If this is not for public consumption but has far-ranging consequences, how is the average Joe and Joan Mormon supposed to know what's up?
Suppose that this latest dictum by the 15 on SSMs and children didn't get out; then when the push came to a shove on the 'not-8 but the 18-year old' rule and the disparagement of the parents who raised these children as a condition to be accepted into the church, wouldn't people wonder how that came about?
. . . as this board's Admin will tell you or anyone else who may try that route. In a nutshell, the Tanners were sued by LDS, Inc. for allegedly violating its intellectual property reserve rights in publishing portions of content from its Genral Handbook of Instructions.
"In 1999, Jerald and Sandra Tanner, prominent critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, released material from the Church Handbook of Instructions to the Internet through their organization Utah Lighthouse Ministry, without including the copyright notice of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. or obtaining permission from the Church. The website of the Utah Lighthouse Ministry describes as its purpose: '. . . to document problems with the claims of Mormonism and compare LDS doctrines with Christianity.' The Tanners had received a copy of the 1998 edition of Church Handbook of Instructions from an anonymous sender in October 1999. They published 17 pages of the 160-page handbook on the Utah Lighthouse Ministry website.
"The Church sent the Tanners a letter threatening a copyright infringement lawsuit if the material was not removed, and the Tanners removed the material from their site the same day, and posted the Church's letter to their website. The website still contained links to other locations that had the material, and an article in the Salt Lake Tribune listed addresses of these links. The Church sued the Tanners through its company Intellectual Reserve, in the 1999 case Intellectual Reserve v. Utah Lighthouse Ministry."
("Mormon Church Attempts to Gag Internet Over Handbook," Source: Wikileaks)
Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2015 06:32PM by steve benson.
It's a book basically for morg leadership. There's two of them. A lot of the members aren't even aware of their existence. It's never spoken about at Sacrament meetings to the public.
The morg's new gay policy was supposed to be secret but thanks to an famous ex-Mormon it became public knowledge. Now the morg is trying to figure out how to repair the damage. Meanwhile members haven't been told from SLC on what to do. Many members have gay family and friends. The church will be feeling the affects of this hateful policy for many years to come....It's made missionary work a nightmare. Odds are many doors are being slammed in their faces because of this....
if the membership was aware of the ground-rules for the interaction between church & members, that would prompt members to expect consistent treatment in disciplinary & other matters;
that would undermine confidence in the (claimed) discretion/discernment of leadership...
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2015 10:45PM by GNPE.
If I recall correctly, there are two mormon church handbooks, Handbook 1 and Handbook 2. Handbook 1 is available to the public. Handbook 2 is only available directly from the church, only available to Bishops, Stake Presidents, and higher. If you re-publish their handbooks without permission (they won't give permission), they'll sue you. They dob't want the church members and the public knowing their playbook.
Apparently, the membership isn't supposed to know the rules and procedures they are governed by. The church certainly doesn't read them their rights when they summon them to a church court.