Question for LDS

[_moksha]

I ran across this video posted on another forum. They said it is someone named Robert Millet from BYU. What I want to know, is this short video for real? Is he really LDS? Has it been doctored any? I suspect yes, because otherwise I have a hard time imagining anyone actually saying this stuff.

Please help clarify this. Thank you.

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJvqBq_Qa8#GU5U2spHI_4

[_asbestosman]

I can't vouch either way for the video, but Rober Millet is a real person at BYU. I took a religion course where he prepared many of the notes although he did not actually teach my class. His picture appears to match that found at BYU, but a search through the devotional archives only brings up one hit and this speech is not it.

The movie has some obvious editing at 17 seconds in, but I do not see anything to suggest that someone is putting words in his mouth. The appearance of the building is much like I remember from Forums during spring and summer at BYU.

[_Pahoran]

I ran across this video posted on another forum. They said it is someone named Robert Millet from BYU. What I want to know, is this short video for real? Is he really LDS? Has it been doctored any? I suspect yes, because otherwise I have a hard time imagining anyone actually saying this stuff.

Please help clarify this. Thank you.

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJvqBq_Qa8#GU5U2spHI_4

I can't get any sound. What does the guy allegedly say?

I know that the site implicitly accuses him of advocating "lying for the Lord," but that accusation is always been false--usually intentionally so--wherever it appears. What is the unabridged version of what he actually says?

Regards,
Pahoran

[_asbestosman]

I can't get any sound. What does the guy allegedly say?

I know that the site implicitly accuses him of advocating "lying for the Lord," but that accusation is always been false--usually intentionally so--wherever it appears. What is the unabridged version of what he actually says?

The problem is that I cannot find an unabridged version. If I were to hazard a guess, he's speaking more along the lines of following the Savior's example. When the Pharisees and Sadducees were trying to trick Him with questions, He would often answer another question or ask them one such as when they asked if it was lawful to give tribute to Ceasar.

Millet appears to be saying that it's more worthwhile to begin discussions with people about basic doctrine and testimony such as the First Vision than going right into the King Follet discourse.

[_wenglund]

I ran across this video posted on another forum. They said it is someone named Robert Millet from BYU. What I want to know, is this short video for real? Is he really LDS? Has it been doctored any? I suspect yes, because otherwise I have a hard time imagining anyone actually saying this stuff.

Please help clarify this. Thank you.

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJvqBq_Qa8#GU5U2spHI_4

I watched the video, and from what I can tell, it is Robert L. Millett. Here is a short bio:

Robert L. Millett is a professor of ancient scripture and former dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University. He earned a master's degree from BYU in psychology and a PhD from Florida State University in biblical studies and nineteenth- and twentieth-century religious thought. Brother Millett has served as a bishop, stake president, temple worker, and member of the Church Materials Evaluation Committee. He and his wife Shauna are the parents of six children.

What I don't understand is what is so hard to imagine about what he has said, and why do some people think he is "lying"?

Thanks, -Wade Englund-

[_Ray A]

The clip was obviously edited. I don't make judgments on edited clips.

[_moksha]

What I don't understand is what is so hard to imagine about what he has said, and why do some people think he is "lying"?

Thanks, -Wade Englund-

Wade, what I find unbelievable is that he is saying to always respond with milk answers to questions rather than meat answers. This gives the distinct impression he is counseling his young students to be disingenuous about Mormon theology, so as not to either arm questioners with accurate and thus potentially harmful information or to scare away prospective converts. Even if he truly believes something like this, would he really say it out loud? I think a further implication one could draw from this, is that deep down the true answers are incendiary or else unbelievable to those not already a believer. This position upsets me. That is why I am doubting this video.

[_Ray A]

This gives the distinct impression he is counseling his young students to be disingenuous about Mormon theology, so as not to either arm questioners with accurate and thus potentially harmful information or to scare away prospective converts. Even if he truly believes something like this, would he really say it out loud? I think a further implication one could draw from this, is that deep down the true answers are incendiary or else unbelievable to those not already a believer. This position upsets me. That is why I am doubting this video.

On the face of it, unless he clarified something later in his talk, he was advocating a one-way street. Questions do not matter, there is "only one true church", so it's irrelevant to discuss anything else.

[_asbestosman]

Even if he truly believes something like this, would he really say it out loud? I think a further implication one could draw from this, is that deep down the true answers are incendiary or else unbelievable to those not already a believer. This position upsets me. That is why I am doubting this video.

Keep in mind that Millet's opinion is Millet's opinion. It is not official advice from the First Presidency or the Quorum of 12. Even so, we do not have the original source so it would be best not to make any judgements about it being real or not.

[_moksha]

Somebody else on another forum sleuthed out the source and apparently it is on the up and up afterall. Professor Millet really said it.

http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/49068

Asbestosman is right, Professor Millet does not attribute this to the First Presidency.