Posted by:
Lot's Wife
(
)
Date: March 10, 2019 04:18PM
The DN opinion editor has now provided the PR gloss that the church wants to project. In short, it wants the Vatican visit to secure the LDS church's legitimacy, telling its members that despite the massive tide of defections Mormonism is a world religion. Three point strike me as particularly relevant.
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1) The LDS and Catholic churches enjoy equal status and importance.
"Today at the Vatican in Rome, a pope and a prophet, leaders of two great world religions, met for the first time."
"I can see these two grand souls and world religious leaders . . . sitting together drawing inspiration from their common connection to the apostle Peter and Paul who came to Rome in ancient times."
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2) The pope and the prophet are now fast friends.
"President M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who also attended the meeting, commented, 'They were friends from the very first word.'"
"Two world religious leaders forged a friendship that will bless the lives of not only members of the two churches, but of millions more who will benefit from the inspired, cooperative efforts."
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3) The Pope and the Prophet both care about each and every person who is suffering somewhere around the world.
The two men discussed "how to best minister to the isolated, lonely and downtrodden."
That sentence bothers me because I don't think either church, or either leader, cares about "the one." Hence the damage that the LDS church inflicts on families, gay people, and those who question Mormon doctrine. Meanwhile the Pope has protected at least one pedophile cardinal and has blocked systemic reforms in the US and perhaps elsewhere.
So the statement that the two leaders "share a very similar approach to ministering to the needs of the one" is true only in an ironic sense. They embody an identical arrogance and lack of concern for individual believers.
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So did Nelson achieve his desired equality with the pope?
Take a look at the second photo in the article. The pope is sitting in an almost regal chair looking down at his supplicants. This is presumably where Frank meets delegations from Lichtenstein, Tuvalu, and Uganda, and perhaps the occasional woman's organization. It is structured to show that the pope and his church are superior in every way.
Mormon claims of equality, nay comparability, are pipe dreams.
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900059569/boyd-matheson-when-world-religious-leaders-meet-pope-francis-and-president-russell-m-nelson-meet-at-the-vatican-mormon-rome.html