Fether

I’m referring to an invited speaker

Those choirs are organizations that seek to harm others. Homosexuals are out to do as much harm as heterosexuals.

Call me new fashion or whatever. But to me, complaining about a gay choir singing on temple square is as silly as complaining about an atheist speaking at BYU, or the church hosting a night of friendship where speakers from all faiths gather together to speak. Active homosexuals aren’t devil-cheatonyourwife-rapechildren-evil, it is keep-you-from-Christ-evil. And so are MANY organizations and religions we are actively inviting to and participating in events with. To me this is a great example of being in the world, but not of it. Perhaps I’m jaded due to my close LGBTQ+ family ties 🤷🏻‍♂️

I’ll ask you the same question. What are they saying and what are they doing that send different messages? Links to sources please.

What are they saying and what are they doing that send different messages? Links to sources please.

Peter Sinks, a little valley in northern UT, has yet again set a record for the coldest place in the USA. Hit -46 F making it the coldest temperature ever recorded in October in the USA.

https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/how-is-christ-both-the-father-and-the-so https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/book-of-mormon-student-manual/chapter-20-mosiah-9-17?lang=eng (section Mosiah 15:1-7) Christ is both the Father and The Son in different senses. He is the father of the earth via his creation, the father of all those in his gospel, and the father in the sense that he has divine investiture of authority (he speaks as if he is God the Father)

3 Nephi 27:19 , my bad

But here is the thing. Traditional Christin views of forgiveness baptism and salvation are vastly different than ours. And every Christian will have their own view and interpretation on it. You won’t get anywhere with it because you have different sources of information that you declare truthful and reliable.

Forgiveness is great. But it doesn’t lead to salvation. 3 Nephi 9:27. No unclean thing can enter into his kingdom. Forgiveness is not a cleaning solution. Also, baptism isn’t just for becoming clean or being forgiven. We are making Covenants with God. Without those Covenants we cannot be saved.

🤔🧐🤨

Fantastic question! I don’t know that I have a thought out answer, but here are some places to start. Gambling: Willingly risking money in an attempt to take someone else’s money. One winner and one loser Investing: willingly giving money to a company to help it grow and expand and repay you that money in the future with additional cash based on that growth. Ideally All parties benefit or fail together. Money-lending: this one all depends, but assuming all is well, you aren’t getting something for nothing. Your trading money later for money now. Service/Charity: willingly giving to others with no expectation of return. All are winners unless the giver has impure motives. Receiving Charity: can be as destructive as gambling if done regularly and it becomes something you are accustomed to and it leads you to idleness. But if coupled with humility, can lead to more humility and a growth in work ethic and other positive attributes. The only loser here is the one that gives or receives in an impure manner. Grace: God given. No losers

@LugiaLvl138 Gambling is not a sin because face cards are evil, or because risking your money for a gain is evil (otherwise investing would be sinful too), or even because that particular pattern of letters is evil. Gambling is a sin because the concept of “something for nothing” is evil. ”Gambling is motivated by a desire to get something for nothing. This desire is spiritually destructive. It leads participants away from the Savior’s teachings of love and service and toward the selfishness of the adversary. It undermines the virtues of work and thrift and the desire to give honest effort in all we do.” (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/gambling?lang=eng) counting or no counting. You are still getting something for nothing. Even if you were guaranteed to win every single time, it is still a sin. If you want to argue this then you can. Just know you will be going against the church you claim to be a member of.

The only thing I find frustrating in all this is when someone shares a miraculous story that ends positively and they use self defined positive endings as “proof” that God loves us and is there for us as long as we have faith a live righteously. A story on the podcast “All In” comes to mind where a woman shares her experience of narrowly escaping a murder literally by a fraction of a second. He ending declaration and lesson she got from the whole thing? “God was there and watching over me, he loves us all.” My immediate question was “if it hadn’t ended well, is that proof he wasn’t there? Or perhaps it is evidence he doesn’t love you?”

The first time I wrote that sentence it was a grammatical monstrosity so I had to fix it. I remember looking at that part of the phrase and telling myself “type my wife and I”. Somehow that message didn’t make it to my hand lol.

When my words would fall on deaf ears, or ears that would lash out or feel ostracized, I choose not to speak. I don’t tell my trans sister that she is winning, nor do I tell my gay brother that he is winning in his actions. But if they ask me I will tell them what I believe, and then crush them in a round of Smash Bros. That is a personal policy... I don’t know that it is centered in any prophetic teaching... but that is what I feel most comfortable with.

Saw this on Facebook and I can definitely relate. When I first went into sales, I was drawn in by the freedom coupled with wealth my boss had. He was extremely active in The gospel and was one of the greatest young men’s President I had ever seen, this was all do to his ability to choose his hours and to make large sums of money in a short period of time. He also lived far below his means. I saw his life style and said I wanted it. So after praying about it and feeling we had confirmation, my wife and I moved to Vegas with him to do sales. There were some times where it was going so bad and I was constantly up at night wondering if this is all a sign for us to go or if God was resting my desire to accomplish what I set out to do. But Doctrine and Covenants 7:22 “if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things.” fast forward to today and I am immensely glad I stuck it out. Anyone have any similar experiences or insights in this comment?

