(1) The LDS Church is making substantive doctrinal reforms through anonymous press releases that contradict its official curricula and are directed to a non-Mormon audience;
or
(2) The LDS Church is lying to the public about its teachings in order to appear more like a mainstream Christian church?
I think the Church is doing both. The Church has an established method for changing its doctrine that includes: 1) stop talking about the doctrine, 2) wait for members to forget about it, and 3) if forced to publicly address it, deny that the Church ever taught the doctrine, assert that any statements to the contrary are unwarranted opinion, and/or assert that past teachings about the doctrine were misunderstood, vague, or ambiguous.
I think the Church really is making substantive doctrinal reforms using this process accompanied by a fair bit of lying. Since God no longer speaks to the prophets much, this is how doctrinal changes are done.
(1) The LDS Church is making substantive doctrinal reforms through anonymous press releases that contradict its official curricula and are directed to a non-Mormon audience;
or
(2) The LDS Church is lying to the public about its teachings in order to appear more like a mainstream Christian church?
I think the Church is doing both. The Church has an established method for changing its doctrine that includes: 1) stop talking about the doctrine, 2) wait for members to forget about it, and 3) if forced to publicly address it, deny that the Church ever taught the doctrine, assert that any statements to the contrary are unwarranted opinion, and/or assert that past teachings about the doctrine were misunderstood, vague, or ambiguous.
I think the Church really is making substantive doctrinal reforms using this process accompanied by a fair bit of lying. Since God no longer speaks to the prophets much, this is how doctrinal changes are done.
LOL Very true. It is a method that does take time to change.
Sethbag wrote:If I ever felt like going back to the church of my youth, that is a problem that is slowly but surely taking care of itself, as the church of my youth essentially erases itself bit by bit as the years go by.
There's precious little temptation even to consider going back, and the church is doing its part to kill off what meager hope yet remains.
Ne'er a truer word(s) has been spoken. The Mormon church is gradually erasing its "cultiness", and is transforming itself into a Romneyarian version of Christianity. The Mormon church I knew as a child simply doesn't exist these days, and that's ok. The Brighamite Mormon branch is clearly in a full state of apostasy.
What we need is a new prophet. A prophet that receives God's word.
What we need is a Night Lion.
- DRCNC4ME
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Just kidding, but yeah. I mean I'm not just kidding - really, don't encourage him. ;-)
Awesome picture of the Nightlion.
Mormonism ceased being a compelling topic for me when I finally came to terms with its transformation from a personality cult into a combination of a real estate company, a SuperPac, and Westboro Baptist Church. - Kishkumen
