In another attempt to connect with the youth of the church, the Rasbands have continued the trend of face-to-face broadcasts designed for young adults. This particular event was a pretty heavy one with a lot that demands review. Elder Rasband, I think, is better at not coming off as callous and clueless like Elder Cook, and he's more gifted at couching his superficially didactic approach in a charming persona than, say, Elder Soares. Sister Rasband is also better at demonstrating a desirable spousal chemistry than Sister Renlund and she's a far more dynamic contributor to the discussion than Sister Bednar.
I'm dusting this image off for next month's General Conference anyway, but let me just make sure it's still working.
Yep. That one's evergreen.
The proclamation in question is a review of information that every Mormon is already familiar with. It's a primer of existing doctrine, not a revelation of any new doctrine. And considering we're doing this face-to-face with a sparse, mask-wearing, socially-distanced live audience and we're about to field questions about how people are struggling in the face of 2020's extreme and unique challenges...why are we calling the last five months a wonderful season? Nelson didn't cure COVID. He had us fast twice and then he gave up when that didn't work.
So the season has objectively not been wonderful and there haven't been any blessings of the proclamation—not that there should be any blessings for publishing a summary of information that's already been in circulation for generations—so Rasband's comment is complete nonsense.
Moving on to the meat of tonight's episode:
Question 1: What can you tell us about the process that brought the prophets, seers, and revelators to declare this marvelous proclamation?
Obviously, there's no definitive way for me to determine if this question is from a sincere source or if it was written by a staff member, but it does seem like there's some unnecessary ass-kissing in this wording.
Rasband's answer is fluff. He basically says that all fifteen apostles worked on it and they were unified in their confidence that the proclamation contains exactly what God wants us to know. Mind you, God's already told us this stuff many times over, but whatever.
Question 2: What advice do you have for when we feel uncomfortable with certain church teachings or policies? How can we continue to sustain our leaders when we may struggle with feelings of disagreement and confusion?
Record scratch, anyone?
I suppose it's not really a record scratch moment since the Rasbands aren't really trying to pretend they didn't know the questions ahead of time, but this moment does represent a sharp shift in tone after the opener. The first pitch was a little leaguer lobbing it right over the plate, but the second pitch is a ninety-mile-an-hour slider. And when the Rasbands swing at the slider, they miss it, lose their grip on the bat, and send their off-brand Louisville Slugger hurtling into the stands past third base. Okay, that's three strikes against that metaphor.
Let's examine the response to this question. And, please note, this is a response, not an answer.
Sister Rasband cites Amos 3:7 (surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secrets unto his servants, the prophets) and D&C 21:4-5 (give heed unto all his words and commandments). This isn't useful at all. If we disagree with church teachings we should keep the commandments as provided to us by the prophets? Okay, but what do we do about our disagreement and confusion?
Patient: Doctor, I have a lump growing on my testicle!
Doctor: Well, the best way to stay healthy is to eat a balanced, nutritious diet and get plenty of exercise.
Patient: Okay, that's technically true, but....
Yes, Sister Rasband, we all know we're supposed to follow the prophet, but what are we supposed to do when we find it difficult or morally troubling to do so? Her husband chimes in:
President Benson said this: "Therefore, the most crucial reading and pondering which you should do is the latest inspired words from the Lord's mouthpiece." Now, the prophet speaks to all of us frequently. It used to be that you'd have to wait 'til General Conference or maybe an occasional article in one of the church magazines. But now—and your generation knows this—the president of the church and all of the apostles, frankly, are using their social media accounts to give their latest inspired teachings to the members of the church. So I invite all you young single adults throughout the world. And I'm not trying to give a commercial here, but I am inviting you to follow the president of the church, certainly, and the other members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve as you can and you will have the latest and the most inspired teachings of God's prophet on the earth today.
Congratulations, bucko, you just took your wife's poor response and made it even worse.
