#genconf

This year, I ALMOST went for silksong BUT ☝️ I have grown and learned from my mistakes. Opted for stardew valley instead.

Me: PLANES!

Uchtdorf:  We left heaven to come here, but heaven has not left you

I'm gonna be honest. I let my emotions get the better of me at the end of General Conference and made some posts that were not in line with the peacekeeping doctrine preached by the Savior and by several speakers last weekend. I apologize for that, and I plan to lay out my thoughts with charity.

I want to start out that there were good, inspired talks at this conference. I'm grateful for the uplifting and edifying messages given to us by our leaders, who I love and sustain.

That said, I have some concerns.

Elder Rasband

Elder Rasband's talk was unpopular with queerstake, and a second watch-through gave me insight into the issues I have with it. I want to reiterate that I do believe the Proclamation contains doctrinal truths, especially in regards to protecting families from abuse, but that doesn't erase the problems I find both within the document and the way the church wields it as a weapon against our queer/trans siblings.

First, I dislike how Elder Rasband erased the concerns voiced by Sister Chieko Okazaki when discussing the history of the Proclamation.

...in 1995 when “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” was written, the Relief Society presidency was asked to come to a meeting. We did, and they read this proclamation. It was all finished. The only question was whether they should present it at the priesthood meeting or at the Relief Society meeting. It didn’t matter to me where it was presented. What I wanted to know was, “How come we weren’t consulted?” --“There Is Always a Struggle”: An Interview with Chieko N. Okazaki

I find it concerning that a document revolving around the importance of family was written entirely by men, especially when Elder Rasband assured his audience that husbands and wives are equal. Pushing women out of the decision-making is as unsurprising as it should be unacceptable. If women had no voice in how the ideal family is presented, maybe something went wrong in its creation.

Second, I take issue with the plea to "Stay with us." We cannot expect our queer siblings to stay or come back to the church when we make it clear that our acceptance of them is conditional. We cannot claim that "all the Lord's apostles love you dearly" when the church's name is on an amici curiae that claims embracing transgender status as a quasi-suspect class would undermine freedom of religion.

Thirdly, the roles for husbands and wives established in the Proclamation are man-made. The scriptures regularly use similes comparing God to a mother.

As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. (Isaiah 66:13) I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. (Isaiah 42:14) O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! (Luke 13:34)

If we are all supposed to be like Jesus, then men should nurture their children as much as women do, and as for providing, that's up to individual couples, but I'm in a situation where my family is going to need all the help we can get.

President Oaks

Here we go.

My first issue with his talk was its American-centric nature. We are a worldwide church, and he was framing the American (and I'll admit, several other countries) phenomenon of a declining birth rate as a universal problem. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa actually have an increasing birth rate, including nations with an established church presence such as the DR Congo, Republic of the Congo, Ghana, and Nigeria. (Please feel free to correct me if my information is wrong.) India, a country where we have just built a temple and have over 15,000 members, has just overtaken China's population and is expected to keep growing. The world's population problem is a non-issue.

As for President Oaks' concern on marriage, he's probably right about the declining rate of marriages in the US, but I don't think that's a problem the church is facing. I don't have any data to back it up, but given that all of my friend group is in college and half of them are already married, I think it's another non-issue. I would also like to point out that modern queer people are unwilling to force themselves into lavender marriages the way they would have when President Oaks was pushing for conversion therapy at BYU, but I have no idea how that would affect the statistics.

Second, I find it ironic that President Oaks would decry the decaying relationships between parents and children, where kids "treat their homes as boarding houses where they sleep and take an occasional meal" and then immediately follow that up with "The family was an organized and conducted unit of economic production." If we as Saints are supposed to rise above the reasons for low rates of marriage and childbirth, I expect that we should also rise above the capitalist fantasy that one's existence is dedicated to the economy.

I am not sealed to a unit of economic production. I am sealed to an eternal family.

