Jason Bourne wrote:The one dominant theme I've noticed in my years in the LDS church is the emphasis on authority.
Yes. Follow the brethren, keep your eyes on the brethren, follow the prophet.
And we are marching in step, straight to hell.
Yet our leaders do not understand even a tiny bit about the authority they supposedly hold. The so-called keys to the kingdom aren't authority and power.
Well they are supposed to be the authority of God and the priesthood to administer ordinances.
And yet, nowhere in the required interview questions does the gospel of Jesus Christ appear. So what good are ordinances administered without the requisite emphasis on love and service? No good. They become simply rote, mindless drivel of no internal worth.
The keys of the kingdom are love and service.
Now you are striking on the weightier matters of the gospel or law. Yea, these are the things that most of us, LDS and others really have trouble doing.
What others do is immaterial to those who have shouldered the weight of the fullness of the gospel. It's what we do that's impacts us. And we do a lousy job of living the gospel, which is one reason why only 12 million people out of the billions in the world today are members. WE aren't that light on the hill, showing forth our light so that others may see it and glorify our Father in Heaven. WE are poor examples, with our malls, our city streets, our profits... and our miniscule in comparison efforts to ease the burdens of the poor and downtrodden. Why would anyone want to join with us? We aren't at all worthy of anyone's desire to be like us.
Jesus's gospel isn't about buying malls and city streets, worthiness or interviews, endless meetings, talks, temple ceremonies, or courts of love. Jesus' gospel is about loving our neighbors, helping the helpless, caring for the widowed and handicapped, giving of our abudance until there are no rich among us, serving those whom others turn their backs on.
I do agree. So many times in the endless meetings for leadership training, PECs, councils and on and on I wonder that we can go to these meetings and feel like we are magnifying our calling or living our religion. It seems like we go to some boring meeting just to satisfy ourselves that we are doing something. Oh sure, some planning and organizing in good and needed. But what more could we do with our time??
If we were the people God's people should be, there would be no rich among us. Think about that, Jason. It isn't that there would be no poor among us. No, as Christ said, the poor will always be with us. It's that there would be no RICH among us. And yet look around you. We are rich. We are disgustingly rich, and our leaders show us the way. How so? Because the rich are rewarded with leadership callings, which allows them entry into circles of more and more rich.
If we would be the peculiar people we could be, we'd stand out from main stream religion simply because we would serve God. Unfortunately, we are not peculiar at all. We teach our children to hate their neighbor,
You are going overboard here. We do not teach our children to hate their neighbor.
Unfortunately, yes, we do. When we teach our children that people who drink beer or coffee are bad, when we won't allow our children to play with nonmember children, when we pull our children away from experiences like feeding street people or giving money to beggars, or when we allow our children to treat poor children in our wards or schools like dirt... what we're really doing is teaching them to hate anyone who isn't Mormon, who looks different, who is poor, who is homeless.
,we're as materialistic as any
Some are, some are not.
We are members of God's church. We should have NO rich, so your "some" is too many. If Pres Hinckley stood up in conference and told us God requires us all to bust ourselves down to the bare minimums and give the rest away (which is what Christ requires of the rich man), how many people would do that? Recommend Ridge (which is what a friend of mine calls the ridge above SLC) is full of million+ dollar homes. How many of them would sell everything they have, give it to the poor, and live in a bare-minimum housing? None. None, Jason. None. Even though that is EXACTLY what Christ requires, if we are to truly live his gospel. And we KNOW this. We've heard this over and over and over, and we still don't get it! We think if we give $10 on fast Sunday, that's enough. Well, guess what! IT'S NOT ENOUGH! We love gold more than we love God.
there is no accountability for the money given, our leaders are in this for the money
I often here that leaders are in it for money. This is poppy cock. Where is evidence of this? It seems most the GAs, have fairly modest middle class lives. Some have money that they may have made in their career. Now I know we do not know what they make. My guess is it is similar to what equal jobs in business might be. But I see no reason to believe the GAs are padding their pockets in some devious or major way.
