Dave Winslow illuminates the problem in the church re: membership. As is usually the case, they'll figure it out too late. If any of the leadership has the good sense to explore this article, they could stave off the repercussions. Not likely to happen.

https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2021/06/11/dave-winslow-lds-church/

The comments really show the divide. Thinkers and the brain dead. The ones about the hoarded wealth are the best. Really, LDSInc has nothing to offer.

When I read Mr. Winslow's commentary, I almost immediately thought of a comment made on an early 1956 aircheck (before Elvis Presley hit it big) for radio station KLIF in Dallas, Texas, that partially reads:

"When I was about five or six, my grandmother came out on the front porch where my older cousins were playing records. It was late ’56 or early ’57, I guess.
Rosemary said, “Listen Grandma… Elvis Presley.” My grandmother, who could handle anybody or anything turned bright red and looked at the floor. I never
saw her do anything like that, before or after. As she turned to walk away, she said, “When I think of how he danced on that television...”

I remember so clearly how the adults hated Rock ‘n Roll… hated it! Many of them thought it should be banned… or even illegal. My mother’s come to like
a lot of it (she’s 79) and I asked her recently why they were all so down on it at the time. She said, “I guess we just thought it was all gonna go on
forever.” She was referring to their world, of course. Between the music, Vietnam protests, long hair, civil rights struggles and all the things that were
ours, it must have been an unbelievable time."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is serving people who believe in tradition and who don't want to know that the world is changing right under their own noses. It is also run by such people. The problem is that *everything* changes and all of us, whether we like it or not, will have to learn to accept these changes. If your former church cannot accept and make peace with the changes that are happening in today's world--particularly those that affect the lives of its youngest members--then it will not survive long beyond the passing of its current leadership.

You make it sound like 96 is old.

Mormonism has become an ultra conservative echo chamber. Any voices for change are silenced or excommunicated.

You would think that “Judge not lest ye be judged” would mean something to them, but that’s not how this herd is wired. With the economy they left their young, their crusty beliefs will die with them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2021 11:15PM by babyloncansuckit.

It is changing. It is improving. And conservative groups like the LDS church are hell-bent on not letting anything change.

The prophet could institute hundreds of changes that would better the world. But their MO is always to cling to the past.

Yes, they always cling to the past, and when they finally do make changes, they’re always far behind the curve when it comes to societal norms.

Hmmm, I wonder why that is. Could it be that in order to make it to a meaningful leadership position, you have to be older than what is mandatory retirement for some professions, and customary retirement age for almost any job (in addition to the fact that you have spent decades supporting the corporate status quo)?

their hesitancy to allow females (women, girls) to wear pants to church schools...

as a Bounce, nearby private schools at that time / era followed the nonsense example of YBU... my wife to be went to beauty school in Provo, same rule.

the GAs are so focused on nonsense they've forgotten Kindness & Honesty.

From a marketing point of view, the age group that pays the most gets the best treatment...

The fact that the group to which they are catering is shrinking while the group they are alienating is growing, seems to be lost on them.

this is a very astute remark, elderolddog.

I cribbed it from Done & Done's essay on Moles, Gophers & Eternal Life.

That's why on all social media accounts EOD lists himself as a 17-year-old social influencer.

They can afford to live in their own private Idaho. In fact, isn’t that the point of being LDS? Never let the facts get in the way of the story, especially your own.

Anyway, those camels aren’t going to swallow themselves.

The church always prided itself on being a “peculiar people” and “not of this world”. Past Mormon prophets also predicted many members would leave the fold.

If you listen to some thing’s President Nelson has said he has mentioned it’s not about numbers but towing the covenant path. So if members are leaving now they can say it’s prophecy being fulfilled.

The reality is the church won’t suddenly implode and disappear but Utah will change. It will become more diverse but this has been happening ever since the transcontinental railroad was completed and mining Barron’s came to Utah. The church saw that as a huge threat and tried to separate from that buy creating it’s own business enterprises.

It’s the history of the church. They want to be different and have survived regardless of people saying it won’t last. The Atlantic Magazine in 1864 said the church wouldn’t survive the death of Brigham Young.

All of what you say is true. However, the LDS church has survived only by allowing critical changes to take place, including:

Ending its public support for polygamy
Ending its public ban on blacks entering the priesthood

and, in a much smaller way:

walking back a 1981 (if memory serves) CES letter describing how LDS were to engage in sexual relations (it's the one that advocated for no foreplay)

The question is: Will the LDS church make the necessary changes to meet the demands of its youngest generation members. If it can't change to meet at least some of those demands, then it is hard to see how it could survive in the long term.

The future is inclusion. Religions by their nature are exclusionary (us vs them).

Every time an LDS leader opens his mouth, he takes one step closer toward irrelevancy.

As far as I'm concerned, that can't happen soon enough.

And ironically awesomely enough, they are damned if they change ("I thought the gospel was unchanging!!") and damned if they don't ("If you don't support LBGTQ, I'm out.").

They set themselves up with two things.

Correlation and the infamous " we're not here to entertain the youth."

The church is no longer culturally relevant.
The church is no longer socially relevant.
The church isn't even spiritually relevant.

Heartless Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The church is no longer culturally relevant.
> The church is no longer socially relevant.
> The church isn't even spiritually relevant.

Exactly. But the stone will roll forth: just you wait.

My nephrologist says they can treat that now.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> But the stone will roll forth: just you
> wait.

Fantasy Church News Headline: "Prophecy Fulfilled: Mick Jagger Baptized, Launches Worldwide Tour"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2021 02:03AM by lurking in.

So you and BoJ are jointly calling Mick Jagger a kidney stone?

I guess it's possible. . .

Well, my nephrologist says many kidney stones do resemble Mick Jagger.

“the stone will roll forth”

With a dung beetle pushing it

The Mormon Church was started by a young prophet who surrounded himself with mostly other young people. They were very innovative and energetic. The Church today is led by the presidency and apostles whose average age is somewhere in the 80s.

As a teacher I've noticed that younger people are more open to LGBTQ+ individuals than previous generations. Especially if the young people have a friend or family member who is out, they are more likely to be accepting than not. It's not a big deal to them.

This raises a huge conundrum for the church. The Mormon theology does not do a good job of accommodating LGBTQ+ people. The only answer the church has is for those members to marry heterosexually or to stay celibate. Neither are particularly acceptable options to those affected, nor should they be.

I think to increasing numbers of young people, the church may simply become irrelevant.

Likewise. I believe they really are on their way to irrelevance. And if that happens, what tack will they take to win back support? I think that, as they face irrelevance, were going to see more "revelations" and other tap-dancing bullshit.

Gays are no longer as fearful as they were in my time. In the 1960's in my high school way out in America's outback, gay kids were hunted and haunted, beaten up by the popular kids as teachers stood by and giggled. But now, most of our kids have not only been exposed to homosexuality, but have forged friendships among the LGBTQ community. Gay kids normally don't have to hide away as they used to. This means that the up and coming generation of Mormon kids will have gay friends, and will be resistant to the notion that the church should be allowed to limit gay people to a second-class church membership.

Well, we can hope, anyway.

If the younger generation jumps ship soon there will be no older generation because the current older generation will have died off and there will be nothing to replace it



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2021 12:47PM by thedesertrat1.