Hello again, everyone! The Church News has just released this article describing how President Nelson's recent visit to the Dominican Republic, and his visit to the missionaries there, was in response to a direct prompting from the Lord. How blessed we are to have a prophet that continues to receive and respond to regular revelation!
I am sure that President Nelson will continue to be out among the people as long as he can be, and that, based on what other leaders (particularly his Brethren in the apostleship) have said about his health and stamina, he will be around for many years to come. Someone (Elder Andersen, I believe), suggested last General Conference that the Brethren hope he will be around for another decade or two, and I think it would be awesome if that happens.
I also wanted to pass along some not-so-good news: the latest information I have found in the matter of a former missionary who accused her former MTC president of sexually assaulting her. It appears that, rather than taking the high road and letting justice take its' natural course through the proper legal and religious channels, she apparently chose to disrupt a fast and testimony meeting to "air her personal grievances" and to call out her accuser in his congregation.
Someone took a video of what she said, including the fact that she was asked repeatedly by the leaders of that congregation to stand down and that she claimed they were assaulting her when she failed to comply. You can find more on that here. In view of what occurred here, as verified by the video, I am not sure what to make of the situation.
But in this and in all other cases where abuse allegedly occurred, I will say that I trust the general and local leaders of the Church to make the right calls in such situations, and I agree with the statement of a Church spokesman that this was a highly inappropriate way to advance her cause, if that was her objective.
I continue to monitor the ministry of our Church leaders and all other Church news and developments and will do my best to pass word of those along to you all here as I become aware of them. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Additional Church News Reported
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
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In addition to my life-long love for the subjects which I cover in the posts of this blog, I have long held the belief that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. Differences of opinion are natural, while being disagreeable in expressing those differences is not. And in that sense, I have no desire to close the door on anyone who earnestly desires to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on subjects covered in the posts on this blog.
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That first story is delicate anyway as the issue is still ongoing. But look in the scriptures and the easiest way to do this is scriptures.lds.org and put in the keyword 'dissenter' or 'dissenters', and it will bring up a few Book of Mormon scriptures and incidents. I have also run across some stuff on Facebook about another one just yesterday, that one is worse so I won't mention what it was unless requested.
ReplyDeleteBut the Lord sometimes has a way of dealing with dissenters in interesting ways, two weeks back we discussed something in the Old Testament and it had some to do with prophets. The Seminary lesson for that same part of the scriptures said that some told the prophet 'Go up, thou bald head' indicating the prophet was older, and so the Lord sent a bear, and while the bear did not kill anyone in the matter, he clawed them up pretty good. The recent Ordain Women matter had a different thing happen and all who were near the Tabernacle where you wait to get a standby ticket if any are left saw this: They wanted to go into general priesthood. So, the Lord sent a small hailstorm, and everybody scattered. Was pea-sized but everyone ran for cover anywy.
Thank you, James Anderson, for commenting. It would in some ways be more convenient in efforts to determine the truth of any accusations if the biblical status quo were still in effect. But such consequences seem to have been retired with the law of Moses as a result of Christ's atonement.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, in a land and Church where everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, if a perpetrator has denied the accusations, there is not a lot the Church or the law can do, especially if the recollections of the individuals involved differ or disagree.
But perhaps the most unfortunate thing is that, rather than letting the legal and Church investigations decide the matter, the alleged victim showed an unwillingness to let justice take its' course. Calling out the alleged perpetrator before his entire local Church congregation seems to be in poor taste, as does refusing to yield the pulpit when the leaders of that congregation asked her to. The Lord knows what actually went on, and He alone will judge all involved fairly and equally. For the rest of us, this is a hot-button issue, but there is a time, place, and proper way to go about this, and what was reported today does not seem to fit that definition. Thanks, James Anderson.
It brings to mind the great line in the Shakespeare play, Hamblet. Queen Gertrude states, ¨The lady doth protest too much, methinks¨ in response to the insincere overacting of a character in the play within a play created by Prince Hamlet to prove his uncle's guilt in the murder of his father, the King of Denmark.
DeleteThe accuser is only bringing doubt to her sincerity. She would do well to leave this alone now and allow the justice system and the Church investigation into the matter come to fruition. The great length of time since the alleged abuse may make it impossible to ever know for sure what happened, but the Lord knows and eventually His justice will prevail.
Unfortunately, the fact that she is going to such great lengths to try and force a legal or religious outcome favorable to herself on this issue does not bode well for her cause. It is all well and good to bring such accusations to the attention of individuals who can investigate such things, but to deliberately visit the alleged perpetrator's congregation and publicly call him out on his alleged behavior, to not yield the pulpit when requested by the leaders of said congregation, and to insinuate that the leaders were assaulting her by not letting her finish takes it to an extreme that makes me personally very uncomfortable. If there is merit to the accusations, why would a victim not want to let justice (both legal and religious) take its' course? The Lord knows exactly what happened here. And in cases like this, I am very glad that He will be the one judging all of us for what actually occurred in our lives. His perfect compassion and understanding, combined with His perfect perception of all things, will ensure ultimate justice and mercy for everyone. I look forward to the time when He will come again, and when all of the crazy things in this world will be resolved.
DeleteThank you for taking time to comment, by the way.
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