CWK: Mormon Testimonies

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Kishkumen
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CWK: Mormon Testimonies

Post by Kishkumen »

Partly in response to a request from our own Dean Robbers, but really simplified because to do what he is asking will take more time, I posted an episode on Mormon testimony that will drop tonight at 10 pm Mountain Time:

https://youtu.be/BGdfzMWFDRY
You may not know it, but testimony is VERY important for Mormons/LDS people. Gaining a testimony is a key goal in the faith, and people fear losing their testimony of the gospel to the point that they feel they must leave if they no longer have one. Join me to explore the LDS testimony and learn about the monthly meeting where testimonies are shared: Fast & Testimony Meeting.
Title: What is the deal with the Mormon testimony?

I refer in this video to a good Sunstone article by David Knowlton, anthropologist and former BYU professor, which was published in the early '90s.

https://www.academia.edu/114720943/Beli ... ny_Bearing
"I have learned with what evils tyranny infects a state. For it frustrates all the virtues, robs freedom of its lofty mood, and opens a school of fawning and terror, inasmuch as it leaves matters not to the wisdom of the laws, but to the angry whim of those who are in authority.”
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Everybody Wang Chung
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Re: CWK: Mormon Testimonies

Post by Everybody Wang Chung »

Looking forward to it.
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Philo Sofee
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Re: CWK: Mormon Testimonies

Post by Philo Sofee »

Kishkumen wrote:
Sat Oct 05, 2024 5:59 pm
Partly in response to a request from our own Dean Robbers, but really simplified because to do what he is asking will take more time, I posted an episode on Mormon testimony that will drop tonight at 10 pm Mountain Time:

https://youtu.be/BGdfzMWFDRY
You may not know it, but testimony is VERY important for Mormons/LDS people. Gaining a testimony is a key goal in the faith, and people fear losing their testimony of the gospel to the point that they feel they must leave if they no longer have one. Join me to explore the LDS testimony and learn about the monthly meeting where testimonies are shared: Fast & Testimony Meeting.
Title: What is the deal with the Mormon testimony?

I refer in this video to a good Sunstone article by David Knowlton, anthropologist and former BYU professor, which was published in the early '90s.

https://www.academia.edu/114720943/Beli ... ny_Bearing
THIS will be interesting!
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Re: CWK: Mormon Testimonies

Post by huckelberry »

I find myself thinking of the positive values of the Mormon tradition or ritual of testimonies. They express a live commitment to things held in faith and a sharing of that commitment with the community. They are a significant strengthening and bonding activity.

Then of course there is that problematic customary (virtually required) use of the phrase I know instead of I believe or I hold dear. In terms of some exact knowledge the phrase I believe may be more accurate but there is something passive in the phrase I believe. I know is more active and more participatory.

Many nonLDS church services will include a recitation of "We believe....." I find those more accurate , more reflective and conducive to contemplation. I like and respect that yet notice that LDS fast and testimony have a more personal involvement and expressed commitment.

It is argued that the combination of active commitment and belief moves towards knowledge through experience. Perhaps a bit but that does not fit the usual use of "I know" Perhaps this is an unfortunate limitation of English. Some inbetween word would be helpful.
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Re: CWK: Mormon Testimonies

Post by Kishkumen »

huckelberry wrote:
Sun Oct 06, 2024 2:15 am
I find myself thinking of the positive values of the Mormon tradition or ritual of testimonies. They express a live commitment to things held in faith and a sharing of that commitment with the community. They are a significant strengthening and bonding activity.

Then of course there is that problematic customary (virtually required) use of the phrase I know instead of I believe or I hold dear. In terms of some exact knowledge the phrase I believe may be more accurate but there is something passive in the phrase I believe. I know is more active and more participatory.

Many nonLDS church services will include a recitation of "We believe....." I find those more accurate , more reflective and conducive to contemplation. I like and respect that yet notice that LDS fast and testimony have a more personal involvement and expressed commitment.

