Ray A wrote: I also believe that the Church will eventually listen more to the voices of its ex-members (as Charity indicated).
What??? I sure didn't make myself clear on something, although I don't know what it was. What do you think I said?
Okay, here is the quote I was referring to:
We are trying to understand. And it makes it difficult when, as is the nature of the psychology of human beings, many people do not correctly understand their own motivations. (My emphasis)
I thought there was more, but this is all I can find at the moment. I do believe there was more. I'd have to do more searching, because this isn't the exact quote I was looking for.
Ray A wrote: I also believe that the Church will eventually listen more to the voices of its ex-members (as Charity indicated).
What??? I sure didn't make myself clear on something, although I don't know what it was. What do you think I said?
Because of the "quote/reply" problem you had, I may not have gotten your words in context, but this appears to be your quote:
I think you don't spend a lot of time with FAIRites. Most of the posters on MA&D are not members of FAIR. I happen to be now, but I posted for quite a while on the FAIR message board and now MA&D without being a member. And still, even after I joined I spent quite a while as a fairly passive member before I joined the e-list and started actually participating in FAIR activities.
I know what these individuals talk about about the issue of people leaving the Church. They don't smugly dismiss anyone's reasons.
LifeOnaPlate wrote:I predict it will either become more like mainstream Christianity, or it won't.
Can you be more vague? There is not enough uncertainty in your response, why don't you increase it.
It is possible that there is a third option I have overlooked, so I add the third possible option herein.
One moment in annihilation's waste, one moment, of the well of life to taste- The stars are setting and the caravan starts for the dawn of nothing; Oh, make haste! -Omar Khayaam
The church has proven to be very adaptive to the world around it. Remember, it's more of a corporation than a church, and it is headquartered in a capitalist country. As long as tithes come in, and it maintains it's tax exempt status, it's survival is guranteed. It needs a large membership base to maintain its tithing so it cannot become a small fanatical group of true believers. It will continue to mainstream. Women will get the priesthood within 50 years. Gays wil become more and more accepted as they become more accepted in mainstream america. They will continue to try to fit in with mainstream Christianity, and if that means marginalizing Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, they will quietly phase them out, and let the apologists answer the tough questions.
"We of this Church do not rely on any man-made statement concerning the nature of Deity. Our knowledge comes directly from the personal experience of Joseph Smith." - Gordon B. Hinckley
"It's wrong to criticize leaders of the Mormon Church even if the criticism is true." - Dallin H. Oaks