NOM

Mrs. Hagoth had no interest in listening to the super-special session last night. She said, "I don't want to hear any more about Joseph Smith! People are scared and suffering, they need comfort and guidance."

She was not comforted to hear that there is a new logo.

For the benefit of my dear friends and loved ones who really need a positive message right now, I sincerely hope the COB internet spies have been monitoring boards like this, rather than the gushings of TBM social media to recognize the canaries in the coal mine. I hope the PR guys and speech writers opened up a case of a diet-soda-that-will-not-be-named last night and rolled up their sleeves to Dieter this sucker up for today.

It was a "historic" fail by the brethren. What an opportunity to actually make a difference in people's lives but instead it's just business as usual with barely a mention of the elephant in the room. Another "special" fast is all they offer? Really?

But hey we got a cool new logo. That's exciting right?

IMO it shows that the church has too much momentum following established patterns. An agile church this is not.

I'm pretty sure conference talks are written, timed, combed over by the correlation department several times, and translated months in advance of general conference. It's hard to respond to a current event when the whole show is dictated by that process.

So far a prayer included a mention of the pandemic and Nelson slipped in a mention in a talk about something else.

In the past I've seen the president of the church give what appears to have been unscripted statements during one of their talks during conference. I expect Nelson to do this at some point.

It's not surprising, since leaders decided to make "the restoration (of the church)" the theme, but there's waaaaaaaaaaay too much talk of Joseph Smith for as close to Easter as we are.

Nelson said that this is not the church of Joseph Smith, but the scales of lip service say otherwise. Not sure how much changing the name of the MoTab and making the new logo a Jesus statue tips the scales.

nibbler wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 8:05 am IMO it shows that the church has too much momentum following established patterns. An agile church this is not.

I'm pretty sure conference talks are written, timed, combed over by the correlation department several times, and translated months in advance of general conference. It's hard to respond to a current event when the whole show is dictated by that process.

So far a prayer included a mention of the pandemic and Nelson slipped in a mention in a talk about something else.

In the past I've seen the president of the church give what appears to have been unscripted statements during one of their talks during conference. I expect Nelson to do this at some point.

It's not surprising, since leaders decided to make "the restoration (of the church)" the theme, but there's waaaaaaaaaaay too much talk of Joseph Smith for as close to Easter as we are.

Nelson said that this is not the church of Joseph Smith, but the scales of lip service say otherwise. Not sure how much changing the name of the MoTab and making the new logo a Jesus statue tips the scales.

I agree that the church is so bogged down in process that it cannot even address current issues for about three to five months. But then old men have never been able to move quickly anyway. They CAN, but won’t, is the problem. They could give the talk, with the translators struggling to keep up, just like they did 30 years ago. Sure, we need more of the translators now, but then we have plenty of return missionaries who would volunteer to do it. Brigham Young most certainly didn’t run his talks through the bore-ilation committee. But they are so processed now that not only are they supper slow addressing anything, but just like over processed food has lost most of its nutrition, over processed religion looses its nutrition.

But the point about it being way too much about Our God Smith, this close to Easter is normal for this church. Rather than celebrate Christian holidays, we celebrate too much about His Holiness Joe Smith, on several holidays. How often are all the talks on Mother’s Day about the May 15 restoration of the priesthood? How many years has Salt Lake City had a big parade for July 24 and nothing on the 4th? Once I was sitting in church on July 5th, and all the talks were on Celestial marriage because that revelation was given on July 12 (you know the marvelous one about polygamy and destroying women who don’t like to be treated like cows) How often the Sunday before Christmas do we talk about Joseph Smith’s birthday instead of the birthday of the Savior? This is really why most other Christians religions think we are not Christian, because we worship His Holiness St Joseph.

Why does anyone expect something different with conference?

It’s the same crap year after year.

Worship the current prophet.
Convince members they need the church
Worship the current leaders.
Convince the members the church benefits them.
Worship Joseph Smith
Convince members the name of the church is important.
Repeat.

Spot on Hagoth. Here was what I thought about Rusty's talk yesterday evening.

