New Church Ad Campaign

[Calm]

This has overwhelmingly been my experience as well. My skateboarding/snowboarding housemate was just released as our EQ president and called to serve in YM.

<shudder> I have never had this experience, but we have a member of our stake presidency currently who, if he were ever called to be an Area Authority, would probably provide precisely this kind of training 'on behalf of the Brethren.' The problem, of course, is that I'm not so sure this is on behalf of the Brethren at all. I seem to remember an apostle speaking in one of the last two General Conferences on this very issue--urging us to accept people and not impose conformity on them. You have my sympathy, Toronto.

The stake president who called my husband as a HC used the beard issue (I prefer my husband's soft, lovely beard in looks and feel to his 'clean shaven' state) as a test of obedience...ugh; the next stake president would not have done so. There are those who seem to feel it is their place to create more opportunities of 'testing' for members though I don't understand why just looking around at the state of our societies today don't demonstrate that we have more than enough to test our faith without adding what amounts to trivialities to deal with.

[maupayman]

I watched the video about Josh Maready. Near the end he says, "I don't think we are here to be robots. I don't think we are here to be chess pieces. I think God gave us individuality for a reason. He wants us to be who we are, and we need to take those unique aspects of our lives and make this church us."

At the end of the clip he says that he is a photographer. I was going to provide a link to his website, but I'm sure that directing you to semi-nude pictures might get me banned. I don't know why Josh Maready was chosen to represent the church.

It didn't look like he had garments on either. His underwear looked like it had red trim. No big deal, there are lots of LDS that are not endowed. But still, kind of a strange person to choose to rep the church.

[Hamba Tuhan]

There are those who seem to feel it is their place to create more opportunities of 'testing' for members though I don't understand why just looking around at the state of our societies today don't demonstrate that we have more than enough to test our faith without adding what amounts to trivialities to deal with.

Amen!

[Hamba Tuhan]

It didn't look like he had garments on either. His underwear looked like it had red trim. No big deal, there are lots of LDS that are not endowed. But still, kind of a strange person to choose to rep the church.

I am continually amazed at what those who've left the Church choose to focus on. In a million years, it never would have crossed my mind to analyse some bloke's underwear. Still, since I like accuracy, I'll point out that you're wrong:

a) If you watch the video in slow-mo, as I just did after reading your post, the red is his belt. Glimpses of underclothing, both top and bottom, are all white. What that might mean is ABSOLUTELY NONE OF MY BUSINESS, though.

b) You may wish to notice that he is not a 'strange person to choose to rep the church' to anyone who actually belongs to the Church. The choice, tellingly, has only seemed strange to those who are themselves estranged from the Church.

[mercyngrace]

His underwear looked like it had red trim.

Dude.

You were looking way too close.

[Senator]

Well, all I can say is, if the church is adopting a bit more edgy appoach to its advertising, then IT'S ABOUT TIME! The evangelicals, especially the nondenominational mega-church type, have been using this approach for a couple of decades now.

[Pahoran]

Hmmmm....

I couldn't help but think of Mitt Romney's next campaign for the U.S. Presidency when I read the following links on the new site:

http://mormon.org/citizenship/

Subheadings:

Good Citizens of the Earth [Environmentalism...??? Really? Droopy, are you reading this...? ]

Righteousness Exalts a Nation

Pay Tribute to Caesar and to God

Political Neutrality and Civility [Hmmm... this one's hard to defend in the wake of Prop 8 without resorting to semantics ("That was a moral issue, not a political one") a distinction that seems to be meaningless to many non-Mormons]

Darin,

I realise that it's almost reflexive, if not downright pavlovian, for you to fit abso-blankly-lutely every-blankly-thing into the procrustean bed of prop 8; and not just prop 8, but prop 8 as folded, spindled, mutilated and spun through the Kirk-Madsen PR machine; but the fact is that you haven't got a case here.

The Church is, and for at least double your lifetime has always been, politically neutral.

It neither endorses nor opposes any candidates, because it is politically neutral.

It neither endorses nor opposes any parties, because it is politically neutral.

It neither endorses nor opposes any platforms, because it is politically neutral.

When, from time to time, it takes a stand on a ballot initiative or other legislative event on the basis of having a specific doctrinal tenet or compelling institutional interest in said event, it is able to do so precisely because it is politically neutral.

The claim that the Church's involvement in Prop. 8 somehow compromised its political neutrality is a notorious canard that has never, ever, on any occasion, ever, been put forward by any honest, informed person in good faith.

Just so you know.

Regards,

Pahoran

[maupayman]

I am continually amazed at what those who've left the Church choose to focus on. In a million years, it never would have crossed my mind to analyse some bloke's underwear. Still, since I like accuracy, I'll point out that you're wrong:

a) If you watch the video in slow-mo, as I just did after reading your post, the red is his belt. Glimpses of underclothing, both top and bottom, are all white. What that might mean is ABSOLUTELY NONE OF MY BUSINESS, though.

b) You may wish to notice that he is not a 'strange person to choose to rep the church' to anyone who actually belongs to the Church. The choice, tellingly, has only seemed strange to those who are themselves estranged from the Church.

Fair enough, I didn't watch in slow-mo. There are members on this thread that have voiced concern over him as well, given his photography. He does sound like an interesting guy though. I personally think the old website was more professional looking, though this new site and ads will likely appeal to a different audience.

[cinepro]

- the wearing of a pastel coloured shirt meant that you were less of a man; he said, I quote verbatim (because I wrote it down), "What kind of man wears a purple or pink dress shirt? I'll tell you what kind of man, I think we all know what kind of man, brethren."

[Hamba Tuhan]

If life really did resemble televison--and specifically a crappy American sitcom (which I realise is a redundancy)--then someone would get this poster printed out, laminated, and sent to Toronto's former area authority...who then wouldn't get the joke.

FWIW, our somewhat similar stake presidency member, in discussing potential candidates to be called as bishop in stake presidency meeting last night, said, 'He's like me--a good counsellor but not someone you'd want to be in charge.' I genuinely laughed out loud.

[Hamba Tuhan]

Sweet! Five new videos have been added since I last looked.

[Mordecai]

Last week I happened to be in Independence Missouri where I visited the LDS visitors center and the Community of Christ temple. In terms of things like dress, hairstyle, speaking patterns, and predictability, the diversity of the folks at the Community of Christ certainly made the official representatives of the LDS look like robots.

People with a strong sense of identity feel more comfortable looking the same, as they know their unique attributes and feel it all the time. They don't need to look different. Close-knit people also tend to dress alike. Can you fault the Church for #1 having members with strong sense of identity (and we do) and #2 being close-knit?

[Pahoran]

People with a strong sense of identity feel more comfortable looking the same, as they know their unique attributes and feel it all the time. They don't need to look different. Close-knit people also tend to dress alike. Can you fault the Church for #1 having members with strong sense of identity (and we do) and #2 being close-knit?

You know the answers: yes and yes.

In fact, Analytics could fault the Church for (1) having members with strong sense of identity, and (1A) having members without a strong sense of identity. Make a challenge of it, and he could do it in a single sentence.

Likewise, Analytics could fault the Church for (2) being close-knit and (2A) not being close-knit.

Analytics faults the Church. It's what he does.

Regards,

Pahoran