you're far too kind, Reverend. I haven't been part of every thread, if Tim has been treated poorly then that's a shame, as he's one of my favorites. Unfortunately for the few believers, to the extent that other members recognize them as traditional believers, they become the customer service rep and that can be overwhelming. I feel less bad for the MGs, however, than I do for the Tims.
I don't know if there's a solution. I mean, I have a couple other trade/engineering type forums I occasion in phases, and the wars and bad blood and hurt feelings over technical things far removed from politics and religion can be something to behold. Now add religion and politics and good luck. I think you're doing the right thing by making your position known, and I relish disagreement and so if you think I'm way off on something, blast away. I don't want to be weak like Dan, unable to take criticism.
People are going to be themselves here and that often includes never giving the Church leaders a break, and that's just the way it is. The best you can do as you are doing now, if you think people are wrong, by all means argue it. Then you become the service rep for the Church and take a lot of heat. Unfortunately, my views of the leaders have deteriorated substantially given the financial abuse and the difficulties my nieces and nephews will face.
No, Tim has not had a bad time here, at least as far as I am aware. I bring him up as an exceptional case. There are few people identifying as believing LDS in any form who would want to put up with the drubbing they are liable to get here.
I don't know that there is a solution either. The board is what it is, and we are lucky to have it as it is. Honestly, my primary concern is not at all with the leaders of the LDS Church. I wish them well, but I don't spend much time thinking about them. I feel pretty far checked out of the entire culture of LDS leadership. I have not watched a lick of General Conference in ages. I am not all that eager to watch critiques of General Conference. I may do so simply because our dear friend consiglieri put a lot of effort into it, but the idea of caring what LDS leaders think or do is increasingly foreign to me.
Maybe what I am saying is that I was in the mood to express my own misgivings about negativity, and so I did. Leaders in any organization seem to be a necessary evil. Very infrequently do we find truly good ones, and very often we spend a lot of time dealing with the harm they do as they struggle to fill their roles or as they exploit the power and privilege they have been given. I have seen very few leaders in my time that I would care to spend much time with, and that is as true of my professional life as it is in other areas, such as politics.
That said, lately I find greater relief from keeping them as much out of mind as possible. So, this could be my fault for my own hypocrisy in spending time on something I know brings me little benefit.
This kind of dialogue is what keeps me coming to the board. In spite of the negativity, the posters here are often surprising, intelligent, and delightful. Shades really has built a nice slice of Mormon heaven here, in my humble opinion. And you can switch between kingdoms of civility as one prefers. There's no other Mormon space that keeps me drawn in to it like this place does.