Elder Bednar's Latest B.S. Blowhardery

[Not Buying It]

Elder Bednar is such a blowhard. Every time he opens his mouth some kind of pretentious ridiculousness ensues.

https://www.deseret.com/faith/2020/10/1 ... udi-arabia

“My call is for respect, accommodation and cooperation — for creative solutions that mitigate the threat of COVID-19 while not cutting people off from an essential part of their lives,” said Elder Bednar, who remotely participated in a virtual panel discussion from a studio in the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City.

“In many instances, the lack of such respect has backfired, creating suspicion toward government and the undermining of its legitimate efforts to control the pandemic,” he added.

Bullpuckey. He's got it exactly backwards. The only reason religious people got suspicious about the government and religious freedom in relation to attempts to control the pandemic is because moronic religious leaders like Elder Bednar did their best to whip up distrust of the government and claimed religious freedom was being infringed upon. He's not talking about a problem the government caused with the pandemic (and there were plenty of those) - he's talking about a problem religious leaders like him created and made continually worse. This is one problem you can't blame on the government, the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of stupid religious leaders like him.

During COVID the responsible thing for society to do is to limit large gatherings to slow the spread of a disease that is fatal to many. Fear mongering about religious freedom threats by dopes like Elder Bednar de-legitimizes honest, sincere efforts to save lives and protect public health.

I'm furious. Who knows how many people contracted COVID listening to him and reaching the conclusion attempts to slow the spread were really a government plot against organized religion? How many people felt free to disregard public safety measures because of talk from leaders like him? People died and are still dying over this you punk.

[græy]

Elder Bednar is such a blowhard. Every time he opens his mouth some kind of pretentious ridiculousness ensues.

https://www.deseret.com/faith/2020/10/1 ... udi-arabia

“My call is for respect, accommodation and cooperation — for creative solutions that mitigate the threat of COVID-19 while not cutting people off from an essential part of their lives,” said Elder Bednar, who remotely participated in a virtual panel discussion from a studio in the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City.

“In many instances, the lack of such respect has backfired, creating suspicion toward government and the undermining of its legitimate efforts to control the pandemic,” he added.

Bullpuckey. He's got it exactly backwards.

Agreed. Statements like his are why there is suspicion toward the government and undermined efforts to control the pandemic. His real concern is that people won't want to come back once they discover there is no dragon beyond the edge of the map. I am no less happy having not gone to church in 6 months. In fact, I am dreading going back.

This past Sunday we watched our ward's sacrament meeting via zoom. My 3 year old daughter asked questions about who was speaking and why. It was clear that she already has holes in her memory regarding regular church meetings. Later my DW mentioned that she was scared for our children since they have not gone to church in so long. I asked her what she was scared about specifically and she couldn't really answer. Do you know why she couldn't answer? Because there is nothing to fear! They are good kids! They will be good kids regardless of whether or not they go to church and get fed a bunch of half-truths about history and crap rhetoric about how they are terrible sinners.

We do not need church to be happy. I think with each passing month more members will have that tiny thought pop up somewhere in their brain, and the seed will be planted.

That is what scares Bednar. That is why he sows suspicion and mistrust regarding government and scientific regulations meant to safeguard the people. And that is how we know he is no loving prophet of God. He doesn't care for the safety of his flock. He cares that his time to reign will come and he can show the world just how great he is. But his success will be muted if too many people realize they don't need him anyway.

[Mormorrisey]

I mentioned it briefly in another thread, but take a look at this sentence. I laughed for about a minute, after I read it.

"Bednar also pointed out that religious institutions can be a powerful and influential ally in the battle against the pandemic.
Misinformation is a major obstacle in a health crisis,” he said. “Faith communities can debunk rumors, calm fears and facilitate accurate information.”

Really, buddy? The church has come out and stated EXPLICITLY that people should follow medical guidelines, including wearing masks? Calling BS on that one, Dave. In fact, it's your religious freedom bullcrap that has spurred on the churning ridiculousness that is Utah County, and why my kid is sitting at home doing her BYU education online, instead of going into pandemic hotspots like Provo.

You know who litters my facebook feed with anti-mask stupidity? Mormons.

You know the only people who've sent me the "Plandemic" video? Mormons.

You know who keeps telling me I need to join their fight for freedom against the CDC? Mormons.

And on, and on. What a joke that article is, and how stupid Bednar sounds, for a guy, you know, who went to a good school and isn't a dodo. The church has done jack sh#t about curbing misinformation - in fact, its members have perpetuated said misinformation. And it's because of stupid talks like this. Unbelievable.

[Angel]

So.... do they like Trump because he is republican? or do they dislike Trump because he infringed on everyone's religious freedom? (or do they somehow disconnect the fact that Trump was president when all the religious liberties were taken away?)

[2bizE]

Looking at the title of the article, it appears Elder Bednar is feeling less legitimate as a leader. Legitimacy is given by the members, perhaps more members are feeling the leaders are not even needed.

[Not Buying It]

That is what scares Bednar. That is why he sows suspicion and mistrust regarding government and scientific regulations meant to safeguard the people. And that is how we know he is no loving prophet of God. He doesn't care for the safety of his flock. He cares that his time to reign will come and he can show the world just how great he is. But his success will be muted if too many people realize they don't need him anyway.

