I had this image of Russell Nelson sitting up in bed at 3:00 a.m., with his eyes whited over, while engaged in automatic writing about such issues as:sock puppet wrote: ↑Tue Jan 10, 2023 3:18 pmWhen Russell Nelson took the reigns of the LDS Church as prophet, there were many "revelations" from God. Wendy had to leave their bedroom so God would speak to Russell. There were a flurry of new ideas and tweakings of old ones, like it's a win for Satan everytime someone calls it the "Mormon" church or refers to members as "Mormons."
After the first 9 months, however, it seems there's been no reason for Wendy to exit the bedroom in the middle of the night.
Was Russell's capacity to hear new things from God reached, or maybe even exceeded?
Reversal of the November 2015 LGBT policy;
Endowment updates;
Disassociating from the Boy Scouts;
Allowing parents of minors to be with their children during bishop's interviews;
Ending the Hill Cumorah Pageant and other pageants;
Ending the one-year waiting period for temple sealings after a civil wedding;
Ending the one-year waiting period for the deceased to have their vicarious ordinance performed in a temple;
Rolling the high priest groups into the elders quorum;
Reducing Sunday meetings to two hours instead of three;
Unveiling a new logo; and
Public shaming of the word "Mormon", etc.
Nelson came into office with an agenda list of administrative things he'd been working out in his mind for years. Some of the administrative changes have surely been positive for the church. (Who wouldn't like less church on Sunday?) And, when he moved into Monson's old office at church HQ, he finally had the ability to enact them.
Was this all revelation? If so, why has the stream of revelation stopped? Or, was it just some common sense adjustments and responses that needed to be made in the Corporation's religious arm, which is notorious for its resistance to change?
Was the Vatican II's common sense overhaul of Catholic mass and liturgy the result of revelation to the pope and cardinals? Was the Jehovah's Witnesses' recent reduction of required proselytizing hours in order to quality as a "pioneer" the result of revelation from their governing body? Mormons would say, "No." And what would believers in those organizations say about Nelson's recent Mormon revelations? Catholic and JWs would say that they were just common sense administrative adjustments in the Mormon church, of course.
One man's revelation is another man's common sense agenda item. All over the religious world...