While there is very little I can add to seth’s post, who, as usual, as completely nailed the crux of the matter, I do have an additional comment;
Why me
It is impossible to judge what a prophet should be and say since we have very little comparisons available. For example, we know very little about the prophets in the old testament. What we do know is included in a few pages of their lives. I certainly don't think that they lived isolated lives away from the population. I am sure that they were activiely communicating with relatives and friends on a very human level and most of this communication had very little to do with god, but it did have something to do with life.
Since we have very little comparison available, it is near impossible to make a comment on what a prophet should be. Likewise for the new testament. We know very little about the apostles of old but I am sure that they were very human with their families and friends. Were they always in constant touch with god? I doubt it. They were basically just living: eating and drinking and having a life. And of course doing their calling. Not much different from today I am sure.
Ah, but we do have a comparison – we can compare the expectations of the prophet versus the expectations of the member who is being asked to evaluate the claims of the prophet to discern the difference between the prophet’s opinion and the mind of the Lord. The following expectations are based on internet defenders of the faith, of course, and not regular members, who would probably disagree with the internet defenders of the faith on some important points.
1) Expectations of the prophet: The prophet will pray for revelation before addressing the body of the church in the name of JC while functioning in his role as prophet. The prophet may receive revelation and be able to discern between his own opinion and the mind of the Lord while preparing the talk, but while giving the talk, the prophet may start to ramble and inadvertently insert his own opinions along with the mind of the Lord. The Holy Ghost may not intervene and warn the prophet, through a prompting, not to do so, because God doesn’t “hold our hand” all the times.
2) Expectations of the listening members: The members will, with 100% reliability if they are worthy and sincere, be able to pray and receive the guidance of the Holy Ghost that will enable them to discern the difference between the prophet’s own opinion and the mind of the Lord. In addition, the Holy Ghost can and does frequently intervene in the members’ life through sometimes unrequested promptings in the course of one’s day. For example, missionaries in the middle of teaching an investigator commonly will feel sudden promptings from the Holy Ghost to say this, or not say that.
Compare the two sets of expectations. It is clear that the bar is far lower for the prophet than it is for the individual members.
And that, of course, was the entire point of the linked article.
Manfred
First of all, in your stupidity you clearly misunderstood me to be advocating the ’god-holding-my-hand’ mentality, as demonstrated by your words directly proceeding your second quotation of yourself above, which you tactfully omitted: "I think it’s more than a bit amusing that you suggest I need god to hold my hand when you are the one who needs to believe in a god; I don’t."
You are incorrect. Schmo did not say or insinuate that you advocate “god-holding-my-hand” mentality. Schmo clearly said that you made a bizarre leap from “God shouldn’t confuse me” to “God has to hold my hand at every moment of every day”.
That doesn’t mean you believe God should hold your hand. It means you can’t tell the difference between saying “God shouldn’t confuse me” and “God should hold my hand.”
You’ll probably easily understand the difference if we take God out of the equation, and use a mere mortal, a grade-school teacher, although others have already tried this. Saying that teachers should not confuse their students by teaching them 2 + 2 = 5 one day, 6 another day, and 4 the next day is not the same as saying the teacher should hold her student’s hand every step of the way in figuring out 2 + 2.
Secondly, my understanding and reiteration of your expectations of what would constitute a God who refrains from confusing His creations can be demonstrated to be valid: The entire exchange that you cited above stemmed from your insistence that prophet’s must necessarily be continuous mouth-pieces for God at the expense of being able to express any opinions of their own. When I countered that such would be an overprotective god, you gave a response that included the following quotation which immediately followed your second citation of yourself that you provided above, which you also conveniently omitted: "Do you have any kids? Do you go out of your way to confuse them? Is that good parenting? Is it possible to desire and encourage that your kids to think and grow without actively confusing them, or is that too much hand-holding?"
You know, this is why I take pains to add the phrase “while addressing the body of the church in the name of Jesus Christ while functioning in his role as prophet” in this conversation. It is a pain to type, over and over, but I have learned through many years of this type of conversation that believers almost inevitably try to create a straw-man by pretending critics are saying that:
prophets must necessarily be continuous mouth-pieces for God at the expense of being able to express any opinions of their own
No, this is not what critics are saying. Prophets are quite free to have and express their own opinions whenever they want. They just are not free to do so while addressing the body of the church, in the name of Jesus Christ, while functioning in his role as prophet – because freely mixing his own opinions in with the “mind of the Lord” clearly gives members the erroneous impression that his opinions are, in fact, the mind of the Lord.
It’s like having a job – you can do and say things in your private life that would be inappropriate to say and do while functioning at your job.
The entire crux of this matter is not that prophets aren’t supposed to have opinions and express them: the crux of the matter is that prophets do not seem able to discern between their own opinions and the mind of the Lord. And yet members are expected to do so. Right.