Rusty featured a photo of his latest great grand child in his pre-recorded conference talk today. He expressed his deep concern to have her be strong in her Mormon faith, which promoted me to look up the statistics.
Statistically speaking, she has a 1 in 3 chance of leaving her family’s faith. She may, however, have greater than average social and financial pressure to stay in the church than the typical Mormon.
The number is also likely to continue rising. The article states:
In the late 1980s, LDS members would retain 95% of their children in the church, Cragun said. Today, that figure is now around 67%.
“Almost a third of people who are raised LDS today leave the religion,” he said. “That’s our current best estimate.”
This feels like a grandparent taking the opportunity to publicly pressurise his grandchildren to conform to how he wants them, and their kids, to live. Perhaps, some are already leaving the boat and this his way of expressing his displeasure. By all means express the sentiment that you want families to remain strong in the gospel, but don’t passive-aggressively heap attention on those within your own family that might be choosing a different path for their kids.
Premise 1. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable.
Premise 2. The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is eyewitness testimony.
Conclusion. Therefore, the best evidence for the Book of Mormon is notoriously unreliable.
This feels like a grandparent taking the opportunity to publicly pressurise his grandchildren to conform to how he wants them, and their kids, to live. Perhaps, some are already leaving the boat and this his way of expressing his displeasure. By all means express the sentiment that you want families to remain strong in the gospel, but don’t passive-aggressively heap attention on those within your own family that might be choosing a different path for their kids.
Indeed. In the modern LDS church, almost every single family has at least one or two young members who have left. I would hazard to guess that general authority families are no exception.
They’re also probably even less likely to empathize and really understand the reasons why these young members choose to leave. It’s unlikely that Rusty Nelson treats any wayward members of his family with honesty and openness about the legitimate reasons for leaving the LDS religion.