I must confess that I was very disappointed by most of the comments posted to Elder Andersen's writings. The tenor of many comments seemed to me to be awfully whiny and complaining that Andersen's writing was "negative" and not the kind of fuzzy warm stuff that is usually spoken by our current leaders. When did we become such a whimpy bunch? Why should we expect that things are going to go better for our current church than it did for almost all of the previous dispensations?
As Andersen pointed out, all is not well in Zion. The same things that destroyed these others are destroying us. Unfortunately, we have become a people who want our leaders to preach to us "smooth things."
I will never forget the way President Spencer W. Kimball's powerful talk, "The False Gods We Worship," managed to irritate and offend the entire audience. He even said that we, as a church, were an "idolatrous people--a condition repugnant to the Lord." The only difference between our current church and previous ones, is that our church doesn't stone the prophets for delivering "negative" messages--we just ignore them.
As the leaders and members of the church keep increasing in wealth, I think we all should read Isaiah 1, Mormon 8, Jacob 2, 2 Nephi 28, and the last few chapters of the Book of Mormon. All is not well in Zion. Elder Andersen's inspired insights should be studied and internalized--not criticized for being negative and leaving a bad taste. Sin is negative and leaves a bad taste. We all need to repent and avoid being destroyed.
