What a wonderful event!

[Scott Lloyd]

5 minutes ago, Kenngo1969 said:

You (and Bernstein and Sondheim) are right that the "time" and "place" for "us" is not here and not yet, but not for the reason you suggest.  In a larger sense, we are all "strangers in a strange land": We're not essentially mortal beings sent here to have occasional spiritual experiences; we're essentially spiritual beings who have been sent here to have a mortal experience.  In that sense, we are all longing for a future "someday" and a Celestial "somewhere" where we will be able to lay aside the cares, the troubles, and the evils of this world and enter a Better One.

I like that application. But I also like mine. 

[provoman]

Did anyone witness the distrubtion from the audience?

[Scott Lloyd]

2 minutes ago, provoman said:

Did anyone witness the distrubtion from the audience?

What is a distrubtion?

Edited June 3, 2018 by Scott Lloyd

[provoman]

29 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

What is a distrubtion?

The internet rumor is someone in the audience "protested" - it is not clear what the person yelled out. The rumor continues that the protestor was handcuffed and escorted out. I have no other details than that.

Edited June 3, 2018 by provoman

[Scott Lloyd]

1 hour ago, provoman said:

The internet rumor is someone in the audience "protested" - it is not clear what the person yelled out. The rumor continues that the protestor was handcuffed and escorted out. I have no other details than that.

So you were trying to say “disturbance,” then. 

[pogi]

6 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

So you were trying to say “disturbance,” then. 

I think "disturbance" and "disruption" had a baby.  I do that all the time with my words. 

Edited June 3, 2018 by pogi

[Scott Lloyd]

8 minutes ago, pogi said:

I think "disturbance" and "disruption" had a baby.  I do that all the time with my words. 

Yeah. It’s called a coinage. 

[Calm]

Checking with a friend who was there if he saw/heard anything.

Probably will be reported in the news if it happened...at least if handcuffed, etc.  A minor disturbance, probably not.

[provoman]

26 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

So you were trying to say “disturbance,” then. 

Ahhh, yes, that is the word. Sorry. I did not catch the typo in your first post. Thank you. 

[Kenngo1969]

1 hour ago, provoman said:

The internet rumor is someone in the audience "protested" - it is not clear what the person yelled out. The rumor continues that the protestor was handcuffed and escorted out. I have no other details than that.

That would simply go to show that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (see what I did there ) cannot win and that it is "danged if it does, and danged if it don't": Worst-case scenario, the ban was a result of one or more racist or bigoted decisions by one or more racist or bigoted leaders which, belatedly, was or were corrected on June 9, 1978.  So if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does something wrong (from a protester's point of view), the wrong done should be protested, while if it corrects that wrong, that should also be protested.

Edited June 3, 2018 by Kenngo1969

[Calm]

My friend heard nothing during the program.  There were two protestors outside before the show that weren't there afterwards, but he has no idea if they got bored, left because no cameras, were shooed off by police for having no permits, or whatever.

[Kenngo1969]

46 minutes ago, Calm said:

My friend heard nothing during the program.  There were two protestors outside before the show that weren't there afterwards, but he has no idea if they got bored, left because no cameras, were shooed off by police for having no permits, or whatever.

Hmm.  I wonder if they were the typical street screechers from the "You-Morminz-is-all-goin'-ta-hell" crowd or someone else?  

[Scott Lloyd]

2 minutes ago, Kenngo1969 said:

Hmm.  I wonder if they were the typical street screechers from the "You-Morminz-is-all-goin'-ta-hell" crowd or someone else?  

Whatever they were, protestors outside the Conference Center is, alas, just part of the routine ambience these days. 

[Kenngo1969]

11 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Whatever they were, protestors outside the Conference Center is, alas, just part of the routine ambience these days. 

True, though one of my fondest memories of singing in the Regional Choir that sang in the 184th Semiannual Conference was "walking the gauntlet" back to underground parking after the session, with protesters holding signs and shouting slogans on one side and youth and young adults singing the songs of the Restoration on the other side.  

