John Dehlin Fallout

[_SteelHead]

I think the spying was more along the lines of monitoring what he said in his podcasts, his various posting outlets and other online activity.

[Guest]

Instead of John's actions inlfuencing people to rejoin the church, instead I think he is just merely losing followers.

He did tell some disturning stories about how two members of his ward were instructed by his bisphop to spy on him, transcribe his words and gather evidence for a church court against him. That's got to turn people off.

Dan from MormonThink

We do need proof of this. A ward is a small society of people. Asking two people to spy on one of their own seems far fetched. These two people would certainly tell others that they were asked to spy. And the ward would have a tough time with that news. And of course since John has 'found out' the cat would now be out of the bag. I don't think that it happened.

Since John named one of them by position, his Elder's Quroum President, I don't think he would have lied about that in the podcast or the whole story for that matter as he said someone had transcribed the entire podcast to use his own words against him. John hasn't lied in his podcasts so why would he lie about this issues, especially since in the same podcast he announced his returning to the faith. Perhaps he didn't use the word 'spy' but the actions involved were enough to disturb John.

Dan at MT

[_Mormon Think]

Dan from MormonThink

Keep up the good work with your faith promoting site.

Thanks. As long as the Church continues to conceal the true history of its beginnings, MormonThink will be here to present the facts the church leaves out of its own history books.

Dan at MT

[_Gobias]

John's backpedaling continues: http://mormonstories.org/a-clarificatio ... nferences/

[_Gobias]

"Frankly, I worried that some of these behaviors would lead to rumors that would only confirm the stereotypes I was trying to combat."

This is too rich. Talk about revisionist narratives. I guess John really is a modern Mormon.

How do we square a statement like this with what he actually said on the recent podcast? Like, for example, "I would rather have the problems of the Church then the problems of an open marriage."

I appreciate that he is trying to apologize. Heaven knows we all say things that just come out wrong at times. But this "apology" is either another JD pendulum swing (and too soon at that, even by his standards) or strategic, disingenuous posturing by which John tries to speak out of the other side of his mouth. As someone who has long defended Dehlin and appreciates the direction in which he has pushed Mormon culture, the dude is seriously losing credibility.

[_sock puppet]

I think it 'takes a load of compromising on the road' back to that 'horizon'--back to LDSland.

[_The Mighty Builder]

Yes, and if Jar Jar Binks is okay with other Star War fans, then I guess I'll embrace him too http://www.mindspring.com/~ernestm/jarj ... arjar.html.

[_Res Ipsa]

I think it 'takes a load of compromising on the road' back to that 'horizon'--back to LDSland.

I'm having trouble picturing Dehlin in rhinestones.