When fantasy meets reality

[deacon blues]

Michael McLeod, former LDS from South Africa shares some thought-provoking insights in this article: https://medium.com/interfaith-now/hints ... 219923fa7c
It's interesting that a guy from South Africa might see this while Americans, confirmed in USA exceptionalism might not.

[Hagoth]

Thanks for linking this article, Deacon. I really enjoy this kind of 30.000 foot view about things that are sometimes too close to see. Colonialism is alive and well in the church. Leaders are still talking about getting foreign converts to abandon their cultures and adopt the church as their culture. It is, after all, the rolling stone that is supposed to engulf the entire planet.

[Ghost]

This article reminds me of something I used to think about when I was younger. Because Mormon was obviously a huge fan of Captain Moroni (and even named his son after him) he probably went to great lengths to paint him in a positive light and the reader might not be getting the whole story.

Maybe similar to how Nephi could do no wrong because everything was from his perspective. It might be a temptation to write in that way if you were keeping a journal that you knew would be your legacy. Which just reminded me of this thing that I came across years ago:

http://toadland.net/1er/humor/book_lemuel.pdf

I read Orson Scott Card's Homecoming series in high school (the Book of Mormon in space), and I remember liking the way he made the characters a little less cardboard.

[2bizE]

Wow. I never thought of the BoM that way. Colonialism is alive and well in Mormonism still today. Look at the Maori folks in New Zealand and the Navajo Tribe in Arizona.

[RubinHighlander]

Leaders are still talking about getting foreign converts to abandon their cultures and adopt the church as their culture. It is, after all, the rolling stone that is supposed to engulf the entire planet.

The engulfment was certainly the common narrative for most of us, but it's been shifting the last couple of decades to something that better fits the growth numbers:

Elder Cook:

The scriptures are clear that in the last days there will be “wickedness and abominations” (1 Nephi 14:12). However, the Saints, small in number and scattered upon all the face of the earth, will be “armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory” (1 Nephi 14:14).

Nephi saw our time when the Saints of God would be upon all the face of the earth, but their numbers would be small because of wickedness.

But it won't stop them from trying.