Finally, I subscribe to the radical belief that if you encourage people to start families in a world where hospital births cost tens of thousands of dollars and the average cost of childcare is almost as much as a year's worth of rent, you should provide a safety net. I think a new focus on strengthening the bonds of extended family is wonderful, but it is completely unfair to place the responsibility of childcare on grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. I believe that if the church can run our welfare system and have the time to send problematic legal documents to the Supreme Court, we can come up with a church-run system of childcare that would take pressure off of working parents. I think the Relief Society Presidency would have great ideas about that.

Prophetic Infallibility

Technically, our church does not espouse the doctrine of prophetic infallibility, the idea that prophets are "immune from mistakes, doubts and forgetfulness in receiving the divine messages and conveying them to the people." (Al-Islam.org) However, in practice, we tend to believe in prophetic infallibility, at least in the areas where I grew up. We have this idea that the prophet and apostles are good, righteous men (they are) who were set apart to fulfill a calling (they were) in which they can do no wrong. (Yes, they can.)

Questioning the prophet tends to put the asker in the uncomfortable position of being judged by everyone around them as a doubter, a potential apostate. We like our hierarchy. We like our obedience. We like our scriptures telling us that "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same", because that gives us a certainty that questioning threatens.

When it comes to revelation, this scripture is accurate. It's how we received the knowledge of eternal families, temple ordinances, and so on and so forth. But not everything the Brethren says is doctrine. Discounting the countless examples given to us from the early days of the church, here are some instances that happened within the last eighty years:

Richard R. Lyman of the Twelve was excommunicated in 1943 for polygamy.

Elder Mark E. Petersen of the Twelve gave a speech at BYU in 1954 that preached the horrifically racist philosophies that God created segregation, people of African descent bore the curse of Cain, and that if black people miraculously end up in the Celestial Kingdom, it will only be as a servant. (Race Problems - As They Affect the Church)

President Joseph Fielding Smith, tenth prophet of the church, said in 1961 that "We will never get a man into space. This earth is man's sphere and it was never intended that he should get away from it. The moon is a superior planet to the earth and it was never intended that man should go there. You can write it down in your books that this will never happen." When asked about this comment after the moon landing, he reportedly said, "Well, I was wrong, wasn't I?"

Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Twelve publically stated in 1977 that "[w]e've always counseled in the Church for our Mexican members to marry Mexicans, our Japanese members to marry Japanese, our Caucasians to marry Caucasians, our Polynesian members to marry Polynesians. ... The counsel has been wise." (Follow the Rule)

I could write a whole article on the horrendous statements written by Bruce R. McConkie. To sum it up, he made several racist, antisemetic, homophobic, and just plain bigoted comments over the course of his thirteen year ministry as an Apostle. (See Mormon Doctrine, The Millenial Messiah, etc.)

It is not my purpose to bring up the flaws of these men as a way to force people into a crisis of faith. I believe in this church, and I hope that all of these men were able to repent and grow in this life and the next. My goal is to point out that these leaders, divinely inspired as they were in some ways, were just as suseptible to the biases of their upbringing and societies as we are. Whenever someone brings up the way we treat our queer/trans siblings as something justified by God, I can't help but think that's what these men thought too.

"Several years ago, President Thomas S. Monson and I were offered an opportunity to tour Air Force One—the magnificent aircraft that transports the president of the United States. There were painstaking security checks by the Secret Service, and I smiled a little as agents searched our dear prophet prior to boarding. Then the pilot in command invited me to take the captain’s seat. It was a remarkable experience to again sit at the helm of a wonderful flying machine like the kind I had flown for so many years. Memories of flights across oceans and continents filled my heart and mind. I envisioned exciting takeoffs and landings at airports all over the world. Almost unconsciously, I placed my hands on the four throttles of the 747. Just then, a beloved and unmistakable voice came from behind—the voice of Thomas S. Monson. “Dieter,” he said, “don’t even think about it.” I’m not admitting to anything, but it just may be that President Monson read my mind."