The sexual violence and persecution of refugees is a crisis deserveing more global outrage, said Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles over the weekend at a conference at famous Windsor Castle in England.
"The world needs to be more outraged than it is," he said, "when we read of the persecution, the violence, the sexual violence, the murder, the rape, the destruction of families and any social structure that these people have had — almost entire cultures being destroyed."
I don't recall Elder Holland being outraged at the principals of BYU when it became clear they were blaming the victims of sexual violence via the honor code. Why does he not think, as BYU thinks, that these refugee victims of sexual violence need investigating to see if they in some way are to blame for it themselves?
My point is that Elder Holland has double standards, not that sexual violence should be treated with anything other than outrage.
“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')
Given the debacle of " I'm no dodo " Holland's interview with the BBC reporter for The Mormon Candidate documentary in 2012, I'm surprised that the jowled one would even show his face in the Misty Isles.
When it comes to outrage, Holland (and the LDS Church) are certainly in no need of any more than he already generates.
David Hume: "---Mistakes in philosophy are merely ridiculous, those in religion are dangerous."
DrW: "Mistakes in science are learning opportunities and are eventually corrected."
It's a nice sentiment, but the vagueries in his speech really don't lend themselves to any meaningful advancement in religious liberty. Who are the people that are committing these atrocities? What religion is being oppressed? Who is using rape, murder, and violence to suppress religious freedoms?
Is he talking about ISIS? The world is pretty outraged toward ISIS as evidenced by our military intervention. Is that who he's talking about? I have no idea.
- Doc
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.
Is this a high-profile conference, or just taking place in a high-profile building? I'm confused, the article makes a big deal about Queen Elizabeth living there, but searching for the event sends me to LDS sites.
While I agree that human rights are being violated all over the world, this seems to be a thinly veiled attack on rising secularism, or pleading for religious relevancy.
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
reflexzero wrote:Is this a high-profile conference, or just taking place in a high-profile building? I'm confused, the article makes a big deal about Queen Elizabeth living there, but searching for the event sends me to LDS sites.
While I agree that human rights are being violated all over the world, this seems to be a thinly veiled attack on rising secularism, or pleading for religious relevancy.
The event appears to be in a conference venue that is attached to St Georges Chapel, Windsor - see this:
I doubt that HM the Queen knows the event is taking place. This venue is quite unconnected with the bits where she sometimes lives at the weekends. And I don't think it has gained any coverage in the UK media.
Zadok: I did not have a faith crisis. I discovered that the Church was having a truth crisis. Maksutov: That's the problem with this supernatural stuff, it doesn't really solve anything. It's a placeholder for ignorance.