Archive for the 'Leaders' Category

Evidences and Reconciliations (6/30/08)

Published
by
John Nilsson
 
on June 30, 2008
 
in General Authorities, Leaders, Money, book of mormon, church and surviving
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evidences-and-reconciliations-63008

And when the priests left their labor to impart the word of God unto the people, the people also left their labors to hear the word of God. And when the priest had imparted unto them the word of God they all returned again diligently unto their labors; and the priest, not esteeming himself above his hearers, for the preacher was no better than the hearer, neither was the teacher any better than the learner; and thus they were all equal, and they did all labor, every man according to his strength.

Alma 1:26

And the elders or high priests who are appointed to assist the bishop as counselors in all things, are to have their families supported out of the property which is consecrated to the bishop, for the good of the poor, and for other purposes, as before mentioned… And the bishop, also, shall receive his support, or a just remuneration for all his services in the church.

Doctrine and Covenants 42:71,73
The calling is not a regular remunerative position, but interrupts professional employment; whatever financial losses accrue are part of the expected sacrifice.  The family involved gives of its time and energies without salary, though there is a modest allowance for living expenses.
Gerald Day, “Mission Presidents,” p. 915, Encyclopedia of Mormonism

Unlike local leaders, who maintain their normal vocations while serving in church assignments, General Authorities set aside their careers to devote their full time to the ministry of their office.  The living allowance given General Authorities rarely if ever equals the earnings they sacrifice to serve full-time in the Church.

Marvin K. Gardner, “General Authorities,” p. 539, Encyclopedia of Mormonism

Discuss, my friends:

30 Comments

White-Washing

Published
by
Hawkgrrrl
 
on June 24, 2008
 
in Anti-Mormon, Culture, LDS, Leaders, Mormon, Mormons, apologetics, christianity, church, faith, historicity, history, media manipulation, mormon, questioning, religion and thought
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white-washing

“Whitewashing” is an accusatory term often used against the church to describe efforts to gloss over sticky points in doctrine or history.  So, does the church engage in whitewashing? Continue reading…

116 Comments

Rock the Gerontocracy!

Published
by
Hawkgrrrl
 
on June 12, 2008
 
in Culture, General Authorities, Government, Leaders, Mormon, Mormons, President Monson, catholicism, christianity, church, death, inter-faith, mormon, prophets, religion and theology
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rock-the-gerontocracy

Larry King described the Mormon faith as a “gerontocracy” (Hello–Pot? Kettle here).  Being led by 15 men with a median age of 76 is a unique feature of our church. So, what are the side effects of being in a gerontocracy? How does it color our life experience and perspectives? How does it affect the image of the church? Continue reading…

55 Comments

Offenders for a Word, Part 2 - Do Mormons Worship Jesus?

Published
by
Bruce Nielson
 
on May 17, 2008
 
in Anti-Mormon, Jesus, LDS, Leaders, Mormon, Mormons, Trinity, christianity, new order mormon and orthodox
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offenders-for-a-word-part-2-do-mormons-worship-jesus

In my last post I wrote about how we are all forced to take a thought and translate it into words and that this is a sloppy and imperfect process. To make matters worse, the person that has to take those words and decode them back into a thought will fail to do so correctly in many cases because they’ll get stuck on the words used, either because they don’t realize words have many meanings or because they have incentive to misunderstand.

In this post, I want to apply what we’ve discussed to a real life situation: Bruce R. McConkie’s talk on worshipping Jesus.

Case Study 2: Do Mormons Worship Jesus?

The word-offense in question comes from Bruce R. McConkie’s now famous (infamous?) talk entitled “Our Relationship with the Lord” where McConkie states that Mormons do not worship Jesus. Continue reading…

63 Comments

Nepotism in the Church

Published
by
Jeff Spector
 
on April 14, 2008
 
in General Authorities, General Conference, Leaders and Mormon
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nepotism-in-the-church

As I watched the press conference last week between the Sunday sessions of General Conference, I found out that the new 2nd Counselor of the Young Women General Presidency, Ann Dibbs, is a daughter of President Thomas S Monson. It got me thinking about how many relatives of Church leaders also become leaders themselves. Is nepotism a problem in the Church today? Continue reading…

45 Comments