The Die Has Been Cast; John Dehlin WILL Be Excommunicated

[_Mayan Elephant]

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/wil ... ed-n139526

looks like i am the one that is going to be wrong. dehlin is opening his jacket and reaching for his pack of double-mint gum in a clear and deliberate act of suicide/martyr by cop.

[_Mayan Elephant]

Since the last general conference, the respective website traffic seems about the same, but over the entire 6 months, traffic on mormonstories.org has been more consistent.

wow. nice work, mate.

one site has been up for a year, the other for 10 years.

is there any way to measure it by unique followers?

also, i would bet the number of new users or recruits is much higher for kelly. if an angel investor was considering this, i am pretty sure that the stats for kelly would be a lot more favorable to the angel. but, as this and other threads show, i am often wrong on this stuff.

[_Equality]

I think Mayan is right that the chapel-Mormon TBMs view Kelly as the bigger threat. More importantly, I think the church hierarchy does, too. The key is not just the number of followers but the type of followers. Dehlin has a big following among liberal Mormons, Sunstone Mormons, NOMs, disaffected Mormons, and former Mormons. Sure, he attracts a few TBMs who stumble on his podcasts, learn "the truth" about Mormonism, and find themselves in the midst of what some call a "faith crisis." But he is picking people off at the margins, mostly. The church's core revenue stream is not new converts; it is the folks sitting in the pews. Don't be fooled by the glitzy marketing campaigns and missionary program (which most of us recognize is way more about solidifying the testimonies of young single adults than about generating long-term converts).

Kelly, on the other hand, represents a threat to the church's bread-and-butter customers--the TBM chapel Mormons. The very fact that makes Kelly's excommunication so poignant--that she is a true believer in foundational Mormon truth claims--is the one that makes her such a threat. Church leaders made the calculated decision that the collateral damage suffered by exing her now, painful as it might be (the church may take a black eye in the court of pubic opinion, and may lose a few thousand "early adopters" of the Ordain Women brand), is preferable to letting this movement get too far out of hand, when taking action could result in massive casualties.

The church leaders have simply adopted the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war and applied it to Kelly (and I bet some of them wanted to do it last October and are crowing to the Neville Chamberlains (looking at you Dieter, who of all people should know better ;-)) in their midst about how they should have brought the hammer down sooner).

[_Stumpy Pepys]

Is it possible that John has shown a willingness to bend that Kate did not?

When John had his big "faith reconstruction" episode, didn't he restructure leadership of Mormonstories communities and the podcast so that it couldn't be said that he was the sole driver? This might have given him some plausible deniability?

Maybe I am wrong, but I think that was his act of compliance. I certainly feel that the podcasts he made during his "faith reconstruction" (I can't type that without scare quotes) represented an inexplicable change in tone. It was very clear that he was talking to another audience (his SP) and it was dripping with the standard Mormon confessional jingo ("I was too prideful," "the exmos I met were sinful" etc).

I suspect at the time when crap was hitting the fan for him, and he wanted to baptise his son, and he was meeting weekly with leadership, that he had to alter his perceived role with mormonstories in order for his reconstruction to seem legit in the eyes of his evesdropping leaders.

Or maybe not.

Anyway. To make a short story long, yes, it is possible he showed some flexibility where Kate did not. Some felt he flexed them right under the bus.

I still think he will be exed.

[Guest]

John’s goose has been cooked folks....Elvis has left the building...lock the door and turn out the lights...there is no way in hell the church would have gone down this road unless they fully intended to see it through to the end...They will NOT squander this opportunity to get rid of John...especially since they are standing at the mid stream of this drama...were they to reverse course and return to the safety of the sidelines they would look weak, they can’t afford to look weak with their membership…plus…they’ve taken such a huge hit to their image already…they have got to see this through to make what they’ve paid in PR damage worth the cost

[_just me]

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/will-mormon-podcast-host-john-dehlin-be-excommunicated-n139526

looks like i am the one that is going to be wrong. dehlin is opening his jacket and reaching for his pack of double-mint gum in a clear and deliberate act of suicide/martyr by cop.

Well, I just love this sentence.

[_Arrakis]

If they do hold a court on Dehlin, I hope he has a fountain pen voice recorder in his pocket. It would make for an interesting podcast.

[_Fence Sitter]

If they do hold a court on Dehlin, I hope he has a fountain pen voice recorder in his pocket. It would make for an interesting podcast.

or any cell phone.

If it were me, I would cut out a pocket in my Bible large enough to hold my recording device and carry it in with me.

"You were right warden, salvation lies within."

[_Equality]

If they do hold a court on Dehlin, I hope he has a fountain pen voice recorder in his pocket. It would make for an interesting podcast.

or any cell phone.

If it were me, I would cut out a pocket in my Bible large enough to hold my recording device and carry it in with me.

"You were right warden, salvation lies within."

Lyndon Lamborn recorded his court of love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc0uzYXb998

[_Tim the Enchanter]

If they do hold a court on Dehlin, I hope he has a fountain pen voice recorder in his pocket. It would make for an interesting podcast.

Haha.

"Excuse me President, I didn't quite catch that. Would you mind speaking more directly to my left breast pocket?"