In my continued discussion on the book, Good to Great by Jim Collins and his research team determined what key things differentiate a good company from a great company, and how this may apply in the LDS Church, we now discuss the next concept:

Confronting the Brutal Facts

Too many companies and organizations fail because they do not confront the brutal facts. Problems arise, but are often ignored because no one wants to deal with the facts that what has been done in the past does not work now, or worse: never worked but was part of a long held tradition. Continue reading →

There is a distinction I often hear people make between pragmatic and monastic doctrines and practices. I was introduced to the distinction by a frequent commenter on this site, and I have seen it elsewhere since.

The Distinction

Pragmatic doctrines and practices are those that we think we ought to believe and enact in civil affairs and community traditions, as well as our private worship. Example: most of us would see honesty as a pragmatic doctrine. Our government, community traditions, and civil affairs should be guided and informed by basic principles of honesty. We think this holds true regardless of the religious persuasion of all participants. We are genuinely bothered when our neighbors lie or deceive others, regardless of religious differences. This makes honesty a pragmatic doctrine.

Monastic doctrines and practices are those that we personally believe and adhere to, but make no pretension of holding others to. Some of us see the Word of Wisdom as a monastic doctrine. While society generally sees social drinking, coffee, tea, etc., as acceptable behaviors, we don’t. But few Latter-day Saints today would ever insist that community traditions mold themselves to these values — we see living the Word of Wisdom as a private decision based on personal and unique religious beliefs. We hardly raise an eyebrow when we see our neighbor drinking coffee on their front porch. This makes the Word of Wisdom (or, at lest, parts of it) a monastic doctrine. “Live and let live” is the de facto motto of monastic religious practices. We choose our own way, and can sincerely believe in it, but we aren’t bothered when the traditions of the community we live in differ from our beliefs. Continue reading →

Hundreds of Church members spent Saturday helping clean up homes damaged by massive flooding in northern Colorado.

A year’s worth of rain hit the area in four days and caused rivers and streams to overthrow their usual banks. Scores of bridges were destroyed by the raging waters.

The rivers carried mud and silt into the homes and businesses of thousands of people. Basements filled with water, and in some cases entire homes were destroyed or carried away by the water.

More than 40 people from the Berthoud ward and other nearby wards helped one victim, Kay Green, whose historic farm house filled with mud and water on Thursday night. Her home usually sits along a peaceful trickling creek. This week, that creek turned into a raging river.

Here is a picture of the bridge near her home destroyed by the water:

The brothers and sisters involved were alerted to the need for service by messages sent out by the Loveland stake presidency and local ward leaders.

More than six feet of water and mud filled the Green basement, breaking windows and seeping into every room and closet. Here is a picture of people helping dig out the mud. You can see marks on the walls in the background from the water.

Church members spent hours on Saturday dragging items out of the basement. Some of the furniture and family heirlooms can be saved — others had to be thrown out.

Many other homes in the area suffered significant damage. At least four people died because of the storm, and thousands more are trapped in the nearby mountains hoping for rescue. The saga of the Colorado floods will be going on for some time.

This photo is of a pleasant mountain road just a few miles west of my house. The road is now destroyed.

Something to think about: almost all of the roads into the mountains in Colorado are now blocked. Thousands of people live up there. They are dealing with constant rain, constant floods, overflowing rivers and lakes.

To see some of the damage, go to this link.

Boulder, just a few miles from this road, got nine inches of rain in one day. The previous record was less than five inches.

This picture is of the Interstate just a few miles east of my house:

Think about this: the entire area gets its supplies from this interstate. How are the trucks going to get through?

Check out this mobile home park in Weld county:

Continue reading →

At Keepapitchinin, Ardis gives us an excellent example of how gospel twinkies are created and spread forth.  Throughout her article, lest someone quote from it and restart the fairytale story, she writes in bold: This is not true! Do not teach it!

Her article demonstrates how hearsay often replaces actual doctrine.  I recall an incident on my mission in Bolivia, way back in 1979.  My companion received a letter from family, quoting a missionary in South Africa.  This missionary stated that they had a missionary meeting with then elder Gordon B Hinckley of the Twelve.  Someone asked him when the 2nd Coming would be, and elder Hinckley (according to the story, but note: This is not true! Do not teach it!) stated that we do know some things about it.  It would be on a Sunday April 6th.  Well, the missionary then went on to speculate which future date the 2nd Coming would probably occur on.

Within 2 weeks of us reading this exciting and awesome information, both the Ensign and Church News had an article quoting Elder Hinckley stating, This is not true! Do not teach it!

The 20th century was filled with soooo much speculation and feel-good stories that were not true that since that incident on my mission, I’ve always insisted on CFR.  Whether it is Del Parson’s Christ painting miracle stories, 3 Nephite stories, the little birdies, or Cain being Bigfoot, there are always stories that we would love to be true, and often we end up willing to toss away our integrity, while hanging onto a false hope.

There is no power in falsehoods.  Just empty hopes and dreams.  But the real and true gospel of Christ opens the door for true power.  There are plenty of real accounts of miracles as Saints crossed the Plains.  There are plenty of real evidences to strengthen our faith in the Book of Mormon. We do not need stories of the 3 Nephites, when there are plenty of real miracles awaiting us.

Even more important, we need to learn the doctrine of Christ.  It contains the truths and power we need for exaltation.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland noted in his awesome General Conference talk, “A Teacher Come from God”:

When crises come in our lives—and they will—the philosophies of men interlaced with a few scriptures and poems just won’t do. Are we really nurturing our youth and our new members in a way that will sustain them when the stresses of life appear? Or are we giving them a kind of theological Twinkie—spiritually empty calories? President John Taylor once called such teaching “fried froth,” the kind of thing you could eat all day and yet finish feeling totally unsatisfied. ¹⁸ During a severe winter several years ago, President Boyd K. Packer noted that a goodly number of deer had died of starvation while their stomachs were full of hay. In an honest effort to assist, agencies had supplied the superficial when the substantial was what had been needed. Regrettably they had fed the deer but they had not nourished them. (Jeffrey R Holland, “A Teacher Come From God”, April 1998 General Conference)

Time for Latter-day Saints to give up the children’s fables and embrace real doctrine. It is time for us to scrutinize every claim, so that the things we teach are respected by Mormon and non-Mormon alike. We need to build a strong foundation for our children, so that when they go out in the world, they are not shocked by the evidences they find out there.  We need to inoculate them with the truth, so that the truth does not destroy their testimonies later, when they find they’ve only learned fairy tales.