Tuesday, July 25, 2006

What Would You Ask an Apostle of Jesus Christ?

This just in. Our stake will be sitting at the feet and basking in the glow of Apostle Bednar this coming Sunday. It is supposed to be a question and answer session. We were asked to "prayerfully consider an appropriate question, well suited to a Special Witness of Jesus Christ." I'd actually like to attend. It would be interesting to see what kinds of questions get asked and what kinds of answers they prompt.

My question would be simple:

When science and religion conflict which should we trust, the evidence that can be objectively tested or the dogmatic statements that cannot? For example, the evidence shows the world to be very old and humanity to have existed for more than 100,000 years and strongly contradicts Biblical accounts of a creation 6000 years ago. How can that evidence be harmonized with the doctrines of the Creation and the Fall, which are core doctrines of Christianity?

Some other possibilities:

Why is the church promoting a Constitutional amendment defining marriage in a way that is in conflict with D&C Section 132 and current church practice of allowing men to be sealed to more than one wife at the same time?

Have you seen Jesus Christ? If so, was it in a dream-like, visionary state or whilel fully awake and aware.? If not, what makes you a more special witness of Jesus Christ than other Christians?

Why does the church encourage its members to think for themselves and make their own decisions through personal revelation and then excommunicate them if they are inspired that the church is incorrect and publicly say so? If the church doesn't claim inerrancy, why does it expect members to behave as if the church leaders are infallible?

If the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve have all of the spiritual gifts and powers of the priesthood, including the power of discernment, then why was President Hinckley fooled by Mark Hoffman? I thought that the Lord wouldn't allow the prophet to lead the church astray, but for a while it was defending forgeries that even some prominent anti-Mormons questioned.

What question would you ask?

Update:

The questions will be taken live. Here are the guidelines that Mr. Bednar gave for the questions:

Questions should be:

1) Born of the Spirit
2) Prayerful
3) Well suited for an apostle of the Lord

I'm not even sure what the first two mean other than that they should be nice, non-threatening, and not calculated to challenge anyone's precious testimony. I think that that would rule out all of my questions since I've DEFINITELY lost the church's version of the spirit and I'm not very prayerful since I realized I was just talking to myself. I think the last one means I shouldn't ask any questions about fact or reason or anything that smacks of pseud0-intellectualism.

3 comments:

Sideon said...

My questions would include:

are you on any prescribed, mind-altering, medication?

do you expect special treatment because of your status, or are you humble and selfless?

does the Marriott chain pay tithing off the revenue from the adult entertainment channels?

Cyn Bagley said...

I can't think of one question that I would care to know about...

... unless it was How much money are you being paid to talk to the little Mormon congregations...

Gunner said...

I linked to this post in this weeks Carnival of the Veil.

Do not burn bridges, but the options are delightful.

Good luck.