Posted by:
azsteve
(
)
Date: August 14, 2017 06:57AM
With some recent discussion on this board about the Second Annointing, I have thought about some of the implications and issues and realized that this ceremony opens the church up to some public scruteny that might be easy to initiate.
For the leaders and members of other religions, it's absolute blasphemy.
If an active church member with a current temple recommend were to push publicly for their own SA, how would the church react? If the church disciplines the person, they would have to recognize publicly that the ceremony does exist, while defending both the practice and their decision to keep that club private, even within the church. Either that, or they would have to lie and deny that anyone else has received this ceremony. If someone pushed hard enough, the church might have to abandon the practice, as they did the endowment death-threats. Aw... poor GAs, no more guaranteed godhood, shucks.
If done right, the whole 'guaranteed godhood' thing could be exposed as the scandal it is. How many blacks have been through this ceremony since 1978? Why is it a secret and only available to certain people? (asks the news reporter). Are the actual recipiants of the SA really more worthy than all of the other temple-recommend holders who are denied access to receive that ceremony? Some reports are that the GAs don't have enough time to perform this ceremony for many people. Why does the church find a way for regular endowments and not for the person's SA? Are all of the other temple-recommend holders somehow less worthy? Somehow, I am sure that the narcissism and undeserved elitism will surface as topics in these public discussions. Why do only higher church leaders get the SA? Are plumbers and fast-food workers somehow less worthy than successful businessmen and their wives? Why is there class discrimination going on here? Why are people like Tom Phillips asked to lie to their own family members when invited to get this ceremony? What is a good reason to keep all of this a secret, amongst even 'worthy' church members who are excluded from this secret club?
Okay, so if the average church member can't get the SA, why not publicly disparage it? If you don't disparage anything else about the church, how can they discipline you for disparaging something the church won't even admit exists? If they then take away your temple recommend, you sue them in a court of law for discrimination, to get it back. Let all of those details go on to the public record, and a non-mormon jury can decide what is reasonable and fair. The church's whole reputation and tax-exempt status would then be on trial. Maybe someone like Tom Philips could testify as a witness that the church does still practice this ceremony, at least as of the time that he went through it.
When someone like Kathy Kelly says publicly that she deserves to hold the priesthood, the church can just publicly say "no". When she persists, they just excommunicate her. When someone publicly says "I have a valid temple recommend and I would like to have my Second Annointing", the church might say "ahm... say what?... I don't know that we teach that". Then they have to start lieing or telling the truth. Either way, the response would be priceless.
Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2017 07:35AM by azsteve.