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Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 7:31 am
by sparky
I can't get over how disturbing and nauseating it was for Nelson to exploit a young girl's cancer to build up his own charisma and persona. "Lydia's wish was to meet the president of the Lord's church."

No, her wish was to know what heaven is like. Her wish was probably that the so-called prophet of the Only True and Living Church might just possibly have a smidgen of the power to heal that is talked about in hundreds of church lessons every week, and that if he got a chance to meet him he might deign to use it. Instead she is paraded in front of a half-empty stadium a la Joel Olstein or something and encouraged to have more faith.

This issue alone should be enough for any member with common sense to wake up and think, hey ya know, maybe these New Testament stories of miraculous healings are fables. Maybe, just maybe, Nelson and Co. really are just old guys crystalized in their half-baked beliefs running a corporation.

Sorry, I'm angry today and I had to vent a bit. I'm tired of otherwise educated people in my life believing these charlatans are the greatest people on earth and hanging on their every word with reverence and awe.

Re: Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 7:34 am
by aoirselvar
I was thinking about how convenient it is that there are still miracles when everything works out but all other times god just wanted to bring that person home for after death missionary work. It’s a win win evidence system for the church


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Re: Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 8:18 am
by MoPag
It was sooooo F-ed up!!! That poor baby girl and her family.

We had dinner at my TBM parents house and got roped into watching it. Barf.

There was a pretty hilariously annoying suck up 70 talk though.

Re: Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 9:37 am
by Red Ryder
Was that last night?

How in the world did my wife not tune in?

Do I detect a disturbance in the force? We were home all night?

Sounds like we didn't miss much?

Re: Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 9:52 am
by græy
All I could think while watching was that Joseph Smith healed (or tried)... why can't Nelson? Put your money where your mouth is. Do something!

Re: Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 10:08 am
by Mormorrisey
Yep, we had it on in our house - I was browsing sports news while it was on. I did catch that segment with the poor kid, and just shook my head. Sister M caught me and asked what it was for, and I wisely declined to discuss it.

But that's the point - maybe she wanted to meet the prophet of Jesus's church, so like the Master himself or his early apostles, heal her from her cancer. Instead, she's just allowed to stand up during a church meeting. That was horrible to witness. With all due respect to Sam Young and Bill Reel, I think the church itself is doing a fine enough job in turning people away from it.

Re: Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 10:23 am
by slavereeno
It wasn't on our radar either, until oldest DS and his wife asked if we were going to watch it. Then it got turned on. I noticed that DW and kids listened to and enjoyed the music, but totally tuned out, talked over, left the room etc. whenever someone started talking. I didn't hear more than two words strung together of the talking. Sounds like that was for the best.

Directly after it was over we watched "The Santa Clause" with Tim Allen. I thought it was a great compliment to the church faith-fest of the devotional. In the movie they make the hard sell for a literal Santa Claus in the face of all logical arguments, but at the end of the day we all know its just a fun story. I like the idea of coupling those things together, my wife knows that if we don't put gifts out on Christmas eve, there ain't going to be a magic fat man in a red suit doing it, and yet here is a movie that seems to find "solutions" to all the Santa doubts... :twisted:

Re: Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 1:44 pm
by alas
My DH turned it on and I started out in the wrong mood because he turned off the movie I as watching. Our house is small enough that really, there is no place to go except out in the rain to escape. I figured the music at least is good. And I don’t know about the girl with cancer, maybe the attention given to her by standing up that way made her feel loved. Some people like that kind of thing and there is the possibility he asked them ahead of time and they were good with it. Not something I would like for my kid, but maybe they liked it. ???

The thing that disgusted me most was he gave this nice talk about being like Jesus, then when it came to defining how to be like Jesus, it wasn’t feed the hungry, help the poor, or cloth the naked. No, it was make covenants n the temple. Sorry, but Jesus didn’t ever make those covenants in the temple, nor did he ever say anything about giving to a wealthy church. Sorry, but how to love your neighbor is not by sitting through an endowment. Puke.


