tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3920640965536781054.post8776401877133867110..comments2024-01-07T12:38:39.465-06:00Comments on Clean Cut: What Mormons should–and should not–expect from prophetsClean Cuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08383123314458721660noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3920640965536781054.post-11492932050115165462015-04-29T12:40:22.359-05:002015-04-29T12:40:22.359-05:00Anonymous, I just realized I had never thanked you...Anonymous, I just realized I had never thanked you for your comment. I definitely understand what you're talking about with the lowered expectations. Armaund Mauss has called his "modest expectations."<br /><br />I also like healthy, more "realistic expectations." Is it realistic to expect anyone, including a church made up entirely of human beings, to have all the answers? Especially when even objective truth is always evaluated subjectively? And yet so many of us, including leaders among us, spoke so authoritatively in the past. Knowing how fallible they turn out to be should make us more humble about how truth claims.<br /><br />As James Faulconer put it in his essay "Living with Fallibility":<br /><br />"I hope that the recently published documents on LDS history will help us see that prophets don't usually get definitive answers to their questions, and even when the answer is definitive, they don't often, if ever, get definitive directions for how to put into practice what they have been told. Being called and inspired by God doesn't remove the need to figure out what that calling and inspiration mean, nor does it remove the possibility that I will confuse my will and desires for those of God."<br /><br />http://www.patheos.com/Mormon/Living-with-Fallibility-James-E-Faulconer-11-21-2014?offset=1&max=1Clean Cuthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08383123314458721660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3920640965536781054.post-59269721128668501942014-10-24T15:00:31.720-05:002014-10-24T15:00:31.720-05:00It pains me greatly to admit this, but the more ti...It pains me greatly to admit this, but the more time I spend dealing with faith crisis issues and helping others stay in the church, the more I've come to believe that the only effective approach is 'lowered expectations.' <br /><br />That, in a nutshell, is what the recent church essays are doing. In the short term, the approach can work just fine. In the long term, I worry that most members (myself included) may lose our interest as we realize that the church no longer claims to have any answers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com