We had a new Gospel Doctrine teacher yesterday. I knew the lesson was going to be good when he started off with "I have a strange fetish regarding the Ensign". (This is just one of those words that's really overused in our ward for some reason. I don't think they understand the connotation it has, or else their sexual lives are just way more interesting than mine.) He went on to say that he's collected every Ensign since 1972, his way of introducing a talk by Elder Nelson from 2003. http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.js...____&hideNav=1
He quoted excerpts from the talk, which points out that God's love isn't really "unconditional". At the end of a good 15 minutes he spent "discussing" this (no comments from audience), he actually stated "isn't it a relief to see God's love this way?" I made a "whew" gesture with my hand to my wife and whispered, "Can we make this our FHE lesson?" She told me to be quiet, because other people could hear me.
I'm not one to say that Elder Nelson is misunderstanding the scriptures, but I certainly think he's wording his message very poorly. I think most people, including the speaker, understand things at least sort of correctly, i.e. that God always loves us, but that we sometimes shut ourselves off from the blessings of His love by sinning, so I didn't say anything.
Not that I had a chance, as the following 45 minutes consisted of exactly one comment, which went unappreciated by the teacher, who was evidently grateful for the soapbox he'd been given. We heard about his mission in the South, about his awful encounters with Babs-like evildoers who refused to acknowledge that we were Christians, his ability to corner any minister in discussing the Gospel but noble refusal to do so because of his Christ-like demeanor, the silliness of The Godmakers, etc. One of the gems, to which I laughed out loud, was the statement, "You see? They can't say we're not Christians. We're the best ones!" (The irony of the statement obviously escaped him.)
Anyway, my point. I don't know this guy well, but he honestly seems like a decent guy who often puts his foot in his mouth. I don't envy the job of a SS teacher, so I usually try to look for what I can learn from the lesson, and leave the other stuff behind. (Try to, anyway...) However, I'm always a little torn on lessons like this, where there really are some doozies, in that if there were a visitor in the audience, they'd come away with the idea that Mormons think like this guy. I'm even afraid that there are members who sit back and wonder, "Does everyone else really think like this? Do I really belong here?" One of the nice aspects of CG/CUF in my life is to get a break from the blowhards that always seem to have the stage at Sunday school.
How aggressive/contentious is everyone in Sunday school in correcting mistaken facts? Another example from priesthood later that day...the teacher mentioned that "few people know that Albert Einstein had a firm belief in God, and that this belief was a secret to his genius". Well, few people know that fact because it's not really true, but I do believe that my belief in God has enhanced my knowledge of the world, which was really his point. Is it worth correcting him?
He quoted excerpts from the talk, which points out that God's love isn't really "unconditional". At the end of a good 15 minutes he spent "discussing" this (no comments from audience), he actually stated "isn't it a relief to see God's love this way?" I made a "whew" gesture with my hand to my wife and whispered, "Can we make this our FHE lesson?" She told me to be quiet, because other people could hear me.
I'm not one to say that Elder Nelson is misunderstanding the scriptures, but I certainly think he's wording his message very poorly. I think most people, including the speaker, understand things at least sort of correctly, i.e. that God always loves us, but that we sometimes shut ourselves off from the blessings of His love by sinning, so I didn't say anything.
Not that I had a chance, as the following 45 minutes consisted of exactly one comment, which went unappreciated by the teacher, who was evidently grateful for the soapbox he'd been given. We heard about his mission in the South, about his awful encounters with Babs-like evildoers who refused to acknowledge that we were Christians, his ability to corner any minister in discussing the Gospel but noble refusal to do so because of his Christ-like demeanor, the silliness of The Godmakers, etc. One of the gems, to which I laughed out loud, was the statement, "You see? They can't say we're not Christians. We're the best ones!" (The irony of the statement obviously escaped him.)
Anyway, my point. I don't know this guy well, but he honestly seems like a decent guy who often puts his foot in his mouth. I don't envy the job of a SS teacher, so I usually try to look for what I can learn from the lesson, and leave the other stuff behind. (Try to, anyway...) However, I'm always a little torn on lessons like this, where there really are some doozies, in that if there were a visitor in the audience, they'd come away with the idea that Mormons think like this guy. I'm even afraid that there are members who sit back and wonder, "Does everyone else really think like this? Do I really belong here?" One of the nice aspects of CG/CUF in my life is to get a break from the blowhards that always seem to have the stage at Sunday school.
How aggressive/contentious is everyone in Sunday school in correcting mistaken facts? Another example from priesthood later that day...the teacher mentioned that "few people know that Albert Einstein had a firm belief in God, and that this belief was a secret to his genius". Well, few people know that fact because it's not really true, but I do believe that my belief in God has enhanced my knowledge of the world, which was really his point. Is it worth correcting him?
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