It never ceases to amaze me the extreme latitude given to religious institutions by news outlets. I understand that a great many news reporters have no frame of reference by which to understand the religious mind set. Several have recently hosted discussions about possible directions that Nelson might take the church and so on. They look at factors such as his professional training, his age cohort, and so on to predict how those things might determine his leadership style or policy innovations. But please, reporters, try to understand this one key point about leaders of Mormonism: their background and personalities are proclaimed by the faith to have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on what he does or says or decides. Everything the "Prophet" does or says is claimed to be the direct dictates of God himself. So any of these questions needs to be re-framed as, "What do you suppose God will say to that man?" No amount of speculation, analysis or debate by various interested parties can ever answer that question. The only way to know is to ask God.

So every decision or policy by LDS church leaders needs to be discussed on the basis of the fundamental question: did God really tell you to say that? Reporters need to start asking that question of every announcement by the institutional LDS church. For Mormons the answer is always automatically "yes!". The leadership at any level can by definition do or say nothing that was not dictated by God. It just isn't possible. Reporters need to stop treating church leaders like they have a special dispensation because of their other-worldly presumptions, and start holding their feet to the fire to prove that they really and truly talk to God personally.

Face it: religion is a human endeavor, just like art or analytical chemistry or economic theories. Humans set the rules, humans decide the terms of discourse, humans set the limits. Please stop treating religion like it's special. It's not.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/2018 08:00PM by slskipper.

You think Monson ever admitted to his buddies that he never heard a thing from Jesus Christ, even the very savior of mormonkind, even?

No, I don't. But everybody in the LDS church is required to affirm that he did talk to Jesus. That is the secret of Mormon leadership- that everybody believes it even thought they never actually say it.

I am trying to get the news media to make the church leaders provide evidence of the claim or to correct the faithful on this one minor point.

Not going to happen, especially with the secular news media. As a person who was trained in the media arts in undergraduate college, I can assure you that the secular media never ask any leaders, religious or otherwise, if they are talking to God--it never happened with Jerry Fallwell, it never happened with David Koresh, it never happened with Billy Sunday, it never happened with Father Charles Coughlin, it never happened with Jim Jones--it never happened with anybody! Now some religious reporters might be interested in asking such a question (you might try David Broder at TBN), but I doubt that even they would be willing to ruffle feathers and try to pin down Mormon leadership on this issue.

The tragedy, of course, is that you're absolutely right! The Mormons specifically state that their leader is a prophet of God and that therefore everybody needs to follow what he says. They are not supposed to think independently on issues that have already been decided by the prophet in his talks with God.

What would ultimately be nice (and this will probably never happen, either) would be if a reporter for an LDS magazine/newspaper were to ask the question if the prophet talks to God and then prints the result with big headlines surrounding it.

But religion is special. Like the kids who ride the short bus.