Bob Crockett

When my younger sisters were of seminary age, our Stake President said, "No way no how" to early morning seminary in our stake in Washington state.  Kids met on a Friday evening.  They seemed to all  do well in the Church.  Apparently, stakes have the ability to opt out.

I have enjoyed my relationships with the S&I directors who managed us seminary teachers, but I found the directors with few exceptions don't have the right attitude about church service and what the church means.  Rather, they tend to be self aggrandizing and not all that knowledgeable about church history and doctrine.  It's all  about them and their personalities.  I think Brad Wilcox is a great guy but I see a little of that there.

When I was a bishop a high councilor was scheduled to speak.  He was an S&I director.  Before the meeting started he chewed me out, telling me that the wards don't give high councilors enough time to speak.  I asked him to look at the program and lo and behold he was the only speaker on the program; he hadn't even looked.  But he really laid into me before that.   I have also found S&I directors to be rather ignorant fellows.   In one bi-weekly seminar, our director asked us all to state our favorite Biblical character.  I mentioned Mordecai.  He had never heard of him and couldn't spell his name.  

I was a seminary teacher (early morning) for nine years and loved every minute of it.   Having said that I think Seminaries and Institutes ought to be abolished.

I don't think so much of the name change, nor the selection of the Christus (it was used to decorate graves in the San Fernando Valley) as the Church's logo.  Angeles dancing on the head of a pin.

10 hours ago, smac97 said:

Here:

The "brief glimpse" includes temple content, so... (a still image is at the link also).

Huh.  I have never heard of the Lafferty brothers being described as "esteemed."

Thanks,

-Smac

They were local Highland politicians.  

1 hour ago, blarsen said:

You're correct when you say "The fight for a particular therapy is between doctor and patient", but I would insert:  "should be" for the "is" in this statement.

Unfortunately (in my view and the view of my RN wife), most doctors are under the thrall of hospital protocols, especially those working directly for a hospital, and in the case of a physician working outside of a hospital, they are constrained by the protocols of a hospital they may refer a patient to for surgery, etc.   The power of the hospital administration is largely driven by money . . . . they don't follow the protocols, especially those put forth for COVID treatment, they don't get the money.

And actually, there are many doctors who are prescribing sequential multi-drug therapies that may or may not include hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, and with excellent results.  Unfortunately, the majority fear the consequences for doing so.

Docs are not "in thrall" to the hospitals in the US.  So, a doc coming off his residency seeks a job in Loveland Colorado..    He never goes to the hospital, because hospitals do not employ docs.  He finds the right medical group and signs up.  But he still needs patients, so he seeks admission privileges at a Loveland hospital.   The hospital may or may not have rules against a particular therapy.   The docs still has the power to get it  There are any number of pharmacies around his hospital who can help.  But if the doc actually administers discourged therepy, he risks losing his privileges.

So, it really isn't the hospital's fault.  It is the docs' fault for administering it or not administering the therapy.

16 hours ago, blarsen said:

Actually, hospital protocols have been interpreted to strongly imply that key elements of these therapies should be denied.  And they are, almost across the board.   You apparently haven't heard, read or listened to the myriad testimonies of this reality.  Perhaps, now, hospitals are loosening up.  I hope so. 

As a simple test, go to your primary care physician and ask him/her for a prescription for hydroxchloroquine and/or ivermectin and why you want it, to see what he/she says.   The next test would be to see if your local pharmacy will even issue it if the doctor does  prescribe it.  There are many reports of pharmacies unwilling to fill these prescriptions. 

And you have to be more specific about what you regard as anecdotal, and therefore, non-evidence.  For my friend hearing about the cadaver count from the owner of a well-known local Funeral Home, this information is a first-hand account of his friends direct experience.  For me, its 2nd hand.   Now, yes, you could call it anecdotal evidence unless my friend went down to the morgue and did the count with its director friend.  It then becomes direct evidence to my friend.  Same with you.   But for both of us, because of the trust we have with one another, the current information is good evidence, even though anecdotal.

