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I had thought John was not attending church now. But wikipedia says he is “semi-active” now. Anyone talk to John recently? I emailed him about a different matter, but no answer. I only noticed that because one of my mission friends just discovered I’m Hawkgrrrl. She frequents StayLDS, but has only ever lurked. She comes here having found NOM too negative. As far as I know, he attends sometimes with his family. Maybe once a month? I think that factoid in my brain is more recent than his announcement that he was going inactive. It seems like at Sunstone he said he wasn’t currently active, but he wasn’t happy about it. I know he had some chats with his stake president a while back, and although they seemed ok at the time, I think something happened. But John would be the best source for this. John might not consider himself active anymore if he only attends once or twice a month for part of the 3 hour block, and doesn’t feel connected to the Church. Then on the opposite side of perspective, I consider myself active and probably have the same attendance (maybe slightly more).
The Church would count him as active because the ward clerk would tally him in the head count in SM.
But a more strict and judgmental member might call him inactive for not being there 100% at ALL meetings and firesides.
“Actice” or “Inactive” is a relative term.
Have you heard the latest podcast with John and John Larsen? He specifically mentions that he doesn’t care about StayLDS, but allows it to stay up for those that find value with it, but he clearly sounds like he has moved on with no hope people can honestly stay in the church knowing the facts.
I didn’t hear the podcast. I’m a little surprised by that comment, but partly not surprised. I do think there are many who ultimately leave for these reasons, perhaps most, but I also feel we’ve helped a lot of people to stay active. It’s just that once they stay active, they quit coming here or they just lurk in the first place. What’s our lurker traffic like vs. our commenters?
I’m sure my opinion is tainted, the way everyone’s is, but I keep thinking “you become the company you keep.” My present image of John D is one who has hung out (with a sincere desire to help I might add) with those who have felt misled and abused (valid perspectives) more than he has focused on finding ways to “make it work.” Granted the knife cuts both ways, but obviously my view is if you decide you need to find the way to make it work you can. It does take focus and determination – and to some extent it takes abandoning the crowd that will continuously tell you it can’t really work.
It’s fine that John has found his path, whatever it is, but I had hopes that he could understand our mission a little better.
Maybe I’ll send him a note to express my perspective.
John supports StayLDS as part of the “portfolio” of support options. He just doesn’t think it’s the single best option for ALL people who enter a faith transition. I agree with that. Staying isn’t right for everyone, even though I am fully committed to challenging the community at large with our ideas. We play a very important role in the support portfolio. Staying is the best option for some people, perhaps even many people, even if it isn’t a permanent place people settle into for the rest of their lives. I think he may come across sometimes as critical in the wrong way. I have somewhat regular conversations with him. He also has no unilateral say in StayLDS staying open and online. It stays online because *WE* keep in running. That will not change, and he doesn’t have any plans differently.
John tries to court a wider audience, including the ex-mo community. He takes a lot of flak for the middle way tension we create. I’m not worried about it though. We don’t have to please the ex-mo crowd. They aren’t our “customers!”
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