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- - John Dehlin headed towards a Disciplinary Council (http://www.cougarguard.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29268)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeWaters (Post 319468)

sounds more and more apostate.

http://www.npr.org/2015/02/01/382876...xcommunication

I didn't listen. Just read the article. I think he is feeling very comfortable as an excommunicated apostate Mormon. The church failed him (and of course everyone else). Martyrs are a dime a dozen these days.

John Dehlins's FB post:

Quote:

My long-time friend John Nilsson shared with me a Sterling McMurrin quote today that really resonated with me. McMurrin is definitely a hero of mine. I need to read more of his writings. Check this quote out:
“Now, any day now, the church might decide to dispense with me, and I will say very frankly and very honestly, I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t. I really don’t. It’s just that simple. And if I were called in for ex… sometimes they say, “What would you do if you were called in to be excommunicated?” Well, I can tell you one thing for sure. I wouldn’t miss the trial like some of my friends have, who don’t bother to go to the trial. I wouldn’t miss it on a bet. Now, I would want a witness there, but not a witness on my behalf. Now if President McKay had shown up, I wouldn’t have objected to anything he said. But I wouldn’t want a witness there on my behalf. But I would want a witness, somebody else who could tell what happened there. I would want somebody to see what happened. But I wouldn’t try to defend myself at all in an excommunication trial. Because I don’t have any defense. I would have to say, “Now look, you are the people who are sort of on trial. You have got to decide whether you want guys like me in the church or not.” And there are good reasons for not having people like me in the church, and there may be, for all I know, there may be some good reasons for having people like me in the church. When I was a young man and started teaching seminary for the church there were liberally minded seminary teachers, you know. And we thought we could make a contribution to the church. We really did. Well, I don’t think that any longer. The church belongs to the true believers who are 100% tithe payers and the general authorities. I used to think the church belongs to all of us. That was back in my youthful idealistic days, you see. I don’t believe that any longer. I seriously don’t believe that any longer. And if they decide to get rid of people like me, which I am well aware would include a lot of people in this audience, I would think they would be perfectly within their rights

Sorry, John, you are no Sterling McMurrin. And you John will be excommunicated because you are in fact a non-believing person with desires to usurp. That makes you an apostate. That's fine--you are living by your conscience, and your conscience has taken you away from the church. But let's not pretend you haven't created some significant distance here.

Having said that, I would add. I hope one day he comes back. And I don't expect he would be a Mormon that dotted every i and crossed every t. But with just enough desire and faith to follow along the wagon train.

John seems to be a very passionate man. I expect eventually he will tire of the company of anti's. He will find it boring.

We may get news on this later today.

Dehlin, anticipating being ex'd, says he will continue to help ex-mos and non-orthodox mormons in "transition."

He makes something like 80k per year from his podcast.

I was thinking, he may end up a lot like Jerald and Sandra Tanner. They've been helping Mormons transition out for a long time (he's dead now).

If the church wishes to reduce Dehlin's personal influence, then they ought to empower the alternative persons in the blogosphere who also tackle controversial issues and help people make sense of them. I'm not exactly sure what "empowering" means in this case. It could just mean making clear signals to the liberal-ish blogs that they are in good stead and serve a useful role.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeWaters (Post 319493)

John Dehlins's FB post:

Sorry, John, you are no Sterling McMurrin. And you John will be excommunicated because you are in fact a non-believing person with desires to usurp. That makes you an apostate. That's fine--you are living by your conscience, and your conscience has taken you away from the church. But let's not pretend you haven't created some significant distance here.

There are multiple ways in which he is not McMurrin.

1. McMurrin wasn't exed.
2. McMurrin was an intellectual. Dehlin has said he doesn't like to read, so of course he needs to read more McMurrin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeWaters (Post 319495)

He made 90K this past year. I've been saying the same thing: The Church needs substitutes, including people along the same line of work who help deal with faith crises.

I think there are substitutes out there, they just don't have the same "fame" as Dehlin.

A lot of people say that much of Dehlin's support comes from anti-Mormons. I don't disagree. 3 of my FB friends who have friended Dehlin are either apostate or unhappy and inactive. The fourth's status is unknown.

Dehlin never made much of an impact on this website. It wasn't like we were "Dehlin this and Dehlin that.

Dehlin actually posted twice on cougarguard.

http://cougarguard.com/forum/member.php?u=463

He was a lurker in his staylds days.