Is the Church Ready to Have a Racially Diverse Leadership?

[_Daniel Peterson]

I think Heavenly Father is most interested in candidates skilled in public speaking and an ability to move PR in a promoting way. Heavenly Father is not being prejudiced but rather finding many more qualified individuals within the same ethnicity as Brigham Young. He spends a ton of time in the Salt Lake temple and therefore meets lots of Utahns. Heavenly Father also loves to night ski at Snowbird and frankly Africa just doesn't provide a lot of recreational opportunities. Can you blame him?

Intriguing.

One of the things -- quite seriously -- that keeps me coming back to this message board and one or two other places on the Net is my fascination with how a person can go from being a believer to posting things like the sneeringly cynical passage above. (A related but somewhat distinct fascination is with the venomous hostility that sometimes emerges in apostates.)

I ask myself, Was this toxic cynicism (sc. venomous hostility) already present, and perhaps even a factor in the writer's apostasy? Or did it arise only with and in the wake of the writer's loss of faith?

[_zeezrom]

Dan,

What part sounded bad? Skiing is the sport of the gods. The 12 apostles spend time with God in the SLC temple. Where did I go wrong in my assumptions?

[_Buffalo]

I think Heavenly Father is most interested in candidates skilled in public speaking and an ability to move PR in a promoting way. Heavenly Father is not being prejudiced but rather finding many more qualified individuals within the same ethnicity as Brigham Young. He spends a ton of time in the Salt Lake temple and therefore meets lots of Utahns. Heavenly Father also loves to night ski at Snowbird and frankly Africa just doesn't provide a lot of recreational opportunities. Can you blame him?

Intriguing.

One of the things -- quite seriously -- that keeps me coming back to this message board and one or two other places on the Net is my fascination with how a person can go from being a believer to posting things like the sneeringly cynical passage above. (A related but somewhat distinct fascination is with the venomous hostility that sometimes emerges in apostates.)

I ask myself, Was this toxic cynicism (sc. venomous hostility) already present, and perhaps even a factor in the writer's apostasy? Or did it arise only with and in the wake of the writer's loss of faith?

It looks like the GAs aren't the only LDS public figures who are tone deaf.

[_harmony]

In Daniel Peterson's latest article for the D-News:

Just as Jews around the world are citizens of their respective countries but have a special interest in the historical land of Israel, most modern Latter-day Saints live outside of Utah.

Now that almost 60% of LDS live outside the U.S., when will the top leadership of the Church (First Presidency, Quorom of the Twelve, Quorom of the Seventies) actually reflect this culturally and racially diverse membership of the Church?

Watching General Conference and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir one can easily come to the conclusion that the Church is entirely composed of Caucasians from Utah.

Is their any legitimate reason for the Church's top leadership to not accurately reflect the racially diverse membership of the Church? If so, what are the reasons?

God makes the call to serve in church leadership. Just because most of his calls are issued to people who know current leadership is not enough to negate the qualify of inspiration happening at the highest levels. /snarkiness

It also doesn't help that these guys live too long now. We need to look at changing the lifetime policy of the GAs to reflect the more reasonable policy of the 70's.

[_Daniel Peterson]

It looks like the GAs aren't the only LDS public figures who are tone deaf.

You seem to be unfamiliar with atonality.

Don't worry, young one. There's time to learn.

[_Buffalo]

It looks like the GAs aren't the only LDS public figures who are tone deaf.

You seem to be unfamiliar with atonality.

Don't worry, young one. There's time to learn.

Life's too short to waste it being offended all the time, especially at light-hearted witticisms from Zee.

[_Runtu]

Intriguing.

One of the things -- quite seriously -- that keeps me coming back to this message board and one or two other places on the Net is my fascination with how a person can go from being a believer to posting things like the sneeringly cynical passage above. (A related but somewhat distinct fascination is with the venomous hostility that sometimes emerges in apostates.)

I ask myself, Was this toxic cynicism (sc. venomous hostility) already present, and perhaps even a factor in the writer's apostasy? Or did it arise only with and in the wake of the writer's loss of faith?

Even if I thought Zee's post was toxically cynical or venomously hostile (it wasn't), I'm always dismayed by these kinds of posts that project bad thoughts, bad faith, bad feelings on unbelievers.

The way you've constructed the question, Zee is a bad guy either way. Either he was always cynical and venomous (which would explain his apostasy), or his apostasy caused him to change for the worse (which of course validates the notion that apostasy is bad, evil, wrong).

Isn't possible that you're reading too much into it?

And if the church really isn't true and has caused the kind of pain that Zee and I and others have experienced, I'd say we have a right to be angry and cynical about the church, at least for a while. The trick is to get over it and not let it fester.

[_zeezrom]

Dan,

I would like you to know that I'm probably going to the Mormon church this Sunday with my family. I'll make sure to comment in EQ about how I believe Heavenly Father likes to night ski at Snowbird. I'll let you know the reaction.

Zee.

[_dogmatic]

I ask myself, Was this toxic cynicism (sc. venomous hostility) already present, and perhaps even a factor in the writer's apostasy? Or did it arise only with and in the wake of the writer's loss of faith?

I think what you said here is more toxic... your basically off-handed insulting him, making a judgment on his past faithfulness. your not asking a question, your trying to make a statement.

[_Buffalo]

One of the things -- quite seriously -- that keeps me coming back to this message board and one or two other places on the Net is my fascination with how a person can go from being a simple believer to posting things like the sneeringly cynical passages regularly made by DCP. (A related but somewhat distinct fascination is with the venomous hostility that sometimes emerges in apologists.)

I ask myself, Was this toxic cynicism (sc. venomous hostility) already present, and perhaps even a factor in the writer's move from conventional, non-confrontational faith to aggressive apologetics? Or did it arise only with and in the wake of the writer's loss of conventional faith?