One of the worst yet telling Ensign articles I ever read

[_Racer]

From the Oct 2012 Sunday School Answers section:

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/10/sunday-school-answers?lang=eng

The author talks about addressing big questions with with insightful answers both as a Gospel Doctrine teacher and in her personal life with gospel questions.

The conclusion is not to look too deep, but to abide. Just a quick lesson on the definition of the word abide. It basically means to put up with, to continue a particular way, to act in accordance with, or submit.

This is telling. The author basically says forget the complicated questions you may have and just abide. Just forget about the high level questions and just accept it. You will be happy if you just abide. The article ends with a big fat reminder to only used approved material for preparing lessons.

In my opinion, this article is a nuanced way of telling the members that the thinking has been done, so shut up, believe it, and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Am I the only one who sees the article this way? Am I overreacting?

[_Stormy Waters]

From the article.

I was ultimately led back to the precise Sunday School answers I had been trying to avoid. I found the answers to my challenges by reading the scriptures, praying daily, serving my family and others, and attending the temple and my Sunday meetings. I learned that those simple things make the difference between enduring and enduring well and with patience.

The Sunday School answers really are the best answers.

I think I have to agree with your assessment.

[_Willy Law]

With the constant barrage of messages telling members to stick to approved and correlated resources, not quite sure how apologists can continue to claim that we should have known the sordid history of the church.

[_bcspace]

Am I overreacting?

You are.

[_DrW]

From the Oct 2012 Sunday School Answers section:

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/10/sunday-school-answers?lang=eng

The author talks about addressing big questions with with insightful answers both as a Gospel Doctrine teacher and in her personal life with gospel questions.

The conclusion is not to look too deep, but to abide. Just a quick lesson on the definition of the word abide. It basically means to put up with, to continue a particular way, to act in accordance with, or submit.

This is telling. The author basically says forget the complicated questions you may have and just abide. Just forget about the high level questions and just accept it. You will be happy if you just abide. The article ends with a big fat reminder to only used approved material for preparing lessons.

In my opinion, this article is a nuanced way of telling the members that the thinking has been done, so shut up, believe it, and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Am I the only one who sees the article this way? Am I overreacting?

This article is nothing more than a not-so-nuanced way of telling the members that the thinking has been done, so shut up, believe what you are told, and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. I am not the only one who sees the article this way. These are simply the facts.

It is disturbing to think that my married children actually pay for (or even allow) this kind of mindless tripe to come into their homes each month. (What is worse is that some of them even leave it lying around where children might be exposed to it.)

[_Chap]

We might as well see the entire article, which is not long:

Serving in the Church
Sunday School Answers

By Emma Addams
Sunday School Answers

I have a tendency to look for grand answers to my challenges—to ask the Lord to help me find that one thing that will fix everything. I’ve learned that such an approach can overcomplicate things.

As I was teaching the Gospel Doctrine class in my ward, I was determined to ask profound questions that would require contemplation and big, new, insightful answers. In other words, I wanted to avoid a recitation of the same old “Sunday School answers” that ward members seemed to offer each week.

As I pored over the New Testament in preparation, I was struck by the use of the word abide, which appears over and over. For example, John 15:10 says, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love” (emphasis added).

In His great Intercessory Prayer, the Savior prays that His disciples “may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us” and “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one” (John 17:21, 23).

Much of what I searched for was how I could be one with the Lord, how I could abide in His love, and how, as a result, I could develop extra patience—patience I so desperately needed to turn my experiences from ones that exhausted me to ones that invigorated and sanctified me.

Ironically, as I searched for both an understanding of the word abide and answers to the difficult challenges I faced on a daily basis, I was ultimately led back to the precise Sunday School answers I had been trying to avoid. I found the answers to my challenges by reading the scriptures, praying daily, serving my family and others, and attending the temple and my Sunday meetings. I learned that those simple things make the difference between enduring and enduring well and with patience.

The Sunday School answers really are the best answers.
Nurturing Our Faith
Elder Neal. A Maxwell

“Serving, studying, praying, and worshiping are four fundamentals in perfecting ‘that which is lacking in [our] faith.’ (1 Thes. 3:10.) If we cease nurturing our faith in any of these four specific ways, we are vulnerable. …

“In a hardening world, the Lord can pierce our consciousness by using ‘the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.’ (Eph. 6:17; see also Jarom 1:12.) However, hearing must be ‘mixed with faith’ (Heb. 4:2) and with Christian service, as we have heard again and again.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “Lest Ye Be Wearied and Faint in Your Minds,” Ensign, May 1991, 88.

Using Church-Approved Materials

“Teachers and leaders use the scriptures, the teachings of latter-day prophets, and approved curriculum materials to teach and testify of the doctrines of the gospel. Approved curriculum materials for each class or quorum are listed in the current Instructions for Curriculum. As needed, teachers and leaders supplement curriculum materials with Church magazines, particularly the general conference issues of the Ensign.”

Handbook 2: Administering the Church (2010), 5.5.4.

So - whatever you do, don't go off and start thinking for yourself.

And never read any material that is not controlled entirely by the Correlation Committee.

[_Drifting]

But it's not a cult...

[_Equality]

With the constant barrage of messages telling members to stick to approved and correlated resources, not quite sure how apologists can continue to claim that we should have known the sordid history of the church.

I am not sure how the apologists can continue with their work at all as it clearly facilitates disobedience by members of the church who are not satisfied with the correlated resources. If there were no apologetics, the members would have no choice but to stick with the correlated pabulum.

[_Chap]

With the constant barrage of messages telling members to stick to approved and correlated resources, not quite sure how apologists can continue to claim that we should have known the sordid history of the church.

I am not sure how the apologists can continue with their work at all as it clearly facilitates disobedience by members of the church who are not satisfied with the correlated resources. If there were no apologetics, the members would have no choice but to stick with the correlated pabulum.

I know you mean that as a joke, but certainly - members clearly should never, ever go to places like Mormon Interpreter in search of lesson material. It's not church approved Just abide with the Ensign.

[_Fence Sitter]

"Studying" . Another word to add to the Mormon dictionary.