moksha wrote:Assuming the mantle of infallibility and then wishing to impose a code of silence seems like a pretty weighty matter and rather unfair to believing members. Infallibility by an uplift of hands seems the stuff of a Voltaire comedy, or else a time bridge between Western Civilization and the King of Uruk.
"For he is the Kwisatz Haderack!"
May I ask what seems to me a pertinent question? Did Moses ever say he was infallible? How about David? How about Ezekiel and Daniel? They simply put Into words what God told them and what they said came to pass. There is a very simple proof of a prophet. Do Mormons even care, or in fact are they merely followers of "prophets."
For those of you who followed baseball in the fifties/sixties this simile might make sense. Joseph Smith was kind of like the Mickey Mantle of prophecy. Swing for the fences, strike out a lot but hit a lot of home runs. Today's general authorities are more like Nellie Fox. Choke up on the bat, and just try to meet the ball. But everybody strikes out once in a while.
deacon blues wrote:For those of you who followed baseball in the fifties/sixties this simile might make sense. Joseph Smith was kind of like the Mickey Mantle of prophecy. Swing for the fences, strike out a lot but hit a lot of home runs. Today's general authorities are more like Nellie Fox. Choke up on the bat, and just try to meet the ball. But everybody strikes out once in a while.
Well it is certainly true that Joseph Smith scored a lot.
"Any over-ritualized religion since the dawn of time can make its priests say yes, we know, it is rotten, and hard luck, but just do as we say, keep at the ritual, stick it out, give us your money and you'll end up with the angels in heaven for evermore."