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"Maintaining faith in the LDS Church is a difficult task, requiring all sorts of convoluted mental gymnastics..."

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2024 7:56 am
by Marcus
I'm sure this is not new to most readers here, as it was published 8 years ago but it was new to me, so I thought I would post a few excerpts on the off chance someone else might enjoy it as much as I did.

From the blog, "The Unexamined Faith":
Tuesday 6 September 2016
Church Handbook of Instructions: Guidelines for Apologists

"I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands."
- C. S. Lewis

Church Handbook of Instructions:
Guidelines for Apologists....

...Apologist Mission Statement

As a defender of the faith, the apologist does not necessarily directly engage the critic of the Church, but creates the illusion, for the benefit of the faithful, that the Church is actively responding to criticism. In so doing, the apologist is to convince the believer that there is no such thing as legitimate criticism, thus quelling any and all interest in pursuing further investigation of legitimate criticism of the faith. The apologist will seek to limit the influence of the authors of any work that objectively evaluates the history and theology of the faith. Any objective criticism is slanderous, is un-useful, and even if true, benefits Satan. Hence the apologist is to sacrifice anything, including but not limited to, neutrality and objectivity, in order to eradicate the disease of legitimate criticism of the Church.

With the above Apologist Mission Statement as our rubric, there are specific principles to follow in order to achieve your apologetic aim.

Principle 1

Avoid directly engaging critics.

Why?

Legitimate academics, if they are doing their jobs with intellectual honesty, look at evidence, look at data, follow the arguments and evidence wherever it leads, and then extrapolate conclusions from said evidence.

As apologists, if you are righteously fulfilling your duty, you do the opposite. You already know what your conclusions will be before you begin to even consider any evidence. It is your duty to interpret the data and evidence in such a manner as to ensure that it appears to conform to the conclusions that paint the Church in the most favorable light.

Because your primary audience is the faithful member, you do your best avoid direct entanglement with legitimate critics because you do not want the faithful member to notice that the critic and the apologist are engaged in wholly incommensurate pursuits.

Principle 2

Never allow for the possibility that there is legitimate criticism....

Principle 3

Dismiss everything as “typical” anti-Mormon tactics...

Principle 4

Always act as though the criticism is old and has been previously satisfactorily dispatched...

Principle 5

Take advantage of the Confirmation Bias; Hold different standards of evidence....
There are more than a dozen principles in total, and the whole blog entry is well worth the read. The conclusion is perfection:
....Conclusion

Maintaining faith in the LDS Church is a difficult task, requiring all sorts of convoluted mental gymnastics, and a tenacious aversion to sources that reveal unwhitewashed information about our Lord’s Church. In order to maintain the current membership numbers and tithing revenues we need to stem the flow of families that are discovering unfiltered information about our history and theology, and as a result, leaving the fold. Brethren, if you do your job correctly, the flock will not think critically about the issues raised by our critics, and with your guidance will successfully protect their fragile faith by believing that you have dismissed any and all criticisms.

Amen and Amen.

https://unexaminedfaith.blogspot.com/20 ... tions.html
Sound like anyone we know?!

Re: "Maintaining faith in the LDS Church is a difficult task, requiring all sorts of convoluted mental gymnastics..."

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2024 2:31 pm
by malkie
Marcus wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2024 7:56 am
Sound like anyone we know?!
Screwtape?

Re: "Maintaining faith in the LDS Church is a difficult task, requiring all sorts of convoluted mental gymnastics..."

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2024 4:47 pm
by Marcus
malkie wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2024 2:31 pm
Marcus wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2024 7:56 am
Sound like anyone we know?!
Screwtape?
:D
"I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands."
- C. S. Lewis

Re: "Maintaining faith in the LDS Church is a difficult task, requiring all sorts of convoluted mental gymnastics..."

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2024 5:10 pm
by yellowstone123
I always have a problem with the word faith. I agree that's it's a belief in something that is true but lacks evidence but how do you find what is true or what occurred, occurs, or will occur? Those closest thing we can come to it is by learning what is true is by experiment: start by research and studying an issue, add a hypotheses and also a null hypotheses (and the Mormon church will never ad a null hypothesis) and design your experiment so it can be carried out by many around the globe dedicated to truth and not a political or religious dogma; see if they get the same results. I'm always astonished by science that study something and say based on our hypothesis we should find this at this point and they actually do. The Higgs boson was such an experiment to find and establish truth.

Think of the word tenet. It's a thought embraced by a group who believes it's true. Jesus rose from the dead is not faith but a tenet. Joseph Smith saw God, or two Gods is a tenet.

edit in to write tenet but auto correction an type of early A.I. always seems to change my words at the last moment.

Thanks again, Kishkumen.

Re: "Maintaining faith in the LDS Church is a difficult task, requiring all sorts of convoluted mental gymnastics..."

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2024 6:50 pm
by Kishkumen
I believe the word is tenet.

Re: "Maintaining faith in the LDS Church is a difficult task, requiring all sorts of convoluted mental gymnastics..."

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2024 6:58 pm
by Moksha
Kishkumen wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2024 6:50 pm
I believe the word is tenet.
What if two Gods were living as a couple in a rental?

Re: "Maintaining faith in the LDS Church is a difficult task, requiring all sorts of convoluted mental gymnastics..."

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2024 7:00 pm
by Kishkumen
Moksha wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2024 6:58 pm
Kishkumen wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2024 6:50 pm
I believe the word is tenet.
What if two Gods were living as a couple in a rental?
Then they are tenANts.

Re: "Maintaining faith in the LDS Church is a difficult task, requiring all sorts of convoluted mental gymnastics..."

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2024 9:21 pm
by Marcus
Kishkumen wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2024 7:00 pm
Moksha wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2024 6:58 pm
What if two Gods were living as a couple in a rental?
Then they are tenANts.
[channeling the penguin king]

Are you sure it wasn't a round dozen of ANts?

Re: "Maintaining faith in the LDS Church is a difficult task, requiring all sorts of convoluted mental gymnastics..."

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2024 10:09 pm
by Rivendale
My favorite.
Furthermore, the apologist ought to state that he has known about the issue at hand for a long time. When a member first discovers the rocks in the hat, the child brides, the marrying of other men’s wives, or the irreconcilable versions of the First Vision, we try to lead the members to be judgmental towards themselves, to infer that the shock they feel is their own fault for not being well read enough in Church matters.

Re: "Maintaining faith in the LDS Church is a difficult task, requiring all sorts of convoluted mental gymnastics..."

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2024 10:18 pm
by Kishkumen
Marcus wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2024 9:21 pm
Kishkumen wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2024 7:00 pm
Then they are tenANts.
[channeling the penguin king]

Are you sure it wasn't a round dozen of ANts?
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: