xenic101

Given the training opportunities and manuals, the wealth of assistance available, the well established program and support structure, you say your local ward's Scouting program is poorly run, yet you seem to think those same leaders could do better with a different program?

Seeing the 'Family Stickers" on the backs of cars, I was talking to my wife about getting some for our car. After some discussions about why I couldn't cut the stickers in half for my two kids from a previous marriage, I decided that I wanted more stickers and should get enough to fill a row across my neon's back window. The wife informed me that she didn't want people looking at her funny when she got out, thinking she'd had all 20 kids. So I came up with the obvious solution. I should also get extra women stickers and do a little family chart on the back of the window. The wife then informed me (very informative person I married) that I wasn't allowed to feed stereotypes. (I assume she meant false ones). Sorry for interrupting the fascinating discussion on Joseph Smith's sex life. I just wanted to throw that out there.

Your Bishop has a private beach? Like a secluded cove in the Florida Keys or a little bay on the coast of Northern California? You live somewhere with a beach at all? And the scouts were going camping on it? It's 20 degrees here and they canceled church this morning because of the snow on the ground and you get a beach. I was annoyed when I first returned to church about much the same thing. It only took me several years to mostly get over it...I suppose it's possible things got better as leaders rotated out. But I assure you, it's not just your ward, nor is it personal. Imperfect people are called to lead. You can do like I did and grumble to yourself about how you'd do it better, and why can't so and so learn to read a clock/calendar or realize they might need transportation before there's a handful of scouts standing around in the parking lot. Or, knowing that the leader has an issue in areas, you can fill in the gap to make sure he's covered. That's how we are supposed to treat people in general, not to point out what we see as flaws, but to support them by making sure they're covered. Every week in Priesthood, when an activity is announced for the youth or adults, half a dozen people are asking about location, time, rides, refreshments, ect in order to make sure everything is taken care of instead of assuming the person in charge has thought of everything. The church runs entirely on volunteer leadership, seldom do we have leaders who were trained to their calling. While it's possible the leader is a complete incompetent oaf, I've found it's better for my attitude to assume they've had a horrible week at work, the kids have been acting up all week, the dog died and their house burned down. I've found that really reduces my stress over other people's administrative abilities.

I am.

Janet Thomas, "What Did Joseph Smith Really Look Like?", New Era, Dec. 2005, 28 To everybody he was known as ‘Young Joe Smith,’ to distinguish him from his father, who was ‘Old Joe Smith.’”(John Henry Evans, Joseph Smith: An American Prophet (1946), 37. (what I could find of this book online begins at page 40ish...)) October 1979 Sessions, The Contributions of the Prophet Joseph Smith, N. Eldon Tanner New York Sun of 4 September 1843 stated: “‘This Joe Smith must be set down as an extraordinary character, a prophet-hero, as Carlyle might call him. He is one of the great men of this age, and in future history will rank with those who, in one way or another, have stamped their impress strongly on society’” (History of the Church, 6:3). April 1984 Sessions, The Magnificent Vision Near Palmyra, James E. Faust The New York Sun in the late summer of 1843 said: “That Joe Smith, the founder of the Mormons, is a man of great talent, a deep thinker, an eloquent speaker, an able writer, and a man of great mental power, no one can doubt who has watched his career. That his followers are deceived, we all believe … “Few in this age have done such deeds, and performed such apparent miracles. It is no small thing, in the blaze of this nineteenth century, to give to men a new revelation, found a new religion, establish new forms of worship, to build a city, with new laws, institutions, and orders of architecture,—to establish ecclesiastic, civil and military jurisdiction, found colleges, send out missionaries, and make proselytes in two hemispheres: yet all this has been done by Joe Smith, and that against every sort of opposition, ridicule and persecution.” (History of the Church, 6:3.) Although I'm not sure those count as primary sources. I know I've read dozens of time non-hostile references to him as "Joe", but looking now with google, I'm not able to locate any. For the most part those who believed he was a prophet of God gave and give him the respect of using his full name and most of the 'history' we have has been passed through the church which followed suit, "correcting" it to Joseph where needed. "Joe Smith" was often used by those hostile to him or the church, and those instances abound, however "Joe" is a perfectly acceptable substitute for "Joseph" and was used often enough in informal conversation. Probably because of the church's early persecution complex, derogatory use of "Joe" was left intact, where as familial use of Joe was corrected, because we respect him by using his full name. I suspect the places I've read "Joe Smith" are on the bookshelf in the other room, and that most online search results are either hostile or neutral because those are the ones used most often. Regardless, "Joe" is not innately a derogatory form of "Joseph" and I will not seek out offense over something so idle as someone who doesn't believe him to have been a prophet of God not giving him the respect I do. Had his name been Richard Smith, I might feel differently.

Joseph Smith's friends and family called him Joe all the time.

We were given some collections of them at various times. Now we have a large box of them and my kid, after reading a few, has decided they are dumb and isn't interested in them. I believe the box is in the Goodwill pile.