Bishop resigns from church

[Guest]

However as bishop, he could have made comments in class. He could have explored what the apologists have said. He could have read LDS blogs about his concerns. He also could have posted on MAD at that time but instead he fell in love with the mormonthink website. It seems that he wanted not to believe.

How do you know he didn't do all those things? Just because the apologists, and LDS blogs, and MAD have convinced you doesn't mean they would have convinced him.

[_brade]

Why me, will you give an example of something on mormonthink that's demonstrably false?

[_bcspace]

Don't forget that the church considers the emoyment of critical thinking a sin. http://LDS.org/ensign/1987/02/criticism ... al+thought

No it doesn't. I read the article and couldn't find a single instance of that. He defines the type of criticism he's talking about in the third paragraph by the way.

[_consiglieri]

The former bishop and just me have something in common. Both have been quiet in meetings in voicing their ideas and opinions. But the bishop decided to voice his concerns in a letter to active ward members as he left the church, which is a little problematic too.

I doubt I am the only one who finds contemptible your practice of dredging up personal disclosures made on this board and then using them to berate the poster while offering up your customary steaming piles of unsolicited advice.

You owe just me an apology.

[_Blixa]

I doubt I am the only one who finds contemptible your practice of dredging up personal disclosures made on this board and then using them to berate the poster while offering up your customary steaming piles of unsolicited advice.

You owe just me an apology.

No kidding. His trolling of just me is disturbing.

[_Aristotle Smith]

You are better than this.

No, he really isn't.

[_MrStakhanovite]

You are better than this.

No, he really isn't.

Worth repeating.

[_RayAgostini]

I never asked ward members whether they masturbated. A bit uncouth, in my opinion. However, I sometimes did ask youth if they understood what masturbation is, and if they didn't, I'd briefly explain it. The males knew instantly what I was explaining, but I wouldn't ask them directly if they masturbated, but whether they "lived the law of chastity". Many of them, I'm positive, lied, or somehow justified it. But I always let it go on their "say-so", because, seriously, I didn't think it was a big deal, and even normal for teenagers. I'd probably have been more surprised if they didn't.

None of my Mission Presidents/stake presidents directly asked this question. The question was, "are you morally clean?", and any missionary who didn't understand that was living in La-La Land.

[_Quasimodo]

I never asked ward members whether they masturbated. A bit uncouth, in my opinion. However, I sometimes did ask youth if they understood what masturbation is, and if they didn't, I'd briefly explain it. The males knew instantly what I was explaining, but I wouldn't ask them directly if they masturbated, but whether they "lived the law of chastity". Many of them, I'm positive, lied, or somehow justified it. But I always let it go on their "say-so", because, seriously, I didn't think it was a big deal, and even normal for teenagers. I'd probably have been more surprised if they didn't.

None of my Mission Presidents/stake presidents directly asked this question. The question was, "are you morally clean?", and any missionary who didn't understand that was living in La-La Land.

In light of my previous topic (and since you brought it up and were once a bishop), how would you have answered if one of your young flock had asked you if you had ever masturbated? I know it sounds flippant, but it's really not. A lot of conversation is going on about this topic and I would really like your thoughts.

If you prefer not to answer, I totally understand.

[_RayAgostini]

In light of my previous topic (and since you brought it up and were once a bishop), how would you have answered if one of your young flock had asked you if you had ever masturbated? I know it sounds flippant, but it's really not. A lot of conversation is going on about this topic and I would really like your thoughts.

If you prefer not to answer, I totally understand.

I was a Catholic, and my father gave me, when I was about ten years old, a booklet that was titled something like "The Queen's Answers to Questions about Sex". He was an Anglican converted to Catholicism at 14, when he believed his life was spared by prayers to Catholic Saints.

None of my young "flock" ever asked me such a question, but I'm pretty sure, going on memory, that I was very sympathetic with them if they had this "problem". If they had asked me, I would have replied that I did, and that I knew it wasn't easy to overcome. Masturbation is a pretty common "problem" among many missionaries, and when Loren Dunn "cleaned out" the Sydney Mission in the late '70s, he commented to my mission president that about "70%" of missionaries (in the Sydney Mission) "had this problem". The other factor that should be taken into account, is how many lied/justified it, because they weren't specifically asked, "do you masturbate?", but "are you morally clean?" So the rationale would be, "I haven't committed adultery, so I'm morally clean". There were all kinds of ways to dodge the question.

I was pretty honest, maybe naïvely so, and it may be why I never became an "assistant to the president". I suppose I could have lied my way to the top, but yes, I did have this "problem" on my mission, and I was open about it.