NOM

I just found out yesterday that conference is next week….so, let’s predict what will happen.

1) SEC fine and Unethical behavior: I predict there will be no apology or discussion about this. The matter is closed.
2) Oaks or Holland will bash gay people again. Fairly standard.
3) a bunch of new temples that may never be built will be announced.
4) I get the feeling there is going to be a big church structure change. Priesthood change or with the women. Maybe YW will be able to help with the sacrament or something.

I will guess it will be a typical McDonalds conference.

You know, a lot of bulk and empty calories, without any real flavor or substance, that will leave you feeling unfulfilled and disappointed before you even finish it.

-lost

Blah blah blah covenant path, blah blah blah covenant something-else.

Blah blah blah temple temple temple. (Which implies: Blah blah blah PAY YOUR TITHING!!!)

Blah blah blah PAY YOUR TITHING AGAIN!!!

Blah blah blah.

Blah.


Nothing new under the sun.

No prophet-ing

No seer-ing

No revelator-ing

2bizE wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 2:11 pm 1) SEC fine and Unethical behavior.

This along with the immensity of the wealth the Church possesses will be the elephant in the room. Fortunately for Church leaders, members are pliable and will do whatever they are told. One of the First Presidency only needs to utter the word "forget" and members will find themselves awakening in the conference center on Sunday afternoon with a desire to go home and pay their tithing.

You want a prediction about conference, I’ll give you a conference prediction: It’s gonna be long, it’s gonna be boring and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life.

I think they will announce something "big." They want to spend $10 million to $100 million on something to distract from the SEC and give members something to show that the church is doing good in the world. They won't give specific numbers during the meetings, but they will refer to some big initiative. I expect the news show between sessions will give the details.

The meetings will still be long and boring. I'm not disputing any of that.

blazerb wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 5:44 am I think they will announce something "big." They want to spend $10 million to $100 million on something to distract from the SEC and give members something to show that the church is doing good in the world. They won't give specific numbers during the meetings, but they will refer to some big initiative. I expect the news show between sessions will give the details.

The meetings will still be long and boring. I'm not disputing any of that.

They already came out with their "2022 annual report on caring for those in need" on March 22.

They're pushing that PR quite a bit right now - so they'll probably bring it up in Konference.

As usual it's a giant pile of smoke and mirrors. They claim "over 1 billion in expenditures" but as usual, if you dig into it, the actual "Corporation" didn't "give" anywhere near that number of dollars. It's an over-calculation of volunteer hours, and a large portion of the $$ comes from fast offerings - which is NOT the "Corporation" giving away any of the hundreds of billions from their giant pile of gold.

wtfluff wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 7:13 am

blazerb wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 5:44 am I think they will announce something "big." They want to spend $10 million to $100 million on something to distract from the SEC and give members something to show that the church is doing good in the world. They won't give specific numbers during the meetings, but they will refer to some big initiative. I expect the news show between sessions will give the details.

The meetings will still be long and boring. I'm not disputing any of that.

They already came out with their "2022 annual report on caring for those in need" on March 22.

They're pushing that PR quite a bit right now - so they'll probably bring it up in Konference.

As usual it's a giant pile of smoke and mirrors. They claim "over 1 billion in expenditures" but as usual, if you dig into it, the actual "Corporation" didn't "give" anywhere near that number of dollars. It's an over-calculation of volunteer hours, and a large portion of the $$ comes from fast offerings - which is NOT the "Corporation" giving away any of the hundreds of billions from their giant pile of gold.

This. They are going to brag about their charitable giving, without ever mentioning that it all comes from members giving to fast offerings and the humanitarian fund that is on top of the ten percent of income required by tithing and volunteer hours that are given on top of church callings.

Then they are going to announce a dozen new temples, whether they are needed or not because that is what they are spending tithing on, neglecting other things they should be using tithing on that actually benefit the members, such as more local chapels, repairs to existing chapels, proper cleaning of chapels, and ward budgets so there are some social activities for the members, bigger budgets for teachers, YM/YW, and other auxiliaries so they are not paying out of their own pockets for class and activity supplies.

