Focus on the known of the restoration, Elder Hafen counsels

[Goatnapper'96]

I think the church will evaporate if the idea that the BoM and PoGP are works of 'inspired fiction' is ever widely embraced by the general LDS membership.

LOL! At times I think you wasted so much of your time in the LDS Church. I just don't think you get what it means to many people. I can see why you left it to. I guess if it just never does anything for you it is outside of your grasp to see what it can do for others.

Good luck with that Robin, but my guess is many LDS members will just keep doing what they are doing. If the entire premise of one's involvement in the LDS Church is "being right" then they are likely to leave it, but eventually those type eventually do. I think of the poster on this site that is woot. Being preoccupied with proving the literal truthfullness of all this shit is a fools errand. However, for those who genuinely enjoy their involvement with the Church, I doubt it impacts things to any extent whatsoever. My guess is you just can't fathom that those types really exist. In my equally ego-centrical world I assume the majority of the members are that way.

There is enough of an explanation for those who want an explanation.

[RobinFinderson]

LOL! At times I think you wasted so much of your time in the LDS Church. I just don't think you get what it means to many people. I can see why you left it to. I guess if it just never does anything for you it is outside of your grasp to see what it can do for others.

Good luck with that Robin, but my guess is many LDS members will just keep doing what they are doing. If the entire premise of one's involvement in the LDS Church is "being right" then they are likely to leave it, but eventually those type eventually do. I think of the poster on this site that is woot. Being preoccupied with proving the literal truthfullness of all this shit is a fools errand. However, for those who genuinely enjoy their involvement with the Church, I doubt it impacts things to any extent whatsoever. My guess is you just can't fathom that those types really exist. In my equally ego-centrical world I assume the majority of the members are that way.

There is enough of an explanation for those who want an explanation.

By 'evaporate' I was referring the the church's long term survival prospects. If the leadership were to openly embrace the possibility that Joseph Smith may have not been a prophet in the way that he claimed to be a prophet, and that the foundation of the church is a creative fiction, I think that the church's abilities to attract and retain members would be diminished. You would have a core group that enjoys the fraternal nature of the church ("...those who genuinely enjoy their involvement with the Church..."), but without the truth claim, Mormonism competes on the same playing field as a million other fraternal organizations. I won't deny the church's charms, but I don't think that it is a crazy idea to believe that church would be hurt by the widespread LDS belief that Joseph Smith wrote an inspired work of fiction... if that is what people believe, the JS would be no different than L. Ron Hubbard (interesting that use of the abbreviated name format, "L. Ron Hubbard." Now where else have I seen that before?)

[UtahDan]

Practical application of religious principles is a simple way to validate the content (conclusions), regardless of how it was derived.

I agree that this is correct, if by content we mean whether it is "good" or whether it leads to happiness. Experiment on the word. But I don't think it is a good test for the source. Otherwise, I can tell you that God spoke to me through the cuticle of my left pinky finger and told me that paying at least one compliment to my wife every day would make me feel good and build a better marriage and that you could test this through application.

[scottie]

That made me laugh out loud. I have no idea what you mean by it, but a cat watching someone paint a barn/fence? Love it.

[UtahDan]

Robin, have you ever done any reading on the cargo cults? Sometimes the less evidence there is of something, the more intense belief becomes. I don't think there is any thread that the LDS church will evaporate. These things simply become "holy mysteries." It is almost like Einsteins cosmological constant, you simply insert it and everything works.

[UtahDan]

That made me laugh out loud. I have no idea what you mean by it, but a cat watching someone paint a barn/fence? Love it.

I know someone who can decipher picture posts for a small fee...

[Jeff Lebowski]

That made me laugh out loud. I have no idea what you mean by it, but a cat watching someone paint a barn/fence? Love it.

White washing.

[TripletDaddy]

White washing.

See, I suck at this form of humor (amongst others!).

I assumed it was "watching paint dry," as in Jarid in Cedar finds this topic to be boring.

[scottie]

White washing.

I hope the cat represents something too.

[Jarid in Cedar]

White washing.

$100 winner

[UtahDan]

White washing.

Flooding the market with freebies drives the price down Jeff.

[wuapinmon]

So then you seem to be saying that you ARE a proponent of the Kinderhook Plates, as well as the Hoffman forgeries.

They contain good messages. They are also forgeries/fraudulent.

Is this the case? If so, then I concur that you and Elder Hafen seem to be at loggerheads.

I am also confused, fwiw.

Can I be a Mormon Rasta now? Dem Brigham Young system is de vampaya?

[TripletDaddy]

Can I be a Mormon Rasta now? Dem Brigham Young system is de vampaya?

I and I agree.

Brigham Young and LDS exodus...movement of Jah people.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Flooding the market with freebies drives the price down Jeff.

Oops. Sorry.

[wuapinmon]

I and I agree.

Brigham Young and LDS exodus...movement of Jah people.

This morning, I woke up in Provo
Oh, God! I was a member too
I could not baptize my neighbors next door to me
They were all dressed in the Sunday best of the Methodists, SEE!

How many numbered streets do we have to cross?
Before we can lament that TCU loss? Yeah!
All that we have we have gold-embossed
We never ever wear-ear the Cross

That's why we're gonna be preaching and a teaching tonight
Said we gonna preach and a teach now
Preaching and a teaching tonight (earn your eternal life)
Preaching and a teaching tonight (endure this mortal strife)

WATCH ME!

Give me the Scriptures, and let me go
To seminary early in the morning, bro
I said, All them, all them Cokes is bad for you
The Word of Wisdom is the how you should roll

That's why we're gonna be spurning all the caffeine tonight
Said we gonna spurn all the caffeine
Spurning all the caffeine tonight (only drink de Diet Sprite)
Spurning all the caffeine tonight (add ten years to your life)
Spurning all the caffeine tonight