Okay- if I ever get a job again I will stop living on this site- I promise. But for now, here goes. An urgent message to all news media type reporters regarding General Conference: Here is a brief rundown of what they will say. They will encourage the faithful to be faithful. They will reaffirm the church's commitment to all sorts of things that are already accepted by everybody in the world as good things. They will surprise people by some new things like letting more women speak or announcing one or more new programs. You, the reporters, will interpret these things as the start of new and pleasant trends in the LDS church. You will say that it portends a new era in openness, or tolerance, or engagement with LDS outliers and dissidents. And none of these things will be true.

Look, if you want to report on the LDS church, do your job. If a speaker "invites" all to come to the fold of Christ, corner him in the hallway afterward and ask him how that tallies with hateful comments or policies that he declared a week earlier. Demand that he/they justify allowing a sexual predator to run the mission training center. Interrogate him. Put him on the spot to justify himself. MAKE HIM MAD. That's the only way to get to the truth,and THAT IS YOUR JOB. The time is past for letting religious folk get a free pass because they are other-worldly. In the case of Mormonism, feel free to demand that they offer some sort of verifiable evidence that they actually talk to God or Jesus using actual English words, back and forth in a normal conversation, because that is the fundamental claim of Mormonism. Please, please, please: hold their feet to the fire.

Thank you.

Topping

In the case of KSL and the Deseret News/LDS Church News that is their job, but everyone else in the Morridor media should be asking real questions whenever the conference rhetoric doesn't match reality from just a few weeks ago. Since the SLC seem to be spineless in this regard, maybe someone from, for instance, a Las Vegas or Phoenix paper will do their job someday. Those are places I can think of that have enough Mormon population to actuallly give a rat's behind about TSCC but are completely dependent on TBM-owned businesses for ad revenue.

Hey, Oaks is pretty much in charge of the church. I wouldn't be surprised if he gave EVERY single talk during a session. Yes, his EGO is big enough to do it!