What Is The Biggest Threat To The Church?

[Rob Osborn]

I have been thinking about this for a while. What is the biggest threat to the church that would or may cause members to fall away, become apostate, enemies?

 

Is it this women and the priesthood thing?

Is it the issue of Same Sex Marriage?

Is it Mormon History and issues with things like polygamy?

Is it the churches stance on morals- things like dress standards, morality, same sex attraction, etc?

Is it something else?

 

Personally I see it as the issue of Same sex Marriage being the biggest threat to the church.

[The Nehor]

Pride within its membership. Despair within the membership is probably second.

Edited September 26, 2014 by The Nehor

[AndyDnom]

the biggest threat, is the unpreparedness of the exising members, that do 80% of the heavy lifting to keep the church afloat. They are un inocculated for hearing the shotgun style criticisms from the church. Now that its available in one click, one letter, one website, etc. hearing the attacks is going to pass through the existing membership like a virus . most are unprepared. what we are seeing now are early signs.

 

I dont think the CES letter is well done ,or  perfect. but when i say "shotgun style criticisms" what i mean, is that roughly most of what is contained in that letter, will be presented to most members in the next 5-10 years. many will leave.

[JAHS]

The biggest threat to the church is the weakness of the testimonies of church members. All those other things are not a threat if testimonies are strong.

[Boanerges]

The biggest threat to the church is those who are too blind to see the forest for the trees. The truth is in front of them and obvious, yet they still believe in the God of the Lost Car Keys and worship him at the pulpit of the fast & testimony meeting. As the church comes more clean on its history and doctrine, great will be the fall of these.

[Teancum]

Movements like Denver Snuffer's pose the greatest threat IMO.

[Buzzard]

the biggest threat, is the unpreparedness of the exising members, that do 80% of the heavy lifting to keep the church afloat. They are un inocculated for hearing the shotgun style criticisms from the church. Now that its available in one click, one letter, one website, etc. hearing the attacks is going to pass through the existing membership like a virus . most are unprepared. what we are seeing now are early signs.

 

I dont think the CES letter is well done ,or  perfect. but when i say "shotgun style criticisms" what i mean, is that roughly most of what is contained in that letter, will be presented to most members in the next 5-10 years. many will leave.

Nothing in that letter that I han't heard about anywhere from 20 to 40 years ago. 

No, as the world grows more wicked, standing up for our standards, individually and collectively, we will become more and more a contrast to that world with our standards.

[MormonFreeThinker]

None of the above, it is pride, hypocrisy, gossip, and close minded, careless, and rude members.  

When members are not friendly to everybody for no reason.  

 

If you take away all of that, we will have more active members and less inactive members. 

Edited September 26, 2014 by MormonFreeThinker

[JLHPROF]

The biggest threat is the embracing of mutliple agenda's, opinions, doctrines, and worst of all changing standards to encourage membership retention and conversions. Truth must be our unalterable standard or why even bother?

[Paddy]

It's biggest threat to the institutional church is itself.

1. It has trouble changing to meet the needs of an increasingly international and diverse church.

2. It's missionary program is becoming increasingly irrelevant largely due to its business type model.

3. It does not know how to appeal to its youth and young adults.

These 3 iMO are the live bloods of the church. If you can get this right, and quickly, you don't have a church in a generation or two.

[CA Steve]

If by threat to the Church you mean change to the status quo, I would suggest that electronic media & communications are the biggest threat.

I see nothing that actually threatens the existence of the Church.

[Daniel2]

The Internet.

Rob, in what way do you see same-sex marriage being a threat to the church?

[The Nehor]

Sharknados.

[cinepro]

If the responses in this thread are representative of the feelings of Church members in general, I think I need to change my vote...

[VideoGameJunkie]

Crab people.

[teddyaware]

I have been thinking about this for a while. What is the biggest threat to the church that would or may cause members to fall away, become apostate, enemies?

 

Is it this women and the priesthood thing?

Is it the issue of Same Sex Marriage?

Is it Mormon History and issues with things like polygamy?

Is it the churches stance on morals- things like dress standards, morality, same sex attraction, etc?

Is it something else?

 

Personally I see it as the issue of Same sex Marriage being the biggest threat to the church.

There are many threats, but according to prophecy all these so-called threats will utterly fail and totally backfire on the perpetrators.

But to answer the question (in consideration of the fact that I voted "none of the above") I believe the greatest threat posed against the Church is not following the counsel of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve. Failure to heed their counsel -- most especially when that counsel is unpopular in the eyes of the world -- will ensnare and spiritually injure more members of the Church than any other threat. In every generation and Gospel dispensation, this has always been the greatest threat and it always will be...

Edited September 26, 2014 by teddyaware

[cinepro]

But seriously, I would have to say "the Internet". 

 

I think religion works better when a church (or person) can "control the message".   This just isn't possible anymore, and now that LDS with different (and shall we say "less traditional" or "less orthodox") beliefs can support each other through informal online communication, it will vastly dilute the power of the Church's message (I suspect this will happen to religion in general). 

