Church video for SS lesson

[nibbler]

The video reminds me of a phenomenon I see in the wider political climate in the USA. Everyone is tired of all of the divisiveness going around but what I've observed is that people are generally blind to how their side is being divisive and are mostly only sensitive to divisiveness expressed by the other side.

We'd probably do better in only pointing the finger back at ourselves.

Another phenomenon I see is people getting in their licks then retreating back to a "we should all play nice" position once the other side starts to get the upper hand in a debate. I feel the church has done this with their fight over gay marriage.

IMO the video misrepresents the issue. The atheist in the video attacks the church because the church doesn't allow gay marriage but that's a very different thing than a church that actively fights to prevent anyone at all from being in a same sex marriage. The video does address this point but it's waved off as democracy and influencing communities for the good, which implies that gay marriage is bad for communities as an accepted default position.

Fighting to take away the rights of people outside of your own religion. When gay marriage was illegal the anti-gay marriage crowd were happy to do it. Now that gay marriage is legal the tide has turned and now the worry is that rights will be taken away going the opposite direction.

I do feel there's healing in forgiving, forgetting, and moving on. The Hatfield and McCoy, retaliatory, tit for tat stuff isn't going to bring peace.

[Roy]

During my mission we showed a video to a new convert family that I dearly loved (I loved the video and I loved the family). The video showed a young Wilford Woodruff searching for the true religion from what he could piece together from the bible. In the video Wilford is baptized by a local minister with nobody else present. Later when Wilford is baptized into the LDS church there are lots of smiling welcoming faces to support him and a touching embrace by Wilford's BFF right after he leaves the water.

A young woman from the new convert family protested. She said that the non LDS baptism was given a stale, cold, and perfuncory appearance in the video. This was not her experience at all. In fact her non LDS baptism was well attended by family including her now deceased grandmother. When this young woman was baptized in the LDS church because of the strength of her conviction, she was turning away from the more familiar faith community and heritage of her extended family. When she was baptized LDS as the first member in her family, it was extremely isolating.

Anyway, I had been blind to the filmaker's subtle diminishment of the non LDS baptism. I have always remembered that conversation and I hope to be more aware of these things moving forward.

[DarkJedi]

IMO the video misrepresents the issue. The atheist in the video attacks the church because the church doesn't allow gay marriage but that's a very different thing than a church that actively fights to prevent anyone at all from being in a same sex marriage. The video does address this point but it's waved off as democracy and influencing communities for the good, which implies that gay marriage is bad for communities as an accepted default position.

Fighting to take away the rights of people outside of your own religion. When gay marriage was illegal the anti-gay marriage crowd were happy to do it. Now that gay marriage is legal the tide has turned and now the worry is that rights will be taken away going the opposite direction.

I do feel there's healing in forgiving, forgetting, and moving on. The Hatfield and McCoy, retaliatory, tit for tat stuff isn't going to bring peace.

It was mentioned elsewhere that people can change their thinking or point of view over time. I used to oppose gay marriage, then the state in which I live became one of the first to legalize it. The sun still rose the next day, my taxes and healthcare costs did not change any more than they probably would have anyway (IOW the trend in those costs did not change) and people I knew who lived together anyway could now say they are married. And nobody, even the most ardent proponents of gay marriage, has even intimated the idea that churches should be forced to recognize or perform gay marriages. In short absolutely nothing changed the next day or five years later. So I agree, the video does misrepresent the issue, particularly in relation to the italics added above. TCoJCoLd-S doesn't want to perform or recognize gay marriages? Fine. neither do the Catholics and Evangelicals. But let those people and churches who do worship how, where or what they may. (I read that last part somewhere and thought it kind of catchy.)

[dande48]

(I read that last part somewhere and thought it kind of catchy.)

You might want to check that source. I thought it came from some radical polygamist, or something.

[Curt Sunshine]

I hit the Stake Conference jackpot. Ours is on May 19th.

Even so, I mentioned in Bishopric Meeting being glad our SC was that day and that we would be able to skip the SS lesson. I kept it simple when asked why. I said, "The lesson covers the chapters about divorce, which can be difficult for lots of members (including the newly called instructor), and it then veers off into same-sex marriage, which also can be difficult for many members." Everyone nodded in understanding, even the more traditional people in the group.

[On Own Now]

Just a followup.

I'd be interested to hear if/how this was used in SS yesterday.

In my class with the 17-year-olds I didn't use the video in my lesson (or talk about marriage). We focused on the Lost Sheep, Prodigal Son (less), Pharisee and Publican, and Jesus healing the blind man, Bartimaeus. I did use a TV, not for a video, but to show a couple of images, including Jesus healing the blind man. As far as I could tell, I was the only SS class that used a TV. I talked to the GD teacher after, she focused on the Lost Sheep/Prodigal Son and said they discussed marriage a little, but she didn't have a TV. I spoke to a SS teacher of a younger group than mine and he didn't talk about marriage or show the video.

[Roy]

We spent the entire time on the parable of the Prodigal Son. I made a comment (from my reading at BCC) that these parables where in response to the Pharisees and the scribes questioning accusatorially why Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors. The parables were Jesus' way to respond to the Pharisees - saying in effect, "Why do you, who believe yourselves to be righteous, NOT eat with these your brothers who you believe to be lost?"