Elder Neil Anderson's BYU Devotional address - 4/10/18....

[Red Ryder]

Let's look at his audience. Kids at BYU who are already bound by the honor code. Sounds like ministering at BYU just means policing your friends and neighbors to force obedience to the code.

Step away from BYU and out into Utah County and this stuff only flies in the face of self righteous former HT's/VT's that will quickly find like members to self flagellate with while normal members just ignore.

Step away even further to the Greater Moridor area and this stuff becomes even more watered down. Genuine people caring for their neighbors.

Step away outside of the Moridor and ministering suddenly becomes friendship.

Step into the real world and nobody cares about Mormonism.

Church dogma filters down the further away from the center core of the membership base.

[Hermey]

Step into the real world and nobody cares about Mormonism.

Sooooooo true.

[Palerider]

Ministering:

You begin to notice your church hasn't been telling the truth about it's history.

You begin to see your church not accepting responsibility for it's past mistakes, which include the murder of innocent women and children.

You observe that the church leadership can never accept constructive criticism, even when it's true.

You notice the church making significant changes to it's scriptures and temple ordinances while maintaining that nothing of significance has happened and the doctrine never changes.

You observe that the church's legal department takes on more and more power and prominence as members who have been harmed by the church's authorized representatives seek only the justice they deserve.

You see there are obvious cracks in the once perfect facade of harmony and peace the church has created that leadership pretends do not exist.

You observe that the church has become enormously involved with statistics and have resorted to counting the things that are unimportant when they have failed to improve the things that are important.

You see that the church never apologizes for it's mistakes but it tells you that you must confess everything to them as well as apologize to anyone and everyone you may have offended.

I love this new ministering program.....I think it is truly inspired.

[2bizE]

The Q15 are so out of touch with reality. They seem to live in a different dimension, or perhaps better said a different dispensation.

[Corsair]

Let's look at his audience. Kids at BYU who are already bound by the honor code. Sounds like ministering at BYU just means policing your friends and neighbors to force obedience to the code.

This is yet another "dark side" of Anderson's talk. The BYU Honor Code feels like what the LDS church will do to its members the moment that it acquires temporal power over believers. It's not hard to find Mormons who think that the BYU Honor Code is an excellent guide to living.

But I don't live under the Honor Code and I never attended an LDS school. If I bring up the "Meet the Mormons" episode of "South Park" in church, no one can oppose me on some kind of firm standards. Yes, there are vague references to things that are "virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy", but no one can threaten my livelihood or education with this admission. I mentioned to some close family members that I had seen and enjoyed the "Deadpool" movie and they could only change the subject rather than hope that any condemnation would be backed up by temporal penalties.

I do not want to live under an LDS enforced living standard. I doubt that Elder Anderson can possibly move that forward, either. If my bishop actually started using these standards in my ward I would enjoy flouting them.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

Is it crazy that I can't wait for some younger Elder age ministers to come and partake of my long studied favorite and inconvenient historical facts? There is nothing I love more than watching the utter discomfort induced by cognitive dissonance and forced organizational social interactions with untouchables like myself. I predict this will never happen though. Because there is no guilt induced reporting where the rubber meets the road, all I will get is the friendly honk and wave.

[moksha]

The idea of ministering is so new to Mormons, that Elder Anderson mistaking it as an exercise in judgmental surveillance is not so shocking.

Besides, it does fit in well with the BYU school motto, Submit, Comply, Obey.

[Archimedes]

You notice that your roommate is now sporting Two sets of ear piercings.

[Corsair]

You notice that your roommate is now sporting Two sets of ear piercings.

Would it make a difference if this pierced roommate was also a male Mechizedek priesthood holder? Does this increase the ministering level from "Yellow" to "Orange"?

[oliver_denom]

In a few short decades we've literally gone from openly mocking ministers in our endowment ceremony to openly embracing the title as our own. It would be as if we began calling the conference center our "great and spacious building" without irony.

[deacon blues]

So ministers are the new Mormon Gestapo. Make sure your families are righteous!

As I was reading the list it sounded a lot like Scientology auditing!

Actually it is called a "Knowledge Report" or KR.

https://www.mikerindersblog.org/the-knowledge-report/

The Knowledge Report
One of the most abused policies in Scientology is the knowledge report—KR for short. Anyone who’s been in the church and “stepped out of line” has received one. For many, nothing causes more charge (really pisses one off) than getting one of these. Most staff and public have written KR’s. Many have thick ethics folders filled with these jewels.

All Scientologists hate getting KR’s. Nothing messes more with a person’s day than receiving one, and nothing perpetuates the “snitch” mentality within the church than these reports.

Are LDS leaders and Scientology leaders attending the same Seminars and Conferences?

There is some (unintentional?) irony in Elder Anderson's speech. He encourages listeners to get of electronic media, but then speaks of people sending inspired text messages.

[Margarita]

To me the list is too close to eavesdropping..snooping...and following people around..It has nothing to do with love and compassion.

[Hermey]

For all of those who question the intent of the latest "Ministering" effort, a.k.a. the former and now re-branded HT/VT program, I offer this.....

The Church has now put up some training videos on LDS.org to better assist the "Mormon Minders" (whoops! I mean Ministering Brothers and Ministering Sisters) do their job. In one of the videos, you will notice this lovely quote from (Q12) Elder Gary E. Stephenson

"....As we have learned now, we don't count, but we render an account. Ministering Interviews should become the primary source for content in a Presidency Meeting, and even in a Ward Council."

Also in the video, the Ministering Leader is shown taking notes during the quarterly interview. (Q12) Elder D. Todd Christofferson points this out and encourages the practice. I read somewhere that the full roll-out of the Gospel Tools app for Ministering will be sometime around September. I'm watching for a note-taking component (under the guise of achieving greater efficiency in sharing the member's needs among local leadership.)



Gossipalooza '18 - coming soon to ward and stake near you!