I'm telling you, this is craziness.  An MD can prescribe all these alternative theories.  Hydroxchloroquine and/or ivermectine.  But the MD knows that these alternative theories are horse **** instead and don't prescribe them at all.  But I am aware of one or two who do prescribe these things.  I had a friend with a severe case of Covid.  The fight for a particular therapy (here, hydrochloroquine) is between doctor and patient. 

What a hospital protocol says would be meanless. The MD just tells the patient to show up in his office.

Anecdotal evidence, generally in a case like this, is not admissible in a court of law.

46 minutes ago, blarsen said:

McCullough, himself, recognizes that the vaccine has some ameliorative effect in certain cases.  But both he and many, many, many others are direct witnesses to very horrible and adverse effects from them . . . in certain cases.  And there are statistical studies of the VAERS database indicating the bad effects are limited to certain lots of the vaccines.

And I am  direct witness to the almost immediate ameliorative/good effects from the use of alternative therapies for several people in my immediate and extended family and my circle of friends.  We are fortunate (in a way) because my wife has been taking Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) for almost 30 years for a condition she has, so we have a good supply, and have dispensed it to those we know need it.  The effect is nothing like the placebo effect Nehor would like to limit it to.  Based on her experience with this drug and being an RN, enabled her to immediately detect the lies Fauci was indulging in about it.  This is one of the reasons we started getting really interested in such things.

Additionally, I'm directly aware of some of the horrible and bad effects of the 'vaccines' from my wife's immediate family and people close to friends of mine, to include our dentist.

Finally, a week ago, a close friend told me what a friend of his who runs a well-known Funeral Home told him about the skyrocketing monthly body count they are dealing with and the strange, very long and never before seen blood clots they are encountering during embalming.  He also said that all the Funeral Homes he is aware of are experiencing the same thing.  His counts  went from a normal monthly high of an occasional 100, up to 120, this past month, with the increase being steady over the past few months.  The same thing is being reported in many Funeral Parlors in several countries.

I'm not trying to argue with anybody.  This is simply testimonial from my experience and knowledge of certain data/information.

This is craziness.  There is nothing prohibiting a doctor from using these therapies.  And anecdotes are not evidence.  

Divorced men cannot serve as bishop or in a stake presidency without First Presidency approval.  Such approvals are rare. 

23 hours ago, california boy said:

How would someone not of the tribe of Levi qualify for the priesthood when the Old Testament says it was taken from all the other tribes?  And if just being a prophet somehow qualifies you to receive the priesthood, what about the women in the Bible that were prophets?  Wouldn't they qualify for the priesthood because they were prophets also?

"Prophet" is not a priesthood office.  Anyone can prophesy.

Fifteen men are prophets seers and revelators.  Not ordained offices.

On 2/6/2022 at 2:50 PM, mfbukowski said:

I said you have to go to God to follow your conscience and then you replied with the above

Your conscience IS God!! It's the still small voice!!,  the Holy Ghost!!

What is the practical difference between the HG and alleged "light of Christ?"

Experientially, it is a distinction without a difference.  Yes, there is a doctrinal difference, I know.

"God" is one, a committee of 3 Persons. Two of these are "messengers", one is the HG and the other is Christ, The Word. Both are linked, and named "God".  They are one in purpose!! 

To hear your conscience is to hear the voice of God!

On the other hand it could be your brain following eons of game theory stamped in your mind by evolution. 

I get threadbanned all the time for poking Pogi unintentionally.  It's nothing.  

Don't judge him on his voice.  It is weird.  His message has been affirmative in support of the atonement.  

1 hour ago, bluebell said:

I want to like them because I do think they are filling a void that is needed.  Like fether said, we need people who aren't academics and 80 years old to talk about church stuff.  We need people who can relate to younger audiences, and who younger audiences can relate to.

But they (Kwaku anyway), fills the void in ways that I do think do more damage than good right now.  

The problem is not Kwaku but Cardon Ellis, who is extremely thin in Mormon apologia and intensely committed to insults.  

I fully support the proposition that no General Authority should ever again speak at a FAIR conference, nor should anybody affiliated with BYU or Interpreter.

17 minutes ago, Calm said:

I take it you aren’t into forgiveness much.

It is a question of repeated errors of judgment which are quite hostile to the Church's mission.

These guys are thugs and morons.  Idiots as well...