"I will talk about semantics too, and MY favorite topic...the name of the church. See it isn't Joseph Smith's church even though we have talked about him more than Jesus. See, I can prove it...here is a cool little logo that I designed that has Jesus in it. I am the prophet of God on the earth today and while 600+ people died in New York today alone, the thing that we should really worry about is that we use the right name of the church. Then God can bless us. I could have announced $1,000,000,000.00 to fight this thing, but I won't. Instead we will just starve ourselves for two more meals and see if that does anything. "

-lost

Unendowed wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 7:43 amAnother "special" fast is all they offer? Really?

Well... They're gonna wave Mr. Hankey in the air, like they just don't care! (At some point today.)

Historic! (Though completely useless.)

wtfluff wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 10:15 am

Unendowed wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 7:43 amAnother "special" fast is all they offer? Really?

Well... They're gonna wave Mr. Hankey in the air, like they just don't care! (At some point today.)

Historic! (Though completely useless.)

And please don't make fun of them when they wave him in the air...even though it is stupid.

Howdey ho neighbors! Don't mind us mindlessly repeating this chant over and over...we do chants like this all the time in the temple!

SincereInquirer wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:08 pm

wtfluff wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 10:15 am

Unendowed wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 7:43 amAnother "special" fast is all they offer? Really?

Well... They're gonna wave Mr. Hankey in the air, like they just don't care! (At some point today.)

Historic! (Though completely useless.)

And please don't make fun of them when they wave him in the air...even though it is stupid.

Howdey ho neighbors! Don't mind us mindlessly repeating this chant over and over...we do chants like this all the time in the temple!

Howdy Ho!!!

Red Ryder wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 8:49 am Why does anyone expect something different with conference?

It’s the same crap year after year.

I know, right? I keep waiting for something awful so I can resign in disgust, but they keep serving up nothingburgers.

They could have mourned with those who mourned.

They could have comforted those who stand in need of comfort. Which at this point is pretty much EVERYONE.

But they had already planned this Joseph-fest, and that had to happen at THIS conference and not a later one, so... sorry, guys.

I'm really glad Holland interrupted his recitation of the Joseph Smith story to say some real stuff, if only briefly. I felt like this was an actual last minute rewrite to address reality.

Did not watch so much as a second of conference. Had to hear that dull, monotonous "Conference Speaker Tone" muffled as it came up through the floor, but thankfully heard only the form and not the substance.

How disappointing for members though. They were promised this amazing conference like no other, and what they got was a vanilla proclamation that didn't tell them anything they hadn't heard a gazillion times, a few more temples announced (gasp! In Dubai!), a few seconds of the ridiculousness of watching old men wave hankies around in the air for no apparent reason, and most of the same dry tendentious talks they've been listening to twice a year their whole lives, just with even more Joseph Smith worship than usual.

But you know that few of them will admit their disappointment publicly. They will go on about how amazing the proclamation is, and wasn't the Hosanna Shout a spiritual moment, and can you believe they are building a temple in DUBAI!!! They'll gush about amazing it was because that's what they are supposed to do, but deep down inside a lot of them are feeling pretty disappointed.

"Okay folks!! Here's your super-dooper, rootin-tootin', specialdeluxe, unforgettable and celebratory Gen'l Conferns!

The same old pablum we' ben diliverin' fur the past hunert an nandy years with a big ole' duble helpin' oh Josey Smith luv. Now ain't that sweet!!

Ayand, we done writ up this hair proclamatory piece o' paper with the edzac same story we always ben tellin' you people an we signed our names to it soz it's Ohfishal now.

An whut'z more, we gonna do a big ol' hanky wave rat now. C'mon Oaks! Stay with us! Yer laggin'!"

Now wasn't that special?

Have uh cookie.

Not Buying It wrote: ↑Mon Apr 06, 2020 5:45 am Did not watch so much as a second of conference. Had to hear that dull, monotonous "Conference Speaker Tone" muffled as it came up through the floor, but thankfully heard only the form and not the substance.

How disappointing for members though. They were promised this amazing conference like no other, and what they got was a vanilla proclamation that didn't tell them anything they hadn't heard a gazillion times, a few more temples announced (gasp! In Dubai!), a few seconds of the ridiculousness of watching old men wave hankies around in the air for no apparent reason, and most of the same dry tendentious talks they've been listening to twice a year their whole lives, just with even more Joseph Smith worship than usual.