Any policy/procedure changes will:
1. not be giving women greater say or control of how things are run, let alone them discovering that there is no doctrinal reason women should not have priesthood, and in fact women held priesthood in the early church until the Romans took over with their traditions of keeping women more like slaves than citizens.
2. Be small changes to insignificant stuff, but they will hype it up as inspiration.
3. Not be recognizing that LGBT can marry and live just as righteously as heteros can.
4. Most likely be changes to the YM’s program because the YM are important and the church is losing them partly because the YM’s program sucks as bad as the YWs program always has. They most likely won’t FIX it, just tinker or make it worse.
a my biggest hope here is they back away from having the bishop as YM president. This is a disaster for multiple reasons. Bishops don’t have time for an additional task/calling, and this just combined his bishop calling with YM president calling. He is supposed to be over the whole ward, not just the YM and having him spend more time babysitting teen boys is that much less time for him to minister to the adults. The adults need to feel comfortable with the person they confess to also, but the church has been SO focused on the youth they have totally forgotten that adults exist or have needs. And if there was more for the adults, the lonely old ladies wouldn’t take up unneeded bishop time. The church has been neglecting the adults now for 50 years and then they wonder why the kids drop out as soon as the hit adulthood. My parents had voluntary (people who were two busy were not pressured to attend) scripture study groups and small social groups divided by age, FHE for single adults besides college students, and monthly activities for the whole ward or for the adults. Now, there might be one or two activities a year, and none of the other stuff as even a possibility for the little old ladies that are lonely.
b. The other thing I hope for is that they replace scouting, instead of just the lack of structure they have now. I would like to see a good structured program like scouting for YM AND YW. But that is just wishful thinking. They don’t want any real equality between m & f.

I’m hoping the church will go for a Guinness Book of World Records and have 10 women speak at conference.

My running theory is that Nelson had a handful of things he wanted to do in order to cement his legacy and he burned through them quickly because he's so old... now he's going to be more on the 'adjustment' period where they just make minor changes and proclaim that as divine "inspirations" as Nelson loves to say.

I think the last GC was maybe the more uneventful one of his tenure, so we'll see what they might do to up their game this weekend.

My Take is they will go over the top about porn and charitable giving to distract from the sec debacle. ****My hope is they will say they were misguided about coffee and drink it because it is good !!!

Hey, maybe something good this time:

1. It's okay to drink coffee and tea. Again.

2. The church is well enough off so you don't have to be a full tithe payer to attend the temple.

3. Mormons can drink a bit of wine or beer in front of each other. Again.

4. The church is going to focus now on serving those who need to be served- not just the ones who make us feel good about ourselves.

5. The church schools will allow students go there even if they aren't in the 90th percentile in grades and test scoring.

Course I'm not going to watch it, so I'll wait to hear the reports from those who do.

New Conference helps

nibbler wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 5:25 am You want a prediction about conference, I’ll give you a conference prediction: It’s gonna be long, it’s gonna be boring and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life.

I used to hope for something big or exciting at GC. But I'm coming to realize that it's not going to happen. They just aren't that smart. Most of the the Q15 got their jobs when things were more cushy. Dissenters were few and far between and the church was actually growing in membership. And now that it's all falling apart before their prophet seer eyes, they are clueless AF.

But I can predict one thing: NOMference will be super fun!!!!

2bizE wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 2:11 pm 3) a bunch of new temples that may never be built will be announced.
4) I get the feeling there is going to be a big church structure change. Priesthood change or with the women. Maybe YW will be able to help with the sacrament or something.

lostinmiddlemormonism wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 3:43 pm I will guess it will be a typical McDonalds conference.

I think both of you are onto something. In order to get more temples built, they will join forces with McDonalds, replace Moroni with golden arches, and add a drive-thru.

I know you guys think I'm too obsessed with this topic, but I predict, maybe not this conference but soon, they will make it clear that psychedelics are against the word of wisdom and a tool of Satan. Satan Satan Satan.

