Are Religions just businesses in disguise?

[_Pokatator]

Kevin and Runtu

I had never heard of the Brazil angle on lifting the ban before. Very interesting. Most probably one of many factors.

Living in Idaho and following sports, I was always under a different assumption for the lifting the ban. My understanding was that the major sports networks and sports associations were not going to allow BYU to join into the major conferences with their racist policies and that would not allow them to be televised. Thus the lifting of the ban. Thus another great inspirational "business decision" was revealed to the 12.

Just my $.02
Pokatator

[_Some Schmo]

Some Schmo, I don't really agree with you on this one. I think most if not all of the GAs today actually do believe the church is true. They are operating based on that assumption. Sure, the revelations aren't flowing, and they aren't seeing Jesus Christ in the upper rooms of the Salt Lake Temple like so many LDS believe, but they can explain it all away to themselves in a way that convinces themselves that they're still lead by inspiration. I believe they are sincere.

It's entirely possible that you just don't get to be a GA these days unless you act in certain ways while you're "working your way up" the food chain, and that you just don't act that way unless you're just totally gonzo into it.

I have this little pet theory I've been tossing back and forth in my mind that says there's some kind of point, like an Event Horizon, past which, if you go, you essentially cannot ever be convinced otherwise. You know what I'm talking about - the people who, if you could provide absolutel, definitive, conclusive proof that it was all manmade, would just assume that it was somehow all a lie made up by the devil to test their faith, and go on believing anyhow.

Remember that sig line someone here has of grampa75 saying even if God himself were to appear and say the Mormon church wasn't true, he'd ask God how much he knew about it, and would he like to know more?

You may be right; I won't pretend to know either way. I guess for me, it's just a matter of feeling like, well, it's possible. I mean, how do you explain the massive money grubbing by the church? How do you explain the non-disclosure of church finances?

It occurs to me, given how much harm the church does, that at least some of these guys have got to know it's a scam and just don't care because it gives them something that they want (power, prestige, whatever).

It really is a tough call.

[_grayskull]

Grayskull, I don't think that would help....

One problem I see for the Church is the stagnation at the top. With people living much longer than they used to the top leardership becomes a bit stagnant. GBH could very well live another 10 years. What happens when demensa sets in? Also, the leaders that will fill his shoes are no spring chickens either.

One thing about this type of structured authority, change comes very slowly....

Most Mormons would see that as a strenghth...

Stagnation at the top is the same problem I see. Hence, decentralizing.

[_ajax18]

To go against Brigham Young or to overturn a previously enshrined revelation is not a task I would want to be responsible for. There is too much risk involved. But in the late 70's the benefits were worth the risk, especially in the wake of the civil rights movement. It took little foresight to realize the LDS faith would be rejected as a racist Curch in the upcoming decades. In the 1950's it really wasn't that big a deal to deny blacks anything, let alone priesthood. By the late 70's it was the epitome of political incorrectness.

In any event, it is clear that this "revelation" was not some out of the blue decision by God. It was a serious, path-changing problem the first Presidency had to tackle if it wanted to keep the Church alive and growing. The surrounding social circumstances throughout the world influenced the decision to remove the ban. Calling it revelation seems ad hoc.

Don't most revelations seem to come due to present day circumstances?

[_Blixa]

In the case of the "black revelation," ajax, the term would have to be "overdue" not "due."