Being Offended

[askandanswer]

Re. Offence

Doctrine and Covenants 88 - 93

88  And if thy brother or sister offend thee, thou shalt take him or her between him or her and thee alone; and if he or she confess thou shalt be reconciled.
89  And if he or she confess not thou shalt deliver him or her up unto the church, not to the members, but to the elders.  And it shall be done in a meeting, and that not before the world.
90  And if thy brother or sister offend many, he or she shall be chastened before many.
91  And if any one offend openly, he or she shall be rebuked openly, that he or she may be ashamed.  And if he or she confess not, he or she shall be delivered up unto the law of God.
92  If any shall offend in secret, he or she shall be rebuked in secret, that he or she may have opportunity to confess in secret to him or her whom he or she has offended, and to God, that the church may not speak reproachfully of him or her.
93  And thus shall ye conduct in all things.

re. ejecting people from meetings:

Doctrine and Covenants 46: 2 - 6

2  But notwithstanding those things which are written, it always has been given to the elders of my church from the beginning, and ever shall be, to conduct all meetings as they are directed and guided by the Holy Spirit.
3  Nevertheless ye are commanded never to cast any one out from your public meetings, which are held before the world.
4  Ye are also commanded not to cast any one who belongeth to the church out of your sacrament meetings; nevertheless, if any have trespassed, let him not partake until he makes reconciliation.
5  And again I say unto you, ye shall not cast any out of your sacrament meetings who are earnestly seeking the kingdom—I speak this concerning those who are not of the church.
6  And again I say unto you, concerning your confirmation meetings, that if there be any that are not of the church, that are earnestly seeking after the kingdom, ye shall not cast them out.
 

[Guest]

I truly have no concept of how a well meaning class member would allow the situation to get to that point.

I've had an instructor that would have such disagreements.  I simply chose to stop going to his class.  Other times I was the instructor. I just looked at people and said that's a there's a lot of detail there that we don't have time for.

It looks like there's plenty of blame to go around.  Why are there threats and leaving the church over this?

Even with the clarifications it still sounds like those involved (all sides) are guilty of pride.

[NeedleinA]

On 3/17/2017 at 8:09 PM, DoctorLemon said:

I have always felt that surely there must be something more to this story that we are not getting from the text of the Old Testament...  

The teens were covered in honey...

[Guest MormonGator]

9 hours ago, mirkwood said:

I'm offended by your taste in music.  For example: Anvil is ugly and stupid.

Dude, the concert on Friday night was fantastic. I really think you would have liked it, even if you don't like Anvil. Which is a disturbing character flaw. 

[askandanswer]

2 hours ago, MormonGator said:

Dude, the concert on Friday night was fantastic. I really think you would have liked it, even if you don't like Anvil. Which is a disturbing character flaw. 

Did anyone else go or was it just you and Lady Gator?

[mirkwood]

48 minutes ago, askandanswer said:

Did anyone else go or was it just you and Lady Gator?

Of course @MormonGator was the only one there.  Nobody else likes Anvil.

[askandanswer]

Is this what we're talking about when we're talking about Anvil?

 

[Guest MormonGator]

9 hours ago, askandanswer said:

Did anyone else go or was it just you and Lady Gator?

About 30-50 people but by the time Anvil came on it was closer to 30. It was in St. Pete and some great local bands opened for Anvil, so they had a decent following. Anvil has a small, but loyal fanbase. 

[prisonchaplain]

On ‎3‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 6:09 PM, Fether said:

The Old Testament Institute Manual gives a pretty cool explanation in this. And I also believe this has more to do with disrespecting the Lord's Annointed Servants than being offended

THAT, and the "children" were likely young adults who were taunting Elisha more like a gang than a class of first-graders on a playground.

[prisonchaplain]

Paul and Silas were offended at being beaten by Roman authorities, and denied their citizenship right to due process. They demanded that the magistrates come to the jail and publicly escort them out. It was a beautiful moment of authentic social justice and prison reform.

[Guest]

Just now, prisonchaplain said:

THAT, and the "children" were likely young adults who were taunting Elisha more like a gang than a class of first-graders on a playground.

Good explanation.  If it was a group of thugs and Elisha's life was actually in danger (e.g., rocks being thrown, etc.), it suddenly makes it a lot harder to feel sorry for them and the Lord may have had to have sent a bear to protect His prophet from being murdered.

Edited March 21, 2017 by DoctorLemon

[Blackmarch]

On March 17, 2017 at 1:15 PM, Fether said:

Are we ever justified in being offended? Are there any scriptural stories of prophets being offended? How did prophets respond in situations where they could have been offended? Are you offended by this because you were offended today?

Sure, when someone commits a crime against you. However that is the eye for an eye route, and not the best option.

[Guest]

On 3/21/2017 at 4:52 PM, prisonchaplain said:

THAT, and the "children" were likely young adults who were taunting Elisha more like a gang than a class of first-graders on a playground.

Indeed.  the Hebrew word that is translated as "little children" in the KJV is more "youth" than child.  And the "mocking" was more likely a physical harassment of some sort.

[person0]

Rather than taking offense, would it not be more appropriate to feel sorry for the "offender" because you perceive that they are wrong?

If you are hurt by what someone says is that really taking offense, or does it only become being "offended" after you act upon your hurt feelings in a spiritually inappropriate way?

What if the offender speaks the truth?  If Jimmy says you are fat, and you are, can you not be hurt by what he said but also acknowledge it's truth and choose your reaction?  The wicked take the truth to be hard right?

I'm fairly confident that there is nearly always (if not always) an alternative reaction to an event rather than being offended.  I can't imagine Christ being offended (such as we use the term) I can however imagine him acting with righteous indignation and taking appropriate action based on the situation.

I usually imagine those who are offended to be attempting to take advantage of the situation.  (i.e. someone who is offended and chooses not to come to church as a result - even though they probably wont see it this way - is taking advantage of the situation and using it as an excuse to not do something they already know they should be doing)  There may be a better way to word that but hopefully no one will take offense ;-)

[Sunday21]

I valiantly tried to find a news clip of a Canadian politician apologizing. We apologize a lot and then we apologize for the apology and then we ...but I could not find a clip that was not posted by an American making fun of us. Not that I object to being made fun of, of course but the American tends to use inappropriate language as he rolls around ridiculing my people. I will have to send my polar down south to bite John Oliver.

[Sunday21]