That man is just disgusting

Re: Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 2:57 pm
by deacon blues
alas wrote:
Mon Dec 03, 2018 1:44 pm
The thing that disgusted me most was he gave this nice talk about being like Jesus, then when it came to defining how to be like Jesus, it wasn’t feed the hungry, help the poor, or cloth the naked. No, it was make covenants n the temple. Sorry, but Jesus didn’t ever make those covenants in the temple, nor did he ever say anything about giving to a wealthy church. Sorry, but how to love your neighbor is not by sitting through an endowment. Puke.
Yeah, that was sad. I thought it was interesting that he spoke of eternal life being the kind of life God has, like creating and ruling worlds. I wonder if Gordon B. Hinckley is rolling over in his grave and saying, "Russell, we don't know much about that."

Re: Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 3:16 pm
by oliblish
deacon blues wrote:
Mon Dec 03, 2018 2:57 pm
alas wrote:
Mon Dec 03, 2018 1:44 pm
The thing that disgusted me most was he gave this nice talk about being like Jesus, then when it came to defining how to be like Jesus, it wasn’t feed the hungry, help the poor, or cloth the naked. No, it was make covenants n the temple. Sorry, but Jesus didn’t ever make those covenants in the temple, nor did he ever say anything about giving to a wealthy church. Sorry, but how to love your neighbor is not by sitting through an endowment. Puke.
Yeah, that was sad. I thought it was interesting that he spoke of eternal life being the kind of life God has, like creating and ruling worlds. I wonder if Gordon B. Hinckley is rolling over in his grave and saying, "Russell, we don't know much about that."
Hey wait a minute. What is the difference between a planet and a world? Do we get our own planets or not? I am confused. What did it say in the essay?

Re: Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 5:40 pm
by Hagoth
oliblish wrote:
Mon Dec 03, 2018 3:16 pm
Hey wait a minute. What is the difference between a planet and a world? Do we get our own planets or not? I am confused. What did it say in the essay?
I love the way they laugh off the thing about getting our own planet as ludicrous, when the truth is we believe we get our own universe with as many planets as we care to make. Because we'll be freakin' GODS.

Re: Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 12:03 pm
by No Tof
DW said it was really good. Who am I to disagree?


The ward had a wing night for all the guys and their kids. It sounded like a good idea so I stopped by to say hello. Sadly there was no beer so I went home and celebrated my own way. :D

Re: Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 9:21 am
by Not Buying It
For Lydia, meeting President Nelson and attending the devotional was literally a wish fulfilled. “It is so amazing just to know the prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” she said after the devotional. “It was probably the greatest experience of my life.”

During his address, President Nelson introduced Lydia to the capacity congregation in the Conference Center — and to millions of other Church members participating in the devotional via broadcast across the globe.

She said she will remember “everything” about the evening, including listening to “the Tabernacle Choir, because I love to sing” and seeing “President Nelson waving to me from the stand.”
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-a ... vior-48560

Lydia was clearly very moved by the experience, and the non-cynical part of my brain wants to acknowledge that President Nelson used his position to give a great gift to a serious ill young woman.

And yet, the cynical part of my brain points out that this incident reveals President Nelson to be either grossly immoral or a phony - grossly immoral if he has the power to heal her and chooses not to use it, or a phony if he claims to have those kinds of powers as a Prophet of God and doesn’t even try healing because he knows he really can’t. Either way, it doesn’t make President Nelson look good in my estimation.

Guess the cynical part of my brain wins out.

Re: Nelson's Christmas devotional talk was disgusting

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 10:46 am
by sparky
Not Buying It wrote:
Mon Dec 10, 2018 9:21 am
For Lydia, meeting President Nelson and attending the devotional was literally a wish fulfilled. “It is so amazing just to know the prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” she said after the devotional. “It was probably the greatest experience of my life.”

During his address, President Nelson introduced Lydia to the capacity congregation in the Conference Center — and to millions of other Church members participating in the devotional via broadcast across the globe.

She said she will remember “everything” about the evening, including listening to “the Tabernacle Choir, because I love to sing” and seeing “President Nelson waving to me from the stand.”
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-a ... vior-48560

Lydia was clearly very moved by the experience, and the non-cynical part of my brain wants to acknowledge that President Nelson used his position to give a great gift to a serious ill young woman.
You're right, of course, and that's one of the hard parts about being unplugged from the matrix. I recognize that this sort of thing is inspiring to people who are immersed in the religion. But to an outside observer (or former insider), the problematic aspects become clear. To take an extreme example, in ancient religions where human sacrifice was practiced, it was sometimes deemed an honor and eternal blessing for the individual and their family to be chosen for sacrifice, and maybe they were even happy about it. But the same thing is horrifying to us now.