I am told by therapists who use plant medicines that they are getting a lot of Mormon patients lately. I know several relief society members of my own ward who have either done mushrooms recently or plan to in the very near future. The latest Mormon Stories podcast is A Mormon Mom Tries Mushrooms. There's a podcast called Mormons on Mushrooms. A psychedelic facilitator recently told me that she has seen a huge increase lately in Mormon participation at what she called "high levels." I met a bishop who did Mushrooms and resigned from his calling. The Divine Assembly (the mushroom church) is introducing thousands of Mormons and Postmormons to psychedelics and getting a lot of PR.

Most importantly, people are actually experiencing healing and spiritual experiences, and a sense of self worth at a rate that The One and Only True Church can only dream of. Also, the church is bound to have a Nixonian reflex at some point just because one of the most prominent effects of psychedelics is that they they make it SO obvious that religious authority is B*llsh*t.

Fear mongering - what will be the new thing to incite fear?

In the Hassan interview, interesting comment about legitimate fear vs. phobia.
legitimate fear - car accident, war, cancer, etc
phobia - outer darkness, evil worldly influence

My TBM MIL lives in constant fear and depression, seems to live off of it. The only time she calls is to let us know about some other relative - that they broke their arm, or something from the news, bad weather. My parents do this too - did you watch this documentary about kids these days - the kids are depressed - are your kids depressed - I think wearing that t-shirt means.... I'm worried about .... - no mom, kids are doing great, stop watching propaganda ****

I tried to explain that - people who do religion right do not live in doomsday Armageddon fear - that beliefs should bring you peace and joy, not panic and fear. Sooo many groups use fear.

Eat drink and be merry!
at the end of your life, do you have a pile of rotting food storage and ammo - or did you spend that cash on a vacation? as for me and my family, we will take vacations.

Hagoth wrote: ↑Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:09 am I know you guys think I'm too obsessed with this topic, but I predict, maybe not this conference but soon, they will make it clear that psychedelics are against the word of wisdom and a tool of Satan. Satan Satan Satan.

I am told by therapists who use plant medicines that they are getting a lot of Mormon patients lately. I know several relief society members of my own ward who have either done mushrooms recently or plan to in the very near future. The latest Mormon Stories podcast is A Mormon Mom Tries Mushrooms. There's a podcast called Mormons on Mushrooms. A psychedelic facilitator recently told me that she has seen a huge increase lately in Mormon participation at what she called "high levels." I met a bishop who did Mushrooms and resigned from his calling. The Divine Assembly (the mushroom church) is introducing thousands of Mormons and Postmormons to psychedelics and getting a lot of PR.

Most importantly, people are actually experiencing healing and spiritual experiences, and a sense of self worth at a rate that The One and Only True Church can only dream of. Also, the church is bound to have a Nixonian reflex at some point just because one of the most prominent effects of psychedelics is that they they make it SO obvious that religious authority is B*llsh*t.

Yes, fear of drugs will expand to fear of medicine, fear of vaccinations, perhaps they will follow the JW's and tell everyone the new revelation is to refuse blood transfusions because the blood might have come from a coffee drinker women will be given the new *special* role of preparing blessed food free of mushrooms.

Yes - *elevation* needs to be felt in tandem with groupthink *not* with drugs to maintain power.

Gatorbait wrote: ↑Thu Mar 30, 2023 9:03 am Hey, maybe something good this time:

1. It's okay to drink coffee and tea. Again.

2. The church is well enough off so you don't have to be a full tithe payer to attend the temple.

3. Mormons can drink a bit of wine or beer in front of each other. Again.

4. The church is going to focus now on serving those who need to be served- not just the ones who make us feel good about ourselves.

5. The church schools will allow students go there even if they aren't in the 90th percentile in grades and test scoring.

Course I'm not going to watch it, so I'll wait to hear the reports from those who do.

discrimination happens in school admissions process, still HBC's, sad to say but standardized testing might still be the best sorting hat.
1→4 they'll lose the older generation over that.

6. new feature for LGBTQ in familysearch to identify correct gender and record all family types. Special new ceremony for LGBTQ unions (they will not call it a sealing, choose some other word like union - but will at least start trying to transition into new policies).

That would be wonderful if they could start changing.

I can hear conference filtering from the other room. Sounds like lots of Covenant Path (I hate it) and Last Days doomsaying (also hate that).