paulsifer42

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Utah
  • Interests
    Video Games, music, my wife... stuff...
  • Religion
    LDS

paulsifer42's Achievements

  1. Honestly, I cry every time I read "I'll Love you Forever" (throughout. Seriously, pretty much the whole way through), "The Gift of the Magi" (when she hopes he'll think she's still pretty, and "Horton Hears a Who" (when they say they'll protect them with Horton).
  2. Oh, I didn't mean to say all Calvinists were rude like the WBC, just saying their theology allows for that. Those who are kind are kind because they want to be. From what I've seen, the WBC family would love rattling people's cages whether they subscribed to Calvinism or not.
  3. Can you all see that awesome run-on sentence? Man, that's nice.
  4. Oh, it's not 'always' if your giving a talk in sacrament meeting, or speaking to some other large crowd. And I wouldn't go so far as to say it's 'always' in one-on-one settings, but it is a great majority of the time. And the reason why that is: Because, in our theology, it will ultimately matter how we are received, at least for the person doing the receiving, so we should, nearly always, try to understand first, so we are received better, so the person might actually change, as opposed to walking away with one more experience to support the 'Christians are nothing but judgmental, closed-minded, bigots.' Which, I think we can all agree isn't helpful.
  5. The point: The WBC is Calvinist. Meaning they believe those who will be 'saved' have already been chosen no matter what. How does this relate? When people ask what they believe they are gaining from their 'preaching', they say they were commanded to do it. I watched several documentaries about them and they finally gave an answer that made sense: they said they don't believe their preaching really has any affect, only that they've been told in the Bible to preach. So, they have fun with it, because, in their minds, it really doesn't matter if they offend anyone, or if anyone even listens, because they believe God has already chosen who is going to 'make it'. We, on the other hand, are not Calvinists. How we approach something does, in fact, matter (according to our belief system) because it does, in fact, matter if people listen to us. We don't believe God has already chosen, so we want people to actually listen and change. So, in answer to TFP's original, "Why? Why is looking to understand necessary as a prerequisite for speaking truth?" we, unlike the WBC, are not Calvinists. Looking to understand first will make them listening much more likely. If we were Calvinists, then it wouldn't matter. We too could just badger people, believing we were fulfilling what God told us to do. In the case of Prophets in scripture who, it seems, didn't first look to understand: They are either speaking to a great many people (which means they really just generally need to know what people generally need), are speaking to people who they know (through the Spirit, or other means) aren't going to listen even if they are understood, or, hey, sometimes Prophets make mistakes, some of the instances might be one of these times.
  6. Probably not. I don't have enough personal experience with President Monson to follow a killing order from him (believing it was from God, of course). Much the same as "Kill Laban" was not the first revelation given to Nephi, I believe I would receive more from President Monson before he would receive the revelation: Kill the king and this rich dude.
  7. I thought that would be your answer. I find that interesting.
  8. Let's say the religious man is Thomas S. Monson. Would you do it then?
  9. From my experience, I'm inclined to believe he follows the King or the Religious Man. People, in general, are terrified of offending two things: God and The Law. I would need to know more about the man to know which he is more terrified of.
  10. Yes, yes, if the Spirit so moveth. But we should be cautious not to lie about "The Spirit" like the girl on Glee who lies about her "aspergers" in order to be a jerk without repercussions (from outside, or from within).
  11. Because we aren't Calvinists. Look into why the Westboro Baptist Church does what it does.
  12. It think the step that is too often missed is the "looking to understand" before the "lecturing in love." I would argue that without the first step, the offended kind of has a right to be.
  13. I'm afraid that science and religious belief are similar, but not the same. Lots of people have experiences with following what President Kimball said and were blessed for it, so they choose to believe he was a Prophet whom God spoke through. There will never be empirical evidence that Pres. Kimball was a Prophet, only experience mixed with perspective. So, asking for empirical backup is asking for the impossible. You've had experiences that show that Pres. Kimball was wrong about this thing (I actually agree with you), so you don't believe this was inspired. Those arguing with you have had different experiences, so they believe.
  14. I agree with you. Your child will likely know you don't entirely approve of homosexuality (assuming she comes home with a gf, and you're raising her in the church), which means she already knows. Why beat a dead horse, as it were? There are places in the scriptures that I'm sure Vort will point out to you where it is stated in the scriptures that we need to call people to repentance. I would assume a daughter (or any other gay person who has grown up in the church) already has the Holy Ghost calling them to repentance. I would say our job is to be loving enough to keep them close to the church, so if they decide to listen, they know they have people there to help them, who helped them through everything else.