I've Been Asked to Teach on a Very Strange Subject at Church

[_consiglieri]

Oh c'mon. You know I'm just yanking your chain about being in your Stake. But yes I do believe that if you don't agree with the Church on what it considers to be official doctrine and refuse to implement it's cirriculum when you are in a position to do so, you are an apostate by definition.

I recognize what the Church considers to be official doctrine.

I also recognize that the Church has effectively set up stakes to further understanding and awareness, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come and no further."

It does not feel good to be trammeled.

I understand Joseph Smith would have felt the same way, and hence would likely have earned your sobriquet of "apostate," as well.

But lest the incorrect trope of WhyMe be perpetuated, I do not refuse to implement the curriculum of the Church. When Gospel Doctrine teacher, I based my lesson on the scriptures assigned to be studied that week.

What I refuse to do is allow myself to be constrained in the sources I use to only those "approved" by the Correlation Committee.

In the short space of forty-years, we have managed to become the virtual mirror image of the Jehovah's Witnesses in this regard.

It is not a comforting thought . . .


All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_consiglieri]

Well, I hope that the Danites don't hunt you down. I would love to "visit" your ward this Sunday. I am still a High Priest (snort), and would love to sit in as a visitor?

Technically it is a week from this Sunday, so there is still time for the powers that be to come to their senses and bar the wolf from the sheepfold, the fox from the henhouse, and the lunatic from the asylum director's office.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_consiglieri]

Well, last night at HP group meeting would have been the final juncture at which to call off this Sunday's lesson. (Unless I get a phone call in the middle of the night between now and then.)

Looks like this is going to happen, after all . . .

So why am I nervous?


All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_Buffalo]

Well, last night at HP group meeting would have been the final juncture at which to call off this Sunday's lesson. (Unless I get a phone call in the middle of the night between now and then.)

Looks like this is going to happen, after all . . .

So why am I nervous?


All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_Everybody Wang Chung]

Technically it is a week from this Sunday, so there is still time for the powers that be to come to their senses and bar the wolf from the sheepfold, the fox from the henhouse, and the lunatic from the asylum director's office.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

Consig,

No need to be nervous. If your HP group is anything like mine, then nobody will even pay attention to the lesson. Honestly, I've heard many weird, unorthodox and completely off-the-wall lessons in my HP group. Nobody cared.

Frankly, most people are more interested in the clock, than the lesson. Don't sweat it at all.

[_cinepro]

Oddly, my wife is teaching a Young Women's class on Sunday and there is no topic for the lesson. They just told her to "pick something". How do you "stick to the manual" for that?

[_Some Schmo]

Is the holy ghost considered an outside source? How about revelation?

I think you should only use inside sources too, like books and stuff. Using outside sources like nature and animals would be counterproductive.

[_consiglieri]

Oddly, my wife is teaching a Young Women's class on Sunday and there is no topic for the lesson. They just told her to "pick something". How do you "stick to the manual" for that?

Daymon Smith opines it is because we have become so thoroughly correlated by this point, it forms the framework from which we think such that we are virtually unable to even "freely" select a subject that is not correlated.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_consiglieri]

In addition to Hugh B. Brown's talk, I decided to go back last night and cull some significant statements from Joseph Smith relating to the issue.

Here is the list. (I discovered something in relation to the last quote that I will start a new thread about--being just why it should have been deemed worthy to be edited OUT of TPJS by Joseph Fielding Smith.)

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

___________________________


In knowledge there is power. God has more power than all other beings, because he has greater knowledge; and hence he knows how to subject all other beings to Him. He has power over all. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 288

I cannot believe in any of the creeds of the different denominations, because they all have some things in them I cannot subscribe to, though all of them have some truth. I want to come up into the presence of God, and learn all things; but the creeds set up stakes, and say, “Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further”; which I cannot subscribe to. TPJS, p. 327.

But there has been a great difficulty in getting anything into the heads of this generation. It has been like splitting hemlock knots with a corn-dodger for a wedge, and a pumpkin for a beetle. Even the Saints are slow to understand

I have tried for a number of years to get the minds of the Saints prepared to receive the things of God; but we frequently see some of them, after suffering all they have for the work of God, will fly to pieces like glass as soon as anything comes that is contrary to their traditions; they cannot stand the fire at all. How many will be able to abide a celestial law, and go through and receive their exaltation, I am unable to say, as many are called, but few are chosen. TPJS, p. 331.

I advise all to go on to perfection, and search deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Godliness. TPJS, p. 364.

I am bold to declare I have taught all the strong doctrines publicly, and always teach stronger doctrines in public than in private. TPJS, p. 370.

When things that are of the greatest importance are passed over by the weak-minded men without even a thought, I want to see truth in all its bearings and hug it to my bosom. I believe all that God ever revealed, and I never hear of a man being damned for believing too much, but they are damned for unbelief. TPJS, p. 374.

It has always been my province to dig up hidden mysteries—new things—for my hearers. TPJS, p. 364.

Regarding Elder Pelatiah Brown being disciplined by the Church for teaching something wrong about the Book of Revelation: I never thought it was right to call up a man and try him because he erred in doctrine. It looks too much like Methodism and not like Latter-day Saintism. Methodists have creeds which a man must believe or be kicked out of their church. I want the liberty of believing as I please. It feels so good not to be trammeled. It don’t prove that a man is not a good man because he errs in doctrine. The Words of Joseph Smith, p. 184 (edited out of TPJS at page 288).

[_moksha]

So why am I nervous?

--Consiglieri

Because it's September.