It is argued that the combination of active commitment and belief moves towards knowledge through experience. Perhaps a bit but that does not fit the usual use of "I know" Perhaps this is an unfortunate limitation of English. Some inbetween word would be helpful.
Great thoughts, huckelberry! I touch on some of these issues in the video, especially the “I know” language. I was not aware that other churches have a “We believe” recitation. That is interesting! I am not even that fond of the recitations of belief, but that says more about me and my personality than the practice itself.
"I have learned with what evils tyranny infects a state. For it frustrates all the virtues, robs freedom of its lofty mood, and opens a school of fawning and terror, inasmuch as it leaves matters not to the wisdom of the laws, but to the angry whim of those who are in authority.”
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Re: CWK: Mormon Testimonies

Post by Kishkumen »

Everybody Wang Chung wrote:
Sat Oct 05, 2024 6:46 pm
Looking forward to it.
Thanks, Everybody Wang Chung!
"I have learned with what evils tyranny infects a state. For it frustrates all the virtues, robs freedom of its lofty mood, and opens a school of fawning and terror, inasmuch as it leaves matters not to the wisdom of the laws, but to the angry whim of those who are in authority.”
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Kishkumen
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Re: CWK: Mormon Testimonies

Post by Kishkumen »

Philo Sofee wrote:
Sat Oct 05, 2024 10:35 pm
Kishkumen wrote:
Sat Oct 05, 2024 5:59 pm
Partly in response to a request from our own Dean Robbers, but really simplified because to do what he is asking will take more time, I posted an episode on Mormon testimony that will drop tonight at 10 pm Mountain Time:

https://youtu.be/BGdfzMWFDRY



Title: What is the deal with the Mormon testimony?

I refer in this video to a good Sunstone article by David Knowlton, anthropologist and former BYU professor, which was published in the early '90s.

https://www.academia.edu/114720943/Beli ... ny_Bearing
THIS will be interesting!
Thanks, Philo! I see you had a live stream with Pynnaker! Cool stuff!
"I have learned with what evils tyranny infects a state. For it frustrates all the virtues, robs freedom of its lofty mood, and opens a school of fawning and terror, inasmuch as it leaves matters not to the wisdom of the laws, but to the angry whim of those who are in authority.”
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Re: CWK: Mormon Testimonies

Post by hauslern »

I found some testimony meetings were opportunities for members to brag how much they had been blessed the previous month.
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Re: CWK: Mormon Testimonies

Post by hauslern »

I suppose churches with a liturgical form of worship or testimony of their beliefs would if they are sincere recite the Apostles or Athanasian Creed, I found a speech by a famous patristics Lutheran scholar give a good explanation of their purpose. The Articles of Faith would be a kind of creedal statement.

https://onbeing.org/programs/jaroslav-p ... or-creeds/ (the unedited version is better)

"My faith life, like that of everyone else, fluctuates. There are ups and downs and hot spots and cold spots and boredom and ennui and all the rest can be there. And so I’m not asked on a Sunday morning, ‘As of 9:20, what do you believe?’ And then you sit down with a three-by-five index card saying, ‘Now let’s see. What do I believe today?’ No, that’s not what they’re asking me. They’re asking me, ‘Are you a member of a community which now, for a millennium and a half, has said, we believe in one God?’"

"See, whereas to be Jewish is to affirm every day, if you’re observant, and with your dying breath, if you can hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. The Shamah. And that’s really all the creed that Israel needs. So it’s been possible to be Jewish now for these 3000 or whatever years without publishing four volumes of creedal text. There is no God, but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet…"

LDS Articles of Faith: "We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in his Son Jesus, and in the Holy Ghost"' "All their creeds were an abomination in his sight"
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Kishkumen
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Re: CWK: Mormon Testimonies

Post by Kishkumen »

hauslern wrote:
Sun Oct 06, 2024 5:44 am
I found some testimony meetings were opportunities for members to brag how much they had been blessed the previous month.
Boastimony! Definitely seen many of those!
"I have learned with what evils tyranny infects a state. For it frustrates all the virtues, robs freedom of its lofty mood, and opens a school of fawning and terror, inasmuch as it leaves matters not to the wisdom of the laws, but to the angry whim of those who are in authority.”
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