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I agree that they were pretty direct back then. No political correctness needed. But the emotion I see these days feels genuine to me. I don’t believe for a second it’s manipulation of any kind.

I still hear occasional references to the idea that the young people of today are among the strongest, most valiant, best prepared youth that have ever existed since the world began. Given who these references come from, I'm inclined to believe them.

It wouldn't be hard to make out a good arguement that some of the things mentioned in these verses as fruits of the spirit are emotions: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (New Testament | Galatians 5:22 - 23)

I’m 61. Some of my earliest memories are from testimony meetings that I didn’t want to go to because people cried. I had a brother die when I was three and I learned that crying meant sadness. So I thought we were going to sad meetings every month. Point is, this kind of emotion didn’t just start recently. I think it has always been the case. 🤷‍♀️

Emotional "manipulation" was probably too harsh of a word. I don't doubt their sincerity; I just mean that culturally we have become emotionally incontinent. Just like those who get up and bear their testimonies who can't talk without blubbering all over the place, I have no doubt of their sincerity, as a culture we have come to accept such emotional incontinence as acceptable-this was not the case 50-60 years ago. People were expected to keep it together, they trained themselves to do so and thus when they gave talks on very weighty matters for the most part they did not blubber all over the place. I term it emotional manipulation because we have become convinced as a people that "truth" is a matter of conviction of emotion. The more "emotional" a talk makes you feel, the more true it is, because that's "the Spirit", i.e. we have confused the Spirit for emotion and that will lead to emotional manipulation. And this is unfortunate, because it is one incorrect teaching which leads people away from the Church-they have been taught that to feel emotional about something is to feel the Spirit and then they say things like, "well I was watching a really great movie and the Spirit was there", or we use soaring music to evoke emotion rather than just letting the words and truth speak for themselves. Emotion != the Holy Spirit.

LDS sermons are traditionally pretty . . . clinical . . . But I suspect that hasn’t always been the case. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1980/04/where-do-we-stand?lang=eng (Especially around 12:04)

I was wondering if you had a scriptural rationale for your statement "But they were all to go forth two-by-two and perform missionary work. Only after the Resurrection" The only two-by-two example that Jesus commissioned in the Bible that I find is for the 70 (72 in some translations) but this is before His resurrection. For singles, I see Philip with the Ethiopian eunuch and Paul on Mars Hill as some examples. For more than 2, I see Acts 10:23-48 where Peter and his companions travel to Caesarea and share the Good News of Jesus’s death and resurrection with Cornelius’s group. I read the chapters surrounding Christ's visit to the Nephites and there is no mention of seventies or a two-by-two commission.

I live in our very small, purpose built national capital where 42% of the workforce are public servants. Each ward would have about 3 or 4 members where they are literally not allowed to tell you what their job is. Most of those who work for the public service and who were not actually born or raised here had to go through an extremely competitive recruitment process to get here so as a result, we tend to have a lot of well educated, financially comfortable members who all speak the same public servant language.

Good read. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/anonymous-berkeley-professor-shreds-blm-injustice-narrative-damning-stats-and-logic

Yes. Yes. and YES! Thank you.

Some of it could be genetics and those people that we are preserving. A prime example could be diabetes. Those who have diabetes while younger have a genetic predisposition to have that as something they can pass on to their children. As we preserve the lives and keep more who are diabetic alive, they pass those genes onto more generations after them. This causes an increase of that genetic variable...thus more people who have childhood diabetes. If we allowed natural selection to occur (aka...take away modern medicine) in theory, those people would die...in many instances before they were able to have children and pass along those genes. Thus, in that way, while we preserve more lives, we also allow more of the genetic variables which may not be favorable to also be passed along and to create greater numbers (percentage wise as well as a general population) of those exhibiting those traits to exist. The same probably also applies to other ailments including forms of mental illness. Edit: To be clear, though the above items show that we are increasing the number of those with undesireable genetic traits, I think it is a good thing that we can preserve lives and help those who may other wise die. Modern medicine is an awesome and terrific thing, and perhaps as time progresses we will find other ways to fix various ailments that have a genetic factor to actually eliminate those genetics variable from passing on while at the same time improving the quality of life and the lives of those who suffer from them.

What can I say, hypocrites gonna hypocrite.

Abraham 1: 2, 1 Nephi 10: 17, 1 Nephi 11: 1-6, and Doctrine and Covenants 8: 2-3. I personally believe that we as members have made hearing/receiving personal revelation more confusing than it is. The Lord speaks to all of us the same way (the fruits may be different). From scripture these are the ways communication from heaven is received: 1) Holy Ghost (most common) 2) Visions and Dreams 3) Instruction from ministering angels (even the Son) What interferes with hearing the voice of the Lord and receiving revelation: 1) Pride > I want my will received rather than hear what the Lord is trying to tell me 2) Sin > An unwillingness to give up sins (Lamoni's father was willing to give up "all" his sins to know God) 3) Mental state, which can correlate with #1

First and foremost if you want to receive personal revelation from the Lord you have to be taking seriously the revelations God has already revealed. These can be found in the scriptures, words of modern prophets, etc. If we don't take those seriously God is less inclined to impart more.

A most interspersing story about submarines. Submarines are the most lethal means to deliver atomic warheads accurately. The defense department goes through great lengths to keep track of all submarines capable of delivering a nuclear device. One day out of no where a submarine was picked up in the mid Pacific and no one knew how it got there. Also its signature was unknown - meaning it had never been cataloged. All efforts were made to find and track this new sub. But it all proved to be most difficult because the sub would go silent only to show up later at a great distance from where it was previously. For 3 days a most interesting game of cat and mouse occurred with many having great concern as an all out effort to gather more information was taking place. After 3 days it was finally discovered. But it was not a sub. It was a whale that was mimicking the sounds of a sub with amazing accuracy. Some things in life are best described as learning experiences. The Traveler

You ruined my joke that I heard from someone else and claimed as mine Anatess. Here, this is for you: 👎