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Home » Discuss Elliaison Books and Articles » The Unspeakable Gift of the Holy Ghost. » To Be or Not To be, That IS the Question... (Discuss points related to this chapter.)
Re: To Be or Not To be, That IS the Question... [message #123 is a reply to message #115] Sat, 10 July 2010 07:44 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Dragon is currently offline  Dragon
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Registered: June 2010
Location: Earth
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The first thing which comes to mind is to look to the past. I have heard many people who have explained the church's position on Blacks and the Priesthood prior to 1978. There were justifications and explanations and people who swore it would never change. I have yet to hear of a single example of a person who knew Blacks would receive the Priesthood before it was declared thus by President Kimball. I am willing to wager such account do exist, but they are not advertised by the church and certainly not taught about in Sunday School.

There are some areas where the church's official stance has been in flux for the last decade or two. They took a firm stance against Gay Marriage with the Proclamation on the Family. At the same time, they have eliminated their policy of simply encouraging gay men to marry women and hope the problem goes away. The church has also stated gay members are not committing a sin by having gay feelings or in some cases, even dating. They commit a sin only when they fornicate or commit adultery.

None of the changes above have been done publicly. They have been directions given to Bishops and some Bishops have chosen to ignore the changes. I know of these changes only because of Bishops I have had who stated these changes and members who benefited from them. The difficulty here is two fold. The Bishops' manual states that Bishops should follow the Spirit in their administration and council, particularly when a doctrine is unclear in a particular situation. Also, there is a strong Mormon Culture which is resistant to change and Bishops have varying degrees of Spiritual connection, just like the rest of the church.

On the other hand, there were many revelations given to Joseph Smith only because he asked about them, usually at the behest of a friend. Most particular of note is the Word of Wisdom, received because his wife felt it was wrong for men of God to make such a mess chewing tobacco.

It just occurred to me to point out the three levels of church beliefs:

1. Official Church Doctrine
2. Church Policies and Procedures
3. Mormon Cultural Beliefs

Often the three are not separated in the minds of the members. It is easy to find church Policies and/or Procedures which contradict Mormon Cultural Beliefs, such as the false belief the church supports a particular party more than any other.

I'm going to cut it off here and await a response, or else I will end up writing a book right here on the subject.

- Dragon

- Dragon

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