A reactionary victory! (Not really)

[Vort]

Speculating on who might be called to fill the position of apostle has always struck me as crass. So when I read various articles by the general public, and even by Latter-day Saints, talking about how WOOONderful it would be if only a South American, Asian, or (gasp!) African were called as an apostle, the small but annoying voice of my Inner Reactionary spoke up:

 

I'd love to see their faces when three white Utahns are called.

 

In the current vernacular, I think that's called a "win".

[Crypto]

I can't wait until we get martians as apostles!   

[Palerider]

I can't wait until we get martians as apostles!   

Oh mmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyy .......Lol

[carlimac]

The whiners are out on other forums. What's the point of complaining about whom the Lord chose? It seems so petty.

[Guest]

I can't join you there, Vort. I'm excited for the day when the Church is so global that many countries are represented in the twelve. I'm satisfied with whomever the Lord calls, but I don't understand gloating over it. 

[Vort]

Whatever. I had the same reactionary response when people started whining about women not praying in General Conference -- an idea that I had initially found both reasonable and even desirable. Hearing the whining made my Inner Reactionary hope that only men would pray, just to stick a finger into the eye of the whiners. He lost that time.

[askandanswer]

I can't wait until we get martians as apostles!   

 

Have you had a really close look at Elder Christofferson and Elder Anderson? The gospel is not just for this Earth,it is universal. :) 

[pam]

Have you had a really close look at Elder Christofferson and Elder Anderson? The gospel is not just for this Earth,it is universal. :)

 

Am I missing something?

[The Folk Prophet]

I can't join you there, Vort. I'm excited for the day when the Church is so global that many countries are represented in the twelve. I'm satisfied with whomever the Lord calls, but I don't understand gloating over it. 

 

As much as I understand the natural man "gloating" feeling that is, indeed, "reactionary", the real point here isn't gloating, but rather to the point that we should be satisfied with whomever the Lord calls (or is going to call), rather than "hoping" that the calls will come to whatever type person we feel they should come to. In other words, the "victory" is in the fact that the Lord isn't particularly concerned with being politically correct, and when such things as this happen, it indicates that the church isn't particularly concerned with being politically correct, and so it makes a statement - THE CHURCH ISN'T PARTICULARLY CONCERNED WITH BEING POLITICALLY CORRECT. (And then the natural man tacks on a reactionary -- HAHA!)

Edited October 4, 2015 by The Folk Prophet

[bytor2112]

Have you had a really close look at Elder Christofferson and Elder Anderson? The gospel is not just for this Earth,it is universal. :)

 

I have shook hands with Elder Anderson and he did not appear martian at all to me.....least not like any martians I had previously met?

[Vort]

Photograph of Martian duo in their (comfortable) mothership:

 

[Blackmarch]

Speculating on who might be called to fill the position of apostle has always struck me as crass. So when I read various articles by the general public, and even by Latter-day Saints, talking about how WOOONderful it would be if only a South American, Asian, or (gasp!) African were called as an apostle, the small but annoying voice of my Inner Reactionary spoke up:

I'd love to see their faces when three white Utahns are called.

In the current vernacular, I think that's called a "win".

I was hoping for at least two that were either of jewish descent or had been native to israel....

[askandanswer]

I have shook hands with Elder Anderson and he did not appear martian at all to me.....least not like any martians I had previously met?

 

You really need to meet more martians. if you were a Catholic, I'm sure you would have met quite a few marians.

[Guest]

You really need to meet more martians. if you were a Catholic, I'm sure you would have met quite a few marians.

 

I almost missed it!  Clever clever clever...

[mordorbund]

Speculating on who might be called to fill the position of apostle has always struck me as crass. So when I read various articles by the general public, and even by Latter-day Saints, talking about how WOOONderful it would be if only a South American, Asian, or (gasp!) African were called as an apostle, the small but annoying voice of my Inner Reactionary spoke up:

 

I'd love to see their faces when three white Utahns are called.

 

In the current vernacular, I think that's called a "win".

 

Your IR has a low threshold. Shouldn't it also be disappointed that they were all younger than 85?

[Vort]

Your IR has a low threshold. Shouldn't it also be disappointed that they were all younger than 85?

 

No, because no one was whining about that (in my hearing). My IR isn't particularly logical, just reactionary.

[mordorbund]

No, because no one was whining about that (in my hearing). 

 

Then you are NOT Elder Bednar (what with President Hinckley's response to the gerontocracy question)!

 

 

 

 

1 down, 14 more to go.

[prisonchaplain]

There are as many members of my church in Sao Paolo, Brazil as there are in the United States.  It's a pretty cool statistic, but like the demographic composition of LDS apostles, I'm not sure it means anything. 

[kapikui]

My guess as to why most of the Apostles are American is because of geopolitics.  Unlike seventies, Apostles have to go to pretty much any country.  Let's appoint an African Apostle, whoops, he's the wrong nationality or ethnic group, and can't go into over half of the African countries.  Let's appoint a Latino Apostle, Same problem.

 

The simple fact of the matter is that someone with a U.S. passport can get into almost every country on earth with little to no effort. People who look American (white), and act American, can enter most places easily and are fairly safe.   Others may not be so much.

 

When I was on my mission in the Dominican Republic, the the Americans could get in pretty much anywhere. The Dominicans had to wait as long as a year to get a valid Visa to enter Guatemala to attend the temple (I was in the DR when their temple was announced).  For an American on the rare occasions that an American went, it was a matter of grabbing his passport and going in as a tourist. 

 

Now the Lord calls whom he will, and then qualifies those, but if you think that certain realities of the world don't enter the equation, you're frankly wrong. God can do a great deal, but the one thing he is prohibited from doing is interfering with free agency.  The scale of miracle it would take to make it possible for an Apostle called from certain places to go anywhere in the world would assuredly do so. 

[Guest]

But then....

 

Elder Stevenson spent over 9 years in Japan and so he considers Japan his second home... so I say he qualifies as a card-carrying Asian.

 

And Elder Renlund is a 2nd generation Nordic immigrant and served in the Southeast Africa Region as a General Authority... so I say he qualifies as a card-carrying European-African.

[Traveler]

I can't wait until we get martians as apostles!   

Hmmmmmmmmm - I will bet you $5,000 that you can! 

[askandanswer]

 

And Elder Renlund is a 2nd generation Nordic immigrant and served in the Southeast Africa Region as a General Authority... so I say he qualifies as a card-carrying European-African.

When it comes to the Apostles, we have a former Swede at the top, and a former Swede at the bottom. Grumble, grumble, whinge, whinge, these Swedes are taking over the church! We need more Utahns. :)

Edited October 7, 2015 by askandanswer

[askandanswer]

And those heart surgeons are making pretty big in-roads as well.

[mordorbund]

And those heart surgeons are making pretty big in-roads as well.

 

Should we get them smaller surgical tools?

[Vort]

Should we get them smaller surgical tools?

 

I remember during my internship at Penn State, in an internship class studying various bioengineering materials and techniques, we entered a surgical room where a quadruple bypass was being performed. The guy was opened up, and it was very disturbing to see his ribs spread apart for the doctors to work on his chest. Looked like a butchered cow. Not sure about bypass surgery, but I understand that many valve replacements are done today using endoscopes instead of opening up the chest wall. Better and better.