SpiritDragon

These I Will Make My Leaders - James E. Faust, October 1980 Conference
 

My take is you missed the point. For some fancy clothes are in abundance and easily accessible, these people show a lack of respect for deity when they come to church dressed down from what they would wear to a nice restaurant for instance. Perhaps the best others can do is take the time to pre-clean their sneakers and throw on a golf shirt with jeans, the point being that the choices of clothes worn are an outward reflection of an inner intent.
 
Jesus didn't get mad at the publicans and sinners for being in their day to day clothes when he was out ministering to them, but this is a bit different than what they would wear to the synagogue. Now of course abuses of this idea came into play because people of worldly status became uncomfortable with those living a reality of poverty (which they didn't want to see or have those around them exposed to) so they would cast the impoverished out. Clearly this goes against what Jesus would do. He would have the rich clothe the poor.
 
I don't consider myself rich, but I can afford respectful clothes. I'd be willing to buy you some and ship them to you if you'd like. 

So seconding Quin's
 

No, but we don't get them often, which makes people "freak out."  One of these days the faults are going to snap big time.  We don't get enough little ones to relieve the pressure.

Gotcha.
 
So would it be safe to say what you're really asking is if we are becoming more crotchety as we age? 
 
I suppose in all honesty I'd only use the word crotchety in terms of "old-fashioned, intolerant, and narrow-minded", but your explanation of yourself I would describe as becoming more devout.

"There something you do not know.  I am not left handed."  

So you put down your rock, and I put down my sword.. and we kill each other like civilized people?


Edit: wingnut took all the ones I was going to post originally lol

I find this one difficult to answer. I'm not sure how to view conservatism morally (or liberalism for that matter). The key trouble I have is that I see morality as black and white, right and wrong, but conservatism or liberalism are not black and white, right or wrong. I view things as immoral or moral.  I generally see being conservative as being responsible, sustainable, careful etc., and liberalism as taking risks, trying new things.
 
With these definitions in mind I definitely have a tendency toward being more conservative. I'm a "play it safe" kinda guy. I suppose if anything I am becoming more so as i age. Largely, I think, because I needed to take more risks in my youth to gain experiences to put everything in context. Now I have my opinions and I am more set in my ways. That being said I am always actively studying all kinds of things and I am open to the perspectives of others. I just get tired of being called closed minded because my opinions don't always fit within someone else's narrow point of view. After all, when I have taken the time to search things out and drawn a conclusion, why is this closed minded?
 
By my interpretation of the definitions given by anatess I'm actually more morally liberal as I age because the societal traditions around me at large are more and more corrupt. I'm more concerned with my own ability to make decisions for myself and not having society collectively decide what is and is not acceptable.
 
For what it's worth I'm 30 and have no kids yet either... also hoping that changes soon.

I agree. However, there are two things to consider. First, a lot of the issues at hand are based on social conventions and the natural culture of the church. As the church grows this becomes more and more difficult to manage and keep in line, so to speak. Many complain about the authoritative bureaucracy that the church has become. Would we risk pushing that further for the sake of curbing these sorts of problems?  Or should we teach the membership at large to be wise, be forgiving, study, pray, etc.. (Note that this is the current approach as to sex).
 
Secondly, and more importantly, we run the risk of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, as they say, when we push back on concerns like this. We see this in discussions like the recent one surrounding Tad R. Callister's morality/modesty talk. The responses, even if, perhaps, based on a semblance of right thinking, are so extreme so as to be the devil's advocate for discontinuing modesty, chastity, and morality all together. The prevailing liberal expression tends to account to the equivalent of "Don't teach your children to be righteous because it might make them feel bad when they sin."

I remember years ago... before the internet  staying up late into the night to finally watch a news story I was interested in. Inevitably they always made me wait to watch everything else to see the part I cared to see.

I remember years ago... before the internet  staying up late into the night to finally watch a news story I was interested in. Inevitably they always made me wait to watch everything else to see the part I cared to see.

I don't follow the news much.
 
I generally feel like if something important happened I'll hear about it.
 
I do get lots of notices (usually useless) when I check my email, and I have to listen to the radio all day at work though.

Nice article Dan. We could solve a lot of our western health problems if more people exercised. It would be good to have a better sample of what is really going on as the article suggests. There is no doubt that injuries are not at all uncommon in sports in general, which is all the more reason for people to build up strength, mobility, and general condition cautiously before engaging in higher intensity pursuits. For instance I was excited to see that TRX suspension training in a unilateral closed kinetic chain exercise program was shown/estimated to reduce ACL injuries in female athletes by 88%. It is cool to see what proper preparation can do to mitigate risks.
 
