A Special Video Message of Hope and Healing From President Russell M. Nelson

[mentalgymnast]

If Nen was truly thankful for the health care professionals around the world he’d have given $1 billion towards developing a vaccine or much needed medical equipment in countries ill prepared to fight the virus. But of course, he didn’t do that. Instead of real action he just engaged the troops in, as you put it so correctly, ill judged virtue signalling.

https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/ ... 9531f.html

The church and its members haven’t been sitting idly by. There seems to be a real focus on facemasks on this thread. Refer to Project Protect in the above link.

More:
https://www.latterdaysaintcharities.org ... 9?lang=eng

More:
https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/ ... 7f8bb.html

This scratches the surface of what is being done by the church and it’s members recently. The worldwide address by President Nelson adds one more important layer.

Do you honestly think he doesn’t know what the church and it’s members are doing to provide service during the Covid-19 pandemic?

C’mon.

You guys look underneath every nook and cranny to find reasons to diss the church and/or its leaders, and often it’s members...mindless drones anyone? I think I’ve been accused of such.

Chill.

Regards,
MG

[mentalgymnast]

But you weren’t referring to the church.

Regards,
MG

The Church and the Papyrus is wrapped up in one roll.

The Church is founded upon Joseph Smith. Period. He said he saw God. He said there is a king's name. He is wrong on both accounts.

Amen and amen.

You were referring to me.

Regards,
MG

[Res Ipsa]

To be clear, I haven't seen any posts from friends or family that I would consider "self-righteous." And based on my real-life interactions with them, I would not expect to.

Well that's good then, but I can only imagine. I have some real saps in my extended family.

I'm sorry to hear that. My LDS extended family are good folks. It pains me to hear some of the horror stories from others.

[honorentheos]

I saw something on Facebook, I believe from Don Bradley, that I liked quite a bit. It made the connection between gratitude and truth, stressing that the ability to rightly see how we are being supported and helped along in life is part of the choice to live in a truth-based reality. It requires recognizing how much we are benefited by the helping hands that lifted us up, or put a ladder in place for us to use. It asks us to resist the impulse to take credit where shared credit is much closer to the truth. And overall, it encourages a healthy relationship with the community we live in as gratitude gives us reason for both humility and feeling loved or assisted along our journey in life. Paying better attention to that isn't a bad thing.

Here is the thing, though. Most of what I've seen out of the missionary marketing campaign that the Church launched on Friday isn't particularly reflective. It reminds me of family prayers, actually. "Father in Heaven, we thank thee for this day, that we can be an eternal family, that we have a home to live in and food to eat, for a living prophet, for Joseph Smith, for..."

I don't think these statements are lies or even platitudes per se. But there is space between what I've seen mentioned among my Facebook Mormon family and friends and the comment made by Don. And it made me think, "Yeah. Real gratitude IS about chosing to live in truth."

[Res Ipsa]

Hi Honor. You doing ok?

[Chap]

https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/sidn ... id/998181/

We’ll wait and see.

Regards,
MG

You just tipped your hand with me. Your statement and the link affixed just proved to me what your real intentions here on this board are. I've been watching you for years and have forced myself to reserved judgment in order to give you the benefit of the doubt. I know better now.

I'm on to you. No more benefit of the doubt. Grindael was right all along.

You had me suckered, MG. No more.

?

Care to be a bit more explicit? Without vulgarity please.

You apparently have an issue with Sidney Powell? Newsmax?

[...]

He's not the only one. The Trump legal team has now severed contact with her. Evidently her 'biblical' nonsense was too embarrassing even for them.

“Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump legal team. She is also not a lawyer for the president in his personal capacity,” Giuliani and another lawyer for Trump, Jenna Ellis, said in a statement on Sunday.

[Moksha]

Care to be a bit more explicit? Without vulgarity please.

You apparently have an issue with Sidney Powell? Newsmax?

[...]

He's not the only one. The Trump legal team has now severed contact with her. Evidently, her 'biblical' nonsense was too embarrassing even for them.

Even so, for people with a magical world view, perhaps Sidney Powell and Newsmax viewed this Biblical evidence with their spiritual eyes? If Mentalgymnast wants to wait and see if Sidney turns into a pillar of salt then it is his right to do so. Just don't hold these two groups to evidence as it is understood in the arts, sciences, and philosophies of Men.

[IHAQ]

An alternative view on gratitude practices...

"A Dark Side of Gratitude?
Distinguishing between Beneficial
Gratitude and its Harmful Impostors
for the Positive Clinical Psychology
of Gratitude and Well‐Being
Alex M. Wood, Robert A. Emmons, Sara B. Algoe, Jeffrey J. Froh, Nathanial M. Lambert,
and Philip Watkins"

Eibach, Wilmot, and Libby (2015) discuss a potential maladaptive form of gratitude that is fostered by social systems to avoid people challenging the system itself.

https://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-conten ... 9/ch10.pdf

Indeed, given the ubiquity with which organized religion has promoted feeling gratitude as a moral obligation (Emmons & Crumpler, 2000), and as organized religion has at least partially operated in league with unhealthy states as an agent of social control, then it seems likely that the promotion of gratitude for the purposes of state subjugation has been widespread throughout history.

Could Nelson's exhortation be a way to deflect the members from thinking too long and hard about why Priesthood Blessings haven't been working, and why the Church continues to report obscenely escalating wealth during a time when members are losing jobs and countries are struggling to have sufficient medical resources to combat the pandemic? It's akin to the propaganda campaign used in Stalin's time to promote the idea of Happy Peasants to attempt to quell an uprising against the conditions within which the people were living.

There are also studies on how a gratitude practice can be harmful in that it subconsciously makes people feel their feelings of anxiety, stress, worry etc aren't justified. Which can exacerbate the cycle of depression either at the hands of an individuals own gratitude practice, or because they feel they don't measure up to others expressions of gratitude. Think about the single LDS woman reading all those expressions of gratitude for husbands and children...

People need to know it's okay to feel angry, annoyed, upset, worried, scared, frustrated, stressed etc. They are legitimate feelings. Gratitude expressing should not be used (as Nelson seems to be seeking to use it) to try and plaster over those negative thoughts and feelings. They need embracing and processing properly. I don't think Nelson has properly considered how plastering Mormon Gratitude all over social media for a week will impact those struggling with a less-than-perfect-cookie-cutter Mormon existence.

[Shulem]

I don't think Nelson has properly considered how plastering Mormon Gratitude all over social media for a week will impact those struggling with a less-than-perfect-cookie-cutter Mormon existence.

At the end of the week it's back to square 1 and the Latter-day Saints will be left again trying to put all things back into perspective. How long will the pandemic last? Is it a judgment from God? What prophetic things is God telling the prophet about coming world affairs? So many questions and so few answers. At some point there will be many disenchanted members of the Church who expected so much more from a living prophet. What do they get? "Count your blessings and quit complaining".

If anything, this pandemic will take a heavy toll on the Church. It's already doing that and the fallout is yet to come. The temples remain closed and it's obvious that the temple ceremonies are going to have to be altered and new procedures put in place because it's no longer an acceptable practice for hands to touch hands as currently prescribed in the endowment. The very tradition of shaking of hands in greeting fellow members at the chapel is a thing of the past. From now on, there will always be some people wearing masks to protect their health after the pandemic is over.

Times have changed and are changing.

[canpakes]

...President Biden will assume the Presidency on January 20, 2021...

https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/sidn ... id/998181/

We’ll wait and see.

Regards,
MG

From the link:

Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell on Newsmax TV vowed to deliver a "biblical" voter fraud case this week.

We’ll wait and see.