Like most religions, TSCC reeks of a double standard.

When membership rises to great numbers it is due to the missionaries and gawd. Needing many new temples and publicly.

Now with shrinking membership. TSCC is merging wards, closing and selling chapels. Quiet on the publicity front. Crickets.

Now if the all powerful gawd caused the growth why didn’t the all powerful gawd reverse the growth? If the missionaries are taught the same year after year is TSCC going to add more pressure on the youngsters for the failure? That ought to spur more youngsters to go on a mission.

So seems to me the main problem comes from the top. The general authority has been led astray, not getting leadership from gawd. Leading the lambs astray.

Seems like the teaching and the leadership just goes one way. I have never understood this one way thinking that this corporation uses.

For a con to work, you have to con yourself. Many in leadership are no longer truly bought into the con because so much has been exposed.

That doesn't mean the church can transition into a healthy religion. The problem lies in its authoritarian structure. When managers are surrounded by "yes men", they don't get any pushback on their bad ideas. The church never had any of what Jonathan Haight calls anti-fragility. As a result, the demolition of truth claims has been extremely disruptive. They don't know what to do. Even if someone knew how to fix things, that knowledge would never make it to the top.

You have 12 guys who "just can't wait to be king". They are thick as thieves. Or thick as a brick. So your ride sails over the fields...

A double standard is one standard for you, a different one for everyone else. Promoting good news about yourself and suppressing bad news isn’t a double standard. In fact, I can’t think of a single corporation that doesn’t do that.

I think I understand your point. Everything rests on the shoulders of the missionaries but not the leaders. If numbers of baptisms are low it's because the missionaries aren't pulling their weight, not because the leaders aren't.

Looking back at my very low baptizing mission, I remember one of the General Authorities coming to zone conference, having all the senior companions stand up one by one and report their numbers. Most missionaries were very hard working but still had low numbers. Very few were goof offs. My comp and I had high numbers for everything but baptisms - but baptisms were all that mattered. I remember feeling so depressed after that zone conference. I wish I'd had the balls to tell the GA that perhaps he was the reason our numbers were low. Maybe he and other church leaders weren't praying hard enough for the missionaries to have success.

You can work very hard, but if you have an unattractive product that does not meet people's needs, you aren't going to get very far. I learned that lesson when I worked in sales a long time ago.

I guess i used the wrong words.

Simply if gawd is responsible for everything good in the church then isn’t gawd responsible for the bad too?

If the leadership is responsible for all the good then isn’t the leadership responsible for all the bad as well?
If the leadership is following gawds direction because they are a profit of gawd then who is responsible for good and bad.

Seems like a double standard if credit for half of the decisions.

Nope, it's heads I win, tails you lose.

    I wrote, and then erased, a lot of drama about me and my high school girlfriend losing our virginity (separately) and the consequences we each suffered: Me, none; her, cast out as chewed gum, given to a gay RM.

    Here's the point:  There is a huge Double Standard regarding men staying pure and the purity expected of women.  I don't think anyone here will question the conclusion: men almost always get forgiven, but women have to take whatever cruelty the church decides to heap on them.

    Huge double standard!

    

aggravated byy the Bishop/Stake President roulette phenomenon;

some are sympathetic & understanding, some are on an autocratic - I'll show them / prove that I'm better tare.

Bishops are supposed to be accountable to the SP, a nasty SP can influence his Bps to be unforgiving...

Forgiving? that doesn't apply to ChurchCo!

They do it because they can. Just like every abusive relationship. Change the rules, have different sets of rules, treat people like crap, play fast and loose with the money, expose children to abusers (as long as it doesn't land THEM in legal trouble), Hell, even change the NAME and the core teachings. As long as the sheeple keep paying and obeying (screw the praying, it doesn't put money in their pocket) they will keep doing whatever is convenient for them at the moment.

Correction: ChurchCo teachings ( not really standards) change so often that calling them ‘standards’ is misleading.

Teachings = Doctrine = Standards

Throwing jello to the wall

Making things up as they go along

Spaghetti to the wall

Whatever

It's standard business practice. For example, Disney and Netflix have lost a lot of money in recent years but haven't publicized it either.