I've always maintained that those who are able and willing to engage in activities such as CrossFit should feel free to do so, but cautioned those who lack appropriate ability to build up in safer ways first. 

It only sets up a false dichotomy if one chooses to read things into it that aren't there. Clearly there is room for tender, chaste, and delicate withing sexuality.
 
I disagree that the church needs to put thought into how it wants to present sexual concepts. The church teaches these principles very clearly, and it is on us to learn them, just as it is with any principle. It is invalid to blame the church when we misunderstand sexuality because we are not well informed about it. There is information a-plenty about it, and that information does not need to be stretched to be more candid, nor do I believe that it should be, because it is not meant to be.
 
There are plenty of parents in the church who raise their children on church principles, teach their children to be wise, selfless, and Christlike, whose children grow up with a healthy understanding of marital relations. And there are plenty of parents who fail at this. Such is life - both in and out of the church, and with teachings on physical relationships as well as other principles in (and out of) the gospel. The required information and understanding is out there. It is on parents to discover this information and pass it on to their children. And it is upon the children, once they are to be married, to avail themselves of this information as well.

All of the above, and the above, and...
I'm not a witch! I'm your wife!
To the pain.
Inconceivable!
Rodents of unusual size.
MOSTLY dead.
____________
The priest at my wedding I bribed to start the service (without telling anyone else ahead of time), just a moment before walking down the aisle on sudden impulse. I didn't know if he'd actually do, it, though. He did!
"Wuv. Twue wuv....." Before his real beginning.
There was this thunderclap of laughter, followed by hundreds of hands slapped over mouths.
It. Was. Beautiful.
Everyone knew instantly it was me who'd done it.
Oy.
It took me until this very moment, though, to realize I really DID marry Humperdink!
Whoops.
Now I have TWO promptings from the Spirit that day that I totally ignored that day.
Le sigh.
Never been a smart one, over here.
Q

(In addition to many of the above...)

"NOT TO FIFTY!!!!"
 
"I'm on the brute squad."
"You are the brute squad."

"Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."

"There is a shortage of perfect breasts in this world.  It would be a pity to damage yours."  (This one always strikes me as odd, because it doesn't really fit in at all with the rest of the movie, or with the idea of a family film, or with a story that a grandfather is reading to a young child.)
 
"What about the ROUSes?"
"Rodents of Unusual Size?  I don't believe they exist."
***THUD***

"You mocked me once -- never do it again!  I died that day!  And you can die too, for all I care!"

"I could give you my word as a Spaniard."
"No good.  I've known too many Spaniards."

"Good night, Westley.  Good work.  Sleep well.  I'll most likely kill you in the morning."

You've been mostly dead all day.
 
We'll never survive.
-Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has.
 
I swear on the soul of my father, Domingo Montoya, you will reach the top alive.
 
Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.
 
That's right. When I was your age, television was called books.
 
Excuse me... Pardon me, Please it's important... Fezzik, please?
-EVERYBODY MOVE!
 
Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work, but I've got my country's 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it; I'm swamped.
-Get some rest. If you haven't got your health, then you haven't got anything.

Great post PC!
 
I think all too often people like to take the easy way out, they get the idea that god is loving and transform that to mean what they interpret loving to be without taking any further effort to actually learn the teachings of Christ.
 
I can't count the number of times I've heard ridiculous and uneducated exclamations about what the bible says about certain topics from people who obviously haven't read it. It is indeed hard if not impossible to recognize God and His handiwork when we don't know the first thing about it. Worse still so many deceive themselves into believing they know all about it.

Miracle Max: It just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.Inigo Montoya: What's that?
Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.
 
 

It always seemed like it was the way things were supposed to be done when I was out ten years ago. It was a bit tricky for many, because even when a wife stayed at home to cook we weren't allowed inside without her husband or another man home.
 
However it was a generally good policy because it allowed us to be out during prime hours when investigators were home. Furthermore we often had splits/exchanges with ward missionaries that would allow us to get six lessons in the same night before regrouping and going home at 9:30 for curfew.
 
We always had sufficient funds to feed ourselves if needed, the only ones who complained about not having enough money for food were those who ate out for every meal. The purpose of eating at a members house was to get referrals, not food.
 
I can see how in areas where the teaching pool is small, and ward missions are not being as successful as they were in my mission that eating at different times would certainly provide an opportunity to visit with the members to get referrals.

Great post PC!
 
I think all too often people like to take the easy way out, they get the idea that god is loving and transform that to mean what they interpret loving to be without taking any further effort to actually learn the teachings of Christ.
 
