAY beyond the three hour block of church. They know that if they have their YW (and everyone else) orbiting around the church, they won't have time or inclination to expore anything outside the church. When I hear "Always attend your church meetings" I am inclined to hear, "Give your time over to us." And Always pay a full tithe is just blatantly absurd. "Give God your money, you'll be happy." In other words, "Turn your money over to us." It is discouraging to me that the message is "Give up your mind, your time and your money" to the church, and therin you'll find happiness and success. But what about these things: Honor the diversity of opinion, race, religion and culture of the world, that you might know you are a citizen of planet earth; Live with an attitude of abundance, knowing that if we live each day with an eye towards the needs of both ourselves and others, we all will have what we need for our health, happiness and prosperity; Be informed and active in the issues of your community, your nation, and the world, that you might lend your voice to making this a better place to live; Work hard and honestly to ensure that you do your part to meet your own needs, and have sufficient to help those who cannot help themselves; Love with abandon the people and the creaturs you share this planet with; Live a life that seeks at every turn to do no harm. If you must cause harm, ensure that it is appropriate and necessary to further the greater cause of humanity, and life on the planet; Treat the relationships in your life--your parents, your siblings, your spouse, your children, your friends and neighbors--with honor and respect; Live a life filled with honesty and inegrity; ...and the list goes on. Never would I include on MY list of things to ensure success "Pay a multi-billion church corporation a butt-load of money so they can buy more sh*t". Never would I include on my list "give up your mind to someone else". Am I alone in this, or this admonition by the President of the church shallow, manipulative, and incredibly self-serving? |
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This weekend Gordon B. Hinckley again reinforced the rule that women are second class citizens in Mormonism:
"Husbands, love and treasure your wives. They are your most precious possessions. Wives, encourage and pray for your husbands. They need all the help they can get."Women are still "possessions" and you will need three of them to become a Mormon God. Thanks Gordy. |
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| I would agree it was probably not meant to be deragatory. But it does show the philosophical underpinnings from being brought up in the Mormon Religion.
This is a theme that he has used for a while. For example in the Jan 2002 ensign: Regard as your most precious possession in time or eternity the person with whom you joined hands over the altar in the house of the Lord and to whom you pledged your love and loyalty and affection for time and all eternity.In the young women metting in March 1998 Faust used the same term in describing sexual purity: Sexual purity is youth's most precious possession; it is the foundation of all righteousness. This implies that the virtue of young women should be equal to the angels.From the 1996 mariied students regional conference, Hinckley stated: "My brethren, you will never have in all of your lives a greater asset than the woman into whose eyes you looked as you joined hands over the altar in the house of the Lord. She will be your most precious possession in time or eternity. "Let's look at the definitions of possession from a number of sites on the web:
"Possession is having some degree of control over something else. Generally, to possess something, a person must have an intention to possess it. A person may be in possession of some property (although possession does not always imply ownership). Like ownership, the possession of things is commonly regulated by states under property law. Languages have several means to indicate possession."The use of the word possession in Hinckley's talks harkens back to a time when women were literally the possession of their husbands such as in Middle Eastern cultures. Are women or men today the possessions of their spouses in the US, Cnada or Europe? I consider a spouse a partner. Using the term possession intones something different than a partner. Perhaps he did not mean it the way it sounds but as the prophet and president of the church he should pick his words more carefully. |
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This remark by Gordon B. Hinckley caught my ear during General Conference:
"When the emperor Constantine was converted to Christianity, he became aware of the divisiveness among the clergy concerning the nature of Deity. In an attempt to overcome this he gathered the eminent divines of the day to Nicaea in the year 325. Each participant was given opportunity to state his views. The argument only grew more heated. When a definition could not be reached, a compromise was made. It came to be known as the Nicene Creed, and its basic elements are recited by most of the Christian faithful. "Personally I cannot understand it. To me the creed is confusing.I'm sure this went completely unnoticed by TBMs, but this is the type of negativity that mormons are highly sensitive to when it is directed toward them, yet they engage in it toward other faiths on a fairly regular basis. Imagine if Pope Benedict stood in front of a large gathering of Catholics and briefly summarized the various versions of the First Visions then told his followers, "Personally I cannot understand it. To me Joseph Smith's multiple accounts of seeing God and Jesus are confusing. How deeply grateful I am that we of this Church do not rely on one man's opinion concerning the nature of Deity." It may seem like a minor attack, but it is an official statement coming from the church leader. And did anyone else find Hinckley's bolded comments above ironic. The Mormon church doesn't rely on man-made statements regarding deity because their knowledge comes from Joseph Smith? |
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| LDS members have a cult-hero worship relationship with Gordon Hinckley and believe him to be the most important man on earth. Hinckley, for his part, has added to this perception by scheduling interviews with reporters such as Mike Wallace and Larry King.
