The increasingly wicked trajectory of the world is common theme in LDS general authority talks. In reality, society has improved in some ways and backtracked in others.

Here are some thoughtful observations from Lindsay Hansen Park:

One of the most frustrating things being surrounded daily by Millenarianism, is that you are completely enmeshed in a system of people who depend on the world getting worse to validate their religious ideas.

Too often, progress and advancements for women, POC, lgbt and other marginalized groups, becomes a threat. Things that make the world better and kinder for more people, have to be viewed as wicked- when in fact, they are liberating.

It’s gross and exhausting living around people who depend on a bleak outcome for their own spiritual liberation at the cost of liberation for living, breathing humans that exist in the now.

(End quote)

I share Lindsay’s hope for a kinder world.

– Tom Irvine

Some mischievous humor…

Maybe our endearing LGBTQIA+ church friends are a bit like Bob. And maybe stern, uptight church leaders are rather like Dr. Marvin.

– Tom Irvine

LGBTQIA+ souls are treated with more kindness and respect at my workplace than at my church.

– Tom Irvine

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin (1917-2008) taught:

Some are lost because they are different. They feel as though they don’t belong. Perhaps because they are different, they find themselves slipping away from the flock. They may look, act, think, and speak differently than those around them and that sometimes causes them to assume they don’t fit in. They conclude that they are not needed.

Tied to this misconception is the erroneous belief that all members of the Church should look, talk, and be alike. The Lord did not people the earth with a vibrant orchestra of personalities only to value the piccolos of the world. Every instrument is precious and adds to the complex beauty of the symphony. All of Heavenly Father’s children are different in some degree, yet each has his own beautiful sound that adds depth and richness to the whole. This variety of creation itself is a testament of how the Lord values all His children.

(End quote)

Talk Link

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I humbly suggest that LGBTQIA+ souls are part of the vibrant symphony.

See also: 15 Queer Composers You Should Know

– Tom Irvine

The people of Ammon knew that the wicked Lamanites would come to kill them but decided not to fight back. They had repented of killing. They buried their weapons deep in the ground and promised God they would never kill again. When the wicked Lamanites came and began killing them, they bowed to the ground and prayed. (Alma 24)

Let us now bury our muskets!

– Tom Irvine

Bury Your Weapons Vigil

Elder Holland’s “Salt Sermon”

From Paul Toscano

To understand the import of Elder Jeffrey Holland’s August 23, 2021, anti-LGBTQ+ address at BYU, it is important to consider several points:

Point 1. The members of the Quorum of the First Presidency do not line up in authority horizontally:

Nelson, Oaks, Eyring

Rather, they line up in authority vertically:

Nelson (first in authority)
Oaks (second)
Eyring (third)

Point 2. The members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are not members of the Quorum of the First Presidency and they, too, do not line up in authority horizontally, but rather vertically—in order of seniority based on the date of apostolic ordination given their uninterrupted service in the Q12):

Oaks (as President of the Twelve though serving temporarily in the First Presidency)

Ballard (acting president of the Twelve)

Holland
Uchtdorf
Bednar
Cook
Christofferson
Andersen
Rasband
Stevenson
Renlund
Gong
Soares

Each apostle is bound to conform his views to his seniors.
This is how unanimity in apostolic decisions is guaranteed.

Point 3. Holland was required to give his “musket speech” by Oaks and Nelson or he wouldn’t have given it. The text runs against his nature, but he gave it because he is bound to obey the decisions of his seniors as revelation even when it hurts (hence the tears)

Point 4. Holland was sent to give the speech because he is known for compassion; he was chosen in order to let people know that obedience comes first not compassion; this reason is why Uchtdorf was dropped from the First Presidency. One may therefore say that Holland was Uchtdorfed!

Point 5. The reason Nelson and Oaks, through Holland, are doubling down on their policy of “love the sinner but hate the sin of same-sexness” is because the LGBTQ+ community threatens the rigid concepts of family set forth in the 1995 Proclamation on the Family (probably authored by Oaks) which concepts have replaced the Gospel.

Point 6. The Proclamation on the Family teaches that we are saved by being sealed into the family into which we are born. The Gospel of Christ teaches that the we must be saved from the biological family by being born again.

Point 7. The LDS apostles have replaced Mormon soteriological theology with church ecclesiology.

(End quote)

________

I am uncertain to what extent Paul Toscano’s conclusions are correct.

But consider Milgram experiment

The Milgram experiment(s) on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram. They measured the willingness of study participants, men from a diverse range of occupations with varying levels of education, to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. Participants were led to believe that they were assisting an unrelated experiment, in which they had to administer electric shocks to a “learner”. These fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real.

Are we ever willing participants in any such real-world examples?

– Tom Irvine

Elder Holland’s “Salt Sermon”

“Christ breaks the rifle” by Otto Pankok, 1950

“Otto Pankok was a German printmaker defamed by the Nazis as a ‘degenerate artist’ because his central theme was the sufferings of the oppressed. His work clearly reveals the influence of van Gogh, whom he revered. In 1950 he created the woodcut, “Christ breaks the rifle” which was later used by the German Christian peace movement leading up to the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.” —Michael Frost

The student’s name is Conner Ray Murray. He is apparently a business major at BYU. To what extent was Conner’s action influenced by Elder Holland’s “Musket” admonition?

The Daily Universe Article

The Randy Report

Update 9/11/21 from KUTV2 News reporter Daniel Woodruff:

BYU spokesperson says the man caught on camera pouring water on chalk art supporting the LGBTQ community and using a gay slur is no longer a student at the university.

If someone brings a musket or any lethal weapon to your church building or campus, remember: Run, Hide, Fight