Yesterday, Gospel Doctrine
 

was nothing short of awful. The letter to the Hebrews was butchered beyond recognition. The material in Hebrews 1 where the writer seems to think he is living in the last days and that there is no more need for prophets (they had the more perfect word--the Word himself) was completely ignored. Somehow the Angel Moroni was inserted into Hebrews 1 (I'm still scratching my head). Hebrews 5 was turned into an argument for the LDS priesthood hierarchy (if someone actually takes the time to read Hebrews, s/he should realize that this is not what the writer--who is not Paul--is trying to convey). The admonition to not just keep laying the foundation but to move on to mature food was, of course, ignored. Hebrews 11 was reduced to a stupifying, kneejerk faith-works dichotomy. What about the themes of Jesus' suffering, persecution, and enduring in the faith? They were completely ignored. You might think that the persecution material would at least instigate a reflexive mentioning of Missouri or Haun's Mill or something.

It didn't happen.

Was there evidence of reading comprehension? No. Was there evidence of reading? No. For better or worse, I made one little comment and then got out of the way. It's a shame because two weeks ago the discussion of Romans was decent (considering that expecting to meaningfully discuss all of Romans in 40 minutes is absurd from the start).

We're behind you guys in terms of lesson #, but I think our experiences this week in class were similar. It's often pretty clear that the instructor hasn't read anything but random chunks of the lesson manual. It's too bad, because a lot of the class's questions are fairly easily addressed by reading before/after the selected passage, but the instructor hasn't looked. Makes for awkward fidgeting as the instructor tries to transition to the next bullet point in the manual.

I skipped out and went to geneaology instead. I read about DNA family tree testing on the web.

I also skipped Gospel Doctrine, albeit unintentionally.
I got the fun experience of priesthood, where our lesson subject quickly morphed from Strengthening Families to the evils of the V-Chip, and hence the Clintons, and the increasingly inappropriate programs on the Disney Channel.

If President Kimball can find strengthening aspects to every meeting, I guess I can too, but it sure is hard sometimes...