But do they consider him prominent or important? Larry King’s internet website lists many note-worthy people he has interviewed, including: (http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_report...) Every U.S. president since the Ford administration Al Gore Ross Perot Yasser Arafat King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin George H.W. Bush Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein President George W. Bush, first lady Laura Bush Sen. John Kerry, Teresa Heinz Kerry Sen. John Edwards and Elizabeth Edwards Former British Prime Minister John Major Convicted murderers Sante Kimes and her son, Kenneth Karla Faye Tucker, the first woman to be executed in Texas Mike Tyson James Frey Wynonna Judd Howard Stern Kathryn McDonald, wife of convicted murderer Jeffrey McDonaldv Jennifer Aniston Kobe Bryant New York Times journalist Judy Miller Generals Richard Myers and Hugh Shelton Queen Noor of Jordan captured Newsday journalist Matthew McCallester families of POWs Ambassadors from Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey The "Central Park Jogger" Trisha Meili Paul Burrell, butler to the late Princess to Diana Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott interviews with the family of the D.C.-area snipers Actor Harry Belafonte regarding his controversial comments about Secretary of State Colin Powell Erin Runnion, mother of murdered 5-year-old Samantha Runnion Mariane Pearl, widow of slain journalist Danny Pearl former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling's Tony Blair Marlon Brando Barbara Bush Johnny Carson Bette Davis Sammy Davis Jr. Jackie Gleason Mikhail Gorbachev Billy Graham Audrey Hepburn Bob Hope L.Ron Hubbard Michael Jordan Bobby Kennedy John F. Kennedy, Jr. Dr. Martin Luther King Monica Lewinsky Madonna Paul McCartney Al Pacino Prince Nancy Reagan Eleanor Roosevelt Pete Rose Frank Sinatra Barbra Streisand Margaret Thatcher Oprah Winfrey Malcolm X Religious leaders such as Billy Graham and Scientology’s L. Ron Hubbard appear on King’s list. Even Mike Tyson, Monica Lewinsky, Pete Rose and Prince make the cut. Even Princess Diana’s butler is listed. Guess who’s missing? Yeah, you guessed it – no Hinckley mentioned. Well, what about Mike Wallace of Sixty Minutes fame. The two, after Hinckley’s anxious interview, became great friends. Surely, Mr. Wallace considers the Mormon prophet a person of note. Let’s review the official Mike Wallace website listing those prominent people he has interviewed: (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/0...) Jose Canseco Russian President Vladimir Putin John Nash, the mentally ill genius on whose life the controversial Academy Award-winning film “A Beautiful Mind” was based, Louis Farrakhan and the eldest daughter of Malcolm X, who has accused Farrakhan of indirect complicity in her father's assassination, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan George H.W. Bush, Ronald and Nancy Reagan Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Gerald Ford Richard Nixon Lyndon B. Johnson John F. Kennedy Deng Xiaoping Manuel Noriega, the Ayatollah Khomeini Menachem Begin Anwar el-Sadat Yasir Arafat the Shah of Iran King Hussein Hafez Assad Muammar Qaddafi Kurt Waldheim H. R. Haldeman Vladimir Horowitz Itzhak Perlman Mikhail Baryshnikov Leonard Bernstein Johnny Carson among many others Not there either. Oh, yeah, in 2005 Mr. Wallace had published his memoirs entitled: “Between You and Me: A Memoir.” Hinckley must be mentioned or included in Wallace’s lengthier book. No, not there either. Maybe, just maybe, the two most noteworthy journalists to ever interview Hinckley don’t consider him famous, important or even memorable. Any maybe, they don’t even consider the LDS Church prominent enough to include its leader in their biography pages. |
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| "President Hinckley affirmed the eternal nature of the marriage between Sister Hunter and the former church president, whose first wife, Claire Jeffs, died after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease and is now buried beside him in the Salt Lake Cemetery.
