NOM

Attended a wedding for a brother in law recently and of course did not attend the sealing. Seemed to not get noticed too much until obscure uncle messaged me with the Elder Corbridge talk. I told him that I was pretty well established with my conclusions at this point in time, and politely thanked him for reaching out.

He also mentioned he won't be discussing the issue further. I liken this to pulling a pin on a grenade, rolling it into the room and running away. You get to feel like you did your duty defending the faith while keeping any mud off your boots.

Drive by talk drops get annoying after awhile. Come up with your own defenses for once.

I can't believe anyone found that talk convincing, especially enough to think it would change someone's mind who no longer believes.

But yeah - if someone wants to drop that in there, least they could do would be willing to back it up... but then again when it's family you probably don't want that.

Yeah with family, especially more obscure relatives I find it ineffective to attempt any engagement. Disengagement through brief generic response seems to work without causing too much collateral damage.

It's not worth using up any brain function effort to defend my lifestyle choices with any of them anymore. Maybe that's progress. If it had been 2 years ago I may have felt enough indignation to do a full talk rebuttal point by point.

FiveFingerMnemonic wrote: ↑Sat May 11, 2019 8:14 pm He also mentioned he won't be discussing the issue further. I liken this to pulling a pin on a grenade, rolling it into the room and running away. You get to feel like you did your duty defending the faith while keeping any mud off your boots.

This is a maddeningly common reaction. The believer somehow believes that their drive-by testimony will fix the issues without actually engaging with the hard questions. The Corbridge talk is the same process along with the recent Renlund talk and a dozen others in the past 10 years. Elder Corbridge trots out his ideas but does not actually engage with anyone. There is no public Q&A from an audience. No debate or discussion takes place. I have been holding my own questions for a dozen years and I have simply come to my own conclusions since I can't get any answers from them.

It feels like this extends all the way up to the First Presidency. I can at least respect that FairMormon tries to provide answers even if our conclusions are radically different.

Since this is an obscure relative that you don't have regular contact with, the simplest thing may be to simply block him on whatever service he messaged you.

I tell you what, I will read Corbridges talk If you read this letter written to the CES Director

Tearing families apart in the name of a "loving God" is one of the most disgusting practices there is.

FiveFingerMnemonic wrote: ↑Sat May 11, 2019 8:14 pm Attended a wedding for a brother in law recently and of course did not attend the sealing. Seemed to not get noticed too much until obscure uncle messaged me with the Elder Corbridge talk. I told him that I was pretty well established with my conclusions at this point in time, and politely thanked him for reaching out.

He also mentioned he won't be discussing the issue further. I liken this to pulling a pin on a grenade, rolling it into the room and running away. You get to feel like you did your duty defending the faith while keeping any mud off your boots.

Drive by talk drops get annoying after awhile. Come up with your own defenses for once.

I would have replied that I cannot support covertly polygamous covenants, but do wish the couple well, and pray for love, loyalty, and joyful family reunions for all people beyond the veil

Join the club - of drive by talk shooting.
Why do they do this? I’m projecting that they’re projecting and don’t know what they don’t know so they think what might help them might help others who have already seen more than they have. The best way to handle it is how you did - politely but assertively.

The Corbridge talk, “Stand Forever” was discussed as basically cognitive bias...
https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/201 ... er-part-1/

I always wonder what good they think will come of randomly sending things like this.

Respond that your uncle must listen to Bill & RFM's two part dissection of that talk. It is non-optional and there will be no further discussion of the topic. It is required for his eternal salvation.

Just This Guy wrote:Respond that your uncle must listen to Bill & RFM's two part dissection of that talk. It is non-optional and there will be no further discussion of the topic. It is required for his eternal salvation.

Haha I love it! Unfortunately he wouldn't dare wade into the swamp as Mr. Corbridge defines it.

FiveFingerMnemonic wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 10:01 am

Just This Guy wrote:Respond that your uncle must listen to Bill & RFM's two part dissection of that talk. It is non-optional and there will be no further discussion of the topic. It is required for his eternal salvation.

Haha I love it! Unfortunately he wouldn't dare wade into the swamp as Mr. Corbridge defines it.

Yup. The response is just the dream reply. I'll just go with my first point that it is better to just block the a**hole and move on with your life.

glass shelf wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 9:19 am I always wonder what good they think will come of randomly sending things like this.

It's no different than a priesthood blessing with a small hope it will do some good but only a small hope since 99% of those that give the blessing know deep down inside there won't be any miraculous outcome. But ya know, at least you tried and everything else is God's will. But it's the TBM obligation to throw out a talk or link to an article, just to get their stamps on the SVIP Heaven points card. Then when there's no result it's casting pearls to swine or God's will or agency or whatever, but they get credit with little effort.

I think they do it because the general authorities are experts with a direct line to God, more persuasive than the common peon could be. If a powerful GA cannot convince you, who can?

Or, it could be that when they heard/read it, they thought, "So and so needs to read this! This will get them back into the Church!"

I remember the mindset. I was definitely a TBM to the max. Now, though, I could never go back.