These folks helped me begin my recovery and now I watch them as from a distant shore, wondering if they'll say anything that my spouse would perk up on. I also find these folks frustrating. Does anyone else feel that way or share a similar response to this material and the liberal Mormon community's efforts to "reform" the LDS church?

To "unplug the antagonism" in the dialogue between Mormons and Exmormons. The survey presenters see themselves helping Exmormons be heard, seeing that as a way to decrease the antagonism. Wotherspoon, the host for this segment (titled below) says he didn't "frame" his understanding of LDS church history the way that, say, Carrie Sheffield (and most every other chapel Mormon) did: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-mormon-church-in-need-of-reform/2012/01/27/gIQA3s44aQ_story.html

The LDS church itself can use surveys like this and "unscripted" "slips" like the audio recording of Elder Jensen to probe the possibilities for adjusting itself to society or doing public relations damage control (especially with those Internet Mormons and the unmentionable Exmormons).

Check out this recent Mormon Matters podcast: "And the Survey Says…!”: Reflections on Mormon Disaffection, Marlin Jensen’s Remarks, Recent Articles on Mormonism’s Challenge in Better Facing Its History.

I think the Jensen story has been posted in various forms here on this board. Here's what ABC ran: http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top_stories/story/Number-of-faithful-Mormons-rapidly-declining/rvih3gOKxEm5om9IYJYnRA.cspx.

The "progressive" Mormons (yes, sounds oxymoronic) recognize the need for the LDS church to come forward and be more honest with its history, but then "to call on members' faith for those things we do not understand." AND then this idea: Sunday School is no place for all the dirt of history.

Does that cut it? The real history gets exposed and the response is then to not run from the LDS church but to somehow excuse it or make allowances for it in spite of the lies or problems.

It demands people's identities, obedience, money, etc. I think there will always be people who can excuse anything (as in apologists), but to me some things cannot be reformed or saved. It is deceptive to think TSCC can be more honest, but still maintain their authority. To me the "liberal" members sound like they are asking permission for a larger floor mat to do their mental gymnastics on or a slightly more accommodating box to live their lives in. It is still a box; their minds are still in the box.

I think they like it in the box. The one angle they will take that seems blithely irritating to me is the idea that they don't get how most exmos react to the church, because, you know, those exmos just are not looking at the church's history with the right shade of gray. (They'll say this, or they'll say that too many exmormons create a culture of "false expectations" around the church--expecting it to be more than it ever would need to be. These folks basically ignore what is actually taught in the chapels, the Pharaseeism, the black and white thinking, the sanitized history, etc.)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2012 11:17PM by derrida.