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most people deserve to know the whole story.
Yes they do. But they deserve to know it on their own terms. After my faith transition, I determined never to proselyte again. I have a certain belief and I am open that that is what I believe, but I stay far away from trying to convince or “enlighten” anyone else about Atheism. Atheism is my choice, not yours, and not theirs. Yes, these articles are on lds.org. So, they will eventually discover them. If I make a bunch of pass-along cards with references to the essays and an offer to talk about them, then I am taking their faith into my hands. I’m not doing that. There is comfort in faith and I can tell you unequivocally that I wish I had taken the Blue Pill. Although I have ‘adjusted’, I was far happier then than I am now. If I ever do find faith again, please don’t come to me and show me why I should doubt.What On Own Now said – word-for-word. church0333 wrote:So did I make a mistake by talking to him in the first place?
Listening to the story and the situation, I don’t think you can take responsibility for the information that is out there, nor can you feel guilty you were trying to influence him. You were talking to him because you had a friendship with him that he joined the conversation willingly.Its likely he would have come across it anyway. Now you can just be his friend, and maybe share with him Fowler’s stages and that stage 4 is temporary and it can be OK. Mostly offer to just be the friend he was to you.
For the benefit of the forum…can you just quickly clarify the essays on LDS.org you are referring to?
Quote:Unfortunately the loudest voices set the culture, and that culture includes many eccentric claims and false assumptions.
I find it incredibly encouraging that the church is finally putting these essays out there, but in essence, we are talking about a pretty big change in a five year period. Literally, 5 years ago, I was “tattled on” for teaching about the different accounts of the First Vision in RS. Now, the church has an essay on lds.org saying exactly what I said in that lesson. I am not bitter. I knew I was right at the time, and I was presenting it faithfully. It just took the church a little while to catch up. Individuals move more quickly than organizations, always have. So, I’m not the one who’s got a problem with the essays. It’s the faithful who tattled on me who have a problem because now they know that their “righteousness” and “fighting against apostate views” was not in fact correct. They can take responsibility for their actions, but if they blame the church for it, the fact is that the church was complicit in presenting manuals with missing information and such a simplified version of the facts that people didn’t have the whole story. But I do think the only way through this for those previously orthodox yet uneducated individuals is through owning it themselves and just getting on board. Problem is, they didn’t own it when they were tattling on so-called apostates. They were demonstrating their unthinking loyalty, still letting authority “tell” them what to do rather than owning it for themselves. I don’t mean that in a harsh way. It’s all part of spiritually growing up. Eventually personal revelation is more important and binding than authoritative directives.
What essays are you referring to in the OP? fisherman wrote:What essays are you referring to in the OP?
http://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng http://www.lds.org/topics/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.lds.org/topics/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng http://www.lds.org/topics/first-vision-accounts?lang=eng ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.lds.org/topics/first-vision-accounts?lang=eng and to a lesser extent
http://www.lds.org/topics/book-of-mormon-and-dna-studies ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.lds.org/topics/book-of-mormon-and-dna-studies Quote:Listening to the story and the situation, I don’t think you can take responsibility for the information that is out there, nor can you feel guilty you were trying to influence him. You were talking to him because you had a friendship with him that he joined the conversation willingly.
Its likely he would have come across it anyway.
It’s been my experience in Mormonry, that most members rarely study the gospel. I’ve had several teaching callings, including seminary, and I would get so frustrated at how little people know about the church. Most of what they know is what is parroted in SS/RS/P. This is what makes SS almost unbearable for me now. I don’t claim to be a scholar, but I have done a great deal of study and it wasn’t that hard. I think it’s a rare thing for most members to go looking around on lds.org, so when they do, they’re shocked when they inadvertently stumble on something like the essays. DH and I were talking the other day about how, since these essays seem to have gone viral now, everyone will be going on lds.org. I think the next few years are going to be very interesting.
On Own Now wrote:
Yes they do. But they deserve to know it on their own terms. . . . If I ever do find faith again, please don’t come to me and show me why I should doubt.Yes I agree. On the other hand some issues need to be addressed to keep harm from coming to others. For example I think we need to point to the Race and the Priesthood essay if we ever hear someone repeating the old justifications for the ban.
Personally, I think the lesson manuals need to point to these essays wherever potentially relevant. Members continuing in ignorance is the problem, not the content in the essays shaking some very poorly constructed testimonies.
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