Res Ipsa wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 1:49 am
IHAQ wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 11:34 pm
I'm struggling to see anything other than Uchtdorfs bland and brief "sorry, it was an oversight" as an attempt to not tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If he's so thoughtless about managing his own personal spending should he really be in a position of trust over hundreds of billions of dollars of donated funds?
Well, clearly "oversight" isn't the "whole truth." It's a conclusory, descriptive term and not a recitation of any facts. If I were to make a guess on the information we have alone, I'd guess that "oversight" is a face-saving term for "somebody made an embarrassingly stupid mistake." If I were an investigator, it's the kind of comment that would lead me to say "we need to take a look at the specifics on this." After all, one of the possibilities is that "oversight" seems to me to be a poor fitting term is my own idiosyncratic of what constitutes an "oversight."
As to your conclusion, it's based on unstated and unwarranted assumptions. We've got brains that evolved mainly on the plains of Africa. The part of our brain in which reasoning occurs is the newest part of the brain, and is very fragile. It is incredibly easy to distract or overload that part of the brain so that it doesn't function properly.
My conclusion is, as you point out, speculative and coloured by the lens through which I view the information. But it's not unreasonable speculation, given that Uchtdorf has deliberately chosen to withhold information that would enable people to understand what actually happened.
It's interesting that a number of members (as evidenced by Shulem and as seen in some of the comments sections of reports on this story) are quite comfortable with the situation being Uchtdorf himself making the donations even though it violates Church policy. One assumes that's because they view his actions through the lens of a democrat.
Donations were made to various Democrat campaign funds using an account in the name Dieter Uchtdorf.
Donations were spread over a number of months.
Seperately the donor registered themselves as Dieter Uchtdorf.
Dieter Uchtdorf is claiming to have not noticed these donations made from the account in his name.
Dieter is claiming someone else made them.
The questions that Dieter should have answered are:
Who made the donations? "Family" simply is a non answer which casts speculation across all his family, including his grandchildren and doesn't explicitly rule out himself.
Where did the money come from to make those donations? Is it from his stipend, does he receive private monies on top of his stipend etc?
Uchtdorf needs to practice what he preaches.
Prophets and apostles teach that trust and honesty are important in building strong families. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, stressed the importance of these principles as he taught about pressing forward with faith.
“To endure to the end, we need to trust our Father in Heaven and make wise choices,” President Uchtdorf said during an address to priesthood leaders. “
It means strength of character, selflessness, and humility; it means integrity and honesty to the Lord and our fellowmen
. It means making our homes strong places of defense and a refuge against worldly evils; it means loving and honoring our spouses and children.
“By doing our best to endure to the end, a beautiful refinement will come into our lives. We will learn to ‘do good to them that hate [us], and pray for them which despitefully use [us]’ (Matthew 5:44). The blessings that come to us from enduring to the end in this life are real and very significant, and for the life to come they are beyond our comprehension.”
If we constantly endeavor to instill these virtues of honesty and trust in our daily lives, President Uchtdorf said, we will come closer to Christ and the knowledge of His plan for us.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/pro ... y?lang=eng
My issue is not with the mistake. Everybody makes mistakes. It's how he is handling the mistake now that is problematic. Dieter needs to come clean regardless of the consequences. It's what he expects of members...
Lying is intentionally deceiving others. Bearing false witness is one form of lying. The Lord gave this commandment to the children of Israel: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exodus 20:16). Jesus also taught this when He was on earth (see Matthew 19:18). There are many other forms of lying. When we speak untruths, we are guilty of lying. We can also intentionally deceive others by a gesture or a look, by silence, or by telling only part of the truth. Whenever we lead people in any way to believe something that is not true, we are not being honest.
The Lord is not pleased with such dishonesty, and we will have to account for our lies. Satan would have us believe it is all right to lie. He says, “Yea, lie a little; … there is no harm in this” (2 Nephi 28:8). Satan encourages us to justify our lies to ourselves. Honest people will recognize Satan’s temptations and will speak the whole truth, even if it seems to be to their disadvantage.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... y?lang=eng
Uchtdorf, as an Apostle, should be the epitome of that last sentence. I'm holding him to the standard he promotes to members, and at the moment he's failing to live up to it.