This is what upsets me most - as you say, Elder Bednar is scared that people will discover they don't need Church - so he is willing to risk their lives pressuring them to return to large meetings so his precious legitimacy isn't threatened. He's way more concerned about the Church losing power and influence than he is who might contract COVID from being at Church meetings.

[græy]

From exmo reddit (sorry, its big)...

[moksha]

Back in June, Elder Bednar was bemoaning government pleas to limit meeting size to an attack on religious liberties. "Never again can we allow government officials to treat the exercise of religion as simply nonessential. Never again must the fundamental right to worship God be trivialized below the ability to buy gasoline.”

[Mackman]

I've enjoyed staying home sleeping while m TBM wife watches via zoom !!! Its great not going back until zoom is done !!!!

[alas]

To Elder Blowhard, church is essential to his ego...umm ..ability to worship God, I mean. To Trump, His rallies are essential to his ego, errr, re-election. To gun nuts gun stores are essential. To alcoholics, bars are essential. To to former alcoholic AA is essential. To children in person school is essential, not to mention all the working moms who have quit jobs because they have to stay home with small children. To everyone grocery stores are essential. To the Lonely elderly, their senior center Is essential. To the infirm, their care center is a death trap, opps, I mean essential. To the bride her big wedding is essential. To the the grieving, a funeral is essential.

The thing elder Ego misses here is that he doesn’t get his pet “essential” and everybody else has to give up theirs so that people stay home and stay safe.

The problem we are having with this pandemic is that everybody should have to sacrifice equally, but too many people are too selfish to give up their “rights” to protect themselves and their neighbors.

Right now there is a big push for the “young and healthy” to go about life as normal, catch Covid, and develop herd immunity, while we make efforts to protect the “most vulnerable”. But there IS NO PLAN on just how they are going to protect the vulnerable. The vulnerable have to figure out how to protect themselves. Well, even if the vulnerable could isolate for the next six months n their own homes, they would still catch it from the person who handles their grocery delivery, or their mail, or the Fed-ex guy. When everyone around them has it, they WILL get it. There is no “protecting the most vulnerable” because some of them have to work for a living. They cannot socially isolate and survive. Our world doesn’t work that way. And we DONT really know who is vulnerable.

Elder Ego’s plan of everybody gets to have what is essential for them will mean millions of deaths.

Can we please go back to how we handled the 1918 pandemic and put guards at the entrance to each town and shoot anyone who tries to come in. One of my friends found an article on Hurricane Utah and the guards they had stationed at the roads into town, and yeah, it was the armed militia guarding town from outsiders as a way to keep the town safe. They actually shot at people trying to come into town.

My friend in Australia says the borders between states are closed. She hasn’t been able to visit family because it would cross state lines. When they had lockdown, you could be arrested for being outside your home without a valid reason. I laughed, yeah, THAT would go over in the US. We have a constitutional right to cross state lines. We have an attitude of “the government can’t tell me what to do.”

Americans think individual rights are more important that the common welfare, so we just let people die with “sucks to be you.”

You would think religion would be better than that but it is no different.

[wtfluff]

I mentioned it briefly in another thread, but take a look at this sentence. I laughed for about a minute, after I read it.

"Bednar also pointed out that religious institutions can be a powerful and influential ally in the battle against the pandemic.
Misinformation is a major obstacle in a health crisis,” he said. “Faith communities can debunk rumors, calm fears and facilitate accurate information.”

THIS statement coming from a board member of COJCOL-dS-Inc. makes me laugh. (It's one of those forced, smirk-type laughs. One of those laughs where you are laughing so you don't cry. )

Bednar's entire organization is built on "Misinformation." And because of that, the majority of my life was built on the same thing.

[nibbler]

Bednar also pointed out that religious institutions can be a powerful and influential ally in the battle against the pandemic.
Misinformation is a major obstacle in a health crisis,” he said. “Faith communities can debunk rumors, calm fears and facilitate accurate information.

All things whitewashed church history aside, in fact I'll generalize it further and extend it to many non-LDS faith communities...

The faith communities that are still acting as though covid-19 is no big deal and the faith communities that are thumbing their noses at safety precautions are going to help debunk rumors and facilitate accurate information? The faith communities that fought to be an exception to the rule of limits on mass gatherings are going to be allies in the battle against the pandemic? Puh-leaze.

Maybe Bednar said other things that weren't quoted but I notice that monetary help to those struggling financially isn't listed. The list is limited to saying words to people.

This certainly is not the case for all faith communities or even a majority but:

• debunk rumors
• calm fears
• facilitate accurate information

Is this a list of things that several faith communities are ironically bad at? A Bizarro World list of ways some churches have helped with the pandemic? Does Being convinced that Jesus is coming soon to end the world calm fears or stoke them? Is it accurate to compare filling up with gas to sitting in a windowless room for 2 hours with 200 people?

Relatively speaking I actually think that the LDS church has done a better than average job with their response to the pandemic. Not completely unprompted, but they did shut down in-person meetings. That said, they've now reintroduced in-person meetings right at the beginning of a second wave (debatable as to whether we ever got over a first wave, it's more like a wave on top of another wave).

All of us have had to make sacrifices. All. Of. Us. Well... the conscionable ones at least. Churches aren't exempt from sacrifice, Bednar isn't exempt from sacrifice. But I suppose it's par for the course. Church leaders love to fight for exemptions. Taxes, civil rights, precautions during a pandemic...