May 12, 2013 J. Max Wilson

An LDS Mother’s Testimony of Motherhood

Happy Mother’s Day! Below are some excerpts from my own wonderful mother’s testimony of motherhood, written in 2004.

My-Mother

Photos of My Mother

“When I got married, I just thought it would be another challenge. Little did I know what I was beginning. Of course, having married a wonderful, inspired, intelligent man who was not competitive, I didn’t have any adjustment to marriage. It was babies that were my Waterloo. I was never baby hungry and I was never domestic. I don’t like to decorate houses or clean them or do anything but live in them comfortably. I was used to doing things very well or not doing them at all. And I was used to getting a great deal of frequent, positive attention for the things I did.”

“So when I had my first baby, I was stunned. It was so much harder than anything I had ever done and yet I was never good enough and no one cared how hard I was working. It wasn’t pregnancy or delivery. It was the day to day living, realizing that whatever I did would have profound implications for many generations.”

Continue reading →

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April 3, 2013 J. Max Wilson

The Parable of the Offensive Remedy

For the kingdom of heaven is likened unto an hospital. And behold great plagues came upon the land, and the people were brought low by all manner of sickness; some with the pox, some with fevers, some with the palsy.

Théodule-Augustin-Ribot-The-Good-Samaritan

Therefore with great lore and wortcunning the master physician prepared remedies of bitter herbs and strong tonics. And so great was the number of the sick that the master physician called servants and sent them forth to carry the prescribed elixirs unto the sick that they might be healed. Continue reading →

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March 28, 2013 J. Max Wilson

Sex-Agnostic Domestic Partnerships – A Practical Compromise on Same-Sex Relationships and Traditional Marriage

One of the most frustrating things about modern politics is the “all-or-nothing” approach to solving problems. For some reason we feel compelled to make sweeping comprehensive changes instead of taking smaller piecemeal steps for things on which we CAN compromise.

Troll Quotes_Gandalf

I have argued previously that so-called “Marriage Privatization” is not a real solution to the issue of same-sex marriage.

But there is a compromise on the issue to which I think most conservatives would have few objections. It’s called “Sex-Neutral” or “Sex-Agnostic” Domestic Partnerships. Continue reading →

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March 22, 2013 J. Max Wilson

Rules for Feminist Mormon Radicals – Moving the Overton Window

feministOver the last few years we’ve seen that Feminist Mormon Activists have encouraged a kind of civil disobedience to the prophets and apostles.

They have used self-referential echo chambers to amplify propaganda and magnify the perception of support based on demonstrably faulty data and unfounded claims.

They’ve organized protests for women to break LDS cultural norms during worship services by wearing pants to church and run media campaigns and petitions to pressure the church to allow women to give prayers in the LDS Church’s General Conference.

And they have blatantly misrepresented facts in order to stir up outrage at church leaders.

But now they have taken things to a whole new level. Continue reading →

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March 17, 2013 J. Max Wilson

Watchmen on the Tower – On the Limits of Prophetic Fallibility

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Desert View Watchtower photo by Talie

Some of the responses to my recent post about rejecting living prophets by following future prophets have predictably raised the issue of prophetic fallibility.

Among those members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who have decided to publicly oppose the apostles and prophets of the church, prophetic fallibility is almost invariably invoked to justify their rejection of the policy or teaching they find objectionable. It’s their catch-all defense for disobedience.

Question: How can you, a believer, reject the words of the prophets of God on this matter?
Answer: Because of Prophetic Fallibility. Q.E.D.

It is absolutely true that the church does not believe that its prophets and apostles are infallible. There is no infallibility doctrine. The prophets are undeniably human beings and subject to normal human error. That fallibility provides a helpful framework for understanding some of the complex parts of the history of the church.

But often these appeals to prophetic fallibility represent simplistic and sloppy reasoning. It’s used as a shortcut argument; a presumed trump card, invoked without careful thought or consistent application. And while fallibility may be appropriately cited, it must be done with circumspection and great precision, not with reckless, albeit convenient abandon. Because prophetic fallibility has natural logical limits and is a matter of grave consequence. Continue reading →

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