We were together for Thanksgiving and she said something to the effect that it bothered her that the church is spending tithing money to reverse the emphasis on being proud of the word Mormon after spending all of that money on the I am a Mormon campaign. She has always been proud to call herself a Mormon, and I think this does not seem to her to be inspired. She has also been reading In Sacred Loneliness by Todd Compton and is quite bothered by it. She even said that she can no longer give a lesson or talk on Joseph Smith and does not have a desire to go back to the temple. This was shocking to me because she has always been 100% TBM. She also said she is looking forward to the two hour block. Anyone else hear interesting comments during Thanksgiving regarding Mormonism and the recent changes?

That's fantastic - bit by bit (line upon line, precept upon precept, right?) :)

My TBM mom is disillusioned by the teaching the gospel in the home. She has an empty nest so she's not thrilled about it one bit. The ministering program got rid of a family friend that would regularly show up for HT and VT. Now nobody comes to visit her and she has no idea who is assigned.

Further background about my Mom. After the change in April from HT-VT, she has had one visit in August. She had to hunt the brother down to request the visit. This isn't nitpicking about a guy that makes contact over the phone. No it's about a program that says making one visit in 8 months is sufficient for a widowed member. She has no idea if there's supposed to be a RS minister.

The former bishop of the ward came over for an hour to cut up some wood (for heating of the home) but he made a lot of discouraging comments. He told her that she needs to replace her inefficient windows and invest in a HVAC. My Mom lives on a fixed income and doesn't have 30 grand to do the kind of improvements that he was suggesting. He sounded very annoyed to help people.

I would have her call the Elder/HP Quorums'presidents (or you do it if you think she would be shy about it) and tell them she needs help. If they refuse, then talk to the local missionaries.

It seems that when they try to address a problem with one demographic they cause a problem with another. They have no good options because the problems are rooted at the core.

I wonder how much Nelson realizes that in saying that Jesus is displeased with the use of the work Mormon he is saying that his predecessors were not inspired. This seems obvious enough. By catering to public opinion polls he is weakening the church's grip over the old guard. One of the most unique things about the Mormon church is its claim to be led by revelation, which means there should be no big changes with the leaders change.

Allowing oneself to be critical of the top leadership is a huge crack in the foundation. When a person concludes that a so called prophet has been wrong it opens a can of worms that can lead down the rabbit hole. Hearing people like my Mom be critical of Nelson tells me that the church has big problems on its hands. The overall fervor and unquestioning commitment is already much less in US members than it has been, and they will never recover. It will be interesting to see where things will be one of two more generations from now. People don't fall for fairy tales like they used to, especially when they story changes over time.

This is something I started to notice leading up to the time I left the LDS Church.

It seemed like everyone had an "inspired" program or idea that we all needed to get behind. From the prophet to the Relief Society President in your ward had inspired initiatives. The problem for me was that some of these seemed to fizzle only to be replaced by a new inspired initiative that worked no better.

In this case the previous "inspired" PR program is completely the reverse of the current "inspired" program. It kind of does make you wonder if there's something wrong with the transmitter, or God is suffering from mental illness.

However, my primary observation about this name change business is how it reflects the priorities of ugh...Mormon...leaders. The Mormon prophet is viewed by true believers as the regent of the creator of the universe. And this is God's bold idea? Doesn't the wold have bigger problems?

Very best wishes with your Mom! For me, once I started thinking of the Q-15 as old opinionated men—as opposed to prophets, seers, and relevators—my shelf broke rather quickly. So, her dissafication with Nelson, IMO, is a big step.

As to the Mormon word...a couple of weeks ago, I drove a buddy up to see This Is the Place Monument. The adjective Mormon (as in Mormon Pioneers) and noun (the Mormons) is all over carved in granite and enbrazened in bronze. It’s going to last a lot longer than Nelson’s pontificating.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2018 11:42AM by BYU Boner.

Yep!

Remember when UPS tried to get everyone to start calling them "Brown?" Yeah, neither do most other people. Nobody calls them "Brown." Lots of money wasted on a marketing campaign.

I've heard several active, tithing paying TBMs make negative comments about the name change, and even a couple made negative comments about Rusty being "off his rocker" and "losing his marbles". Hopefully at least a few of their shelves will completely break before Rusty is finished.

Nelson strikes me as a crackpot -- even more of a crackpot than previous leaders. Hinckley was slick, but the membership liked him. Monson was pompous, but the members liked him as well. Nelson just comes off as being a crank.

But Nelson has two celestial wives! That makes him the holiest Prophet since Harold B. Lee!

Assuming that your TBM mom is strongly in favor of, you know, REAL celestial marriage, you may want to use that fact to bolster her waning testimony of the Lord's oh-so-temporary PSR, even Russell M. Nelson.

for saying that reading that book and others like it only deepened her testimony.

She loves Joseph and would allow him to lead her off a cliff.

Have to admit it's kind of hilarious what happens when you put a nonagenarian in charge of the palace and then you get to watch all the subjects scramble to pretend to make sense of the nonsensical proclamations that spew forth from their demented, out-of-touch ruler.

Nobody outside the realm will ever quit calling them the Mormons. Also, there are just to many former subjects like us who will go overboard to keep it alive. They don't want to be associated with the plygs, but then they have to explain why the ruler is an eternal polygamist. They want to distance themselves from the BOM because its fakeness is just too apparent and the Broadway play has rendered it an even bigger joke. So they're all like, "I know, let's ask the 94-year-old!" Yeah, not such a brilliant idea.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2018 04:14PM by NormaRae.