So another personal note about two things that have wandered across my mind. Namely, the media response to the recent general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how people's opinions seem to be voiced in response to the outspoken views of others.
I attended both the Saturday morning and afternoon sessions of general conference last weekend. One of the speakers addressed how the Church is made up of imperfect people and mistakes are prone to happen. I was grateful that he had mentioned that, and I remember that a year and a half ago the same topic was mentioned. We do make mistakes. We say things or do things without always looking at all the options, or move forward without without having a clear view of the future.
And that's OK! Would Jesus need to come a second time if we were all perfect? Imperfection is how we grow, and it's comforting to know I'm not the only one who understand that. I thrive when someone tells me what I can do to improve, and most of the time it feels good to implement those views. So when I read in the New York Times last night titled, "A Top Mormon Leader Acknowledges the Church 'Made Mistakes,'" I was appalled at how such a misquote from the sermon was constrewn to change the whole purpose of being open about the human-prone error of large organizations. The article didn't even cover more pertinent issues relating to the title, giving the excuse that the leader "did not specify what leaders or mistakes he was referring to."
In an organization of an approximate 15 million members, with a singular doctrine that is followed devoutly and leadership comprised of all volunteers, there will be errors in judgement! But who's to say they happen with every decision leaders make? Did the Church leader speaking even reflect on what was deemed "a mistake?" No, he did not. This was not a confession of false hope, nor was it a defense of things that might have gone wrong in the past. It's what ever missionary understands when they meet a less-active member who claims they were offended or saw someone do something they thought might be inappropriate, and this writer for the New York times apparently just jumped on the bandwagon without checking to see what the real purpose of the sermon was.
Which purpose, in fact, can only be re-watched because the official text hasn't been released yet. This reflects the second reason for this post. Why did the writer take such a quote about making mistakes and turn it into a biased article about how Mormon leaders are fallible? Did she even say what her purpose was for writing it? If her intent was to report fairly and openly on an event, she should have left her personal inference out of it.
And even then, what am I doing in making this post? Aren't my views just as biased? Why yes, yes they are. That's why this is Blogspot, a place where opinions are meant to be shared. Not on the fourth page of the opening section of the internationally recognized New York Times.
A better title to the Times's article would have been, "Mormons Admit to Being Human."
-Adam
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2013/10?lang=eng&vid=2721983168001&cid=12
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/a-top-mormon-leader-acknowledges-the-church-made-mistakes.html?_r=0
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