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I debated about whether to post this in an existing thread but ultimately decided to start a new thread because the talk is that good. In this talk Patrick Mason lays it all out on the table in a non-confrontational manner. I feel this talk can help people navigate a faith transition and can be shared with friends and family to help them understand a faith transition. [link removed]
The whole talk is packed with quotable stuff but to whet your appetite:
Quote:The CES letter is emblematic of this all or nothing approach to religion. The letter is nearly a perfect inverse of the version of Mormonism it is reacting to. Jeremy Runnells may have written the letter but it was actually an inevitability. Someone, sometime, somewhere was going to write that letter because it was the obvious response to a certain style, tone, and mode of Mormonism that culminated in the highly doctrinaire, no retreat, no surrender positions taken by certain church leaders and members, especially in the second half of the 20th century.
I would actually agree with the CES letter’s basic notion. That the Mormonism that it is responding to is unsustainable. Where I disagree with the letter is that I don’t think the Mormonism it is responding to is actually the real, only, or inevitable Mormonism. Certainly that was some people’s Mormonism but it is not my Mormonism and I don’t think it is the Mormonism that is going to endure in future decades and centuries.
I only listened to a few minutes but I figured something like this might help people on all sides of the issues. From the portions I listened to this is an amazing talk that is coming from a place people view as more authoritative than “some guy on a blog.”
Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. Receiving further light and knowledge requires that we free ourselves from the walls we have erected around what we once believed to be the fullness of what god has planned for us.
This talk is no longer available on Utube due to a copyright claim from FAIR Mormon. Any idea where else I might view it? Thanks Roy. I looked into it and noticed that they charge for their video content. I’ll remove the link and wont attempt to post an alternate. The transcript will eventually be posted free of charge at
http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2016-fairmormon-conference ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2016-fairmormon-conference The presentation was:
The Courage of Our Convictions: Embracing Mormonism in a Secular Age
Patrick Mason
I just listened to the entire talk (at the first YouTube link) and forwarded to my husband. The first time I’ve had the confidence to say, “This. This explains where I’m coming from.” (Edit: That’s what I was thinking. What I asked is if he’d read so we could talk about it.)
Glad it’s going to be available. Soon, I hope?!?
Another quotable snippet:
Quote:Without secularism there would be no Mormonism.
I missed catching the link to hear the talk by Patrick Mason; however, I found this short article that ‘reports’ on the talk. http://goo.gl/jD8vjqhttp://goo.gl/jD8vjq” class=”bbcode_url”> “Patrick Mason was the first FairMormon speaker on Friday afternoon. His remarks, entitled “The Courage of Our Convictions: Embracing Mormonism in a Secular Age,” seemed to draw from his recent book
Planted, and were well received….” https://www.amazon.com/Planted-Belief-Belonging-Age-Doubt/dp/1629721816 “Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt”
Anyway, thought I’d pass along the book reference while waiting for the speech to become available.
I wonder if his FAIR talk included sentiments that Deseret Book wouldn’t tolerate for “Planted.” That’s their prerogative, but the book doesn’t resonant quite strongly enough with people struggling and leaving. This could be a real turning point. Ann wrote:I wonder if his FAIR talk included sentiments that Deseret Book wouldn’t tolerate for “Planted.” That’s their prerogative, but the book doesn’t resonant quite strongly enough with people struggling and leaving. This could be a real turning point.
Deseret Books does carry “Planted’, but I could be misunderstanding your post.
https://deseretbook.com/p/planted-belief-and-belonging-in-an-age-of-doubt?variant_id=126475-paperback ” class=”bbcode_url”> https://deseretbook.com/p/planted-belief-and-belonging-in-an-age-of-doubt?variant_id=126475-paperback tblue wrote:Ann wrote:I wonder if his FAIR talk included sentiments that Deseret Book wouldn’t tolerate for “Planted.” That’s their prerogative, but the book doesn’t resonant quite strongly enough with people struggling and leaving. This could be a real turning point.
Deseret Books does carry “Planted’, but I could be misunderstanding your post.
https://deseretbook.com/p/planted-belief-and-belonging-in-an-age-of-doubt?variant_id=126475-paperback ” class=”bbcode_url”> https://deseretbook.com/p/planted-belief-and-belonging-in-an-age-of-doubt?variant_id=126475-paperback I think what Ann is trying to say is that Deseret Book is the publisher of Planted and as such has editorial oversight. Therefore, Mason may not have been able to say the things he said at FAIR in the book because his DB editor wouldn’t allow it.
