why me wrote:This is perhaps just a tad simplistic. No one needs to follow the advice. One has free will to decide if the advice or request is followed.
I like to keep it simple. You're right, no one needs to follow the advice. The one thing I really enjoy about not following the leaders' advice is the label of apostate that comes along with it. ;)
I haven't had a calling for 20 years. I also speak my mind in priesthood and sunday school when I attend. No one calls me an apostate. Scottie should also try it...a good discussion is a terrible thing to waste.
Scottie wrote:Oh, by the way, have you heard of Ron Lafferty??
NO. Who was he?
In July 1984, in a Utah town called American Fork, Dan Lafferty entered the home of his brother Allen, who was at work, and killed Allen's wife and 15-month-old daughter. Dan, now serving a life sentence, has no remorse about the murders and no trouble explaining them. His older brother, Ron, who assisted in the crime and is now on death row, had received a revelation from God mandating that Brenda and Erica Lafferty be ''removed'' so that, as God put it, ''my work might go forward.''
Mental illness is a terrible thing. Might I also suggest that this defense was used as a plea for insanity? But the court did not buy it. And most likely, the whole thing was revenge.
Murderers often use god or the devil for their own purposes.
why me wrote:I haven't had a calling for 20 years.
That's impressive. Not even home teaching? If you're not fulfilling your callings or declining them when offered, you are on the road to apostasy.
why me wrote:I also speak my mind in priesthood and sunday school when I attend.
I do too. Have you ever criticized any of Hinckley's teachings in class? What are the responses you get? Which, in your opinion, is more acceptable to the majority of members: blind obedience or questioning the leaders?
How did Adam know that God wasn't just some space alien from another planet with incredibly superior technology?
Oh, and in a EQ lesson I taught, I brought up the fact that many times prophets are speaking their own thoughts and opinions rather than "speaking as the prophet" and we need not treat those opinions as anything more that than. It got very quiet and uncomfortable and no one wanted to talk about it. So I moved on.
“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.”
Moses 5:6 wrote:And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me.
The teacher spoke about what great faith Adam had to do what the Lord commanded even though he didn't know the reason, and that we should all have such unquestioning faith.
So, for all of you apologists out there saying that this isn't being taught, here is proof that it is.
Perhaps if they bury me with a Pearl of Great Price, a couple thousand years from now some clown can translate it back to it's original egyptian and get some meaning out of it.
why me wrote: Mental illness is a terrible thing. Might I also suggest that this defense was used as a plea for insanity? But the court did not buy it. And most likely, the whole thing was revenge.
Murderers often use god or the devil for their own purposes.
I don't see what makes their claim any less valid than a typical Mormon spouting off about how they know the church is true.
The fact is, any religious leader uses god or the devil for their own purposes.
God belief is for people who don't want to live life on the universe's terms.
why me wrote: I am not sure that adam was practicing blind obedience here
Moses 5:6 wrote:And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me.
Yeah Scottie, why do you think this is blind obedience? Blind obedience is when you do something for no other reason than you were commanded. The thing with Adam is obviously different.
"We of this Church do not rely on any man-made statement concerning the nature of Deity. Our knowledge comes directly from the personal experience of Joseph Smith." - Gordon B. Hinckley
"It's wrong to criticize leaders of the Mormon Church even if the criticism is true." - Dallin H. Oaks
why me wrote:I haven't had a calling for 20 years.
That's impressive. Not even home teaching? If you're not fulfilling your callings or declining them when offered, you are on the road to apostasy.
why me wrote:I also speak my mind in priesthood and sunday school when I attend.
I do too. Have you ever criticized any of Hinckley's teachings in class? What are the responses you get? Which, in your opinion, is more acceptable to the majority of members: blind obedience or questioning the leaders?
why me wrote:No one calls me an apostate.
At least not to your face.
No home teaching for a very long time...late 1980's. I have never criticized any of Hinckley's teachings. But I have criticized SWK's teachings in the manual as dated and tough. :=)
I would not call it blind obedience but perhaps 'blind' guidance with blind in quotation marks. Most of what is taught these days is common sense.
why me wrote: Mental illness is a terrible thing. Might I also suggest that this defense was used as a plea for insanity? But the court did not buy it. And most likely, the whole thing was revenge.
Murderers often use god or the devil for their own purposes.
I don't see what makes their claim any less valid than a typical Mormon spouting off about how they know the church is true.
The fact is, any religious leader uses god or the devil for their own purposes.
Valid or not, it is a common insanity defense. The devil made me do it!! God made me do it!! can bring a person to the nut house and not to death row, if convincing.