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Two important things didn’t happen at GC – #1 – The Proclamation on the Family – WAS NOT canonized as scripture.
:clap: #2 – The entire conference was not focused on The Proclamation or Family Home Evening.
:clap: In these two things I rejoice.
#3 – I don’t remember any talk with the theme of “follow the prophet.” #4 – I noticed that the talks focused on the
gospel. I don’t remember any talk substituting the word “church” in place of the word “gospel.” #5 – A talk about doubts where the person giving the talk could empathize with the person that was doubting. It felt like they understood rather than talk as if they understood but didn’t.
6. There were no homages to Joseph Smith, the First Vision, or the founding of the Church #7 No flies buzzing around the speaker’s face. #8 “So we’ve decided to wind the church down guys. Go off to somewhere else next Sunday.” #9 “And so, I told that widow that polygamy was really okay…”
3-6 were things I was glad to notice about GC! Interesting to me how completely normalit was this time for women to give prayers. Quote:Interesting to me how completely normal it was this time for women to give prayers.
Just wait. In 5 years people will claim we’ve always done it this way. Guaranteed. Mormon Jedi mind trick.
hawkgrrrl wrote:Quote:Interesting to me how completely normal it was this time for women to give prayers.
Just wait. In 5 years people will claim we’ve always done it this way. Guaranteed. Mormon Jedi mind trick.
I loved the way that they said “there was nothing to say women couldn’t give prayers”. Well now they can and do. And I’m glad they do.
mom3 wrote:Two important things didn’t happen at GC –
#1 – The Proclamation on the Family – WAS NOT canonized as scripture.
:clap: #2 – The entire conference was not focused on The Proclamation or Family Home Evening.
:clap: In these two things I rejoice.
Well, mom3, I’m not sure I totally agree with your #2. It seemed like the “General Conference – Traditional Family Edition” to me. I didn’t necessarily find it all bad, because I thought the messages for the most part were trying to invite rather than throw the non-traditionalists under the bus, and I appreciated that slight change in tone. However, I know of one person who “cried all through conference” because of the traditional family theme (and in deference to SamBee, I’ll explain that I mean, tears of sorrow).DarkJedi wrote:6. There were no homages to Joseph Smith, the First Vision, or the founding of the Church
Yes! In fact, let me expand on that just a bit…One thing that is getting clearly better in conference is a separation from History-as-Faith. What I mean from that is that in GC of days past, we could always count on hearing a lot about JS and his history… “The Boy Prophet”… “14 years old”… “the Gold Plates”… But in this last conference JS had very little mention, and there was more about here and now, and about Jesus. Now, you might be saying, of course, because, after all, it was Easter. But I remember a long ago Stake Adult Fireside, held on the 23rd of December sometime in the early 90’s, where the Stake President arose and talked, not about Christmas or Christ, but about the birth of Joseph Smith… so, don’t take it for granted that JS would take second billing to anyone else in GC.
The following were the only mentions of JS:
Women’s Session – Cheryl Esplin– fairly lengthy story of Elizabeth Walker and her testimony of JS, in spite of people who thought he was a “sly fraud”. This was the only substantive old-school reference to JS. Still, the story was about Elizabeth Walker and her conviction. I’ll note that while I’m delighted that Women’s Session is now considered part of GC, as a practical matter, it’s still a mostly-honorary title. So, count this reference as being part of GC, if you see fit to do so. Saturday Afternoon – Elder Wilford Andersen– introduced D&C 8 as being the teachings of the Lord to “JS and OC”. Priesthood Session – Elder Ballard– mentioned the first vision to JS and the restoration of the gospel “through him”. But even in that reference, the subject of the sentence was Jesus Christ, and the topic was that He lives. Priesthood Session – President Monson– brief mentioned the restoration of the AP and MP to JS and OC as “most significant” and as “a cherished event” to priesthood holders. Sunday Afternoon – Elder Hales– directly quoted JS, but the quote was one of our favorites here: “I am just as ready to die in defending the rights of a Presbyterian, a Baptist, or a good man of any other denomination [as for a Mormon]” To me, that is an extremely measured approach to the Founding Prophet (as the RLDS/CofC call him). In the whole 10 hours of the Saturday/Sunday sessions, JS got less air time than his nephew, Joseph F. and to me, that is a massive step away from our historical burdens. JS, love him or hate him, doesn’t live in the here and now, and the Church is well-served to get its message squarely into the 21st century.
Your right On Own – the Conference wasn’t entire absent from it. There were a fair number of us, that expected – especially after the first session (Women’s Meeting) that the following hours would be spent in Proclamation – Confirmation. I was dreading that, and so relieved by the minimal attention to it, that was my reference. I agree with your final statement,
Quote:JS, love him or hate him, doesn’t live in the here and now, and the Church is well-served to get it’s message squarely into the 21st century.
As I see it, lets cull through the Universal – Jesus loves his children messages that Joseph did promote (such as Elder Hales quote) and build forward.
I wonder if Elder Anderson’s talk from October caused enough of a stir that people thought the better of heavy references to JS, especially on Easter. In addition to it being Easter, however, it was the day before the anniversary of the founding of the church and when some believe the FV occurred. (It did occur sometime in the spring, so I suppose April 6 is as good a day as any – but we don’t know it was that day. I actually think that speaks more about the conspicuous absence of these things than anything else. And while I like it (I think most here know I’m not into JS worship in any way, shape, or form and I am sensitive to outsiders who believe we do worship JS), I am also wondering if it was just a fluke. Speakers do get to pick their own topics, so it is possible none of them chose JS and it’s just all a coincidence. I suppose it’s also possible there was some discussion and the Q15 have decided to lay off JS a bit and clued the speakers in, or that there was some discussion, as Ann alludes to, about Elder Andersen’s talk. I’ve seen discussion on another site where someone dug a little and looked up mentions of JS during GC. I don’t think they went so far as to resolve all the pronouns (he) or even simple mentions of “Joseph”, just a straight count of the phrase Joseph Smith. Here’s their results:
Oct 2005 84
Apr 2006 33
Oct 2006 21
Apr 2007 39
Oct 2007 21
Apr 2008 41
Oct 2008 36
Apr 2009 27
Oct 2009 40
Apr 2010 27
Oct 2010 35
Apr 2011 21
Oct 2011 25
Apr 2012 29
Oct 2012 24
Apr 2013 27
Oct 2013 21
Apr 2014 32
Oct 2014 34
Apr 2015 4
The claim was that October 2005 was an outlier because it was the 200th anniversary of the birth of JS.
They included a fair amount of speculation over the drop off in this most recent conference, citing that a drop off of that magnitude likely pointed to a coordinated effort. Maybe they didn’t assign the talks but maybe they suggested to lay off JS for a while. Easter was also cited as a likely reason for the drop off but it was noted that Easter didn’t seem to impact the JS mentions in other April conferences.
Some theories center around the bad press the church received over polygamy and how perhaps the church is trying to distance itself from JS for a season.
On Own Now wrote:JS, love him or hate him, doesn’t live in the here and now, and the Church is well-served to get its message squarely into the 21st century.
Agreed. They may be doing just that.
Ann wrote:I wonder if Elder Anderson’s talk from October caused enough of a stir that people thought the better of heavy references to JS, especially on Easter.
Ha. There was a thread where someone, I believe it was Ray, asked what apologies we would seek from the church. Neil Andersen’s talk in the October 2014 general conference would be a good starting point for me.
:angel:
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