Inis Hunter "will now be laid to rest on the other side," he said. "They were sealed under the authority of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood for time and for all eternity," he said, recalling the marriage ceremony he performed for them in the Salt Lake Temple in April 1990." http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,... |
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| Gordon B. Hinckley was the well liked, highly visible church leader that understood the church members liked to hear a joke or two, be reminded of their pioneer heritage and what those people accomplished, and the feeling that they belonged to something big.
Hinkley also knew the members of the church liked to see the prophet and went around the world on a Gulf Stream jet and private helicopter supposedly thanks to John Huntsman. Hinckley rebuilt Nauvoo and other church historic sites making them grander than ever. He put Martin's Cove back on the map. LDS summer vacations were now visiting Nauvooland and pulling a handcart at Martin's Cove. Everything the church ran and owned became grander and more wonderful under Hinckley. The historic tabernacle was replaced with a half billion dollar Conference Center. BYU Provo received upgrades while Rick's College became BYU Idaho with a Harvard Business School Dean running the show. Hinckley did public interviews and hired Madison Avenue to due the church PR work. He liked to refer to the book of Daniel and liken the church to the stone cut out without hands rolling forth. At first Hinckley's plan seemed to work until in the mid 1990's a software program called Netscape made searching the internet easier. The internet changed the world much like the invention of the PC did. It leveled the playing field allowing the average person to have more of a voice, to more easily search for information and harder to hide information. The mainstream media and large organizations could not withhold information like it used to. People who had left the church could tell their story in easy to find forums on websites. Church historical information could be looked up and compared. People from all over the world could tell their experiences. All this added up and showed more than ever, the LDS Church was full of bull. This was all happening at the same time while the LDS Prophet was doing public interviews denying basic church doctrine. The church leaders continued business at usual and the emperor had no clothes anymore. Not to mention terrorist attacks on 9/11 brought attention on the Mountain Meadows Massacre again and when ground was broke to build Hinckley's "We're Sorry!" monument, forensic evidence of the massacre was found to show the surviving children told the truth and the Mormons cooked a story. Add in the FLDS polygamy scandals and abuse and Hinckley's public relations blitz was failing badly. Now the church is investing $2 billion into a downtown mall project. Not to mention the church bought part of Main Street and turned it into a parking garage. The media and attention loving Hinckley is gone and has been replaced with Thomas S. Monson. Monson will steer the church the same way Hinckley did but without all the grand public relation stunts. I think he will avoid talking to the press like Hinckley did other than press that he knows if friendly to the church. Monson's reign has already been somewhat of a disaster. Instead of bragging about the strength of the church and the rock rolling forth, the new prophet begs exmormons to return to the fold. It's a far cry from the begining of the Hinckley years where the church was mighty and the fastest growing. Business as usual is going to run the rest of the sane members from the church and all that will be left will be a bunch of Kool Aid drinking wierdos. |
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| Francis M. Gibbons--Secretary to the First Presidency of the LDS Church for 16 years--admits in print that contrary to how faithful Mormons may believe the Mormon Church is supposedly administered at the top, in reality, LDS Inc. is directed from behind the scenes by others who are supposedly in subordinate positions to higher-ranking Church authority--put in other words: the assistants tell the prophet what to do, or do it themselves, or order others to do it when the prophet is incapable of doing it.
