Teaching Gospel Doctrine to CUF

[Jeff Lebowski]

It is a wicked generation that seeketh a sine.

This thread has gotten off on a weird tangent.

[MartyFunkhouser]

This thread has gotten off on a weird tangent.

I'd cosine on that.

[thesaint258]

I've recently started vainly hoping that one of these times around the church will replace Old Testament year with a Plato and/or Aristotle (as they relate to the gospel, which they often seem to do) year. I think members might actually learn something life-valuable from that.

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I usually just bring it in anyway. It makes for a better book report lesson.

[falafel]

Math jokes.

[Katy Lied]

One thing that the Church might consider...

We have a Gospel Essentials class for those that wish to focus on the basics.

We have a Gospel Doctrine class for everyone else. This broad-based approach doesn't make much sense, as lessons and manuals have to be geared to an array of folks from ages 18 to 80 (or older).

Why not have an "advanced Gospel Doctrine," so to speak. A 400-level GD class. Call it "Gospel Scholarship" or something similar. Make the lessons manuals more focused, instead of broad-based.

Also, limited the manual to maybe 15 lessons for the entire year, allowing for each lesson to take 2-3 weeks. As is, we are given instruction manuals with 40+ lessons in them and then we are given anywhere from 45 minutes to less than 20 minutes (Priesthood opening exercises are ridiculously long sometimes) to cover these topics. There just isn't enough time to get into anything interesting, at least not in my opinion.

For those that enjoy the current format, they can remain in the traditional Gospel Doctrine class.

The Gospel Scholarship class can be for a small subset of ward members, much like the Gospel Essentials offering.

Just a thought.

Just read this. What a great idea.

The other day we were learning about Lehi's dream of the tree of life and the iron rod. I remembered years ago I had an actual biblical scholar teach this lesson, and he said that this dream was quite common throughout history, in fact a great psychiatrist once journaled a similar dream (Jung?). So I googled this and found out that Joseph Smith Sr. had also had this very dream when Jr was 5 or 6 years old. I tried researching this dream on LDS.org and nada. It's only available in non-church sources. So now I wondered why the Ensign or similar never published an article on Sr's dream. And I was interested in the differences between Sr's and Jr's narrative. Apparently Sr's dream featured a rope instead of an iron rod, and also 2 children that he did not know about who were part of his family. And he had a guide with him in his dream.

[Topper]

Just read this. What a great idea.

The other day we were learning about Lehi's dream of the tree of life and the iron rod. I remembered years ago I had an actual biblical scholar teach this lesson, and he said that this dream was quite common throughout history, in fact a great psychiatrist once journaled a similar dream (Jung?). So I googled this and found out that Joseph Smith Sr. had also had this very dream when Jr was 5 or 6 years old. I tried researching this dream on LDS.org and nada. It's only available in non-church sources. So now I wondered why the Ensign or similar never published an article on Sr's dream. And I was interested in the differences between Sr's and Jr's narrative. Apparently Sr's dream featured a rope instead of an iron rod, and also 2 children that he did not know about who were part of his family. And he had a guide with him in his dream.

Too much work for Church Correlation Committee.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Math jokes.

This is an integral part of our plan to differentiate who has a sense of humor.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Just read this. What a great idea.

The other day we were learning about Lehi's dream of the tree of life and the iron rod. I remembered years ago I had an actual biblical scholar teach this lesson, and he said that this dream was quite common throughout history, in fact a great psychiatrist once journaled a similar dream (Jung?). So I googled this and found out that Joseph Smith Sr. had also had this very dream when Jr was 5 or 6 years old. I tried researching this dream on LDS.org and nada. It's only available in non-church sources. So now I wondered why the Ensign or similar never published an article on Sr's dream. And I was interested in the differences between Sr's and Jr's narrative. Apparently Sr's dream featured a rope instead of an iron rod, and also 2 children that he did not know about who were part of his family. And he had a guide with him in his dream.

We have been around this block before. One problem with having an advanced class is that it would immediately set up an uncomfortable dynamic between the "smart class" and the "regular class" that I am sure the church would like to avoid. Second, most wards are lucky to 1 or 2 decent candidates for a regular class, let alone an advanced class. And finally (and perhaps most importantly), the church sees Sunday School first and foremost as a devotional experience rather than an intellectual exercise. I doubt that will change.

[wuapinmon]

This is an integral part of our plan to differentiate who has a sense of humor.

We're all products of our environments in addition to our genetics.

[Donuthole]

This is an integral part of our plan to differentiate who has a sense of humor.

Ignore him; he's just being mean.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Ignore him; he's just being mean.

Yeah, but it figures. I heard that falafel did not practice safe six and ended up with a binarial disease.

[myboynoah]

This is an integral part of our plan to differentiate who has a sense of humor.

It's working.

[Jeff Lebowski]

It's working.

Ouch. That was harsh.

[hostile]

Ouch. That was harsh.

What an assymptote

[Brian]

These math jokes are irrational, and just go on and on and on and on and on.