This grass roots effort of some LDS women, and also some LDS men, feeling the effective way to make needed changes in the Church is by organizing members in counseling, petitioning, forming discussion groups and writing 6 Missionary Discussion lessons to be taught, has really rankled me. You that read my blog already know that!
Comparatively speaking they are a few people, percentage-wise, to the Church at large, yet they are bothersome. They bring negative attention to the Church, create discord, cause dissension and for me personally?--they disrupt the peace I feel in my own worship and enjoyment of my religious choice.
Like an irritating buzzing mosquito that I bat at and never quite give a lethal smack, they just ease their way in, oozing untruths while schmoozing with their own avowed testimonies of truth. No amount of my hand-flailing to bat the pesky bug proves successful, they stay on course.
I can deal with them wanting something for themselves but my problem is when they are trying to present ideas and act like I want what they want! and I don't want it at all. It's an irritant beyond measure! Even if I wanted change in the Church, of any sort, I 100% understand that I have no voice, no power, no influence on the General leaders. That is not the workings of the wheels that grind slowly. Slowly perhaps because they can't be changing a world-wide Church every time someone voices their request for their doctrinal adjustment desire. Acting as if the Authorities don't have a grain of sense to realize what is needed!
The General Authorities are in charge of the vineyard and all the seasons and tending. Preparing for the last harvest. I hold to that fact. I have confidence, faith and security that Prophets will cautiously guide me/us through this tenuous time. I can have inner peace through the challenges of mortality and it's endless testing and trials because they will let me/us know what is coming and what is needed on a personal and collective level.
My attitude can be summed up in what I will tell my Laurel girls...Change in the Church will come from the top down and not the bottom up.
With absolutely no desire to hold the Priesthood and also patience to be okay with how the Church is in women's roles and a believer in that beautiful 11th article of faith, I just want the dis-satisfied feminists to use their power and satisfy their own needs by forming their own Church. Leave me alone. I'm fine.
And I've come to the conclusion that I will leave them alone. I will stay attuned to their happenings in a broad sense as to what ends up happening to them and I predict excommunication and the repercussions of that sad fact but I'm not going to read much more than that.
The leaders of the opposition have been served notice by their local Priesthood leaders, which is the way it is done ( Church stand here) and they are crying foul already. They have wonderful women on their site that each bear testimonies of love of The Church but change is needed now as far as they are concerned. They have an organized plan and a part of it is a 6 plan discussion booklet. How to express yourself. What they want to accomplish etc. etc. Color coded like Preach My Gospel. Then they have online meeting/discussion groups plus they want their members to hold small at home meetings with even a couple of friends and talk about how they can bring about this needed and desired change.
I read many of their testimonies. I scanned through most and thoroughly read some of their discussions. I watched the entirety of their initial introductory YouTube (?) class to the future introductions.
As I read and studied their viewpoint, noted their sweetness, beauty, intelligence, persuasiveness, testimony, sincerity- the thing that kept popping into my mind was---this is wrong...this is not true...this is false.
Then it really hit me when I finished one item and it took me to all sorts of anti-Mormon sites, and the Spirit said again...this is wrong...that it was dual meaning, for me personally. Not only was what they are saying wrong but it was wrong for me to devote a lot of time studying it out. At a certain point there was a line crossed with my desire to understand why on earth they are going about things in such a bizarre incorrect way.
I did find that I knew enough on Church government to understand the erroneous way they were approaching their desire for monumental change. Doctrine is not changed by desire of any group of members, large or small, no matter what angle they come at it.
Ours is to live the restored Gospel and enjoy it and allow our lives to be blessed by it. Especially figuring out how to receive personal guidance from the Holy Ghost (what a Gift!!!)
So in that revelatory moment of This is wrong...not true...etc. These popped into my mind...
We talk of Christ also 13th Article of Faith and 11th Article of Faith also Instrument of Thy Peace also I feel my Saviors love.
2 Nephi 25:26 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.
13th Article of Faith-- We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.
11th Article of Faith-- We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
video of Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing...I Feel My Saviors Love here
My time needs to be spent studying truth and not gearing up for contentious battle.... Preparing myself to explain the truths I love as a believer in the Gospel and follower of Christ.
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