Because FAIR once endorsed them, I urge everyone to boycott FAIR and suspend contributions.

We use it legally.

Power means, like, holding the Melchizedek Priesthood

Authority means to serve as an Elders Quorum President.  Not everbody does. 

On 1/19/2022 at 4:51 PM, sunstoned said:

I felt like I was part of a sales force instead of a missionary. I know that both of my Mission Presidents were businessmen with a sales focus. I am wondering what the percentage of Mission Presidents are with this type of background.

The first president was a union leader and not a sales person. 

15 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

So no 15 min endowment. That's what I thought.

You thought wrong.

3 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

CFR on the 15 minute endowment.  Not sure I've heard that before.
The historical record indicates it took all day.

who knows.   Brigham Young would spend a day endowing hundreds of saints, one at a time.

17 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

You are welcome to that opinion.  I admit Brigham established certain systematic elements.  But the content came from Joseph.

Not really.  My opinion is based on fact.  JS told BY that he didn't quite have his 15 minute endowment right and told BY to improve upon it.  BY did that in the SG temple, adding masonry.  This according to BY. 

17 minutes ago, JLHPROF said:

Agreed...up to a point.
I already feel the Church is out of order in the changes it's made to the temple ordinances for example.  I believe that at some point the Lord will restore things as they were given by revelation to the prophet Joseph.
Until then the only point of debate is how much we may digress from the actual truth of the ordinances.
But the gospel and priesthood will never be lost.

To Brigham Young not JS.  And it wasn't a revelation. 

22 hours ago, rongo said:

I couldn't help but notice as I read this month's magazine, that the Liahona neè Ensign continued the streak of never including any local flood "nuance" --- only global flood literalism.

https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2022/02/noahs-ark?lang=eng

It is interesting that everything published by the Church (so far) only supports literalist stances. When (if ever) do you think that the "breakthroughs" into non-literalist approaches will come? 

The entire Book of Mormon story bucks against Christian "literalist stances."

The Bible may report on a global flood but there are no witnesses to a global flood. We are limited in the Bible to its witnesses, and that is what God intended.

1 hour ago, The Nehor said:

When someone disagrees we with you I hate to sée it.  

Cite me a peer reviewed research piece of great value published by a burrito sitting at a computer 

30 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

Oh, for the love of……

How did those vaccines get distributed? How did they get to virtually everyone and eradicate the disease?

Would smallpox have been eradicated worldwide without the WHO’s campaign? Would polio be on its last legs?

Would the market have dealt with the problem of getting people to go door to door in impoverished and war-torn nations distributing free vaccines?

Yes 

On 1/13/2022 at 4:19 AM, The Nehor said:

There generally weren’t any public health officials. You can find exceptions here and there but they weren’t around in the time of Brigham Young. At least not in any numbers. Quarantines and the like were run by the government. If you were lucky you had a reasonably competent doctor on the city council or whatever.

I really hope you are are not arguing that 19th century doctors were in the pocket of big pharma too because that would be insane.

The mid-19th century saw a huge revolution in medicine and that included public health. The pioneers were in Western Europe and they started using statistics to track disease outbreaks. There was also a more concrete connection established between cleanliness and health. It created a bit of a social revolution as the community as a whole cleaned up to keep everyone healthy. That was the ideal anyways.

The CDC didn’t exist until after World War 2 and grew out of malaria eradication efforts in the south. Teams of entomologists and engineers all but eliminated malaria in the US. We still have cases but almost all come from travelers who were somewhere else. Local transmission is all but non-existent. That is the benefit of competent public health officials. It is how we got rid of malaria, polio, smallpox, measles, mumps, etc. Hand-waving those successes that impact our lives to this day with a dismissal about “big pharma” and all public health officials forever and always throughout all of time being corrupt is just a lazy dismissal.

Jonas Salk was working at a university.  Yes it was a public school relying upon federal grants.  But at least he wasn't a public health official.  

Edward Jenner Smallpox.  No public health at the time.  

Should I go on to refute your claim.  

I like public health for its statistics. But not to breed a whole substrata of burritos sitting at desks. 

Do they publish valuable papers in the NEJM?   Who does publish there?