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I like Elder Ballard’s statement that no trek is more important than the one we are all on. That’s a nice contrast to the over-the-top pioneer worship that we get every July. That makes people without pioneer ancestors (like me) either roll our eyes or feel inferior.
I like that he’s calling out affinity fraud and medical quackery, both of which are big problems in the church.
Joni wrote:
I like that he’s calling out affinity fraud and medical quackery, both of which are big problems in the church.
I didn’t realize it was a problem. Do we just set people up for blind faith? Unearned trust?Elder Ballard condemns alternate movements (almost surely Denver Snuffer, et. al.) and fad medicines and approaches to healing. He says to seek licenced, professional help for health issues and that too many members have lost too much money on false promises. Overall, this is a win, even with a few hiccups. I have seen far too many members get caught up in fad treatments that flourish in Utah.
I can already tell that Callister’s talk is going to be a hard pass. Disproving people who try to disprove the BoM
= proving that it is true.“Healthy supplements”, “essential oils”, multi-level marketing structures, etc. have been rampant in Utah for a long time. I think it is amtter of blind faith in other members, the prosperity gospel, overconfidence, belief if miraculous and strange healings (which I believe do happen at times), etc. Callister is and always has been an orthodox apologist. Most here will not resonate with his talk. The topic can be handled well, but this way is simplistic. He makes some valid points, but the overall approach is too polemic for lots of people.
Quote:I also understand the impact on vulnerable people enough to know that hearing, “We will never accept you as you are,” is brutal and soul-shattering.
Thanks for saying this Ray. A man named, John Bonner posted this today on Mormons Building Bridges and said I could share it on any group. I think this should be a conference talk:
Quote:“My mom came to spend the day with me yesterday. She brought me lunch.
We sat on the couch together, eating buttermilk biscuits and holding hands. She told me her 88 year-old visiting teacher came to see her that morning.
Her visiting teacher had just returned from her son’s funeral. He took his own life two weeks ago. They cried together; ministering to each other. I imagine my mom held her hand, too.
After lunch, she did the dishes and cleaned my kitchen. I said she didn’t need to do that. She just hugged me and went about doing it anyway.
I told her what Elder Oaks had said about me and my community. She said simply, “he’s wrong.” She then told me how handsome I look in my Love Loud t-shirt and asked if I’d gone on any promising dates lately. I told her I hadn’t. She expressed her confidence, as she always does, that I will find someone — and that she will love him.
My mom isn’t an official Mormon Mama Dragon. She is a soft-spoken introvert, like me. She hasn’t joined any Facebook groups or given any addresses at events or rallies.
But make no mistake, my mom is a dragon. Her particular brand of fire may not scorch the social media landscape with powerful rhetoric, but her quiet fire burns in my heart. It has kept me alive.
My mom won’t be receiving any public awards or commendations. She won’t be interviewed by news outlets and she won’t be spearheading any marches or protests. She will raise her hand in Sunday School to express her love for her son. And then she will go see him. She will wrap her arms around him and tell him she loves him, no matter what, just as she has done every day for the past 39 years.
Hers is Christ’s work. It is His ministry. And she will go on doing it until her last breath.
I have no doubt that if there is a God who watches over us, He would have smiled down on my mother yesterday. He would have seen that His Son’s earthly mission of compassion, of love unrestrained, is carried out in living rooms and kitchens — not over pulpits.
This is my mother’s legacy: to sense when to bring food and hold my hand, to show up, to listen, to know when I am hurting, to go on loving me — through everything.
She may never have a memorial raised in her honor, but if she did, I hope the inscription would read: “Sherrie Bonner loved and never wavered. Love was her work and her calling. She knew in the end, it was the only thing that ever mattered.”
Old Timer wrote:
Elder Ballard condemns alternate movements (almost surely Denver Snuffer, et. al.) and fad medicines and approaches to healing. He says to seek licenced, professional help for health issues and that too many members have lost too much money on false promises.Overall, this is a win, even with a few hiccups. I have seen far too many members get caught up in fad treatments that flourish in Utah.
I agree and admit that Ballard is not my favorite. I was having a hard time getting over his underlying message that if we are not faithful we’re less than he is or otherwise unworthy. And even though he did speak of the doctrine of Christ and the atonement, he seems to deny them at the same time.
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