In short, God doesn't revitalize the prophet mentally or physically with special powers to regain the reins and run God's church. Instead, God brings in prophet-propping pinch hitters. This was particularly true with the behind-the-scenes role played by Gordon B. Hinckley in running the Mormon Church before Hinckley himself became Mormon Church president. Gibbons acknowledges that Hinckley served, in effect, in the role of shadow Mormon Church president during the administrations of Spencer W. Kimball and Ezra Taft Benson (despite LDS Church claims that its presidents are supposedly leading the Church as God's singularly-chosen and uniquely-empowered prophet heads). Gibbons offers, as proof of Hinckley's backstage job of pulling the strings, a description of Mormon Church leadership as it existed during Spencer W. Kimball's tenure as LDS Church president and Ezra Taft Benson's simultaneous employment as then-President of the Quorum of the Twelve: "Because President Hinckley [at that time, second counselor in Kimball's First Presidency] was in good health in his early seventies, President Kimball [who Gibbons says was ailing from "recent head surgeries, " as well as hampered with limited speaking abilities, "a weak heart, "a bad back" and "problems with his sight and his hearing"] delegated full authority to [Hinckley] to administer the affairs of the Church in accordance with the existing guidelines. ANY ACTION BEYOND THEM was taken only with the express authorization of President Kimball. "THIS CREATED A UNIQUE HISTORICAL PRECEDENT--ONE COUNSELOR DIRECTING THE WORLDWIDE AFFAIRS OF THE CHURCH. It also provided a critical test for the flexibility of the First Presidency and for the adaptability of the Twelve and other General Authorities to A NEW, UNPRECEDENTED SITUATION. "This was especially true in the relationship between President Hinckley and President Benson. President Hinckley was the younger of the two by eleven years and the junior in apostolic seniority by eighteen . . .. [Hinckley] did not acquire General Authority status until 1958, when he was called as an Assistant to the Twelve. Before then he was little known outside the administrative headquarters of the Church, while Elder Benson was known worldwide as a member of the Twelve and as the Secretary of Agriculture [under U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower]. "Against this background, and human nature being what it is, those UNACQUAINTED WITH THE OPERATION OF THE CHURCH MIGHT HAVE EXPECTED THAT PRESIDENT BENSON WOULD DOMINATE, OR AT LEAST WOULD HAVE TRIED TO DOMINATE. The opposite was true. FROM THE BEGINNING OF THEIR UNUSUAL RELATIONSHIP, PRESIDENT BENSON COMPLETELY SUBORDINATED HIMSELF TO PRESIDENT HINCKLEY, BOTH IN WORD AND IN DEED. REPEATEDLY HE ADMONISHED THE TWELVE REGARDING THE NEED TO GIVE UNQUALIFIED SUPPORT TO PRESIDENT HINCKLEY IN THE DELICATE ROLE HE PLAYED. "As for President Hinckley, he retained unfailing loyalty to President Kimball, FOLLOWING THE GUIDELINES he had set, briefing him regularly about the work, and seeking his direction on any matters BEYOND THE GUIDELINES. "As a result, the work of the Church continued unabated on a global scale despite the serious physical disabilities of two members of the First Presidency [meaning Kimball and Kimball's First Counselor Marion G. R., the latter whom Gibbons describes as being "almost blind" and suffering "from other problems of old age"]. "It was possible because of the unity among the Brethren and the submersion of personal interests for the benefit of the work." (Indeed, in a private meeting with Mormon apostles Neal Maxwell and Dallin Oaks, held in Maxwell's Church office in Salt Lake City in September 1993, Maxwell told me that "it is our [meaning the Twelve's] duty to be loyal to the prophet" and that when Church members asked him [Maxwell] how then-Church President Ezra Taft Benson was doing, he would reply only that "he is not in pain"). Back to Gibbons on how Hinckley functioned as defacto Mormon Church president: " . . . PRESIDENT HINCKLEY BRIEFED PRESIDENT BENSON AND THE TWELVE ABOUT . . . MATTERS HE WAS HANDLING FOR PRESIDENT KIMBALL and often sought their counsel SO THAT ALL WERE FULLY INFORMED and moving in concert. "The close rapport built between President Benson and President Hinckley DURING THIS CRITICAL PERIOD is suggested by PRESIDENT BENSON'S SELECTION OF PRESIDENT HINCKLEY AS HIS FIRST COUNSELOR WHEN HE BECAME PRESIDENT OF THE CHURCH. . . . ". . . [U]ntil [the] moment came [when Kimball died], THERE WAS NOTHING PRESIDENT BENSON COULD DO or wanted to do to assume [the] demanding role [as Mormon Church president]. He carried on IN THE USUAL WAY, directing the Twelve, fulfilling assignments in the field, and SUPPORTING AND ASSISTING PRESIDENT HINCKLEY." (Francis M. Gibbons, "Ezra Taft Benson: Statesman, Patriot, Prophet of God" [Salt Lake City, Utah: Desert Book Company, 1996], pp. 288-289, emphasis added) |
