Interesting talk

[Archaea]

http://www.lds.org/library/display/0...3100-1,00.html

I found this passage interesting.

If you feel you are a special case, so that the strong counsel I have given doesn’t apply to you, please don’t write me a letter. Why would I make this request? I have learned that the kind of direct counsel I have given results in a large number of letters from members who feel they are an exception, and they want me to confirm that the things I have said just don’t apply to them in their special circumstance.

I will explain why I can’t offer much comfort in response to that kind of letter by telling you an experience I had with another person who was troubled by a general rule. I gave a talk in which I mentioned the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13). Afterward a man came up to me in tears saying that what I had said showed there was no hope for him. “What do you mean?” I asked him.

He explained that he had been a machine gunner during the Korean War. During a frontal assault his machine gun mowed down scores of enemy infantry. Their bodies were piled so high in front of his gun that he and his men had to push them away in order to maintain their field of fire. He had killed a hundred, he said, and now he must be going to hell because I had spoken of the Lord’s commandment “Thou shalt not kill.”

The explanation I gave that man is the same explanation I give to you if you feel you are an exception to what I have said. As a General Authority, it is my responsibility to preach general principles. When I do, I don’t try to define all the exceptions. There are exceptions to some rules. For example, we believe the commandment is not violated by killing pursuant to a lawful order in an armed conflict. But don’t ask me to give an opinion on your exception. I only teach the general rules. Whether an exception applies to you is your responsibility. You must work that out individually between you and the Lord.

[ute4ever]

That was an outstanding talk. I was there last spring when Elder Oaks delivered it to young adults.

That last point was a great example of how God is a loving, forgiving, understanding God who has ushered his saints beyond the letter of the law into the spirit of the law.

For example, we are commanded to keep the sabbath day holy, and many interpret that to mean not to spend money. However, due to an unforseen power outage, all of your baby's milk has spoiled. You can either make her starve until midnight, like some kind self-righteous Mormon Taliban, or you can go to the damn store.

As a missionary I had a greenie who struggled to think for himself. One night after hours we got a phone call asking us to go to the hospital to give a blessing. My greenie was hesitant because the white handbook says not to be out after 9:30 pm. I told him the ox is in the mire, let's go. While I was worried about the man who wanted a blessing, my greenie was worried about breaking the letter of the law.

[Robin]

r.f.

[Hazzard]

As a General Authority, it is my responsibility to preach general principles. When I do, I don’t try to define all the exceptions. There are exceptions to some rules. For example, we believe the commandment is not violated by killing pursuant to a lawful order in an armed conflict. But don’t ask me to give an opinion on your exception. I only teach the general rules. Whether an exception applies to you is your responsibility. You must work that out individually between you and the Lord.

This is the problem with debating issues like the dating/hanging out issue in an open forum like an internet message board ... everyone might have a different view on it and everyone might be right! I honestly feel like there are a couple of exceptions to Elder Oaks' general counsel in this talk that apply to me, but those exceptions might not apply to others.

The greater problem is that some people don't feel as though there are exceptions to general advice and counsel such as that given by Elder Oaks that we should hang out less and date more. These are the people who I might refer to as the Mormon hard-liners -- the ones who show no flexibility in applying general principles to specific situations. These are the people who scare the living hell out of me ... particularly when they are put in positions of leadership in the church and try to enforce their inflexible stances on others under the guise of "the word of the Lord."