Interesting talk

[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."