I can't count the number of times I've heard ridiculous and uneducated exclamations about what the bible says about certain topics from people who obviously haven't read it. It is indeed hard if not impossible to recognize God and His handiwork when we don't know the first thing about it. Worse still so many deceive themselves into believing they know all about it.

It always seemed like it was the way things were supposed to be done when I was out ten years ago. It was a bit tricky for many, because even when a wife stayed at home to cook we weren't allowed inside without her husband or another man home.
 
However it was a generally good policy because it allowed us to be out during prime hours when investigators were home. Furthermore we often had splits/exchanges with ward missionaries that would allow us to get six lessons in the same night before regrouping and going home at 9:30 for curfew.
 
We always had sufficient funds to feed ourselves if needed, the only ones who complained about not having enough money for food were those who ate out for every meal. The purpose of eating at a members house was to get referrals, not food.
 
I can see how in areas where the teaching pool is small, and ward missions are not being as successful as they were in my mission that eating at different times would certainly provide an opportunity to visit with the members to get referrals.

I think we are products of our time.  It is easy to say we believe in Jesus and if we had lived when Christ walked among mankind, we would have recognized him as the Messiah.  But then I remember a college psychology class where the teacher used peer pressure to convince some students in the class that what they thought was the color red was really blue.  I also remember from my studies of history that within the lifetime of those evil Jews that put Jesus to death that the Roman’s put down the zealot Jewish rebellion putting to death thousands of Jews (a majority of the population) that would not deny their G-d.
 
I personally marvel at the apostles that were with Jesus at the last supper when Jesus said that one among them would deny him.  I marvel that they did not figure out that it was Judas but they all asked the question – “Is it I?”
 
Most of us want to be a part of the herd and where it goes we follow.  We think that to doubt something in our religious herd is to doubt Christ.  We also think that anyone that doubts anything that our religious herd believes doubts the Christ as well.  I think there is a great difference between the L-rd’s sheep that know his voice and follow him and the members of a herd that in essence do little more than follow other sheep.  The sad thing for me is realizing that most often I am just a sheep following other sheep – and then when I think I am making up my own mind – most often I am just following other sheep of a different herd.

We just finished the Triumphal Entry (Palm Sunday) and are heading towards Easter.  It strikes me that many people were fringe followers of Jesus because of the power and miracles he demonstrated.  His teaching--not so much.  Why?  They'd been taught bad theology--bad doctrine.  The messiah/Savior/Christ was supposed to be a human military king, who would drive out the Romans, and re-establish Israel as a kingdom rivaling the glory David and Solomon enjoyed.  This was the traditional Judaism of the day.
 
Jesus came along and--sure enough--he healed the sick.  One fellow was blind from birth!  He drove out demons.  Consider that!  A demon is an angel who's fallen.  They were so awesome that many prophets mistook them for God.  Now picture Jesus driving out hundreds from one man, sending them into a herd of pigs, and seeing those pigs run off a cliff into the sea!  WOW!  Hey, won't it be awesome when Jesus does that with the Roman "pigs?"
 
So, he enters Jerusalem, and his close followers are parading him about as a king and savior.  Amen to that!  You go Jesus--bring it to the Romans!
 
Alas, did you hear?  Jesus is in shackles.  Those soldiers beat him up real bad.  I guess he's not the one.  After all, the Messiah was supposed to save us.  Look at him!  Look at the Romans looking at us as if we're just like him.  We'll be in for it now.  They'll treat us worse than ever.  Better make Jesus our sacrificial lamb.  Crucify him?  Oh yeah!  Let's shout it.  Maybe he'll temper their blood lust.
 
There are plenty of scriptural prophecies that showed Messiah as one who would suffer and be rejected.  Further, the prophets said Israel was to be a "city on a hill," who would draw Gentiles to God.  Instead, it became insular, elite, and corrupt from within.
 
And so, most missed the glory of following the actual Son of God--in the flesh!  They missed the chance to walk with, commune with, learn from, gain strength from, and be saved by Jesus--God in the flesh.
 
Today there are many saying that theology and doctrine are not important.  God doesn't give academic tests, the say, with not a small dose of glibness.  I'd suggest that it was bad doctrine and theology that kept so many away from Jesus.
 
Some say it's the heart that counts.  The Bible says the heart can be deceitful above all else.  We do well to study the one we say we love.  We call this study theology.  We demonstrate wisdom when we learn the teachings of our church, so we can say and explain what we believe, and give an answer to those that question us.
 
Perhaps this re-affirmation of the importance of doctrine informs our on-going interfaith conversations, as well.
 
Thoughts?