New Letter from the First Presidency

[_The Nehor]

I agree. You'd think God would instruct Church members in California about how he feels about a constitutional amendment regarding gay marriage instead of wasting time with this.....

or how to deal with darfur... or iraq... or terrorism... or climate change...curing cancer... you know, those pesky little things that actually threaten people's lives..

yeah, god cares more about turning pages and whether the gay couple down the street get married. You definitely have god pegged.

He told us how to fix those. Live the Gospel and we get taught it again and again and again until we get it right or he gives up and burns the planet.

[_beastie]

He told us how to fix those. Live the Gospel and we get taught it again and again and again until we get it right or he gives up and burns the planet.

So tell me, how does "living the gospel" cure cancer? How does "living the gospel" solve the problem of terrorism bred in other countries??? How does it solve the problems in Darfur???

[_The Nehor]

He told us how to fix those. Live the Gospel and we get taught it again and again and again until we get it right or he gives up and burns the planet.

So tell me, how does "living the gospel" cure cancer? How does "living the gospel" solve the problem of terrorism bred in other countries??? How does it solve the problems in Darfur???

In order:

If we had real faith then Priesthood power could wipe out cancer or God could inspire someone with a means to cure it.

The Book of Mormon makes it clear that if foreign enemies trouble you turning to the Gospel will make them stop. Sometimes you go take the Gospel to them too. It makes it clear that the wrong approach is to go on the offensive.

Teach them the Gospel.

[_skippy the dead]

If we had real faith then Priesthood power could wipe out cancer or God could inspire someone with a means to cure it.

Cough *bullsh-t* cough

[_The Nehor]

If we had real faith then Priesthood power could wipe out cancer or God could inspire someone with a means to cure it.

Cough *bullsh-t* cough

A common reaction and hence why the Gospel won't solve global problems.

[_cinepro]

What I can't believe is that this came from the First Presidency. Don't they have more important things to worry about?
Are these the same people who are too busy to read/answer letters from struggling members that have questions or concerns about doctrines?

I'm trying to imagine the meetings and discussion that preceded this First Presidency letter.

I can just imagine President Monson visiting a ward somewhere, and having a guy all excited because he was going to give an awesome talk with just killer visual aids, and this was the talk that was going to make him a GA, or at least get him a book deal with Deseret Book and a regular gig at education week. All the while, President Monson is sitting there thinking "Ah crud, not another annoying visual aid. Just bide your time, Tommy. Your day will come. And you can rid the Church of visual aids in Sacrament Meeting once and for all! Oh, and get rid of the noise of ruffling scripture pages too. Just hang in there."

Or maybe President Monson sat by in frustration as every youth in the Church was freaking out about President Hinckley's counsel regarding pierced ears and tattoos, and he felt like he had to come up with something. So we'll soon hear a talk from the next Sister Bednar where we find out that we can judge the worthiness of a future spouse by whether or not they use visual aids in Sacrament meeting or ask people to open their scriptures. Soon there will be editorials in the Daily Universe urging fellow students to resist the temptation to use visual aids, and engagements will be broken over disagreements regarding whether or not it is still ok to open your scriptures in SM of your own volition, or if all scripture page turning is now verboten.

[_beastie]

If we had real faith then Priesthood power could wipe out cancer or God could inspire someone with a means to cure it.

The Book of Mormon makes it clear that if foreign enemies trouble you turning to the Gospel will make them stop. Sometimes you go take the Gospel to them too. It makes it clear that the wrong approach is to go on the offensive.

Teach them the Gospel.

LOL! Yeah, Nehor, for sure, this would work in real life. For sure.

I will say that, under your paradigm, you Mormons are pathetic, faithless, losers. God hasn't inspired even ONE to cure cancer yet.

[_Jason Bourne]

What was funny, was the right after reading the letter, a lady gave a talk, and when she referenced a scripture and went to read it, she said "No one turn to it". I heard few chuckles, but guess what, no pages were turning.

I think the letter was just plain silly. I'm almost embarassed that the FP thinks this is something important, requiring a churchwide mandate, and that they think ward meetings need to be that controlled. So much for the rumor that leadership thinks we are spiritually over-regimented.

It is not nobody can turn to passages in the scripture. They just don't want the person giving the talk to tell people to open their scriptures. And they don't want visual aids in sacrament. I also note nobody bothered to mention that the letter said that doing such activities is fine in SS.

Honestly while this may be a trivial issue it is also ridiculous how you over zealous critics are carping about it. It is a simple protocol. Perhaps petty ans small in some of your eyes eyes but over all no big deal.

Get over it.

[_Jason Bourne]

He told us how to fix those. Live the Gospel and we get taught it again and again and again until we get it right or he gives up and burns the planet.

So tell me, how does "living the gospel" cure cancer? How does "living the gospel" solve the problem of terrorism bred in other countries??? How does it solve the problems in Darfur???

The theory is if one lives the teachings of Christ, you know, do unto others as you would have them do to you, be meek, merciful, forgiving, kind, love your enemy, do good to those who abuse you, love one another as he loves us we would not have terrorism, war, genocide, rape, murder and so on. So really it people could live like this, sure it would solve most the problems you bring up. Might not cure cancer though. But perhaps it would free up resources that could be used to figure out how to cure cancer.

[_Chap]

Honestly while this may be a trivial issue it is also ridiculous how you over zealous critics are carping about it. It is a simple protocol. Perhaps petty ans small in some of your eyes eyes but over all no big deal.

Get over it.

I think the attention given to the issue has to do precisely with the fact that it is a completely trivial matter that could have been left entirely to local LDS to decide on as it suited them.

Yet the message came with the authority of God's personally selected and one and only Prophet, Seer and Revelator on earth.

One does rather get the impression that he does not have a lot of important stuff to do nowadays ...