ANSWERS: 7
  • Yes. Thank Gawd WE are not Mormons, right? +5
  • The Church is not a democracy, where authority derives from the governed. It is a theocracy, with authority derived from God. . We have the right and responsibility to bring matters of concern to our leaders. They have the responsibility to make the decisions at their level. Our responsibility after that is to carry out the decision and seek to understand it, and to trust God to see that any necessary corrections are made at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way. . That is how it works all the way up to the prophet himself.
  • Look where that leads. being as the leader is always older than god himself, what they have to say is mostly kinda un-evolved. Those who surrender the use of reason, get ... dumb?
  • Funny you had to go back 30 years to find such statements. Our God does not give us specifics about everything. We are expected to use our heads to think and engage in good works on our own. We are free to speculate, formulate hypotheses, etc, until the Church issues an official statement which contradicts our own personal opinion. At that point, we are expected to align our views with the official position (we can still speculate on why that position was taken). This is own way to slow the spread of false doctrines and maintain a unity of faith across the globe.
  • This situation can be looked at in two different ways. 1.From your perspective, you see a group of old men setting in their high tower discussing various problems, then deciding exactly how things will be done. Then demanding that all members conform to their way of thinking, without question. 2. And from our perspective, we see a group of dedicated holy men who rely totally and completely on the Lord to reveal his will to them as to how certain problems should be solved. They unite in prayer, with each man offering a prayer to the Lord for guidance. When they are through praying, they discuss what they each received from the Lord. And ONLY when a decision is unanimous, with all the brethren present, is a directive given to the Church for all to follow. And because we know they are all Prophets, Seers and Revelaters we will follow their council without fail. There are, however, some, in the Church, who do not have that burning testimony of our leaders, and who will not want to follow their council, but choose to complain or actually join the first group above. So it really comes down to a matter of perspective and measure of belief...Later
  • The first quote shows us that anything a leader says is just their general opinion or view on a subject or 'debate' - the second statement demonstartes the belief that the church has the authority to speak for man on behalf of God and that their word is law and shouldn't be questioned. I don't believe that any debate is ever over until the individual finds their own answers because it's all to do with our personal coinvictions and relationship with God not what someone tells us to do - that's just following without question. The second quote shows what we sometimes call authoritarian dictatorship.
  • Haha I would not trust any human leader because they are by definition imperfect. I don't need a so-called "leader" to mediate God.

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