Comments on: What should you do when the lesson manual is wrong?

By: Lori

Lori — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:57:26 +0000

Weeks ago, I was asked to sub in Gospel Doctrine while the usual instructor was on vacation. As the teacher, I found the lesson I was given was “incomplete”. Led the teacher to surficial material. Had a real problem with whether to teach TRUTH or only 1/2-TRUTH. Struggled and wrestled with it. I taught the deeper TRUTH because I felt like I was misleading the class if I didn’t. But I understand that most members just aren’t at that “deeper place” to hear “deeper things”. Sad, but true. Hoping that my lesson was aided by the Spirit and taught the individuals in the class as they were able to receive. I’ve noticed things like this in manuals more than a few times. I try to suppress what must be pride on my part. Constantly trying to balance humility and the urge to help educate and inform members of the doctrines we claim to believe in. Thanks, Natalie, for verbalizing my thoughts.

By: Dave P.

Dave P. — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:15:23 +0000

I stopped going to Sunday School and Priesthood meetings completely. Not because of things like this, but rather because too many people in my ward see the country’s wars of aggression and acts of torture as a “token of bravery” as Mormon’s letter discusses in Moroni 9.

Isn’t this what destroyed the Nephites?

And heaven forbid I bring this up in the class.

By: kristine N

kristine N — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:27:07 +0000

Natalie–I know I am very, very late to the conversation, so I do hope you see this eventually.

Last week I, too, defended Bro. Marsh during Sunday school (though I admit, I was a bit less kind, referring to the story as apocryphal). My circumstance may be a bit different, in that the discussion of apostasy focused on a bunch of hypotheticals from people who neither know nor understand anyone who has left the church. In fact, tolerance of homosexuality and other immoral behavior was the main reason cited for leaving the church, as I recall. My experience is most people who leave the church do so after enduring many slights and offenses that are truly hurtful, or after the weight of evidence simply overwhelms their testimony. The problem for me with the Marsh (and the other stories included, to be honest) is that they trivialize the struggles of those who leave the church. I think that makes it too easy for those who never question, and too hard for those who do, and ultimately does a disservice to us all as members. So, as uncomfortable as you were, I say what you did was the right thing.

By: Alf O'Mega

Alf O'Mega — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:30:55 +0000

From the manual:

“Attention Activity
As appropriate, use the following activity or one of your own to begin the lesson.
Write the following phrases on the chalkboard:
A pint of cream
A misspelled name
No available seating at the Kirtland Temple dedication

Tell class members that these phrases all have something in common. They are all reasons given by early Church members for their apostasy from the Church.”

Would anybody care to defend that last sentence?

By: Shellie

Shellie — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 01:12:52 +0000

Um, did you actually read the manual or was this based on the teacher’s lesson, which in my experience can diverge wildly from what is really in the manual? Also, much care should be taken in deciding something you read on the internet is more accurate. There may be errors in both versions. Probably the point being made is the important thing. We don’t go to SS to become excellent church historians, (although it would be nice if they were fleshed out a little better at times), but to learn some principles. Just saying…

By: Nitsav

Nitsav — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:55:16 +0000

I disagree Marilyn. But your exmormon status and antipathy, leads you to characterize the Church in absolutes.

Did this get posted on RFM or what?

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:38:43 +0000

It’s just “false” eh? Can you see colors Mel? Or is everything black and white in your world?

By: Mel

Mel — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:22:39 +0000

If the point of Gospel Doctrine (and Sunday School in general, one assumes) is for doctrinal teaching and spiritual edification, then using false stories (or stories that are likely to be false) is counterproductive. One cannot have faith that built on falsehoods. If the church manuals are incorrect, then they seem to be deliberately so, since it is so easy to get the facts correct in a church with such extensive history and archives. But, as others have pointed out, correcting people in class does no good. When apostles and prophets repeat the same false stories about Thomas Marsh, it is hard to refute them in class.
And yes, before someone asks, I know that the milk strippings story is false. Every time I hear it, I get a bad feeling inside from listening to the slander of the first president of the quorum of the twelve in this dispensation. That bad feeling is the holy ghost telling me that the story is false.

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:39:21 +0000

#82:”Piano was (is) safe for everyone.”
Maybe that’s the reason everyone will only be playing the harp in heaven?

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:26:32 +0000

Interesting conversation, folks. The last few years of my membership in the Mormon Church, I purposely became the Primary pianist for two reasons: I could no longer sit in Relief Society or Sunday School because of exactly what you have discussed here. Especially Relief Society, where class members absolutely cannot make a comment that would in any way whatsoever disagree or minimize or challenge anything the teacher says. The second reason was that I knew the ward members would not want to hear some of my views and would not want their children to hear them either. Piano was safe for everyone. But I still left. Chose my gay daughter over a church led by homophobes.