Northwest Area Broadcast – any thoughts?

I didn’t take great notes and am in an admittedly ambivalent mood about the church these days, but here’s what I took away.

I like Elder Renlund and have high hopes for conference talks that break molds and spark conversations.

Which we need because so many others are just, “only true and living church on the earth; no varying levels of being Mormon; blessing found in no place other than Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Kingdom of God on earth; this church will prevail; Joseph did not hide his imperfections….” In the course of all that, Sister Oscarson also dealt with dress and modesty. So very tired of that, but I guess they think it’s super-important.

I looked at all of that as so much “preachers erring by trying to talk people into belief.” But then came Renlund’s “better they reveal the radiance of their own discovery.”

I’m not sure anymore that there is a God who places such a huge premium on marriage, but the light and happiness of an orthodox Mormon life well-lived really comes through with Elder Renlund. I can see that it works for him, that he also cares very much about how to treat others who don’t believe and don’t live the same standards. I was able to google his Marvin Ashton quote: The best and most clear indicator that we are progressing spiritually and coming to Christ is the way we treat other people.

He gave some practical examples of tolerant behavior. Like taking collegues out to dinner so they’d be able to order alcohol, or being decent and non-critical of couples who live together. He talked about his wife’s work relationships with opposing attorneys. And repeated her phrase at least twice, (paraphrasing) “I can see that we’re not going to agree. I like you. I respect you and hope you can offer me the same courtesy.”

The one line I did write down –

Doctrine can never be used as justification to treat others poorly.

All kinds of questions are still left begging; but I enjoyed his talk and am interested in getting to know him.

I’ve only heard rumors but from what I gathered Elder Renlund said some things that I think we’d all appreciate hearing. Here are the rumors I heard:

1) He made some comments about taking people out to restaurants because if he were to provide dinner in his home they might not get the opportunity to enjoy alcohol with their meal since he didn’t have any in his home. At a restaurant they could order it if they wanted it. That’s me paraphrasing a rumor (there’s the disclaimer again) but this is a far cry from ordering milk to avoid the appearance of evil. In that story there’s also the story of being kinder and more accepting of people with different beliefs/standards. Someone isn’t “evil” because they drink alcohol.

2) Again a rumor (sprinkling with disclaimers), many members of the church judge people over “plan-stopping” behaviors. A plan-stopping behavior would be a behavior that members deem as something that frustrates the plan of salvation. A few examples might be SSM or having a child out of wedlock, the things we view as big no-nos according to our interpretation of how god’s plan works. It’s easy to be judgmental because *duh* look at god’s plan. I believe he said that being judgmental in this manner was in and of itself a “plan-stopping” behavior. In other words treating people differently over SSM is the beam in our eye.

There is a balance of tolerance and tension that needs to be sustained.

Loving and kind and accepting others, while also stretching us to sacrafice and shed our complacency to become more, become more like God at our own pace.

I think they should continue to focus and clarify this message, so members know the right things to be tolerant of, while not bending on important things.

As they continue to live this, I think they will see the SSM issue becomes more clear and focused and acceptable, and the ship can slowly turn while protecting the cargo.

Doctrine can never be used as justification to treat others poorly.

This is a good start! :thumbup:

Well whatever was said yesterday it’s inspired my ward members to request transcripts of the talks. I’ve never heard of that. I guess this means that Regional Conference just got bumped in importance to GC, which over rides prior prophets, scriptures, etc. Wow.

Renlund is great. When he was called, his named seemed familiar, and then I realized that he’s the guy that gave my two favorite talks from the last decade. Woot!

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I was ecstatic when Elder Renlund was called to the Q12.

I haven’t lost that joy since his calling.