April 2018 Saturday Afternoon Session

I’m not going to complain about a talk that starts with a focus on the Savior. Good one Bednar.

So far so good. Meekness and sacrifice are both solid topics as well.

After the sustainings: I just heard the shouting “STOP PROTECTING SEXUAL PREDATORS” I find it amusing that someone thought it was a good idea to shout that in the conference center, but at the same time deeply saddening that it has to come to this.

The auditor just said a bunch of words. No financial transparency this year.

Can anyone find the membership statistics?

Never mind. It’s actually a feature article along with the announcement of the closing of two MTCs.

I suspect the move to post them online instead of announcing it in conference is a move to hide the fact that the numbers are beginning to decline… or slowing down in growth, at the very least. It’s hard to measure with all the inactives and people who leave but do not get their names removed.

I think the biggest surprise for me has been not hearing from a member of the FP yet.

It is hard to say they are trying to hide it when it was announced explicitly from the GC pulpit that it would be posted online and published in the Ensign.

I also think it was to save time for stuff that isn’t even intended to be spiritual.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say they are trying to hide it but I would say that they are purposely taking it out of the spotlight. Maybe they’re worried that the numbers will reflect that the church is shrinking, not growing. Maybe that’s not the case now, maybe they’re worried the numbers will indicate negative growth 10 years down the road so they make the change now, way out ahead of the news.

And yes, they are still publishing the numbers but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t trying to “hide” the numbers. I get the feeling that more people would be exposed to the numbers if they were presented during general conference and relatively few people will go looking for the numbers afterwards. Kind of like the topics covered in the essays are out there, not hidden, but not advertised.

After the sustainings: I just heard the shouting “STOP PROTECTING SEXUAL PREDATORS” I find it amusing that someone thought it was a good idea to shout that in the conference center, but at the same time deeply saddening that it has to come to this.

Man some people in my ward were really angry at that person. It’s a shame because those same people appeared to be unfazed by the things that person was upset about.

It is sad that it came to that but why did it come to that?

Was it a person seeking attention? Someone listening to Satan to disrupt conference? Or was it a person that was at wits end because they felt like their voice wasn’t heard, that an outburst was the only option left?

I hate to say it but this level of indirection, asking people to go to their SPs where their concerns will be dismissed, doesn’t really satisfy people’s need to be at least heard… but how else would such a large church do things?

It would be nice to hear the leaders of the church address some things directly, not through the PR arm of the church. If nothing more than to acknowledge that people’s concerns are valid and being heard.