NOM

Mormorrisey wrote: ↑Wed Oct 19, 2016 11:36 am A great chart, thanks for posting it. Yep, that's exactly what last conference was about, and Sister M was convinced that this conference was for me, and I need to listen to the messages. I countered by saying, no, this conference was ABOUT me and people like me, and maybe all's not well in Zion and it's the church that needs to start listening to its members and their concerns, not always the other way around. It's all a matter of perspective.

document wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2017 6:54 am General conference is quite damning, sometimes in a good way, and sometimes in a bad way.

A few years ago one of the twelve gave a talk that essentially blasted ex-Mormons and critics of the church who will pick out a single talk from a single conference and hold it up as proof against the church. He also blasted members who believe they find the truth in a single talk without concurrence from all of the other members of the twelve. He spoke that if you want the truth of the gospel, you have to listen to all the talks, and if all the brethren are talking about a subject, then you can assume that subject is important and what we should focus on.

When he originally gave that talk, there was a lot of eye rolling in the ex-Mormon and critical community, including me. Over time, though, I realized that he is right. The attitudes and culture of the church are _not_ to be found in the one-off talks, but in what is consistently said over time by the 12 and the FP. Unfortunately, under this wise standard, the church focuses often on odd things.

When I was a teenager and young adult, the church obsessed over pornography. Every single general conference the general priesthood session was filled with talks on pornography. Later it was obsessively focused on homosexuality and gay marriage. Lately it has been focused on the ex-Mormon and inactive people in the church. These talks generally out-do talks about the atonement, Jesus Christ, etc.

When I was a teenager, if I asked the question, "Are lots of men looking at pornography?" the response was always, "this is a plague on men in the church right now". And that made sense because it matched what they were saying in conference. Later, during the fight against homosexuality, I asked, "Is there a problem with gay marriage?" to which the response was always, "this is destroying America and we have the responsibility to stand up to this great evil before it destroys the very fabric of society".

The natural questions that occur when looking at this data is, "Are lots of Mormons leaving the church right now?" to which the response is, "no, the church is stronger than it ever has been". The response doesn't follow their rhetoric.