Follow the Prophet

[Jeff Lebowski]

Peggy Fletcher Stack takes on one of our favorite topics:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/lifestyle/51489143-80/lds-says-church-leaders.html.csp

She quotes Molly Mormon:

“I’m grateful to know this and more,” says Molly Bennion, a Mormon in Seattle. “Their very fallibility gives me hope that I can overcome and that God might forgive me.”

Bennion says those who follow the LDS prophet unthinkingly, believing there is no need to weigh their leader’s words, “never develop the spiritual strength necessary to weather the inevitable disillusionment in some leader or, perhaps worse, in oneself.”

All humans learn as least as much from their mistakes as from their triumphs, Bennion says. “To deny our leaders that possibility seems unfair.”
No doubt, most LDS leaders would agree.

“Adulation is a disease I fight every day,” Hinckley, who died in 2008, told The Salt Lake Tribune a decade earlier.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Molly probably hates correlation.

[TripletDaddy]

Interesting yet predictable response in the comments section

Neither Joseph Fielding Smith nor Bruce R. McConkie were prophets when they said those things listed in this article. McConkie wasn't even an apostle. Elder Packer softened a few of his words, not his message. It is funny to me to read the attempts of disillusioned Mormons who try and "kick against the pricks" and find errors in the words of Prophets. Write an article instead on when the prophet has spoken in General Conference and his counsel has been wrong. This article and a lot of the comments are prophetic as to what we've been told would be said in the last days. Because I follow the prophets and believe in their words, I am prepared to read articles and comments like I've read here. Believing Mormons understand that there will be opposition, that the leaders of the church will be raked through the mud by some. The Lord will not change with the times. He is not going to change the moral stance on homosexuality no matter how loud the cries or desire for debate.

What is it with Mos and the infallibility of their leaders? I think it must freak many people out to the core to even consider that anything the leaders say is wrong.

Yesterday, one of our HTs said this: "I don't question Church leaders because that is the road to Apostasy."

It is interesting that what one views as a road to Apostasy can also be viewed as road to enlightenment within the structure of the Gospel. In other words, you can still question things and not leave the Church. In fact, you can even come out of it a better person. There is definitely something to the notion that we are actually an incurious people....either by nature or by force, but we are definitely incurious to an extent.

[Jacob]

Yesterday, one of our HTs said this: "I don't question Church leaders because that is the road to Apostasy."

Dude...he was quoting from the First Presidency message! The membership is hardly to be blamed.

BTW, for a message titled "Looking for the Good", I couldn't find much good in it. I actually told the family I home teach that I struggled to find something good in it.

[TripletDaddy]

Dude...he was quoting from the First Presidency message! The membership is hardly to be blamed.

BTW, for a message titled "Looking for the Good", I couldn't find much good in it. I actually told the family I home teach that I struggled to find something good in it.

I thought it was a nice message. The HT held up the picture of the glass and asked my son if the glass was half empty or half full. My son said "half full," and the HT said, "you must be an optimist." My son said, "yep." He is 6 and has no idea what that means, but it was still funny.

I don't blame the HT, per se, but we have built a cultural fence around curiosity that is now so impenetrable that we view the act of questioning counsel or talks or whatnot as a pernicious act...or at least one that contains risk. Very puzzling and somewhat ironic given that it is in the LDS DNA to question the very religious inconsistencies and disconnects that abound in our everyday lives.

[Goatnapper'96]

Dude...he was quoting from the First Presidency message! The membership is hardly to be blamed.

BTW, for a message titled "Looking for the Good", I couldn't find much good in it. I actually told the family I home teach that I struggled to find something good in it.

I think the concept to look for the good in any situation is great advice. IMO, it is the essence of faith. The anecdotal story about somebody never questioning Brigham Young is easilly ignored.

[Jacob]

I thought it was a nice message. The HT held up the picture of the glass and asked my son if the glass was half empty or half full. My son said "half full," and the HT said, "you must be an optimist." My son said, "yep." He is 6 and has no idea what that means, but it was still funny.

I don't blame the HT, per se, but we have built a cultural fence around curiosity that is now so impenetrable that we view the act of questioning counsel or talks or whatnot as a pernicious act...or at least one that contains risk. Very puzzling and somewhat ironic given that it is in the LDS DNA to question the very religious inconsistencies and disconnects that abound in our everyday lives.

Here's a little irony. The quote from the Ensign was from George Cannon, about never even thinking to question anything Brigham Young ever did or taught. That's right. He wouldn't even let himself question for a moment teachings that were cast aside and have been buried under the rug by later prophets. But this is George Cannon we are talking about. One of the guys who continued to practice polygamy long after the manifesto. So, he quite clearly questioned and taught contrary to the "official" teachings of Woodruff.

[Goatnapper'96]

I don't blame the HT, per se, but we have built a cultural fence around curiosity that is now so impenetrable that we view the act of questioning counsel or talks or whatnot as a pernicious act...or at least one that contains risk. Very puzzling and somewhat ironic given that it is in the LDS DNA to question the very religious inconsistencies and disconnects that abound in our everyday lives.

It is amazing that revolutionaries always suck as democrats. From Mormonism to South Africa to the Arab states of North Africa......"now that we have thrown off the chains of oppression never question us as we were with you throwing off those chains and the reason we threw off the chains were to make sure you would never be oppressed again, so don't worry about what we do now going forward....you can trussssssssssst me!"

[Jacob]

It is amazing that revolutionaries always suck as democrats.

America.

[Goatnapper'96]

America.

Trully a bizarre anomaly in history. At times I wonder if the hand of God played a role........

[Pheidippides]

This Sunday I taught the lesson on prophets in gospel principles. I actually specifically mentioned the doctrine of infallibility and how we don't believe in it. That was immediately countered by a class member with the "never lead us astray" quote.

I chickened out and simply moved on.

[Goatnapper'96]

This Sunday I taught the lesson on prophets in gospel principles. I actually specifically mentioned the doctrine of infallibility and how we don't believe in it. That was immediately countered by a class member with the "never lead us astray" quote.

I chickened out and simply moved on.

Use the asymptote model. I always put it that the Church is similar to us as individuals that we, both we as individuals and we collectively as the Church, are getting closer and closer to what we want to become. But that we are not all there yet and not likely to get there in mortality.

I like the Hinckley quote. The adulation is something that we think we should speak more frequently. In the end being preoccupied with the fallibility is just not healthy. It leads to discussions focussing upon the shortcomings of others and save speaking of the cream greedy bitch, we should avoid that. But focussing upon the adulation we heap upon Church leaders is healthy and includes a practical component of everyone's everyday life.

[Moliere]

I thought it was a nice message. The HT held up the picture of the glass and asked my son if the glass was half empty or half full. My son said "half full," and the HT said, "you must be an optimist." My son said, "yep." He is 6 and has no idea what that means, but it was still funny.

[byu71]

Interesting yet predictable response in the comments section



What is it with Mos and the infallibility of their leaders? I think it must freak many people out to the core to even consider that anything the leaders say is wrong.

It really is fruitless to discuss the issue with the infallible crowd. I almost wonder if for some reason they have to hold onto that as the rock of their testimony.

You can find examples as late as the 70's where a Prophet preached a principle from the pulpit that is no longer practiced. You don't have to go clear back to the 1800's.

[FMCoug]

Am I the only one that literally LOL'd that the woman's name was Molly? Yet she's clearly not?