Do you know how much the condominum apartment is worth that Pres Hinckley lives in? It's valued at over $1.5 million. Now... tell me again about the poppy cock? I'm not saying Pres Hinckley needs to live in a shack, but there's no reason for that kind of going overboard. You and many others don't like to think of Pres Hinckley that way (neither do I), but the facts are out there. It's on public record, for tax purposes. He lives in a million+ dollar apartment. He's worked for the church virtually all his life, so don't tell me it's all volunteer.
My mother's church has a parsonage. It's a doublewide trailer. It's provided as part of the parson's salary. They're very upfront about it. Why do we claim we don't pay our clergy, when quite frankly, it's a damned lie? We pay them. Million+ dollar apartments aren't part of my mom's clergy's package, but at least they aren't lying about it.
and personal glory, and we give so little in comparison to our worth that we should be ashamed.
Some may like the glory. What we (meaning the LDS Church gives-well we just do not know that do we. But it does take a lot of money to runs a Church and maintain the buildings we meet in. The LDS Church also tends to use its buildings to the max, putting many wards in one building when the population justifies it. They also give a lot in FO assistance to members of the Church and even to non members some. Do you take that into account in humanitarian aid?
Do you know how many zeros are in a billion, Jason? That's a thousand million. One thousand million. We spent that on a MALL. And the only reason we know that is because it's public record. We don't know how our money is spent, because our leaders are so afraid we'll be shocked, they keep it secret. Secret, no sacred, Jason. They keep it SECRET from us. They don't want us to know.
I work for a national non-profit that brings in billions of dollars every year, and I can give you a report that shows where every danged penny goes. EVERY penny. We're 90 some odd years old, and I give you reports from decades back, and show you where every penny went. I can't tell you where one thin dime of the money MY church goes. They keep that information from me.
We should be ashamed at our collective and individual unwillingness to live the fullness of the gospel. If we were living it even the tiniest bit, we'd look much different than we do now.
While we can do better I do believe many members do good and do service and seek for ways to bless those less fortunate. I think you are being overly cynical here.
I agree. Unfortunately, it's hard to shake the rich man/eye of the needle thing. We are generally a very rich church, both institutionally and individually. And yet, we do so little, it's shameful, in relation to what we've been blessed with. When much is given, MUCH IS EXPECTED. And we're letting God down, because we aren't coming anywhere close to those expectations.
We'd feel much different than we do now. Our priorities would be much different than they are now. Our books would be open to the public. We wouldn't be spending billions on business and thousands on humanitarian efforts.
Well we know we have spent 100's of millions on humanitarian aid. And again, that does not take into account FO assistance. Also, I am not sure if you have ever visited the Humanitarian aid center in SLC. You should. You might change your tune a bit.
And we just spent thousands of millions on a piece of real estate. How humanitarian is that?
If nothing else changed, that would be reversed. We'd open the doors of the temples and invite everyone inside. We'd embrace our history and point out our mistakes to everyone, and show how we've changed from that time to this. Our children would be taught what "through a glass darkly" means, and how that relates to our prophets. We would worship God, not prophets.
We do not worship the prophets.
Indeed. We talk about the prophets constantly, we study them in our auxilliaries, we give speeches about them, we write and buy books about them. We fixate on what they say, as if God himself was standing at the pulpit. We exalt them above other men. They have bodyguards, maids, luxury apartments, private jets at their disposal, limousines, and bullet proof glass. We hang on every word they say. Their tiniest foible becomes law. Worship... indeed.
Pres Benson was right: this church isunder condemnation, although he got the reason wrong. We aren't under condemnation because we don't live the Book of Mormon. We're under condemnation because we don't live the fullness of the gospel which we have been given. We know what we're supposed to do, but our leaders don't lead us in the right direction, and we follow all too willingly, when we know we're on the wrong path. Those of us who stick it out, trying in our own small way to change the direction of the Titanic/LDS church, risk being thrown overboard/excommunicated every day.
Oh come now.
You don't agree?