Do church leaders come to this forum?

[pam]

I say this tongue in cheek but I was just amazed at how some of the talks given at General Conference just seemed to zone in on some of our conversations we have just before General Conference.

 

One I noticed today was the talk about getting back to basics. Getting back to the basics of the gospel.

[David13]

I think it may be like Pres? Maynes was saying, the spirit.  We all listen to the same spirit and sometimes we all get the same message.

Besides, didn't Dieter Uchdorf say he would never use the internet, rather than his doctor?

dc

[Guest]

I think they're more savvy than we give them credit for. I have no doubt that they at very least have eyes and ears on the more prominent gathering places for Saints and questioners. 

[David13]

And staff and assistants.  And just generally anyone who has their ear who might have heard or seen something.

Companies used to pay money for search services where they could get a report any time a newspaper or tv or radio menioned the company name.

I suppose that's all done now by computer or internet and the church probably does it too.

dc

[Guest]

That's what I meant. Not literally their own eyes and ears, but "their" eyes and ears by way of their staff. 

[pam]

I think it may be like Pres? Maynes was saying, the spirit.  We all listen to the same spirit and sometimes we all get the same message.

Besides, didn't Dieter Uchdorf say he would never use the internet, rather than his doctor?

dc

 

No I don't think that's exactly what President Uchtdorf said.  :)

[Guest LiterateParakeet]

LOL Pam, I was thinking the same thing.

[Vort]

I say this tongue in cheek but I was just amazed at how some of the talks given at General Conference just seemed to zone in on some of our conversations we have just before General Conference.

 

Look, I wasn't going to say anything, but...

 

You know what? Never mind. I won't say anything. Just go on about your business. good Saints.

[pam]

Look, I wasn't going to say anything, but...

 

You know what? Never mind. I won't say anything. Just go on about your business. good Saints.

 

Are you just wanting someone to beg you to say it?  

[David13]

No I don't think that's exactly what President Uchtdorf said.   :)

What???  You mean I may have got it wrong???

How could that be???

dc

[pam]

What???  You mean I may have got it wrong???

How could that be???

dc

 

It happens to the best of us.  :)

[Crypto]

Sometimes I wonder the same thing.

[askandanswer]

Let's take things a bit further - perhaps staff/agents/friends of church leaders, acting under the direction of church leaders, actually post topics on here to gauge reaction to those topics, and then use that reaction to shape their talks? 

[Ironhold]

Let's take things a bit further - perhaps staff/agents/friends of church leaders, acting under the direction of church leaders, actually post topics on here to gauge reaction to those topics, and then use that reaction to shape their talks? 

 

Not likely.

 

For all intents and purposes, the church's policy concerning places like this is "Who?". The church neither sanctions nor supports any online sites like this one, and so we're pretty well on our own. And there's a host of good reasons why this is a good policy.

 

It's hypothetically possible that online sentiment in general is considered from time to time, but SLC likely has better things to do than directly get involved with places like this. 

[pam]

 

Not likely.

 

For all intents and purposes, the church's policy concerning places like this is "Who?". The church neither sanctions nor supports any online sites like this one, and so we're pretty well on our own. And there's a host of good reasons why this is a good policy.

 

It's hypothetically possible that online sentiment in general is considered from time to time, but SLC likely has better things to do than directly get involved with places like this. 

 

I wouldn't be too quick to say this.  The church is very aware of the work that The More Good Foundation is doing (which owns this forum).   Even our CEO meets on a regular basis with leaders of the church to discuss how we can help move the work forward.

[Backroads]

I'm just amusing myself thinking of what funny handles church leaders might have for themselves.

[Ironhold]

I wouldn't be too quick to say this.  The church is very aware of the work that The More Good Foundation is doing (which owns this forum).   Even our CEO meets on a regular basis with leaders of the church to discuss how we can help move the work forward.

I started on the internet in 2000, and almost immediately found myself dealing with anti-Mormons. 

 

From day 1, it was pretty much drummed into myself and the others who I worked with that we were flapping in the breeze. SLC was only just barely even paying attention to what was going on (the church website was barely operational, even when it did decide it wanted to work), and my local leaders at least made a mantra of "The internet is nothing but e-mail, the church website, and porn; nothing more exists and so anyone who spends time online is wicked."

 

Yeah. 

[Vort]

Ironhold, at first I thought you were joking. The Church's website is not only a valuable resource, but it looks great and improves all the time.

[Sunday21]

The church's pr department reads mormonblogs.

[Just_A_Guy]

I'm just amusing myself thinking of what funny handles church leaders might have for themselves.

 

I can't find it via Google now, but some bloggernacle site mused on this issue sometime back.  As I recall, they suggested "Maverick" for Pres. Uchtdorf and "Pickles" for Elder Bednar, among others.

[The Folk Prophet]

Question for all:

 

How might you, if at all, change the way, words, and intents of your posts here if you knew that one of the twelve was reading it?

 

A bit of a sober thought, eh?

