People who leave the church are pariahs and it is so plain and simple. Anyone who denies this is the case is a special case or privy to one. Their experience is not the norm for Mormon Culture.

And there is such a dichotomy between people who attempt to buck this trend and those who are encouraged to promote making leavers pariahs. It is the difference between what gets encouraged by leaders and what doesn't.

John Dehlin looked straight down the barrel of this gun. He tried to do the same thing that this guy is trying. And we all know how that works out.

"The gospel of Christ does not encourage us to be complacent with our own growth and progress, while being judgmental and demeaning towards the sins and struggles of others."
https://medium.com/s/story/why-people-leave-the-church-and-never-come-back-410e3e817a3a

So while I enjoyed reading his Medium article I literally shook my head. And I wondered what he was talking about in regards to what the gospel of Christ does not encourage.

After all this article supporting the longstanding pariah policy comes through a tacitly encouraged organ of the leaders of the church. I doubt many if any of the leaders of the church has a real problem with pariah-hood for the unfaithful.

http://www.ldsliving.com/5-Justifications-People-Use-for-Leaving-the-Church-and-Why-They-re-Wrong-/s/76260

But it isn't like their gospel of Christ encourages much of anything except complete obedience and compliance with leadership.

This is obviated in the following laughable tale.

"I’ll never forget my husband telling me once about a couple in our ward. The man, Jim, was teaching Elders Quorum and mentioned that his good kind wife Julie felt like she just wasn’t going to make it to the Celestial Kingdom. Jim was baffled — he himself was confident he would make it — after all, he did his home teaching nearly every month. When my husband told me this story — especially the part about the home teaching –we chuckled. The confidence! The irony!  While Jim was, I’m sure, a good enough guy and a serious rule-stickler, Julie had the reputation of being an absolute saint, always ready to reach out and help wherever it was needed. We both wished that we could somehow assure Julie that she was terrific, awesome, and seriously, she had nothing to worry about. From a distance,, we could see how wonderful Julie was. But Julie herself felt like she wasn’t measuring up."
https://www.the-exponent.com/relief-society-lesson-plan-be-ye-therefore-perfect-eventually-by-jeffrey-holland/

Like home teaching, er, ministering is going to be how Jim "makes it" to his celestial kingdom. If anything Julie is more introspective than Jim and that is a good thing. In the church introspection is most definitely NOT a good thing. It is so much easier to do what the gospel of Christ does encourages and pay, pray, prey (not stuttering), and obey.

It baffles me that the guy writing on Medium even has a case for Christ in Mormonism. What Christ is he worshipping? The one that is in the Bible who was most definitely not a rule follower but probably was ok with shunning and pariah making for the "unfaithful" or the guy in The Book of Mormon who sounded like the Bible guy a bit but massacred gobs of people cleansing not just a temple but numerous cities of "hypocrites" and "vipers."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2018 12:54PM by Elder Berry.

which has been discussed on many a thread. Jim = works, and boy, does he work hard! Julie = grace, a response to God's love and grace. At least, from your description of the two, it sure looks that way.

As you know, I am usually quick to defend Christian doctrine, but I acknowledge that nobody's doctrine, mine included, is completely correct. We err here, get botch it there, and get muddled and confused in different other places. I believe at the final judgment, the Lord will look more at one's heart than one's catechism. [But that doesn't excuse one from (ahem!) "working" at improving and increasing one's knowledge of Christ's teaching.]

[But that doesn't excuse one from (ahem!) "working" at improving and increasing one's knowledge of Christ's teaching.]

So are the Mormons who shun, make pariah's, treat poorly, engage in no-holds-barred manipulation needing to work at improving and increasing their knowledge of Christ's teaching?

No LDS leader I can think of has taken the Dehlin approach of attempting to understand people who leave and live and let live and simply love.

They say love but conditionally and omit the attempt to understand leavers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2018 04:10PM by Elder Berry.

Christ's gospel is one of:

Love for god & neighbor Mark 12

not returning Evil for Evil Romans 12:17

reconciliation 2nd Corinthians 5

GNPE1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> reconciliation 2nd Corinthians 5

For non-believers?

Well, sure, you can cherry-pick verses that support that view.

The problem is, there's also:

Jesus condemns entire cities to dreadful deaths and to the eternal torment of hell because they didn’t care for his preaching. (Matthew 11:20)

Jesus explains why he speaks in parables to confuse people so they will go to hell. (Mark 4:11-12)

Jesus is criticized by the Pharisees for not washing his hands before eating. He defends himself by attacking them for not killing disobedient children according to the commandment: He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. (Matthew 15:4-7)

Abandon your wife and children for Jesus and he’ll give your a big reward. Jesus asks that his followers abandon their children to follow him. To leave your child is abuse, it’s called neglect, pure and simple. (Matthew 19:29)

Jesus kills a fig tree for not bearing figs, even though it was out of season. Jesus must not be as smart as Christians would have us believe, for he was dumb enough to do something this silly. You’d think the son of god (god incarnate) would know that trees don’t bear fruit in dry season. (Mark 11:13)

Jesus okays beating slaves. (Luke 12:47)

The thing is, you can find verses to support any "gospel" you want to make up. Or justify. Or whatever.

Given that, I'd say the answer to "What the gospel of christ does encourage?" is really only one thing: whatever you want it to.