Bill Reel – Thanks Ray

[Anonymous]

Thanks Roy

[Anonymous]

Quote:

I GET IT 100% THANKS AND NO WORRIES. NO OFFENSE TAKEN.

On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 12:42 PM, Roy Jones <Roy.Jones@wildhorseresort.com> wrote:

Sure Bill,

I believe that this can be boiled down to two things:

1) that the questions were addressed to church leaders that do not participate on the StayLDS site. That is against the site rules. It is not helpful to our mission to become a launching point for “open letters” or salvos towards the COB. We try to be a supportive place for people who have questions and doubts about the church. It is a different environment than what is found at NOM. Also I believe that StayLDS walks a tightrope of being considered anti-Mormon or a wolf in sheep’s clothing by the apologetic community. This rule against open letters addressed to people outside of the forum helps to keep us from sliding that direction.

2) In the conversation after the initial questions you said something to the affect that the questions and the answers that they might generate are not even necessarily for your benefit – but rather for others. It sounds as though you might be pushing for the church to be more honest and transparent about several issues. I applaud the effort…but StayLDS cannot be a part of that. StayLDS functions largely as a support group for people that are struggling to maintain church activity. We cannot become involved in helping to organize, lobby, rally, petition, or any associated activities even for causes that might be good.

Ideally I believe that this post would be fine if it was 1) addressing questions that you yourself are struggling with and 2) addressed to members of the forum for input, perspectives, and advice.

An example could be, “Guys, I am really frustrated right now. It is just not one of my better, more hopeful days. I have been kicking around some issues for a while now and I am just hoping that this group can help provide some additional perspective. Ok, here goes: 1) the church acts as though 10% on gross in the only viable way and yet historically there was much more variety in how this was done. Is it justifiable that the church is not more up front and transparent about the different approaches? 2) There have been several statements in history that seem to affirm the near infallibility of the prophet. More recently statements have been given suggesting that the combined united front of the Q15 is near infallible. Why do church leaders continue to put forward this idea that their policy decisions are authored, supported, and ratified by God when history has shown that they can be spectacularly wrong sometimes? Are they trying to inspire confidence, quell debate, or something else? 3) Do you think that church leaders are troubled much by possible suicides indirectly caused by LDS church policies? 4) Why will the church not be more open about how much “stipend” the church authorities are paid? Are they justified in hiding this information?…..

I hope this helps.

Your friend,

Roy

From: Bill Reel [mailto:reelmormon@gmail.com]

Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2016 1:11 PM

To: Roy Jones <Roy.Jones@wildhorseresort.com>

Subject: Re: Contact info for Roy

Roy, No sweat. I would love clarification though of what exactly about this was an issue and how I can tailor such things to be appropriate.

On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 1:19 PM, Roy Jones <Roy.Jones@wildhorseresort.com> wrote:

Hi Bill,

While it has been some time since our conversation, it made a good impression on me. I listen to your podcast and have even had my wife listen to one (the one about JS and folk magic).

I respect you fully. I also act as a moderator for StayLDS.com. I wanted to reach out to you personally after the locking of your questions thread to help ensure that there are no misunderstandings.

What you have probably already read is that the open letter format of the questions violates our policy and that it does not help to further the mission of StayLDS. I do not know that I can add to that necessarily.

But I do want to make sure that the channel for dialogue is open both publicly and privately. If you have any questions for why this or why that, we can discuss them honestly (without doublespeak ).

Thank you for all that you do.

Sincerely,

Roy Jones

I believe that we are on the same page now and I am glad that we do not have a falling out situation similar to what happened with Cwald. He seems to have genuinely not understood why his post would not have been allowed. I imagine that because he participates in so many forums he might not be clear on exactly what is permitted at each. I do not have any special insights into the motivations behind the post but at least now the expectations going forward are clear.

[Anonymous]

Roy – Nicely done. I couldn’t have been as articulate. I would have started a whole new war. Thanks for being the pm-dude for this one.

[Anonymous]

Well done, Roy

[Anonymous]

Perfect, Roy.

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys. We make a good team.

[Author]

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