[Ironhold]

Ironhold, at first I thought you were joking. The Church's website is not only a valuable resource, but it looks great and improves all the time.

Back in 2000 when I first started on the internet, LDS.org was still in what could be described as an "open beta" stage. The search engine didn't work very well (which led to more than a few shouting matches as my mom blamed me for not miraculously producing what she was looking for, no matter how vague). The archives were spotty at best, with Sunday school manuals only going back a few years and the church magazines only being archived to the mid / late 1980s, and only then with pronounced gaps as issues hadn't been converted over. And anyone who tried to copy and paste the scriptures into something else (like a Word document or a message board post) had to go clean up a bunch of stray code that came along with everything. 

 

Mormon.org, meanwhile, was nothing more than a pipe dream. 

 

It's undergone quite a few revisions in the 15 years since I first found it, ultimately becoming the site it is now. The search function is comprehensive, allowing people to rapidly access a wide amount of material. The magazine archives now go back to circa 1971 with minimal gaps in issues. And the scriptures were code-free before the last update accidentally knocked out the footnotes. 

 

So just think about it next time you access the church website: 15 years ago, most of what you take for granted didn't exist. 

[Just_A_Guy]

So just think about it next time you access the church website: 15 years ago, most of what you take for granted didn't exist. 

 

That could be said for a pretty good chunk of the internet as a whole.  :)  

[Ironhold]

That could be said for a pretty good chunk of the internet as a whole.   :)

Thanks to Robert & Rosemary Brown (et al), the 1980s and early 1990s were analogous to the Marianas Turkey Shoot. As anti-Mormon after anti-Mormon went down in flames, the tide of the battle began to turn. Their generation ultimately formed a shield wall that provided breathing room for the next generation. This next generation used the early and mid-1990s to organize various defenses of the church and ready them for presentation. Many of these people decided that traditional outlets of presentation were insufficient, and so we began seeing a lot of apologetics websites begin to emerge. SHIELDS, for example, lists its founding as February 1997. 

 

Their work paved the way for the next generation, the generation of Mormons that appeared on the scene in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Thanks to this new treasure trove of online resources, we were able to quickly educate ourselves on the various controversies and the actual facts surrounding them. We also made use of new resources like Wikipedia and others to gather information beyond this. 

 

...Information that we immediately put to work.

 

To compare the internet of the era to the Wild West would be to insult the Wild West. The anti-Mormons of the period were playing defense, and they didn't like it. What should have been polite discussions quickly degenerated into trench warfare as critic after critic used a combination of outdated arguments, lies, slander, ridicule, personal insults, and even threats of physical violence in an effort to silence whatever Mormons they came across and denigrate everything the church stood for. 

 

SLC, by all appearances, barely even knew what was going on. And my local & stake church leaders were so convinced that the internet was little more than a delivery service for porn that I was hesitant to go into details concerning just what was really going on. No, we were essentially on our own. All we had was what we could piece together from various print sources and the handful of early websites. 

 

I saw one minister sanction male-on-female spousal abuse as a means of preventing women from joining the church; said minister's favorite hobby was writing dirty limericks making fun of various church leaders. I saw another minister ruin his health by putting his efforts to destroy the church ahead of everything else, even his own well-being and sanity. I've been threatened, as have others, and was even personally insulted by what was once a big-name anti-Mormon writer & minister. 

 

Et cetra. 

 

This actually played a large part in the destruction of my love life; the one romantic relationship I actually ever had was being conducted long-distance, and a particularly excessive round of back-and-forth one week set off a chain of events that led to us drifting apart.*

 

Finally, someone at SLC finally realized that maybe, just maybe, this internets thing could be used as a missionary tool. This decision was met with a general chorus of "It's about time!" coming from those of us who had been on the front lines. By the time Mormon.org, the whole "I'm a Mormon!" campaign, and even the Bloggernacle as we know it came into being, we'd done a surprising amount of the heavy lifting in ensuring that the internet was a place where this could happen. 

 

This is why whenever someone goes off about how glorious the internet is and how easy it is to speak with people, all we can say is "You're welcome."

 

 

*I've tried to re-enter the dating scene multiple times since, but it's all fallen apart. 

 

Most Mormon women I've tried to date are so caught up in the whole "I'll only date a returned missionary!" nonsense that they walk right past me without a second thought... never mind the fact that I never went because I was helping care for a mentally ill relative. 

 

Most non-Mormon women walk right past me because the recession has resulted in my paycheck being smaller than it should be for my education and work experience. I can't make it rain, and so they aren't interested. 

 

I've pretty much given up on ever getting married, and a decade later still blame myself for how the relationship ended (along with wondering what ever happened to her). 

[Anddenex]

Question for all:

 

How might you, if at all, change the way, words, and intents of your posts here if you knew that one of the twelve was reading it?

 

A bit of a sober thought, eh?

 

Well, not to brag or anything, but seeing I am perfect in my writing and tone -- I wouldn't have any need to change -- others would have to change for me.