beastie wrote:You know, this demonstrates part of the problem in the LDS church - the lack of meaningful training of the lay leadership. I've heard before that some LDS leaders taught that french kissing was like oral sex, and that is, frankly, bizarre. I don't remember ever being taught that, but I was so paranoid about being sure I was "chaste" as a convert that I "confessed" french kissing with my first LDS boyfriend. My bishop shrugged it off and even acted a bit bemused that I thought I needed to "confess" it at all. Yet other leaders are running around telling the youth this stuff at "standards night"? Good grief.
As near as I can tell, maklelan has told us that the only counsel from church leaders is to not talk to members about intimacy, but many local leaders are taking it upon themselves to recommend outside resources on their own. That has the potential for serious problems, in my opinion.
I know that having a professional priesthood doesn't resolve all these problems. Even with the most extensive training some weird things get through the filter. But at least it attempts to provide meaningful, long term training of these people. In the LDS church, any joe off the street can be called as bishop, and suddenly be providing meaningful counsel to people with serious problems? Please.
Yup. It's not a bad thing to have a lay ministry, but you have to be a lot more careful about training. And in my experience, the training is almost always about improving numbers, not counseling and ministering. I know that sounds cynical, but that's been my experience.