Finn the human wrote:Darth J wrote:For 10 bonus points...
I have been playing along at home and here is my score card:
Plus 10 points to MG for making an effort.
Minus 10 points to Darth for not responding in a chivalrous way.
Yes, I should have treated him more like a lady.
Plus 100 points to Darth for an interesting post.
I would also like to give my TBM response: You can watch rated R movies and still get a temple recommend. You just might miss out on some bonus blessings. However, following prophetic counsel is always best.
No, that's not a TBM response. That's a cafeteria Mormon response. A TBM response is that you actually believe these guys are prophets, seers, and revelators, so you do what they say because you think what they say comes from God.
You're also still conceding the irrelevance of LDS leaders to their own church. There are a great many things besides avoiding rated R movies that LDS leaders have told church members to do or not do that are not temple recommend questions, either. Some examples would be not eating meat except in times of winter or famine, planting a garden, keeping a daily journal, not dating until you are 16, not wearing sandals to church if you are female, food storage, and genealogy. Since a person can get a temple recommend without doing any of these things, even though all of these items are "inspired counsel from the Bretheren," then self-professed faithful Mormons can and do disregard what they say. That's agreeing with the point of the OP.
Another question that is not on the temple recommend interview is whether you love your neighbor as yourself. Since a Mormon can get a temple recommend without affirmatively answering this question, or being asked at all, we can conclude this was just Jesus stating his opinion and speaking as a man, and we are therefore free to disregard it.
Now what a conscientious person with some kind of coherent sense of morality and theology would do would be to ask themselves why it's bad to have a cup of coffee, but acceptable to watch rated R movies, when both prohibitions come from the same source. (D&C 89, on its own terms, is not a commandment.) Readers of this thread will note that no such efforts are being made here or anywhere else.