After the other discussion about Patrick Mason’s address http://forum.staylds.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7725 ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://forum.staylds.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7725 I heard him early on, just after he got his role as the chair at Claremont University. At the time he seemed out of touch to me. Nice. But completely unclear about people’s doubt struggles. I mentally dismissed him.
I read Planted and listened to one podcast/interview about it. In the interview I was intrigued. The book though fell flat. Yes it opened some areas of conversation, but I walked away with a fear that believers would read it, remember that he was still just like them, and not really understand the pain.
This last address though gives me a sense that he has grown into this life calling. He has listened. He is pondering, studying, processing. Will it break all barriers? Probably not, but as an individual I feel like he is sincerely hoping to break a barrier, lift a life, and change a pain process, even if he fully doesn’t get it.
I really wish him well. He is young enough to be around awhile and that may help in ways we can’t imagine.
http://religionnews.com/2016/01/15/staying-mormon-planted-with-patrick-mason/ ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://religionnews.com/2016/01/15/staying-mormon-planted-with-patrick-mason/ Ann wrote:I wonder if his FAIR talk included sentiments that Deseret Book wouldn’t tolerate for “Planted.”
I have read Planted and I don’t have it with me at this moment, but I would agree with Ann that it seems he goes just a bit further than in Planted (which I would recommend)I love the first quote that Nibbler posted and this one also
Quote:One of the ironies we haven’t fully appreciated in our discussions of doubt is that to some degree our church culture is responsible for many people’s reactions to troubling information. Whether consciously or not, they are simply applying what they learned in well-intentioned but ultimately damaging Primary and youth lessons, such as when the teacher offers the class a bowl of ice cream, then dumps a small amount of dirt on it and asks if anyone wants it now. Of course they say no, and the teacher points out that this is what just a little bit of sin does—it ruins everything. So those who see a little bit of dirt in church history are acting in ways that seem entirely commensurate with what they have been taught their whole lives—God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, so we turn away from sin and touch not the unclean thing. Unable to manage the cognitive dissonance, these people’s relationship to the church becomes tenuous, and often breaks. Many feel that they cannot participate with integrity in church meetings where certain details are either neglected, covered up, or denied
It does seem that the church teaches that it has the most pure ice cream by far and the analogy rings true to me.
I hope leaders, apologists, apostates and doubters will allgive this talk time to work on us. I heard some things when I listened that concerned me, and reading the transcript confirms that I heard right, but there is so much good in here that we desperately need. I wouldn’t describe the Gospel Topics essays as “excellent.” I wouldn’t expect someone like Mason to say that ordination for women is “off the table.” I think he continues, even now, to blame the doubter a bit more that doubters and leavers deserve. But, my goodness, if we could get some of his thoughts past correlation and into print
in some official church settings.It needs to happen. Quote:Mormonism will succeed because it stretches people’s moral imaginations, and calls them to a life of faith that is not small and fearful, but rather creative, venturesome, open, and empowering.
Quote:I believe we need to summon the courage to finally and truly repent for some of our past transgressions. Let’s start with the obvious stuff like Mountain Meadows, the spurious racial ideologies surrounding the priesthood/temple ban, and generations of patriarchal discourse that relegated women to being reflected light compared to the glory of their husbands and priesthood leaders. Repentance, at least as the church taught the principle, requires an admission of wrongdoing and an effort toward reconciliation with those who have been trespassed against. It is more than either just moving on or a lawyerly expression of remorse that bad things may have happened.
He talks about us overloading The Truth Cart. It now “contains things that we probably should never have been all that dogmatic about in the first place.”
Overloading the cart resulted in
Quote:a certain style, tone, and mode of Mormonism that culminated in the highly doctrinaire, no-retreat-no-surrender positions taken by certain church leaders and members especially in the second half of the 20th century.
We need to “remodel the house of faith in the midst of both uncertainty and new-found wisdom.”
And nibbler, would you please create a thread that is a gallery of all your avatars? 😆 😆 😆 Then I wouldn’t be able to reuse them without people noticing. 
nibbler wrote:Then I wouldn’t be able to reuse them without people noticing.
I do have to say I really like the current one.
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