workindiligently

I know this is quite an old post, but I believe it’s important to clarify in cases of abuse why the church legally takes the stand it does in court when they are sued. Just as our second Article of Faith explains that men will be accountable for their own sins and not for Adams transgression, the Church cannot be accountable for others' sins when they do or say things that go against the Church’s teachings. One may ask if the Church betrayed Christ when Judas did? Of course the answer is no. Sexual abuse and any other form of abuse has been openly, directly, and frankly addressed and condemned by Church authorities. There are also other situations for which the scriptures are very clear about. For example, consider the Lord’s words in D&C 121:37 which states, “but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.” Thus, for someone to go out of these bounds and do otherwise is to terminate their representation of the Church. Although someone is called and is a representative of the Church, they stop being a representative when they do or say things that don’t represent the Church’s teachings or stand. The Church and its leaders abhor and fight against abuse and the Church does not participate, encourage, teach, or commit such practices. The Church’s ultimate goal is not to avoid accountability, for which it had none, but is actually attempting to place the responsibility where it truly rests, which is with the abuser.

Sounds to me like the Pharisees and Saducees attempting to sue the Savior...oh wait, they went a little further, didn't they? They still had current temple recommends, too.

Your understanding of the Singles is incredibly insightful and accurate! What do we need? I believe you hit the nail on the head when you said the Singles Program needs to be more about ministry than about activities and getting married. Marriage only 'sometimes' a rare side effects, especially considering that some of the resulting 'Singles Program' marriages don't even last through this life or eternity. But we really do mostly need ministry, just as the Savior ministered, because of the heartache, circumstances, fears, anxieties, suffering, stress, etc. that are either a result of or something that has lead to our singleness. We need healing and resolution so we can move on to the next stage of our lives. This would help us to be more Christlike and able to bring about the Celestial-oriented marriages we desire. The difficulty in bringing this spirit of ministry about is that so many of us in the singles world so 'greatly'...to put it mildly in some cases...JUST WANT to be married. And the fear and anxiety of those who are afraid of further failure and heartache are absolutely bothered by these wanna be's, because of their past and because of what it takes to move protectedly forward. Unfortunately, the real situation is that those who are so afraid of marriage actually do want to be married and would enjoy it if they were to know they could find a good, balanced, loving, etc. spouse, without the very high risk of painful dating, broken covenants, broken hearts, and potentially hurt children, and whatever other plethora of things in life there are to work through. Finding a similar personality, same-level spirituality and energy, happy person to spend the rest of our lives, eternal life included, with seems to almost be an impossibility to us in this world because of so many confused, hurt or hurtful people of these latter days. It's starting to feel like Sodom and Gomorrah all over again. I believe that if the Singles Program were to be restructured with the idea of ministry being the key, it would help quite a bit. At this point, I don't believe this has been made clear in the guidelines. Too many Singles don't understand this principle as a part of the Singles Program as well as they ought to. Although marriage is something we would all enjoy, there are many of us who either struggle with other's limits and abilities in the marriage department or who unknowingly struggle with their own, personal limits and abilities. How can we all just relax and not worry about that part in order to minister to one another's needs in the meantime? Maybe the Singles Program needs to be renamed "In the Meantime."

My 5-year-old daughter was painting my nails, and my 4-year-old daughter wanted to do the same. However the only victim available for my 4 year old was my 15-year-old son, Matt. He agreed, but only on the condition that we had fingernail polish remover. I assured him we did, and the fingernail painting began. So while my son and I were having our nails done, we got into a discussion about rather or not I would allow him to keep our kitten in the house. I complained that the litter box was outside, not to mention being too full and no one had bothered to empty it. So after Matt was done with his nails, he immediately got busy with emptying and refilling the litter box. Unfortunately, he had torn the bag of litter too much and almost all of 25 lbs. of litter went into the box, which definitely overfilled it. When he went to put some of the litter back into the bag with his hands, he complained, "But Mom, I just had my nails done!"