Sustaining leaders


Petty3
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On 6/26/2018 at 7:40 PM, zil said:

What, your GPS lets you add a photo? (That's kinda cool.)  Or just by fluke it's got your SUV?  With police stuff painted on?

Meanwhile, not that long ago I learned something that never occurred to me before - is it true that those of you who don't wear glasses (contacts either?) don't see lights "star" like in above photo when looking at them at night?  (For me, lights don't do that during the day, but all lights do it at night.  I've worn glasses since 5th or 6th grade, so the "star" effect was always "normal", didn't consider it might not be normal until someone mentioned the difference.)

It is called a lens flare. Just an FYI. Cheers.

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3 minutes ago, Emmanuel Goldstein said:

As long as you are driving the first two it probably does not matter if you text and drive. LOL

Actually, it would be worse, because those people would do a lot more damage.  Thus, those vehicles are what I want to use to get texting drivers off the road.  My own cell phone is nowhere accessible when I drive.

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On 6/26/2018 at 8:20 AM, zil said:

IMO, it's not a simple "yes, unless" issue, and an awful lot hinges on what "wrong" or "unethical" means, on what calling we're talking about, and how the "wrong" act impacts the calling.  Even more hinges on how we came to our knowledge, and whether "wrong" is our conclusion or objective fact (it's amazing how easy it is to wrongfully conclude "that's wrong" while at the same time being certain we witnessed objective fact).  The details make a huge difference here and make it almost impossible to discuss theory.  For the sake of this post, let's just remove criminal activity (thus we've removed things like a primary teacher abusing children, or a bishop extorting sexual favors, or a clerk stealing cash).

Every person on the planet sins.  It is probable that every person on the planet, at some time or other, has been unethical in some way.  If we decide that we should only sustain those who don't sin and those who are 100% ethical all the time, none of us is getting sustained.

I cannot imagine a situation wherein we should not pray for someone.  It seems unlikely there's a good reason to criticize a person in the performance of their calling - even if they are sinning - and never in public.  If a person is doing something which warrants your action, your action should likely be to go find the appropriate priesthood leader and speak to them.  It's possible that you should speak to the wrong-doer and offer assistance.

Accepting callings/assignments and acting on a person's counsel depend on a zillion variables.

Perhaps I've talked myself into some general principles:

  • Study the gospel and gain your own testimony of the truth and ability to be guided by the Spirit
  • Use your brain
  • Recognize that no matter what the calling is, the person in it is human and capable of both inspiration and error
  • Forgive others, don't judge unrighteously, pray for and help your fellow humans to do right
  • Don't gossip or betray confidences; criticism should be kept to yourself (and perhaps a priesthood leader in a position to counsel the wrong-doer)

Meh.  Too hard to talk about this kind of thing without details.  Do what brings you and others closer to Christ.  That seems like a good rule of thumb.

Bad leaders are hurdles. Jump over it

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11 hours ago, john4truth said:

Bad leaders are hurdles. Jump over it

Stake President Eric Petersen said in Stake Conference,in a meeting of Stake Presidents only, they were chastised to get porn out of their lives.  The devil is after leaders. If you are not being tempted does he already have you.

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3 hours ago, john4truth said:

Stake President Eric Petersen said in Stake Conference,in a meeting of Stake Presidents only, they were chastised to get porn out of their lives.  The devil is after leaders. If you are not being tempted does he already have you.

He doesn't have @Vort.  Every morning, when Vort wakes up, the devil mutters, "Oh no. He's up again."

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3 hours ago, anatess2 said:

He doesn't have @Vort.  Every morning, when Vort wakes up, the devil mutters, "Oh no. He's up again."

That's probably the nicest thing anyone has said about me in week. Thanks, anatess. How I wish it were true.

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On 6/25/2018 at 11:45 PM, Petty3 said:

I read this.   "Sustaining leaders involves more than just a raised hand—it means that we stand behind them, pray for them, accept assignments and callings from them, hearken to their counsel, and refrain from criticizing them."

Do you agree with it?  What if you know things that certain leaders have done that are wrong or unethical?  

I think your assessment is right on how to sustain leaders.

However on the local level at least it’s hard sometimes to put your full support behind a leader when you know their flaws. For example a councilor in the bishopric who throws tantrums at work and cusses and swears at everyone and the wife of the bishop who is in the primary presidency and called child protective services on her neighbors to spite them and refused to apologize and along with her husband drove the family out of the ward so that they are now attending a different ward. 

It makes me feel that my short comings aren’t too great. 

We all have weaknesses but I think sometimes we know too much about some people. 

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