Fiona Givens and BYU

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deacon blues
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Re: Fiona Givens and BYU

Post by deacon blues » Tue May 11, 2021 3:34 pm

Yobispo wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 9:20 am
My barely relevant Givens/Fluhman story ---

I attended one of those private firesides in the Bay Area back in 2014-2015 where the Givens spoke with Spencer Fluhman, the current Exec Director of the Maxwell Institute. Most of Fiona's talk was about finding Mother in Heaven in literature and the scriptures. Near the end she enthusiastically said "She's coming back!" This was a room full of NOM's, supporters of this idea, and you could feel the excitement.

Fluhman gave an impassioned speech about truth and honesty around church history. He read a long letter that he wrote to his Dept. head after his umpteenth phone call with the parent of a student who had gone down the rabbit hole and lost their testimony. In his letter he begged the Dept to embrace church history, be honest with the students and stop the exodus of young people who are discovering the history online and leaving out of a sense of betrayal (like me). My take on his talk was that he was sincere and very well read on the history. So I stood up and asked a question like: "After learning all of this history and seeing the lies, how am I supposed to trust the leaders of the church?"

Fluhman's answer to my question was kind in that he acknowledged my anger and feelings of being misled. Then he threaded the needle of supporting the brethren while trying to open up dialogue on the member-level. It was the "change from within" model. I was disappointed because I wanted pitchforks and torches, but I see where he comes from.

The final speaker was T Givens, and all I remember was more talk of changing from within. He was very positive on LGBT issues, but still never dared cross the leaders. The most forceful thing he said was that if we wanted to see change we'd better fulfill callings and do our home teaching or we'd never be taken seriously. Not 5 minutes later he mentioned that he & Fiona didn't hold callings in their ward because of their demanding travel/fireside schedule.

My takeaway from all of this was that all 3 of them were sincere, smart and way too wishy-washy to ever get anything done. My prediction is that the Givens will not press the issue of Fiona's dismissal and they'll quietly do their thing just enough to make a few bucks but not get ex'd.
It would be very interesting if anyone had a recording of this meeting. :o
God is Love. God is Truth. The greatest problem with organized religion is that the organization becomes god, rather than a means of serving God.

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