Just looking for opinions. General Conference was amazingly insipid. It came just a few weeks after Jeff Holland's execrable talk about executing gay people and their supporters. What fallout have you good people heard from that talk? Thanks.

Did Jeffrey shoot a hole in his boat?

"Did Jeffrey shoot a hole in his boat?"

He doesn't need to worry about that: he got his Second Flex Seal-ing. He could shoot a cannonball through his boat and the TBM's would follow him.

For his next trick, Master and Commander will fire his cannons straight up.

HA. Too good!

The building is not going to collapse because Holland shot out a couple of windows. I imagine most TBMs agree with him. I think Nelson's vaccine advice caused more damage, and that's not going to collapse the building either, but it might make it a bit more wobbly.

Back when I listened to GC, I thought the talks all sounded so much like the talks from any other GC, that they could change two sentences, put someone else's name on it and re-give the same talk, and nobody would notice. I think that still holds true.

Out of all the issues worrying people, as usual, their message was mostly bland nothing burger. Many are worried about the pandemic, climate, and the dismantling of democracy in the USA for starters.

The conference talked around this tangentially by mentioning depression and that precautions for the virus were taken for the conference. This is the conduit for divine communication and that's all they had? What happened to healing the sick? What happened to giving all you have to the poor? They didn't say crap about how they are going to help except by building more damn temples (pray, pay, obey).

This is what religion offers? They play to both sides, not wanting to offend the extreme types among them. They have no solutions and no intention of doing anything but maintaining their own power and wealth.

The "Big Guys" know they have "Big Problems" but each champions a diverse remedy.

The Every-Day-Mormons have become divided themselves over the years. They are no longer cohesive politically or socially. Google and social media have divided them as those juggernauts have divided everything else in the country. And so, there is no one fix that could restore the unity of the early church. What will shore up one contingent of the church will damage another. Pandora has a reason to dance again.

What ole Jeff did with his own personal MMM--- the Musket Metaphor Musing--- was like what his counterpart in politics did by positing hydroxychloroquine as a cure for covid. Appeal to a few radicals and stir the pot.

I'd say there is division in the ranks as Russ pushes for a Generic Christ church while Holland crusades for a 2021 version of The Holy Crusades. Must be getting harder to support Russ as the final and only word-- him being the one who talks directly to Jesus and all, haha.

Bednar would be smart to let them do each other in and then rise up as the new new Messiah he considers himself to be.

I don't see a crack in the armor, but, a church on life support and the Gerontocracy busy getting injunctions against anyone pulling the plug.

"Musket Metaphor Musing" ... I'm stealing that.

I agree. My rural Utah Mormon relatives are your typical small town conservatives. This would be what most people call middle America. Most rural areas even in very blue states are conservative. Utah is no different.

My Mormon relatives who live in bigger cities might not be liberal in the social sense but they are very far from being MAGA red hats. I really found them to be more social animals and doing whatever they had to do to climb the ladder so to speak.

I think it’s follow the money more than some deep set beliefs. One set of Mormon relatives are not effected by the outsourcing of jobs or new regulations. They are lawyers, engineers and academics. Life is still great in their world.

The people who haven’t faired so well or are used to less government intrusion seem to have the MAGA mentality. It really has nothing to do with the church and more of demographics of how people make their living.

The church will lean towards who pays the most tithing. That will be the big city Mormons. The church may alienate it’s rural members by being too politically liberal. We might see new splinter groups form from rural areas. There is a splinter group in Idaho that formed because they think the LDS in Salt Lake have strayed too far.

that's very insightful. I agree this is the demographic that is considered the sweet spot for any politician. The working class vote, the great deplorables, middle america. It's what put Reagan in the white house, the blue dog democrat, and dixiecrats (which most of us once were before becoming maga).

It's be fascinating to see how this will play out because it's very true that city people who work in merit based bureaucracies, where credentialed titles are valued over intelligence or skills, as these supposedly talented people fill the positions of leadership within mormondom, they will tend to steer to the left. I have a cousin who works for the COB and he says all the positions (career ones outside of the kitchen staff or custodians) are filled by really smart men, who rather nerdy, the Bill Gates kind of personality. These are also the up and coming GAs.

Do mormons like the thought of a know it all like Bill Gates or Zukerburg as their leader? I don't think so...

Certain factions want to divide the US as much as possible because it makes us weak. The PRC has been infiltrating us for40 years. Their strategy has always been if you can get the rich you get everything else.

So we have our own politicians, sports figures, celebrities, military leaders, oligarchs against us. We have a very naive public who don't have a clue about modern asymmetrical warfare.

There has always been the white and blue collar divide but now we have divide and conquer on crazy levels. It's created a psychosis in the population. It's a mess. I can also say the Mormon church doesn't have a clue either. They actually support factions who would love to get rid of Christianity all together.

How tall is David Bednar? He seems a little short, like Napoleon. The similarities don't end there.

He is taller than me. Please apologize.

It will cause some exits but killing the church is a far more difficult task. Not even the US Government could kill the church when it was much smaller and poorer.

No. But the musket balls probably collapsed a few more shelves.

No, and I don't think the 'church' killed the musket talk with their musket [talk] either.

The "church" can [only] - and often does - kill the spirit (like it is designed to).

It certainly doesn't bring it.

Mormons is DEAD (It always has been... and always will be)!

How can you kill something that is already dead?

Mormonizm will baptise it again and again...
Washing the life away with the sin!

It was just a TALK - that's all the moronic (spellchecker changed the m word and I decided to leave it) 'church' does: talks! And expect the members to act! Most of the members aren't even paying attention and nor do they care. To them, it's just Talk Talk Talk... but no ♡Walk♡ ♡Walk♡ ♡Walk♡

"Ewe ain't going to believe this." Holland said sheepishly.

No fatal wound, but the musket ball ricocheted around for a while causing damage, metaphorically speaking.

In all seriousness, while not a death blow, it was yet another sad, ugly scene that illustrates just how out of touch the Church™ is. It will continue to linger on well after most of us are dead and buried, but it is clear the cult is falling apart rapidly, and there isn't much to change that. Good riddance.

Why screw around with a lousy musket that can't hit a target when you can do real damage with cannon power?

C'mon Jeff stop being nansy pansy :D