Shifting Moral Tectonics

[Linked]

In the recent GenCon Young Men General President Steven Lund spoke about FSY and other youthy things. One of his statements stuck with me, in a bad way.

Let there be no doubt: it is the very stuff of heroes displayed by our youth when they set their hearts and minds to standing upright against the shifting moral tectonics of our time.

He makes it sound valiant and brave to avoid wrestling with moral issues, but rather to just accept and defend whatever your taught. The church ought to be leading the way with moral earthquakes that shake things up, like Jesus did. The early church had no qualms with generating "shifting moral techtonics" by introducing polygamy doctrine, though that was not a good thing.

It's a call to stand up and yell at the church's enemies, but sit down and shut up toward the church leadership.

[Red Ryder]

It's a call to stand up and yell at the church's enemies, but sit down and shut up toward the church leadership.

It’s always been this way with every issue. Once you see the patterns of institutional dishonesty and institutional hero worship, the institution itself becomes God rather than the path back to God. Anything else is plate tectonics.

[stealthbishop]

This ambiguous message with plausible deniability is getting old and pathetic. What does he mean by this? Have some courage! Give an example! Or is it "politically incorrect" to say that you believe people who are gay should never have a romantic or sexual relationship or committed long term relationship? Or that someone who is transgender or non-binary should be called by the name and pronouns that they want? Or that you have decided to purge BYU of any professors who are LGBTQ+ or are allies? Is it that you and the church believe masturbation is a sin that needs to be confessed to an LDS Bishop and 99% of the world considers it normal? Is it that you believe sexual sin is "next to murder" while the rest of the world tries to promote normal human sexual development? Is it that you said in the previous For the Strength of Youth that "the Lord's standards (of girls and women having only one set of earrings, or covering their shoulders, etc, etc, etc.) would never change" and now they have changed?

Sorry Steven Lund, these ambiguous statements don't mean anything unless you and the leaders come up with examples of what you exactly mean. Otherwise they have too much plausible deniability to be taken seriously at all.

[Linked]

This ambiguous message with plausible deniability is getting old and pathetic. What does he mean by this? Have some courage! Give an example! Or is it "politically incorrect" to say that you believe people who are gay should never have a romantic or sexual relationship or committed long term relationship? Or that someone who is transgender or non-binary should be called by the name and pronouns that they want? Or that you have decided to purge BYU of any professors who are LGBTQ+ or are allies? Is it that you and the church believe masturbation is a sin that needs to be confessed to an LDS Bishop and 99% of the world considers it normal? Is it that you believe sexual sin is "next to murder" while the rest of the world tries to promote normal human sexual development? Is it that you said in the previous For the Strength of Youth that "the Lord's standards (of girls and women having only one set of earrings, or covering their shoulders, etc, etc, etc.) would never change" and now they have changed?

Sorry Steven Lund, these ambiguous statements don't mean anything unless you and the leaders come up with examples of what you exactly mean. Otherwise they have too much plausible deniability to be taken seriously at all.

Great examples Stealth. I agree, this is a pretty non-committal way to declare a moral position.

But these ambiguous statements are completely on purpose. This tactic is similar to what Hagoth pointed out in his post about >99% of Jesus' teachings to the Nephites being left out of the BoM. For the TBM this provides a blank sheet to fill with whatever cultural changes they disagree with. Then they feel like they are on the "covenant path" and like everyone thinks like them.