Posted by:
Tiff
(
)
Date: November 04, 2010 04:22AM
The very first thing I want to clarify is that I would never wish any form of dementia or disease on anyone. I have seen the horrendous effects of dementia on both those afflicted and those affected through association with the individual.
That being said, something another poster mentioned sparked a "what-if" situation in my head. The church relies heavily on authority derived from a patriarchal leadership. We have one prophet, seer, and revelator in charge with two supporting members as essential vice-prophets included in the twelve total men seen as authority figures from God himself.
The members of the church have been taught that God would never, under any circumstances, allow the prophet to lead the church astray. Of course, as apostates we realizes the major conflict this creates seeing as how many past teachings have been converted from gospel to the prophets' words while speaking as men. However, the church does an excellent PR job of quietly phasing the more bizarre teachings of older prophets to the words of prophets to the words of old men. In fact, it is done so well that the vast majority of members don't even consciously notice the change.
My what-if situation involves an elderly prophet with dementia, a fairly plausible if not inevitable situation. What would the church do? The words of a current prophet are hard to change into simply the ramblings of an old man.
Would they stand by everything the prophet said?
Would they remove him as the prophet? If so, how?
Would he become a background figure? If so, how would conferences be held? What would members think?
What do you guys hypothesize?