Posted by:
ThinkingOutLoud
(
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Date: November 16, 2011 03:22AM
And believing that is how people who claim to be TBMs justify not giving priesthood back to Blacks until 1978. Feel comfortable bilking other LDS members out of their life savings. Think it is right and good to go door to door telling other people they are worshipping incorrectly, and why bishops do not do the right thing when it comes to worthiness interviews, or mandatory reporting.
When you get that uncomfortable awkward silence when you pray, that seems to say, oh my, this does not feel right? And it's up to me to figure it out and do something to fix things on my own instead? That IS the answer, asshole.
It seems as if every LDS rule or platitude or tradition, was co-authored by about 100 lawyers who had to pass it by a correlation team, also made up of lawyers, first. WTH?
And that's why we need ethics courses--not religion, which often teaches a very different sort of loyalty to church and its leaders first--both in middle, high school and college. Elementary schools come under fire all the time for teaching kids ethics, in programs about recycling, global stewardship, and the proper way to treat your friends.
In a medical ethics class we were taught that to reveal something someone said on their deathbed was wrong---even if it could save a life. If the police officer in that room had heard it, they could act on it, but we could not. We could only tell our boss, who told their boss, who told their boss, who told their boss, who...who knows?
In the first 45 minutes of journalism class more than 20 years ago, they taught ethics, and also the difference between a journalists' protection under the law, and how following that might be considered right or wrong or unethical to others, or be illegal under other laws. SO far, the only one I took personally and know at least there, they were thorough and showed both sides.
In philosophy and in psychology we were taught that kind of thing over and over, and diffusion of responsibility, too, but more toward ptotection of info, or rights one's self had, more than what happens when everybody else's rights conflicted with ours, and how to figure out what to do when difficult situations impacted our and someone else's rights to the same rights.
This TBM is basically saying, keep praying until you get the answer to do what you wanted to do all along, or what you want to believe is right, no matter whether whatever it is, is right, or wrong in your own personal belief system, or under the law, or to others around you. Because God gave me silence, and then told me to listen longer for something else, that is Him saying hold up, now. Go do it (or not do it).
And anyone who contradicts what you say is a liar, a sinner and unworthy, because what you say is what God said to say.
WTH?
Our kids are being taught about ethics more than the parents are, or their teachers are. But if they never get to see it in action, and if at high school and college level, and then in business, they can choose not to be taught those things because they can choose to take courses that don't teach it, or are told to look the other way because it follows Money Inc rules, then what?
They get into the real world and never see ethics in action. No wonder it seems like ethics and personal responsibility are just old legends and phantoms and if any are seen, we should sue their pants off, or run screaming from them with all haste to protect ourselves as best we can. Gather our thoughts, regroup (maybe) later and (maybe) then come back to fight another day.
Actions speak louder than words, and from the state of the world we are handing over to our kids, they are hearing us, just fine.
No one at Penn State had an answer. Or, the answer was silence. But wait! They prayed a little more to get the "right" answer they wanted, which was to stay out of it, drop it, and move on. Do nothing, or do nothing effective, do nothing except worry about covering their own butts first.
Not to listen to that deafening silence we got when we prayed, which told us what we are doing is wrong. But to keep on praying, because if we are worthy enough to listen, then at some point in the far distant future, we might be able to hear something other than the silent screams of a 10 year old naked kid in a shower, who looked at our backs as we walked away from them when we saw what was happening to them, and LEFT HIM THERE, alone, at night, in a deserted building, with their rapist.
Gee, I sure hope someone taught that poor little tyke the right way to pray, so he could be sure to get God's answer for that one.
Not too far of a leap for me to see that if that is what everyone is being taught listening to God means, and what ethics are, then we are an endangered species.
Because even rats will save their pups when they know from instinct that they are being threatened, and they are going to die trying to save them, no matter what. If nothing else, they know it is all they can do, because they are there at the time, and it is what they MUST do if there is the slightest chance that any of them can survive.
Sorry to hijack the thread. Or, did I?