[Calm]

Another friend said he heard of one altercation posted about by someone he knew, but the guy isn't being coherent in his description from what I saw so hard to tell if real or not.

It appears if it happened it was because he was trying to film the event and they asked him to stop and return to his seat and he got "defiant".

[Scott Lloyd]

2 minutes ago, Kenngo1969 said:

True, though one of my fondest memories of singing in the Regional Choir that sang in the 184th Semiannual Conference was "walking the gauntlet" back to underground parking after the session, with protesters holding signs and shouting slogans on one side and youth and young adults singing the songs of the Restoration on the other side.  

Kind of a real-life illustration of the separation between the sheep and the goats. 

[Avatar4321]

8 hours ago, Gray said:

Disappointing. The church continues to labor under this unrepented sin.

I see no evidence that the Church committed a sin. Especially with the precedent of previous dispensations

[Robert F. Smith]

On 6/1/2018 at 11:20 PM, rongo said:

I don't think the spoken thoughts or the event as a whole could have been better. Very impressed! 

https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/president-oaks-remarks-worldwide-priesthood-celebration

And yes, I'm glad that there wasn't any apology. I think President Oaks' strong emphasis on looking forward, and not navel-gazing about the past, is the best course for all of us to follow. 

As I said elsewhere on this board just now, 

At the beginning of that wonderful celebration at the Conference Center Friday nite, I took careful note of Pres Oaks' comment that he had studied the reasons generally given for the restrictions on priesthood, and could not find confirmation of the truth of any of them (1:11:00).  Then came the 1978 revelation, Pres Oaks saying:

"Institutionally, the Church reacted swiftly to the revelation on the priesthood. . . .  The reasons that had been given to try to explain the prior restrictions on members of African ancestry, even those previously voiced by revered Church leaders, were promptly and publicly disavowed." (1:12:00)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I43VRudhMw .

Edited June 3, 2018 by Robert F. Smith

[Robert F. Smith]

4 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Whatever they were, protestors outside the Conference Center is, alas, just part of the routine ambience these days. 

I like it when (occasionally) a small missionary chorus entertains those waiting to get in the Center.  Drowns out the riffraff.

[Stargazer]

On 6/2/2018 at 7:37 AM, Marginal Gains said:

“Dear brothers and sisters, we have been uplifted by the message of President Oaks and by wonderful musicians and dancers. We are especially grateful for Gladys Knight, the Be One Choir, Alex Boyé, and the Bonner family. These talented performers have inspired us all.”

Arranging for Black people to perform in front of the unapologetic White Church leaders as a celebration of the end of a racial ban is a symbolism that I find jarring.

Is that you, Eeyore?

[Gray]

6 hours ago, Avatar4321 said:

I see no evidence that the Church committed a sin. Especially with the precedent of previous dispensations

The sin was unjustly discriminating against black people for more than a century.

[Glenn101]

16 hours ago, rpn said:

I don't believe that the ban came from God, but I'd be willing to bet that BY believed he was doing what he had to do to preserve the Church in the way he thought it should be preserved, and that God was okay with it.  

From all historical texts, Brigham Young Sincerely believed that the ban came from God and only God could revoke it. And that is what happened and that is what the celebration was about.

Glenn

[Glenn101]

1 hour ago, Gray said:

The sin was unjustly discriminating against black people for more than a century.

If the ban came from God, as B.Y. sincerely believed, then God was the sinner???

Glenn

[Kenngo1969]

9 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Kind of a real-life illustration of the separation between the sheep and the goats. 

It was very convenient that they did their own separating!    Someone (Brad Wilcox, maybe?) once wrote that we picture God at the judgment as a stern taskmaster, pointing out all of our sins and explaining why we won't be able to stay in His presence, when, in reality, we have it backward: It is He who pleads with us to do the things necessary to stay in His presence while it is we who will be saying, "Get me outta here!"

[Gray]

38 minutes ago, Glenn101 said:

If the ban came from God, as B.Y. sincerely believed, then God was the sinner???

Glenn

The ban didn't come from God. Blaming it on God is adding blaspheme on top of sin.