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Quote:
“You don’t get a bonus for doing the basics.”
Fwiw, that is a really good synopsis of the thought process behind the three degrees of glory and “earning” or “being worthy of” exaltation and not just salvation.
I like eternal progression and eventual judgment upon completion of the LONG, eternal journey specifically because it feels much more fair than a traditional bonus structure that rewards those who are good enough at something to be rewarded officially and doesn’t reward those who aren’t as good at it – or those who don’t do the work that generates the bonus. Of course, that is based on what I have experienced with sales bonuses that don’t include non-sales people. Equally divided and distributed organizational bonuses are a different story – but that model is rare. That model fits my desire much better, but individual bonuses are even better to me IF they are paid to literally everyone, at the max level possible and equitable, “without end” and throughout time and all eternity until there is nothing more to pay as a bonus due to everyone’s accounts being full.
Best 1. Generally the people are nice people.
2. Good place to hob nob with other youth with generally good character; youth focus.
3. Provides a community no matter where you go — at least, on the surface.
4. For some, it provides simple boxes to check so your chances of a good life after death are increased. This brings peace to some people.
5. BYU — affordable, quality education.
6. Two Hour Church
Worst
1. Lay Clergy — they are supposed to be spiritual advisers but most don’t know diddly except what they’ve gleaned from life experience or what they do for a living. Often inaccessible or indifferent due to having full-time jobs and other commitments.
2. Inaccessible LDS Social Services.
3. Ingroup Outgroup syndrome. Do the program — you’re in. Don’t do it, you’re out. Love and being part of the community is highly conditional, and you can fall out of favor fast. Lots of judgmentalism.
4. Plural marriage, priesthood ban, one year waiting period.
5. Forced tithing, bad treatment of volunteers (taken for granted).
6. Ambiguous what is doctrine, which shifts from doctrine to policy and policy to doctrine depending on whether the doctrine or policy makes the church look good or bad.
Thought provoking question…below are my resulting thoughts. BEST
1. Wards: There is something so very comforting to me about this local community. I do believe that bishops have the most important jobs in the Church and that a good ward can make up for lots of deficits in policy and doctrine. That said, I recognize that this is NOT a universal experience for everyone and I’ve heard plenty about bad wards (I’ve even been in one). But the POTENTIAL in the concept is pretty powerful.
2. Emphasis on Education: While I have some quibbles with the Church Educational System as an institution, the Church does appear to work hard to bring educational opportunities (at a low cost) to its members (e.g. BYU Pathways Worldwide). I would even venture to say that it is of fairly decent quality.
3. Religious Education: I know there are plenty of problems with Sunday School, Primary, and Seminary curricula but I think it’s easy to forget that we know our scriptures fairly well. Of course, most of us aren’t Biblical scholars but, compared to the world at large, we know a great deal. This was brought home to me when I played an online trivia game where the topic was the Old Testament and got every question right. We take for granted how much we as members know.
NEUTRAL
1. Genealogy: I know it’s important but have a hard time getting excited about it.
2. Temples: See #1
3. Missionary Work: See #1 again
WORST
1. General Authority Worship: Drives me crazy. It has really gotten bad in the last decade or so. As a child, members seemed impressed by the authorities but I don’t remember the kind of fawning, star-struck behavior that I see in members today.
2. Single Adults and Young Single Adults: The Church keeps tweaking their programs but I just don’t think they’ve figured out how to effectively integrate individuals from these groups into a Church with a significant emphasis on families.
3. Corporate Concepts: One of the worst things about church culture is the appropriation of business constructs into a religious context. Examples: Father INTERVIEWS, Companionship INVENTORY, Family COUNCILS. Then there’s the whole emphasis on LEADERSHIP at some levels. I went to a stake priesthood meeting where the visiting General Authority had a chalkboard wheeled in and started scribbling words like “STRATEGY” and “OBJECTIVES” on the board. Just not my cup of tea (herbal, of course).
Gerald, your list is close to my own list. The only thing I’ll add on YSAs is that the biggest symptom of this problem is the infantilizing of YSAs, and that the church’s focus on “family / marriage” is the root cause. There’s this weird assumption that a married 20 year old is somehow capable of chaperoning the activities of unmarried 26 year olds. Marriage 
= maturity and singledom = immaturity.Nothing to add. Loved the post. hawkgrrrl wrote:
Gerald, your list is close to my own list. The only thing I’ll add on YSAs is that the biggest symptom of this problem is the infantilizing of YSAs, and that the church’s focus on “family / marriage” is the root cause. There’s this weird assumption that a married 20 year old is somehow capable of chaperoning the activities of unmarried 26 year olds. Marriage= maturity and singledom = immaturity.
I think this also has to do with sex and single people in general not being able to be trusted because they do not have an approved outlet for sexual urges. I once read a book by an LDS woman that went through a divorce in the church in the early eighties. Her description of her interviews with her bishop after the divorce were pretty insulting in the patronizing way that it was assumed that now that she was divorced that she could not be trusted sexually.
Roy wrote:
hawkgrrrl wrote:
Gerald, your list is close to my own list. The only thing I’ll add on YSAs is that the biggest symptom of this problem is the infantilizing of YSAs, and that the church’s focus on “family / marriage” is the root cause. There’s this weird assumption that a married 20 year old is somehow capable of chaperoning the activities of unmarried 26 year olds. Marriage= maturity and singledom = immaturity.
I think this also has to do with sex and single people in general not being able to be trusted because they do not have an approved outlet for sexual urges. I once read a book by an LDS woman that went through a divorce in the church in the early eighties. Her description of her interviews with her bishop after the divorce were pretty insulting in the patronizing way that it was assumed that now that she was divorced that she could not be trusted sexually.
Counterpoint: maybe that bishop was a weirdo who thought “Hey hey hey, I can ask this divorcee inappropriate questions. La la la la.”
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