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That the 1997 LDS priesthood/Relief Society lesson manual "The Teachings of Brigham Young", p. 34, states:
"The doctrine that God was once a man and has progressed to become a God is unique to this church."This lesson manual was published the same year in which Hinckley denied that the church "taught or emphasized" the doctrine. For the original poster's benefit, the following is from the "I have a question" section of the February 1982 issue of The Ensign magazine: "Is President Lorenzo Snow's oft-repeated statement – 'As man now is,God once was; as God now is, man may be' – accepted as official doctrine by the Church?" In response, Gerald N. Lund, Teacher Support Consultant for the Church Education System answered, and summarized the situation by saying: "It is clear that the teaching of President Lorenzo Snow is both acceptable and accepted doctrine in the Church today." [The Ensign, February 1982.]More quotes: "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!...........It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God....yea, that God himself, the father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did; and I will show it from the Bible.... [Joseph Smith, quoted by Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 345-346.] |
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| This morning, I turned on the car radio just in time to hear the voice of Gordon B. Hinckley solemnly imploring his listeners to know as he did, that "this is God's work." I was momentarily disoriented by the familiar, gravelly drone, but then I was brought back by the chirpy voice of uber-annoying Amanda Dickson reminding me that it's been a year since the man had passed away. She read copy that said Hinckley's 13 years as church president were marked by an unprecedented jump in temple building.
What struck me, however, is how much has changed since he left the scene. Hinckley was always conscious of the church's image and did as much as he could to assure the outside world that Mormons weren't "weird" and that the problematic parts of its history and theology were "behind us" and "in the past." Members of the church around the world spoke in reverent tones about how this one man had raised the church's profile and improved its public image. But after his death, two things undid much of his PR work. First, Mitt Romney's presidential campaign led the media to investigate the reality behind the church's carefully crafted public face, and what they found was indeed "weird," Hinckley's protestations notwithstanding. People learned for the first time about temple garments, seer stones, institutionalized racism, and a whole host of facts the church had long tried to bury. Then came Proposition 8. The church's clumsy and ham-fisted excursion into sexual politics has been a disaster for the church. They may have scored some points with right-wing Christian groups, but then those are the same people who have long demonized Mormons as "not Christian," anyway. So, few potential converts are among that crowd. For the rest of the US, however, the church showed its retrograde Victorian attitudes about sex and gender, and of course it aligned itself with the right-wing religious nut jobs. Either way, it did itsef no favors over the last year, except maybe to reassure members that it actually does stand for something beyond tithing. Anyway, if Gordon B. Hinckley is at all conscious somewhere in the universe, it must be eating at him to see all of his work so completely unraveled. |
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| "None of us knows what lies ahead. We may speculate, but we do not know."
"I do not know what the future holds." "I don't know His will. I don't know how He operates." "I don't know what he meant by that." "I don't have the remotest idea what you mean." "...we are given little understanding." "I don't know that we teach it. I don't know that we emphasize it. I haven't heard it discussed for a long time in public discourse. I don't know. I don't know all the circumstances under which that statement was made. I understand the philosophical background behind it. But I don't know a lot about it and I don't know that others know a lot about it." |