As a LDS blogger I have long been concerned I may be excommunicated. My wife worries as well. We love our ward and time in the Temple. We are soon going to be sealed. So disciplinary action is an especially serious issue for us.
I will not name him here but one of the heads that may be rolling belongs to a dear friend of mine. So these excommunications and the issues they have brought about are more than just semantics they are deeply personal.
I love this friend like an older brother, he has given make great advice-that worked-about how to be more Christlike, how to be a better man, how to be a better husband.
So it grieves me deeply to see how far this is all going.
There is a book called "Crucial Conversations" that after much research found that the best companies were the ones in which all employees were held to account equally. The bosses were not unquestionable and the rank and file employees were held to the same standard.
It is the unbalanced questioning, accusations and waiting for their turn to speak instead of listening that I see as the obstacle to any thoughtful productive dialog at this time from any side.
I feel it is worth mentioning that though our church leaders are under fire in the court of public opinion they have had the integrity to avoid releasing the personal information between the bishops court and the members in question. As far as I know anyhow.
I'm not sure civil discourse is a cure all or that it will solve the issues of the day but since this whole debacle began I have seen more hateful and judgmental comments from many members on both sides of the issue. That is decidedly unChrist-like behavior.
I don't think it's that you question but rather the manner in which you question.
I wish we could all just give one another the same consideration and benefit of the doubt that so many seem to be demanding without giving it out themselves.
I've been guilty of this too but I quit posting last June when my health went south and when I resumed in December I stuck to talking about things Jesus said Himself or things He personally did and avoid us versus them rhetoric which has the Bloggernacle ablaze these days.
I have seen both sides of this debate and I find it unproductive. If you want to win an argument make sure the other guy wins too as Rock Waterman once wrote.
That I think means that unless you've listen to and heard your opponent you've both lost. Doesn't mean you have to agree, you have the God given right to be wrong.
When Dr. King and his followers were arrested they didn't fight they willingly complied and bore horrible punishments to demonstrate whose side they were really on.
When Christ was on trial He said very little, He did not renounce His teachings or movement, He was mostly silent. Probably because He knew nothing He could say would open any minds.
Because that is the choice, the agency of us all to listen or not. He let His enemies win in their own court because when Christ judges us all we will be held to true account and no Earthy justice will alleviate or lessen His judgment.
Judgment is Christ's alone.
Our mission statement is to love one another as He loved us. That is not a get out of jail free card, but in this debate I don't see much love which I find odd in a Church centered and founded on the most loving, compassionate, understanding and forgiving man who ever lived.