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Patrick Mason gave a great talk at the FairMormon Conference last week. It can be read here.This could help some of us Stay LDS
The highlights of Brother Mason’s talk (which I shamelessly lifted from Bill Reel of Mormon Disscuion Podcast).
1.) He flatly says we have defined Prophets incorrectly.
2.) That there is valid reason to doubt.
3.) That belief is “plausible” (his words)
4.) That We made up much of our theology and have put way more in the truth cart then belongs there.
5.) That we should not blame the doubters and that we would be better looking at ourselves for our problems rather than secularists, feminists, intellectuals, and even Satan
6.) That the CES letter was an inevitable response to the false dominant narrative we have taught. And that said narrative is not his mormonism nor the Mormonism that can flourish in the future.
7.) He expressed that we must do better to support gender equality and our LGBT brothers and sisters. He says we aren’t loving or inclusive enough
8.) He says our culture and leadership have sadly adopted a non-apologizing posture towards its mistakes
9.) He says we need to repent as a church and apologize for our serious errors.
10.) He says we need to Incorporate more diversity into our church ( race, gender, economic status. sexual orientation, and other differences)
11.) He concludes that he is scared of a immature faith never growing up and giving space for nuance and complexity and he fears a fundamentalist takeover
I don’t really see where Mason “flatly says” our definition of prophet is off base. I do agree with his sentiments about infallibility. The question in the subject is good, though, and I agree that in general members and others do not really define “prophet” correctly and that we tend to lump “prophet, seer and revelator” under the definition of prophet. On the other hand, I also think there’s a great deal of variation in individual understanding of the word. Sheldon wrote:4.) That We made up much of our theology and have put way more in the truth cart then belongs there.
This strikes a chord with me. I realized a while ago that i had made many assumptions regarding the church, it’s organization, relation to the gospel, and my own reliance on it. One of the things I had to redefine for myself what I considered a prophet. I’d have to write an essay about it to put my thoughts in order, and by finishing they may change. The short answer for me was that I put too much ‘blind faith’ into everything, and extrapolated one belief onto another.
I am still active and I can say that many of the discussions here helped me sort things out at my own pace. Thanks to everyone for their contributions.
Bruce R McConkie said that a prophet is anyone who receives revelation for a stewardship. He indicated that we are prophets to our personal affairs. Husbands and wives are prophets to our families. TSM is a prophet to the entire Mormon church. If you accept this definition, then expectations of TSM must be must lower than what most TBM’s consider — if I can be a prophet to my own personal affairs, and be so in the dark about God’s will for me, then how can I expect TSM to be right all the time? We are both prophets….
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