NOM

If I was the PR Director for the church…

I would have suggested Elder Oaks say ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about temple announcements. With the death of President Nelson, the members would have expected something from Elder Oaks, but saying nothing would have set the precedent and solidified that The Lord, even Jesus Christ, was running his massive home building program.

But BECAUSE he opened his mouth and squarely pushed President Nelson under the bus, it can easily be extrapolated that President Nelson was the man and mind behind the temple expansions of his legacy building reign of Prophetic leadership.

He could have literally said nothing and let members speculate that more important things were planned. Important things like picking a new apostle, ramping up production of tank top garments, or writing rapture recovery emails since it didn’t happen!

Elder Oaks revealed his hand in this game of celestial poker. Not only did he point the finger, but he clearly asked Holland and Bednar to jointly pull on it leaving nobody to wonder why the conference center stinks so much.

The second misstep was qualifying the timing of his talk preparations and apparent approval of the proclamation nonsense that followed. By stating that his remarks were approved prior to the death of the prophet, he clearly knows his reputation for hatred against non traditional relationships and families warrants clarification that it was ok to continue his legacy before stepping onto his soapbox. I clearly believe that will be his legacy for whatever time he is allowed to lead the Mormon church.

If I was the PR director for the church…

I would introduce the term limits for apostleship. Place them on emeritus status at age 75 and significantly reduce or eliminate having to watch them disintegrate into hollowed out old men in an oversized suit that once fit. Nothing says “we are out of touch with reality” more than a 93 year old prophet pontificating about the good old days 70+ years ago and telling the members to bear more children.

Fetch, while I’m at it; let’s add a few intelligent women with leadership capabilities to the Quorum and reduce the average age by 30 years. Don’t get me wrong, the ten women that spoke did a great job. But they clearly spoke from the bottom right corner of the picture page in their smarmy primary voices.

And finally…

If I was the PR Director of the church….

I would invite all the endowed sisters of the church to take out a pair of scissors and chop of the God ordained sleeves rather than wait for their new underwear supply.

Or hell…

Just take the damn things off and toss in the trash. If god is going to reduce them, let’s hurry up and get it over with now. Toss in the trash and be free!

How about PR centered on charity - sending relief to GAZA, new service opportunities - opening a hospital (instead of a temple) - opening homeless shelters - daycare in church buildings during the day so women can work .... oh wait, those are things only other Christians do, not things the Mormons would do...

Pres. Nelson came across, to me anyway, an insecure dude who was looking for a way to stand out. So he made the big deal about temples.
I'm not sure what Oaks thing will be. But we know he HATES criticism.

Red Ryder wrote: ↑Mon Oct 06, 2025 12:01 pm I would introduce the term limits for apostleship.

Even ignoring the out of touch angle a softer angle that would be more palatable for orthodox members could be allowing more voices in the church to be heard.

How many general conference talks has Oaks given? I'm guessing over 100 general conference talks. After a while a person runs out of stuff to say and they just start repeating themselves. We know Oaks' hobbyhorse, we know his perspective, we've heard it. Heard it a lot. Many talks from apostles are repeats of prior talks they've given.

Now imagine term limits. Six years and you're out. That's a guaranteed 12 general conference talks to get your message out there, make them count. After that we're rotating someone else in with a different perspective and different ideas instead of the model that has the same perspective with the same ideas that has to wait around for three or four decades in hopes that they can be unleashed some day.

Good point Nibbler.

I’m old enough to think back as a kid listening to conference at the stake center via satellite and recognizing them by voice. Yet I can’t recall many of their talks other than the classics like Benson’s 14 fundamentals and Bednar’s pickle.

Seems most of the talks are word salad and get regurgitated in the weekly sacrament meeting talks.

I guess that’s my way of saying…

If I was the PR Director, I’d cancel the regurgitation and focus on treating humans with kindness and saving the world from real problems.

Think of all the good the church could do instead of reshaping the same old ball of play-dough.

Red Ryder wrote: ↑Tue Oct 07, 2025 1:45 pm ...
If I was the PR Director, I’d cancel the regurgitation and focus on treating humans with kindness and saving the world from real problems.

Think of all the good the church could do instead of reshaping the same old ball of play-dough.

Honestly this is one of my biggest issues with MORmONism... How does much of anything that LD$-Inc. does actually enrich the lives of real, living human beings? (Especially non-MORmON human beings?)

wtfluff wrote: ↑Wed Oct 08, 2025 10:19 am

Red Ryder wrote: ↑Tue Oct 07, 2025 1:45 pm ...
If I was the PR Director, I’d cancel the regurgitation and focus on treating humans with kindness and saving the world from real problems.

Think of all the good the church could do instead of reshaping the same old ball of play-dough.

Honestly this is one of my biggest issues with MORmONism... How does much of anything that LD$-Inc. does actually enrich the lives of real, living human beings? (Especially non-MORmON human beings?)

That would be great, but it would be an entirely different church and members would probably start having panic attacks, fearing the church had gone off the rails into apostasy.