Mormon Discussion: 306: What Is Left?

WHAT IS LEFT???????

1.) The Church has distanced itself from power of the Priesthood

• • • every conference talk about a priesthood blessing taking place ends with the person blessed dying

    • We have now shifted to “faith not to be healed” being greater than faith to be healed

    • The supernatural god-magic miracles of of the past have seemingly vanished.  Once we entered an age of verifiable history and as history becomes more historically verifiable, God-magic has slowly disappeared to the point, where today, essentially nothing happens.

2.) The Church has distanced itself from leaders speaking directly to God.

• • • Elder Oaks Boise Rescue imposed that to be a special witness has nothing to do with a visitation from Christ or other heavenly messengers

    • Youth Fireside – Elder Oaks imposes to a young lady that the experience of Alma the younger is not an experience we should expect to have.

    • We have gone from couching revelation today as simply impressions that come from feelings.  Meanwhile the Church in Joseph smith’s day imposed that we should seek and expect bigger spiritual experiences.  

3.) The Information Age has imposed that most of our faith promoting miracle stories are problematic or false

• • • Elder Holland’s story about the missionary and his brother

    • The conference talks on the tsunami in Japan

    • The saved art in the fire struck building

    • Sweetwater crossing, Brigham Young transfiguration, John Taylor’s watch saving his life, Lorenzo Snow seeing Christ, Jesus born on April 6th, etc….

    • Manuals are full of problematic stories told to increase faith. (Marsh and Ryder along with about 18 problematic stories in the primary manual)

4.) The Church’s historical truth claims are deeply problematic and it seemingly has failed to interpret its own history so miserably that it has an increasing lost trust in its ability to interpret itself.

• • • first vision, book of Abraham, priesthood restoration, large chunks of 19^th century in the book of Mormon, the three witnesses, 8 witnesses, the extensive practice of treasure digging, the unhealthy mechanisms in implementing polygamy, the deceptiveness in putting forth a certain narrative that seems to be inaccurate at every turn.

5.) The Church has essentially disavowed the majority of things that make it unique and peculiar.

• • • The Mormonism of Joseph Fielding smith and Bruce R McConkie that was the foundation of the growth the Church experienced in the 1980’s and 90’s is now in an information age now considered so absurd that much of it has been swept under a rug or disavowed. (gulf of Mexico – City of Enoch, Quetzalcoatl, evolution, age of earth, death before the fall, global flood, tower of babel and jaredite barges. Once one values the data and the science and is willing to go where the data leads rather than find support for their beliefs in order to maintain them all of these things become absurd.)

• • • Race and Priesthood

6.) Mormonism has killed all creativity by membership and its leadership

– Elder Oaks has stated in the recent ysa broadcast that if you get a revelation that is different than what the leaders have taught you can know that your revelation comes from the wrong source. (hold mike accountable to answering how he reconciles his views on race and priesthood with that?). This rhetoric kills creativity as this pushes members into a corner where they sense that anything new.

– The leadership is so threatened by both the progressive voices like John Dehlin, pointing out contradictions on one side and voices like Denver Snuffer on the other, they they are paralyzed and unable to move in any direction and hence must impose that membership too stay in lockstep with them. This has created a religious institution afraid it will mis-step with any move it makes and afraid of the risk of allowing members room to do anything differently. It senses to allow creativity and new ideas simply welcomes new Dehlins and new Snuffers

Once you throw out most of the miracle stories …. Once you throw out all the doctrines and theories imposed by a MConkie/Fielding Smith Mormonism and their books…… Once you acknowledge the problematic data against our historical truth claims …….. What you throw out the power of the Priesthood……   Once you throw out God-Magic…..  Once you throw out real Revelatory experiences….  Once you throw out creativity…… What is left?

I mean this sincerely. What is Mormonism in 100 years once it works through all of this and all within its walls recognize all that has been sacrificed on the altar due to an internet age?

 

Resources:

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/face-to-face/oaks-ballard?lang=eng

https://mormondiscussions.org/mdpodcast/2017/09/radio-free-mormon-018-faith-not-healed/

mdpodcast.org/2017/11/mormon-awakenings-episode-023-god-magic-spiritual-experiences-paranormal/

https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https://zeios.blob.core.windows.net/jtz-article-images/Boise%20Rescue-Transcript.docx

reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/42obsk/audio_and_outline_of_elder_oaks_youth_fireside_in/

mdpodcast.org/2017/04/extra-radio-free-mormon-april-2017-conference-autopsy-report/

reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/7ku7lq/top_ten_errors_in_the_church_history_primary/

https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/approaching-mormon-doctrine

mormonstories.org/how-the-lds-q12-think/

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