But you know that few of them will admit their disappointment publicly. They will go on about how amazing the proclamation is, and wasn't the Hosanna Shout a spiritual moment, and can you believe they are building a temple in DUBAI!!! They'll gush about amazing it was because that's what they are supposed to do, but deep down inside a lot of them are feeling pretty disappointed.

I don’t know that “disappointed” is quite the right word for us or the TBMs. I mean, look at our reaction, closer to disgust than disappointment because honestly we were not expecting anything more than for Joseph Smith to be praised and a few temples announced and maybe some other announcement that amounted to a big nothing burger. So, how could we be disappointed when it was exactly what we expected it to be. But like stupid heads, we keep half hoping maybe they will rise above our pathetic expectations of them, and actually say something good, or bust out a big donation to struggling over burdened hospitals in New York. But, no, we got exactly what we honestly expected, a big nothing.

My husband is still TBM. And his reaction to conference is part disappointment that yes, he got exactly the nothing burger he honestly expected, and part disgust, that once again the church exhibits prophet worship, more that Jesus Christ worship, once again the church puts PR as highest priority making something normal extra special by declaring it a “proclamation”, once again the church tells its members to dig into their wallets, while it hoards a huge pile of cash, once again the church confuses obedience to them with obedience to God, once again the church misunderstands those who leave. My husband is honest, at least with me that he felt some disappointment/disgust at getting so much hoopla over so much nothing.

I see Pale Rider agrees about so much hoopla over so much nothing.

alas wrote: ↑Mon Apr 06, 2020 7:45 am I don’t know that “disappointed” is quite the right word for us or the TBMs.

I was genuinely disappointed on behalf of Mrs. Hagoth who was really hoping for a message of comfort and inspiration. She ended up yelling, "just shut up!" at Oaks. At least Uchtdorf, even though he was toting the company line, stretched enough to say a few words that were about as thoughtful as a run-of-the-mill small town preacher who doesn't claim to be an apostle of Jesus. Nothing on the order of what someone like the Dali Lama, or even Oprah, might say.

Unendowed wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 7:43 am It was a "historic" fail by the brethren. What an opportunity to actually make a difference in people's lives but instead it's just business as usual with barely a mention of the elephant in the room.

It was a shame no one rose to the occasion, but that is how it goes when you try to institutionalize spiritual inspiration via a business committee.

Hagoth wrote: ↑Mon Apr 06, 2020 2:49 pm [quote=alas post_id=72467 time=<a href="tel:1586184302">1586184302</a> user_id=62]
I don’t know that “disappointed” is quite the right word for us or the TBMs.
I was genuinely disappointed on behalf of Mrs. Hagoth who was really hoping for a message of comfort and inspiration. She ended up yelling, "just shut up!" at Oaks.

This really does speak volumes. They are alienating all the age groups, not just teens/20 somethings. I honestly wonder how many members were angry/disappointed by the truly out of touch, God awful conference.

May personal disaffection did not follow the usual route of discovering disturbing things about church history. It really started from a recognition that church leaders are nothing special and that the Living Prophet was indistinguishable from any aged chief administrator of any large earthly organization.

If ever there was an occasion to rise to, to show the real value of the claimed living prophet, this was it. Oh how you failed, Elders and Presidents. Underwhelmed us as you always do, putting the final nails in the coffin of your relevance.

I am reminded of a favorite reddit post found in its complete form here https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comme ... he_mormon/.

Sage Owl wrote:Its what's happening TODAY that's killing you.
Its your absolute lack of meaningful spirituality, Elders and Presidents, that's wiping you out. Real spiritual growth- real depth of wisdom- real kindness love and compassion. If the q15 had these things in any real measure, the historical issues just wouldn't matter. We'd queue up for general conference. There would be no need to shame people into attendance. There'd be no reason to clamp down on obedience. We'd all still be in the boat, bailing for all we're worth, patching up the holes, fixing the navigational hardware, remodeling the cabins, swabbing the decks, sailing the old ship Zion with you.