Why the Church isn't preaching Economic Doom

[_collegeterrace]

My current interest is more along the lines where Mormonism going, more so than where it came from, and threads like this interest me:

Would Your Faith Be Affected By This?, Leading Apologists Apostasized

They are certainly more interesting than the "another hit for the Book of Mormon" threads.

Even when we disagree, I find your posts are at least provocative.

Oh right, DCP defecting from the sinking moronic ship?

-Employed by LDS Inc at BYU
-Married to a TBM pioneer stock woman
-Owns his home in a 99% TBM neighborhood located in the east hills of Provo where he can see the Y from his backyard
-Three sons, one of which is on a mission for LDS Inc, just like daddy, and two lined up to go.
-Current bishop(albeit in a sinful half active college terrace apartment ward)
-Spent(e.g. wasted) most of his adult life defending the historical claims of Mormonism
-Sports the old school one piece Jesus jammies(witnessed in a BYU locker room)

Yeah, DCP is gonna bite OFF the hand that feeds him.

[_harmony]

Oh right, DCP defecting from the sinking moronic ship?

-Employed by LDS Inc at BYU
-Married to a TBM pioneer stock woman
-Owns his home in a 99% TBM neighborhood located in the east hills of Provo where he can see the Y from his backyard
-Three sons, one of which is on a mission for LDS Inc, just like daddy, and two lined up to go.
-Current bishop(albeit in a sinful half active college terrace apartment ward)
-Spent(e.g. wasted) most of his adult life defending the historical claims of Mormonism
-Sports the old school one piece Jesus jammies(witnessed in a BYU locker room)

Yeah, DCP is gonna bite OFF the hand that feeds him.

I think he said he lives in Orem.

Good grief. Could you have your head any further up his ... ummm... behind?

[_beastie]

Heh, from a related MAD thread, Is the Church Crumbling, cinepro offered a gem:

It should also be noted that Scientology is the canary in the mine for Churches crumbling. As long as they're around, the LDS Church has nothing to worry about.

True and hilarious at the same time!

[_truth dancer]

I was thinking more along the lines of just giving up believing in the myth that a savior is going to come back and save all the great people and allow the not so great to burn.

Maybe after two millennia they have decided to just put this "end of the world" doctrine on hold?

Or maybe the leaders have recognized that fear of the future is not helping the cause?

Maybe they realized that living with anxiety and fear is not healthy for real living and healthy individuals?

Certainly Monson's talk on living in the present is a complete turn around from the previous mindset of living in fear and trembling no?

I just think the "end of the world" teachings are outdated, obsolete, and actually harmful to humankind. Maybe the leaders are just moving on and putting this teaching behind them?

:-)

~td~

[_Gadianton]

I agree with most of that list. I am thinking about why this is the case though, specifically in regards to the economy. And the answer I have come up with, is that the Church has integrated itself in a self-admitting way to the economy and ways of the world. If the church started getting persecuted, if its empire were to crumble, then the "last days" will start wearing on the minds of the leaders. However, I honestly believe that if such shocking events were to occur (and these events I'd envision as targeted toward specifically the church and maybe a few other smaller groups, if everyone were equally screwed, then the church would still be dependent on its worldly networks) that the current leaders wouldn't be able to handle it. I'm not sure what they'd do initially, but either they, or whoever took control, would begin preaching doom and gloom for the world.

[_Jason Bourne]

You've heard of the Marriott, right? Big Mormon Hotel chain? LLLLOTTS of big money made off porn there,

And in Gadianton's mind Marriott hotel is the Mormon Church....RIGHT!

probably even more off of alcohol.

The Mormon Church is making money off alchohol because Marriott sells it.

Oh...of course! Tithing!!

Man you have scratch beat these days.

There was a time I thought you were rather bright Gad.

No longer.

Not to mention the alcohol that will be sold in the Church's mall.

CFR here.

And it's kind of interesting, the Marriotts and GAs are close, very close.

Which GAs? There are quite a few.

According to them,

Who is the them?

it's really a bad economic decision to cut those things out of the business.

Marriott stupidly commented something like that. That hardly makes the LDS GAs part of the THEM.

It's ok to open up a motel and promote pornography, alcohol, and slot machines. You can even tithe it. But don't you dare take part in a gay marriage, because at that point you're threatening the very moral fabric of society (and probably not offsetting this evil with any revenue for the church for it to reconsider)

When you are able to tie the LDS Church to opening a motel that promotes pornography (Marriott by the way did not open a hotel that promotes porn, he owns a management company that manages hotels that have among many other movie choices porn. I bad move in my opinion but hardly a hotel that PROMOTES porn) then maybe you will have something that we can pay attention to.

It is amazing that Shades is drooling over this idiotic post. I think it is one of your dumbest.

[_cinepro]

True and hilarious at the same time!

Maybe, but I had to explain it :(

[_Gadianton]

Shades technically only "drooled" over my OP which did not have anything to do with Marriott.

I will come back to the rest later tonight or tomorow.

[_Ray A]

Gad, I did a search of LDS.org and came up with This.

I searched with the key words "second coming", and tried to limit it to post-2000 content, though earlier content was included. There's no shortage of "second coming" content, and in my opinion it remains one of the central tenets of Church teaching. Consider one excerpt from Apostle Hales in November, 2005:

I testify that the work of the Prophet Joseph Smith is the Savior’s work. In the Lord’s service the path is not always easy. It often requires sacrifices, and we will likely experience adversity. But in serving Him, we discover that His hand is truly over us. So it was for Wycliffe, Tyndale, and thousands of others who prepared the way for the Restoration. So it was for the Prophet Joseph Smith and all who helped usher in the restored gospel. So it is and will be for us.

The Lord expects us to be as faithful, as devoted, as courageous as those who went before us. They were called to give their lives for the gospel. We are called to live our lives for the same purpose. In these last days we have special reason to do so.

Before that sacred night in Bethlehem, the events of history and the words of the prophets of all dispensations prepared the way for the first coming of the Lord and His Atonement. Similarly, history and prophecy laid the groundwork for the Restoration of the gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Do we have eyes to see that the events and prophecies of our time are preparing us for the Savior’s Second Coming?

I bear special witness that our Savior Jesus Christ lives. I testify that His hand has been over the work of the Restoration from before the foundation of this world and will continue until His Second Coming.

Church literature is still littered with content like this. I don't believe it's accurate to say that these sentiments have gone, or been watered down, nor replaced with "practicality". In the 1980s Gordon B. Hinckley virtually put an end to speculation about specific time frames. But "awaiting the coming of the Messiah" is still very much a central Mormon theme, at all levels.

[_Blixa]

Well, this has been an interesting speculative thread. I've noticed the kinds of statements Ray has collected here, too, and was wondering if the LDS church wasn't starting--maybe tentatively, a toe in the water--a move toward a more overt millennialism (as Ray notes its ever been entirely gone from Mormon rhetoric). Nothing like the early days of BY in Utah--which, I might argue were even more entrenched in millennialist discourse than the Joseph Smith days--at least not yet...

But Gad makes interesting points as well, so maybe we're looking a neo-millennialism, a flexible postmodern kind, which can co-exist with a entrepreneurial present...? Just some random pre-thoughts...of course millennialism of any stripe has its economic side..