I have no doubt that both of you would feel the same way. You are both people of great integrity. (I'd say men of great integrity, but @mirkwood is going though a gender fluid phase.) However, I have grave concerns that in our highly partisan culture, many other conservatives would not feel the same. I know this is dead, but I wanted to drive the point home with this. Youtube censored a DNC candidate, whom Crowder does not agree with at all, and here he is making an hour-long video that he fears will be removed/blocked. The right voices are far more concerned about equality and freedom for all than the left voices are. The problem with politics expresses itself most on the left side of the aisle.

I believe so. I would challenge this and say anyone with authority could.

Yep! I have been ordained 4 times. Deacon, teacher, priest, and elder. I imagine they had some similar organization built then too. Someone with authority. I imagine anyone who God seems worthy. How is it performed? No idea. Not sure. Peter James and John were the “first presidency”, but did they replace he selves with other apostles? Not sure.

🤔

I’m not saying they are a burden on society, I’m referring to their illness being a burden on them or how they act with the illness being a burden on society. I worked with a house of mentally ill individuals. One of them had a job and is actually about to get married, but due to his mental disorder, he would have eruptions if anger and a slowed brain development. He received treatment for this and has learned to deal with it and control his emotions. Now why did he receive treatment? Because he suplexed an 8 year old girl when he was 25 (among other misdeeds caused by his illness). He was a productive dude, but his illness caused a burden on him and his society. Thats my point. There are some mental illnesses that don’t need treatment (homosexuality) and some that do ( schizophrenia).

I can’t speak for @cat123, but I don’t think he was saying homosexuality was a mental disorder. I think he was just pointing out that it is interesting that everyone is up in arms about it when it comes of LGBTQ, but don’t care if it is used in actual patients. He actually makes an effort in his comment to separate the two. Now... if you ask me, being LGBTQ clearly is some sort of disorder. You would have to convince me that being gay or thinking your the wrong gender is a natural way of life to get me to change my mind. Take God out of the picture and I don’t know that it is a disorder that needs to be “fixed” or “treated” as they aren’t aren’t a burden to society or themselves like others with different mental illnesses.

I’m mostly kidding, but also mostly not. The older members of my ward are just the worst in the classes. However my previous ward had some very wise older members.

As someone who greatly values the time I spend in my classrooms at church, I have some strong opinions on what makes a good teacher and what makes a TERRIBLE teacher. how to avoid being a bad teacher: - Teach the doctrines and principles as found in The scriptures and manual - Don’t share something that is simply cool but doesn’t fit in the lesson - Don’t teach historical context if you aren’t planning on connecting it to principles taught in the lesson - Don’t play “read my mind”. Instead of saying “What is the most important thing in scriptures?” (The Atonement/Restoration/Fall of Adam/the actual record keeping). Instead say “The Fall of Adam was an immensely important event and brought agency into the world. 2 Nephi 2:27 reads... Now why is Agency so important to our life here in earth?” - Remember to bear your testimony. We have one gospel doctrine teacher that breaks all these rules. I once went through an entire class and wrote down every principle taught. He had a little line here explained revelation, but the rest of the discussion (more like lecture) was obscure historical context hullabaloo. At one point he explained something historically fascinating, but also gave a HUGE spiritual insight on a certain principle in the lesson. I fully expected him to capitalize on it... but he didn’t. He shared the rid bit, there was a short argument about the distance between two separate cities, and then he went on to talk about how Jewish law worked at the time. And he ended the lesson with no testimony... but I guess if you don’t teach any principles, there is nothing to near testimony of. Don’t do that. If you follow those instructions on how to avoid being a bad teacher, I would likely thoroughly enjoy your lessons. Now... How to impress Fether with your teaching ability: - Put effort into the lesson prep. This is a no brained and probably should be in the previous list. - don’t ask “who knows” questions and focus on insight based questions. Instead of asking “Now how many times did Peter dent Christ before the rooster crowed?”. Instead ask “Peter denied Christ 3 times prior to the rooster crowing, fulfilling what Christ prophesied. Even after being warned of this, why do you suppose Peter still denied Christ?” The big thing is that you should never ask a question that has one answer. If it has only one answer, just skip the question and is it to set up an open ended question that can lead to discussion or quiet pondering. These questions will also get the class to talk a lot more and make your job so stinking easy. - Use scripture. It’s incredible how often teachers forget to use and quote scripture. - Reference recent GC talks - Don’t set low expectations. Don’t ever say “I didn’t have time to prepare...” or “I’m it great at teaching so...” or anything like unto it. Just teach the lesson 👍 - People laughing does NOT mean your lesson is good. You are not there to entertain, you are there to inspire. Feel free to use jokes, but don’t use humor as your gauge of how successful your lesson was. You will be forever below mediocre if you do that - Don’t be old... old people are just the worst in classroom settings cause they break all the rules I’ve mentioned. If you’re old, then stop. But you know... if you can master the types of questions you ask, you have mastered teaching. Your calling is important and I would take it seriously, but remember 2 Nephi 25:23. By grace we are saved after all we can do. Do your best, and once lesson time comes, accept that the time for preparation is over and do your best. If you bomb, them figure out why and prepare for your next lesson 👍. I would second @Vort in that it is a fun calling and I would add that it is immensely satisfying as well. I request to be a teacher everywhere I go. I have had a teaching calling in my last 3 wards over the last 5 years since my mission. Its hard to be a bad teacher. Easy to be a good teacher, and it only takes time and humility to be a great teacher. You will be great (unless, of course, you’re old...)!