Taking a look at a Facebook post critical of President Russell M Nelson, the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (This persons words are in black, my comments are in blue)
The Great Prophet-centered Church Video Controversy: Exhibit B-compiled by Fred W. Anson
The critic often starts their argument with a mocking tone as he does here. Critics often contrive a controversy to establish a false premise. Interestingly he even calls his observation a controversy, when it isn't except in his own mind. This is the first indication that the discussion may not be a genuine attempt to reason and will likely not be intellectually honest. While focusing on President Nelson is a general dismissal of prophetic authority and counsel in the modern age. It is nothing more that mocking the fact the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is led by a man called of God to preside over the Church on the earth.
On November 20, 2020, I posted the YouTube link to the following video of Russell M. Nelson's now-infamous #GiveThanks address: https://youtu.be/tlcILxGmVrI
Here he calls attention to a post he made regarding a recent Thanksgiving Message given by President Nelson about the nature of gratitude and being thankful which he intends to use as a foundation for several fallacies that he will introduce.
You will notice that that click goes to the official LdS Church YouTube channel This IS, in fact, an official LdS Church video.
By emphasizing the fact that the video is on an official channel of the Church this will somehow give credence to his argument that the church supports whatever fallacious argument he will make.
The question that I posted along with the video was as follows:
"#GiveThanksToJesus
One thing to note is he knows the name of the Church but to keep with a disingenuous tone and to correlate his stance that Latter-day Saints are not Christian, he keeps as an ongoing part of his strategy the “Mormon” reference to members and the church.
Mormon Friends (ONLY please), why did today's message to the world from the LdS Church's allegedly "Special Messenger of Jesus Christ", LdS President and LdS Living Prophet Russell M. Nelson, only mention God or Christ in passing reference even in the prayer at the end?
Mr. Anson knows that the Church recognizes the President of the Church as a spokesman for God. (He uses allegedly) He now insinuates that because this particular message doesn’t have enough mentions of Christ, it is somehow insufficient in its purpose. This is some arbitrary standard that he introduces as if he is the judge and jury of the Prophet’s speeches.
Once again, Christ was MIA here, wasn't He?
The mocking tone continues as he emphasizes his opinion of the talk. The Prophet is a spokesman for Christ. There is nothing against Christ by President Nelson giving a special message with a particular emphasis. This is the author's not so subtle way of insinuating that Latter-day Saints somehow are not really Christ-centered.
The rest of it was ALL about Russell M. Nelson's personal accomplishment and Russell M. Nelson's personal message to the world. In other words, it was Prophet-centric focus and exalting rather than Christ-centric and exalting, wasn't it?
To continue with his fallacious point, he specifically mentions a false notion about the church being “Prophet-centric” and “exalting”. He formulates the statement as a question to invoke a yes answer to which the answer is actually, no it isn’t.
He is put off by any mention of the Prophet's personal life. It is not unusual for a speaker presenting a message to a large audience, worldwide in this case, to introduce something about their background. The author acts as if this is some terrible sin.
Yet again, why does the LdS Church claim to be Christ-centered but again, again, and again act Prophet-centered? Why don't the words of the LdS Church match its deeds?
Here it says “Yet again”, no reference to any past facts insinuates that the church keeps doing things that supposedly don’t match the teachings. This is his opinion which supports his bias. There is no evidence here, only an insinuation.
Why the disconnect, Mormon Friends?
https://youtu.be/tlcILxGmVrI
There is no disconnect other than his insinuating that there is one.
P.S. Even Nelson's new hashtag in the video (#GiveThanks) COMPLETELY fails to mention Jesus Christ, doesn't it?
The author thinks that by reiterating the alleged shortcoming of the video message his fallacy will somehow be a fact or evidence.
So I propose that we use the one that I have put at the top of my post - the one that really IS Christ-centered, that one. Mr Fred is centered on himself and his proposals that he thinks makes him the real proponent of Christ-centeredness.
(see https://www.facebook.com/groups/659429537470202/permalink/3500511750028619/ ) While Mr. Anson’s suggestion may be sincere, the message of the prophet is an invitation to all people everywhere that have faith or not. Sometimes an introduction to a message will lead to a discussion that brings people to Christ. This message will inevitably do that.
The overwhelming response to the question from our Latter-day Saint friends was that, no, Mormons do NOT lift, exalt, or worship Russell M. Nelson over Jesus Christ. Period. Ever. Never happens. Ever. I'm just full of baloney, religious intolerance, bigotry, and bias - that was the most common argument among many.
Of course, we would respond that we do not “exalt” the prophet over Christ. This is an assumption of Mr. Anson, and he is attempting to use this video as evidence that we do. It isn’t so much the video as the next sentence demonstrates, but the comments by people talking about the video that supposedly add support to his allegation.
But it was very rightly pointed out to me by a couple of my friends that in light of those protests to the question I should go read the comments for the video in light of all those Latter-day protests.
So I did.
The comments as of 2020-11-20, 5:59PM US Pacific Time are attached. This was about 9-hours after the video had been released on YouTube and it had already garnered over 2,500 comments - that represents about 70-pages of text in all.
Mr. Anson is referring to a large number of comments by people of many different backgrounds. Yes, many are members, but many are not. Somehow he alleges that these 70 pages constitute a body of evidence that will make his point valid.
Now please forgive my bluntness, but given the content and nature of the comments on this video the argument that Latter-day Saints do NOT exalt, lift or worship their Prophet over Jesus Christ falling flat in the face of overwhelming evidence that they do indeed do exactly that. This video is just another data point in a long line of data points.
What data points is he referring to? I took that time to discuss with Mr. Anson his contentions. I mentioned the fact that President Nelson’s talks likely number over 1000 in his lifetime. He told me the data points are the comments, and yet he states that the video is the data point.
Unless he is going to analyze every comment, he is establishing a false premise. His premise is that members “exalt” the prophet over Christ. It simply isn't true at any level.
He alleges this because of comments in a video as if these voices override the doctrinal foundation. They do not. The calling of the President of the Church is a high calling, and rightly deserving of respect. It should be noted that no person holding that calling ever sought it out.
So, again, how am I wrong given this overwhelming body of evidence?
What body of evidence? How is it overwhelming? He refers to it but never produces any examples of it. In my discussion with Mr. Anson, he said he would be glad to provide some examples of this “prophet exalting” syndrome. He didn’t after multiple requests. I went to the video to read the comments and copied some and pasted them into the dialogue. None of them supported his allegations or premise.
Since they are short I read hundreds of them, but not all 2000 plus.
Now, it is not hard to imagine that someone might say something that sounds like they adore the prophet for his counsel and message, but I found no evidence of a pattern of comments that indicated that people thought that the prophet was more important than Christ. There were many comments by people that were not members of the Church, and they were expressing gratitude for his message.
Comments
Post a Comment