 

The Church can either adapt by trying to accommodate this wider variety of members, or by being stricter and trying to get more uniformity.  The former seems to be the current approach, but I suspect there will be too much variety and the latter will be the ultimate way they deal with it.

[Duncan]

I think the members of the Church in our day like in Alma son of Alma's day, as per Alma 4-5,  are the biggest threat to the Church. I think apostasy from within is far worse then from without

[EllenMaksoud]

I have been thinking about this for a while. What is the biggest threat to the church that would or may cause members to fall away, become apostate, enemies?

 

Is it this women and the priesthood thing?

Is it the issue of Same Sex Marriage?

Is it Mormon History and issues with things like polygamy?

Is it the churches stance on morals- things like dress standards, morality, same sex attraction, etc?

Is it something else?

 

Personally I see it as the issue of Same sex Marriage being the biggest threat to the church.

For me personally, I see it as those within the church who excercise unrighteous dominion on others. Here are some examples, I have their names but will not reveal them.

 

There were a couple of Mormon Men, or they said they were Mormon, on Facebook, who intruded on a discussion on women's rights. I have some very good reasons for not wishing the Priesthood, though I do nothing to interfere with the women who want it. We were having a gentle, thoughtful conversation on the issue when these two guys got on there and started acting like the meanest of red necks. I immediately blocked both of them, but the damage was done.

 

I was called to be an Internet Missionary, and when I asked what I was to do, my Bishop said to keep doing what I had been doing. I had a very good relationship with numbers of Missionaries, both Elders and Sisters.  In total, I did that work about three years, when a Woman who had started or seemed to be in charge of a Sister Missionary group suddenly blocked me from further participation in the Missionary group after we had an exchange about Sister Missionaries being just as "called" as Elders.  This was really hurtful. I moved on. Several Sister missionaries asked where I went.

 

I had been really open about my relationship with Muslims because I believe that the church has a future in KSA and other places. I got asked if I was Muslim or Mormon, and told that I would have to choose. If that is the demand, then the person does not understand the mission of Jesus Christ.

 

Who ever is posting church sponsored spots on Facebook has gone way past the mark. For a while there, when I opened up FB it was mostly Mormon content. I felt smothered, and overwhelmed. I eventually closed that account on FB and opened another after a while. There are NO Mormons on that account. It was extremely upsetting and I eventually told my Bishop that I was done with the church, which he appears to have ignored. 

 

Since about April of 2011, No non Mormon, or Muslim said unkind things to me. It hurts that it had to be Mormons that did it. I may eventually open that old account up, and if people are still flooding me with content, they will be blocked. There had been many discussions with Evangelicals, Catholics, and even Muslims about God, Allah SWT, and the content of various books in those faiths. No one had ever been unkind to me except Mormons.

 

As time has passed, the hurt has eased, and I suppose that I am still Mormon, but extremely sympathetic and loving toward Muslims in a way that confuses others, and most certainly me also.

Edited September 27, 2014 by EllenMaksoud

[Hamba Tuhan]

Pride within its membership.

 

I believe the greatest threat posed against the Church is not following the counsel of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve.

 

Bingo.

 

The Great Apostasy occurred solely because the early Saints, in their pride, 'turned away' from the authorised apostles, gave 'heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils', and were 'led away with the error of the wicked'.

 

In our day, thankfully, this is not a threat to the Church per se, but it remains a threat to Church members.

Edited September 27, 2014 by Hamba Tuhan

[sethpayne]

Denver Snuffer

[mfbukowski]

People who think that we should believe in sectarian/creedal philosophy while trying to restore what existed before that.

 

We are supposedly "restorationists" who just want to keep thinking like all the protestants around us.

 

If we keep thinking the same things they think, we will end up as they have, in the graveyard of history.

 

This is not rocket science.  In fact it is not science at all.

[mfbukowski]

The biggest threat to the church is those who are too blind to see the forest for the trees. The truth is in front of them and obvious, yet they still believe in the God of the Lost Car Keys and worship him at the pulpit of the fast & testimony meeting. As the church comes more clean on its history and doctrine, great will be the fall of these.

You need to pray for lost car keys more.  You might learn something.

[mfbukowski]

The biggest threat is the embracing of mutliple agenda's, opinions, doctrines, and worst of all changing standards to encourage membership retention and conversions. Truth must be our unalterable standard or why even bother?

And who gets to define the truth?

 

If you haven't noticed, the scriptures and prophets are just a tad ambiguous.

[mfbukowski]

Bingo.

 

The Great Apostasy occurred solely because the early Saints, in their pride, 'turned away' from the authorised apostles, gave 'heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils', and were 'led away with the error of the wicked'.

 

In our day, thankfully, this is not a threat to the Church per se, but it remains a threat to Church members.

But we still think just like those who turned away from the original church, because it is part of our culture in the west.

 

That's a problem.