In an uncharacteristic outburst of gossip and breaching of confidentiality, the normally cowed and faithful church-broke Brother Smac has registered a discussion about a change to one of the temple recommend questions that appears to have been quietly slotted in.
A friend of mine who is in a bishopric just told me that he noticed what appears to be a change in the online list of temple recommend questions for limited-use recommends. Specifically, question 7 states:
Do you support any group or person whose teachings oppose those accepted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
The corollary question for regular temple recommends is:
Do you support, affiliate with, or agree with any group or individual whose teachings or practices are contrary to or oppose those accepted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Assuming for a moment that Brother Smac's gossipy bishopric friend is being truthful, and that this change has happened...I think we can clearly identify what recent events have prompted such a move, but what are the wider implications of taking this step closer to an Orwellian 1984 institutional operating model?
“When we are confronted with evidence that challenges our deeply held beliefs we are more likely to reframe the evidence than we are to alter our beliefs. We simply invent new reasons, new justifications, new explanations. Sometimes we ignore the evidence altogether.” (Mathew Syed 'Black Box Thinking')
Assuming for a moment that Brother Smac's gossipy bishopric friend is being truthful, I am personally aware of a multitude of souls residing in Southern Utah whose temple recommends will not be renewed.
These include my BIC, life-long, TBM mother and several of her relatives and offspring. A significant proportion of the more rural and senior LDS members in this small part of the world, most of whom still consider themselves Mormons, now attend alternative community gatherings on Sunday.
Perhaps this is a manifestation of an metropolitan culture / rural culture split in LDS Church membership that is reflective of that in the politics of US population in general.
David Hume: "---Mistakes in philosophy are merely ridiculous, those in religion are dangerous."
DrW: "Mistakes in science are learning opportunities and are eventually corrected."
"any group or individual whose teachings or practices are contrary to or oppose those accepted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
Does this mean multitudes of scientists, historians, philosophers, journalists, researchers of various kinds? It's kind of hard to know what's "accepted by TCOJCOLDS" when they can't keep their stories straight from one prophet to the next.
I have a question wrote:In an uncharacteristic outburst of gossip and breaching of confidentiality, the normally cowed and faithful church-broke Brother Smac has registered a discussion about a change to one of the temple recommend questions that appears to have been quietly slotted in.
A friend of mine who is in a bishopric just told me that he noticed what appears to be a change in the online list of temple recommend questions for limited-use recommends. Specifically, question 7 states:
Do you support any group or person whose teachings oppose those accepted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
The corollary question for regular temple recommends is:
Do you support, affiliate with, or agree with any group or individual whose teachings or practices are contrary to or oppose those accepted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Anyone know anything about this?
This change (if true) would seem to fix a mental gymnastic problem for believing spouses in a mixed faith marriage. Now these believing spouses no longer have to wrestle with the reality that they affiliate with or agree with their non-member or no longer believing spouse who may hold viewpoints that the corporation would view as apostate or whose lifestyle a.k.a. practices that might conflict with those taught by the church. I see this change as a good thing and acknowledgement by the church that their traditional 100% hold on families is changing and that they needed to catch up with this reality.
"...The official doctrine of the LDS Church is a Global Flood" - BCSpace
"...What many people call sin is not sin." - Joseph Smith
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away" - Phillip K. Dick
“The meaning of life is that it ends" - Franz Kafka
