Interesting comments today

Today at church our bishop spoke at length to the congregation about the recent leadership training he has been involved in. He said that it has been stressed to him by church leadership that when the church comes out publicly on the topic of a political or social issue it is not the opinion of a man or men but the opinion of The Lord himself. Any disagreements with those statements are disagreements with The Lord and thus the individual is obviously wrong.



In light of recent conversations we've had here and topics upsetting the world at large it seemed very interesting instructions.

I guess this means we'll be hearing less insurrection from you, hawkwing, toward our acting supreme ruler of the land? Namely, President Barrack Obama? Seems I've heard a lot of complaining about the man and his policies (not that I blame you a bit) and that doesn't exactly seem fitting given the counsel the church has given us about our leaders/government.



Respectfully,



Tongue in cheek



I'll now await my auditing and be happy to do comply when the IRS rightly decides to rumage through my past life based on this post. Forward America, all is well.

TIC fully understood.



In all seriousness, I believe the brethren are very concerned with the fact that many members of the church believe they can remain in good standing with the church and public ally fight against policies the church has come out in support of. I think that goes for the either side of the aisle too, whether that be supporting gay marriage, anti-immigration, refusing to pay taxes, or wearing pants to church.



I think we'll start to hear more and more about it.

hawkwing wrote:
Today at church our bishop spoke at length to the congregation about the recent leadership training he has been involved in. He said that it has been stressed to him by the government that when the church comes out publicly on the topic of a political or social issue it is not the opinion of a man or men but the opinion of The Lord himself. Any disagreements with those statements are disagreements with The Lord and thus the individual is obviously wrong.



In light of recent conversations we've had here and topics upsetting the world at large it seemed very interesting instructions.

Mongo needs some clarification - At a leadership training session, your Bishop was told - by the govt., that when the LDS church addresses a political topic it is the Lord speaking? I'm actually taken aback.



I'm not trying to be difficult here. I'm trying to wrap my head around this. My question is - what govt. entity said that? Utah state govt? A local city govt. spokesperson? County govt?



This strikes me as very strange that a govt. training rep. would make that statement supporting a church as speaking for the Lord. The old "separation of church and state" thang that keeps getting kicked around comes to mind.



Anyway ........

I'm sorry, I typo'd and didn't realize it. The leadership training was with the church leadership, not the government. I'll edit the original post to fix that mistake.

hawkwing wrote:
I'm sorry, I typo'd and didn't realize it. The leadership training was with the church leadership, not the government. I'll edit the original post to fix that mistake.

Ahhh - Mongo understand now. Much clearer. Thank you very much. Mongo not smart.

Ddawg wrote:

I'm sorry, I typo'd and didn't realize it. The leadership training was with the church leadership, not the government. I'll edit the original post to fix that mistake.

Ahhh - Mongo understand now. Much clearer. Thank you very much. Mongo not smart.

And Hawkwing not good typer.

But still a good guy!

Wow. Wow. Wow. This is some pretty heavy stuff. Everything I can think of that the church taken a public stance on I have agreed with ahead of time. But if at some point in the future I disagree, I am going to have to do some serious soul searching.

Qman wrote:
Wow. Wow. Wow. This is some pretty heavy stuff. Everything I can think of that the church taken a public stance on I have agreed with ahead of time. But if at some point in the future I disagree, I am going to have to do some serious soul searching.

This was pretty much exactly the thought I got in the meeting.

hawkwing wrote:

Wow. Wow. Wow. This is some pretty heavy stuff. Everything I can think of that the church taken a public stance on I have agreed with ahead of time. But if at some point in the future I disagree, I am going to have to do some serious soul searching.

This was pretty much exactly the thought I got in the meeting.

We recently had a training with Elder Perry that focused on the increased workload of the Elders Quorum Presidents and the reduced workload on the bishops. At the end he said two things that stuck with me: first, that the time is coming fast where people will flock to the Church not because of anything to do with faith, but because they will crave organization and structure; and second, that we need to spiritually anchor as many as come so that when, soon after that, the Lord asks hard things, they won't leave the Church. This was before the last October Conference, so this was all before the newest flood of missionaries went out.

I understand the need for a strong internal anchor. I've been getting the assignment lately to clean up the church on Sat. The vacuuming is no big deal. But, cleaning the bathrooms - that's a trial of faith. It takes a strong man to clean a woman's bathroom. ;)

snoscythe wrote:

Qman wrote:
Wow. Wow. Wow. This is some pretty heavy stuff. Everything I can think of that the church taken a public stance on I have agreed with ahead of time. But if at some point in the future I disagree, I am going to have to do some serious soul searching.

This was pretty much exactly the thought I got in the meeting.

We recently had a training with Elder Perry that focused on the increased workload of the Elders Quorum Presidents and the reduced workload on the bishops. At the end he said two things that stuck with me: first, that the time is coming fast where people will flock to the Church not because of anything to do with faith, but because they will crave organization and structure; and second, that we need to spiritually anchor as many as come so that when, soon after that, the Lord asks hard things, they won't leave the Church. This was before the last October Conference, so this was all before the newest flood of missionaries went out.

To echo that sentiment, Elder Christofferson said in one of our training meetings that the Church has gone just about as far as it is going to go on the backs of good Bishops and Stake Presidents. If the Church is going to make any real progression from this plateau, it will have to be because the Melchizedek priesthood has stepped up its efforts.

Ddawg wrote:
I understand the need for a strong internal anchor. I've been getting the assignment lately to clean up the church on Sat. The vacuuming is no big deal. But, cleaning the bathrooms - that's a trial of faith. It takes a strong man to clean a woman's bathroom. ;)

Congratulations...on your streangth. Oh, and on your courage!



I needed that chuckle, some of these guys are scaring me. It is true, however, that our society (structure) is falling apart. I pray that we, the bearers of the holy Priesthood, will be up to what the Lord will ask of us.