The original thread has been split, so that separate threads can address (1) the source of funding for Faith Matters, and (2) the type and/or effectiveness of the style of apologetics deployed by Faith Matters. This thread is reserved for the second option.
-cp-
So, in my opinion Faith Matters is not a legitimate reference. There are so many other legitimate sources of accurate information, let people begin by learning the truth.
Wrong thread. Hoping to hear your answer, and that of others to my previous post.
The original thread has been split, so that separate threads can address (1) the source of funding for Faith Matters, and (2) the type and/or effectiveness of the style of apologetics deployed by Faith Matters. This thread is reserved for the second option.
-cp-
Faith Matters got sucked in to the debate of John D’s a Faith Crisis. Faith Matters fell for it. It was never a Faith Crisis it was a God crisis. So Faith Matters should actually be called God Mattters. But the leaders of the church fell for it and took the bait. Now they have billions to pump into a website Faith Matters.
This is an interesting point about the apologetic nature of Faith Matters and how it began, as an apologetic countermovement.
Which organization would you be more likely to refer a struggling (church wise) family member to:
Mormon Stories/Thrive Conference
Faith Matters/Restore Conference
Why?
If you had to pick between the two.
Also, of course, realizing that some folks will pick neither…(they might suggest this board)
Approaching the issues like any other critical thinking exercise, if the goal is to get as close to the truth as possible then I think the answer is both Faith Matters and Mormon Stories, plus this board, Mormon and Exmormon Reddit, and any other source that presents information from any and all perspectives available.
I read a little about what Faith Matters calls The Big Questions project. I'm curious where you, as a believing Latter-Day Saint, have found value from this since the question is about the effectiveness of Faith Matters.
Approaching the issues like any other critical thinking exercise, if the goal is to get as close to the truth as possible then I think the answer is both Faith Matters and Mormon Stories, plus this board, Mormon and Exmormon Reddit, and any other source that presents information from any and all perspectives available.
Expanding on my answer: When I was in the darkest, most emotionally difficult times of my journey out of the LDS faith, I wished more than anything that there was some neutral source that could lay the issues out and illuminate the truth for me. I wanted a shortcut and to have the matter resolved by someone else so I could move past the emotional pain and struggle. It was really in hindsight that I realized the effort, the almost all-important need to get past the biases to the facts, was essential in order to develop the skills and will I frankly hadn't developed before being forced to engage in the mental work involved to sort through the information.
Worldviews - those reality frameworks that we don't see but which are fundamental to our understanding and beliefs about the world - don't break easily. We protect them at high costs, being willing to mold facts and interpretation of reality back around to their forms rather than question if we may be wrong in fundamental ways. So when they do give way, it's not out of some minor blow but rather out of trauma that forces one to confront one's inability to protect the worldview because protecting it became impossible. The urge to ignore the damage, or to abandon the wreckage and borrow a new worldview and get back to the business of protection is understandable. I don't think it's the better choice, but I get why one might prefer one of these two options over having to evaluate the wreckage in order to learn how such framing works to both hold up but also distort what we tell ourselves is knowledge. And ultimately, doing so helped me learn from the experience in order to be more resilient as a person with values one can fall back on when bias and worldview protection assert themselves as they inevitably do.
Which organization would you be more likely to refer a struggling (church wise) family member to:
Mormon Stories/Thrive Conference
Faith Matters/Restore Conference
Why?
If you had to pick between the two.
Also, of course, realizing that some folks will pick neither…(they might suggest this board)
Approaching the issues like any other critical thinking exercise, if the goal is to get as close to the truth as possible then I think the answer is both Faith Matters and Mormon Stories, plus this board, Mormon and Exmormon Reddit, and any other source that presents information from any and all perspectives available.
I read a little about what Faith Matters calls The Big Questions project. I'm curious where you, as a believing Latter-Day Saint, have found value from this since the question is about the effectiveness of Faith Matters.
As you can see, it’s a work in process. I think it’s a good place to start.
I read a little about what Faith Matters calls The Big Questions project. I'm curious where you, as a believing Latter-Day Saint, have found value from this since the question is about the effectiveness of Faith Matters.
As you can see, it’s a work in process. I think it’s a good place to start.
We believe that facing this challenge will require 1) asking really good questions and 2) inviting the best thinkers, writers, leaders and spiritual guides to help us explore them. That’s what we are doing in this Big Questions Project. We have assembled an incredible list of contributors who have helped us compile a list of really good questions — mostly questions people have posed to them over the years.
Some of these questions involve difficult issues that we are grappling with as a church–generational and gender issues, issues of history, scripture, doctrine or policy. These are important questions to honestly and openly explore.
But many of the questions on our list are centered around the expansive ideas of the restored gospel, with an eye toward how the restored Church of Jesus Christ might thrive in this new century. We believe the restored gospel is brimming with powerful and transformative ideas and practices that have been revealed to bless God’s children.
We have challenged our contributors not to “answer” the big questions that have been posed, but to explore them in generative ways. In some cases what will emerge from this exploration may simply be better, richer questions.
Ultimately the gospel of Jesus Christ is more about being than thinking, more about becoming than beliefs. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t aspire to the clearest and best thinking, since that is essential to spiritual growth–not sterile, academic thinking, but thinking that can ultimately open our minds and hearts to transformation and true discipleship.
So we’re giving space to great thinking here, and inviting the clearest and best thinkers we know into that space. We will try not to invite contributors, however bright and articulate, whose primary interest is in persuading us that their view is the right view. We seek a genuine and open exploration of Big Questions.
This reads like something a believing member who is less interested in apologetics might find value in with the aim of developing richer meaning within the faith. So I'm wondering if you have? And what specifically among the thinking and big questions has been of value to you if so?
We believe that facing this challenge will require 1) asking really good questions and 2) inviting the best thinkers, writers, leaders and spiritual guides to help us explore them. That’s what we are doing in this Big Questions Project. We have assembled an incredible list of contributors who have helped us compile a list of really good questions — mostly questions people have posed to them over the years.
Some of these questions involve difficult issues that we are grappling with as a church–generational and gender issues, issues of history, scripture, doctrine or policy. These are important questions to honestly and openly explore.
But many of the questions on our list are centered around the expansive ideas of the restored gospel, with an eye toward how the restored Church of Jesus Christ might thrive in this new century. We believe the restored gospel is brimming with powerful and transformative ideas and practices that have been revealed to bless God’s children.
We have challenged our contributors not to “answer” the big questions that have been posed, but to explore them in generative ways. In some cases what will emerge from this exploration may simply be better, richer questions.
Ultimately the gospel of Jesus Christ is more about being than thinking, more about becoming than beliefs. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t aspire to the clearest and best thinking, since that is essential to spiritual growth–not sterile, academic thinking, but thinking that can ultimately open our minds and hearts to transformation and true discipleship.
So we’re giving space to great thinking here, and inviting the clearest and best thinkers we know into that space. We will try not to invite contributors, however bright and articulate, whose primary interest is in persuading us that their view is the right view. We seek a genuine and open exploration of Big Questions.
This reads like something a believing member who is less interested in apologetics might find value in with the aim of developing richer meaning within the faith. So I'm wondering if you have? And what specifically among the thinking and big questions has been of value to you if so?
As I mentioned somewhere earlier (I think in this thread or the one that got split off…can’t remember) my strong guess is that these folks have already been around the block. How many times, I don’t know. I don’t have a problem with balance and taking the approach of ‘study and by faith’ as one tackles hard questions.
And the point made of ‘becoming’ seems to be a self evident truth.
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