Here's another juicy one from GC, as reported in today's Trib:
Apostle Dallin H. Oaks urged Mormon parents to limit their children's extracurricular activities.
"Team sports and technology toys like video games and the Internet are already winning away the time of our children and youth," Oaks said. "Some young men and women are skipping church youth activities or are unavailable for family time in order to participate in soccer leagues or to pursue various entertainments."
They are "amusing themselves to death," he said, "spiritual death."
You'd think the Church would get the message that if youth activities were not so damned boring, the kids might show up. Instead of being "amused to death," they are "bored to death" at Church.
"Moving beyond apologist persuasion, LDS polemicists furiously (and often fraudulently) attack any non-traditional view of Mormonism. They don't mince words -- they mince the truth."
-- Mike Quinn, writing of the FARMSboys, in "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View," p. x (Rev. ed. 1998)
Alright that tears it....I challenge Dallin Oaks to a game of Fifa 2007....winner takes all. He can be Barcelona....I'll play as a crappy team from Germany. Dumping on soccer? OMG....I hate Oaks.
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
Does he happen to have read Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death? If so, I wonder why he failed to mention the other bits of wisdom from the book; for instance, a warning about the dangers of suspending individual thinking and being manipulated into doing things for no coherent reason.
Postman also talks about the impact that charisma and physical attractiveness has on the viewers. Perhaps that explains the Church's recent efforts in the appearance department.
"reason and religion are friends and allies" - Mitt Romney
The statement, "Let your light so shine", seems only to receive lip service in the church. The culture of all things LDS does put its members in a shell. Attending non LDS functions should be viewed by members as an opportunity to be a positive influence in the community.
Let the kids and the parents enjoy the social aspect of team sports. There are numerous benefits to a child in participating on a team. - If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.
I don't expect to see same-sex marriage in Utah within my lifetime. - Scott Lloyd, Oct 23 2013
I was somewhat dismayed as well. Perhaps the hierarchy is so far removed that they don't even know what goes on at a ward level. What one of the GA's said about his mother feeling like she didn't do enough even though he thought she had was very revealing as well.
We have been taught that we can never do enough. Yet those around us can generally make a valid observation to the contrary (just as the GA evaluated his mother's performance)
My perspective from my experience in the young men's program:
The epidemic in our neighborhood/community is the young mens obsession with X-Box simulated battle games. My sons' priest quorem cancelled an overnighter to the lake a few weeks ago - mainly because Halo 3 came out that week.
What some parents would give to see their kids interested in outdoor physical activities instead of this anti social crap.
Evidently, Oaks is unaware of the Duty to God program. That is the most one size fits all mismatch I ever had to deal with in the young mens program. It is so clogged with requirements there is no time for sports (or war games). We determined that there's no way for a young man to achieve his duty to God and be active in sports organizations.
Whatever happened to the doctrine of not being commanded in all things?
Maybe they are gearing up for their own branded sports leagues. I remember Mormon softball/t-ball leagues while I was a youth. This is just another "do more Mormon stuff" command from the ivory tower full of retards.
And crawling on the planet's face Some insects called the human race Lost in time And lost in space...and meaning
Ah, that makes me really, really sad. My step-son comes here (well he did :( ) and I play ball with him and those were the only times in his life he's played baseball. He can't play sports because they may have games on Sundays.
That's just cruel to do to a child that wants to participate in sports.
Inconceivable wrote:The epidemic in our neighborhood/community is the young mens obsession with X-Box simulated battle games. My sons' priest quorem cancelled an overnighter to the lake a few weeks ago - mainly because Halo 3 came out that week.
ROTFL!
What some parents would give to see their kids interested in outdoor physical activities instead of this anti social crap.
Why? Why are outdoor physical activities in any way superior to the XBox? The XBox (which I've only played twice) is social if you have "teamspeak." And increasing reaction time and hand-eye coordination can hardly be considered "crap."
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"
Hell encourages more video game playing. Usually it is a solo activity and social interaction with people you don't know is generally screamed commands and insults and leads to social maladaption if indulged in isolation. Team sports are more ambiguous. In moderation we have found them a negative fount of team spirit and detestable healthy competition (the kind that doesn't make you eviscerate the opposition).
What Hell is glad to see disappearing is a group of neighborhood kids wandering off with minimal supervision to play with forts and water guns in the hills or impromptu team sports. This lets them build up real social skills. We hope within a few generations to have melted people's brains so that they can hold only one of two states towards anyone: hate or lust. As kids spend their time forced into a plethora of activities that they are only minimally interested in due to parental zeal we lessen family influence and poison them an unholy worship of the modern obsession with busyness (unless you're watching TV of course).