I'm still waiting for someone to say something like, "Here's how you reconcile the personal disagreements you may have with church doctrine or church policy." But, instead, the clumsy floundering continues with Sister Rasband:
You know, it reminds me of when we were just married, President Spencer W. Kimball had asked the saints not to delay having children for [rolls eyes] excuses, especially like "we don't have enough money." ... That's when we established a very important, oh, what would I say, a motto or something for us to always follow the prophet. I recommend that to you. Always follow the prophet.
Doctor: Just eat some goddamn vegetables and your suspected testicular cancer will be fine!
This isn't really relevant to the question that was asked, but imagine being the kind of person who goes out of her way to criticize people for wanting to be able to financially support a family before having one.
And then the officially anointed apostle brings it home:
Now, Harriet in Wyoming, I hope we've answered your question. There are going to be times when you're going to have questions, and we've got another question coming up later that deals with that very specifically. But as we begin our face-to-face broadcast, we wanted to firmly establish for all of you the importance of following God's living prophet on the earth. That's the safest, most sure way to follow the Lord's mouthpiece on the earth.
That's a fun little tautology. The safest, most sure way to follow the Lord's mouthpiece on the earth is to follow God's living prophet on the earth. The best way to follow the prophet is to follow the prophet. Elder Rasband must be inspired of God, because I know I could never drop wisdom that profound off the cuff.
But they're done with question number 2. They're moving on. The only advice they've provided for people who have serious reservations about church policy, church doctrine, or church leadership is to just do what they're told. I feel for anyone in the audience who perked up at this question in the hopes that they'd receive a substantive answer to their own concerns. The Rasbands' responses probably left those people disappointed.
Also, who's to say the youth in this situation aren't already following the prophet? The implication that when your conscience doesn't align with church leadership this indicates you need to change is insulting—possibly devastating to some. It also flies in the face of the doctrine of free agency. We have the knowledge of good and evil so that we can choose good to return to our Father in Heaven, but if something we know to be good contradicts something we hear from the church, we should abandon our knowledge, abandon what would have been our own choices, and be obedient to something our conscience tells us is wrong.
Doctor: Yep, diet and exercise, that's the ticket. Maybe start taking a multivitamin. Go ahead and make an appointment at the front desk and we'll see you for your annual checkup next year!
Question 3: I have serious problems with the truth claims of the church and I'm considering removing my name from the records of the church. Can you give me a reason why I should stay?
Elder Rasband jumps on this question with apparent eagerness:
I can't wait to talk to Harry about the reason why he should stay. Harry, the first thing I want to say to you and to any others who might be on the edge with that kind of a concern right now is don't you do it. Don't remove your name from the records of the church. Maybe it would help to reframe your question this way: not as why you should stay, but perhaps the more positive approach of why I and so many others choose to stay, including, I would suspect, hundreds of thousands of you who are watching this broadcast tonight. Think of it as to "why do I choose to stay?"
Oh Jesus. So many things Rasband did wrong here. First, saying "don't you do it" doesn't answer the question. It doesn't give Harry a reason why he should stay. Second, don't fucking change the guy's question, you asshole. And third, making the argument of "tons of other people don't leave, so why should I?" is one of the weakest, most pitiful, most unsympathetic approaches you can possibly take to this issue.
Rasband, being a pretty old person, should be intimately familiar at this point in his life with how we all have to navigate our existence based on our own experiences, our own perceptions, and our own choices. He's callously discounting the personal nature of Harry's question and trying to convince him to give up his own sovereignty by pawning his moral decisions off on others.
Rasband also doesn't seem to be particularly creative when it comes to his teaching moments, so I'm pretty confident that at some point during his time as a father, he has said these words: "If all your friends were going to jump off a bridge, would you?" Just because a bunch of other people are cool with it doesn't mean you should be.
Mormonism, in theory, teaches us not to follow the crowd. We're a peculiar people, we should be proud to stand out from the world, we can receive personal revelation of the truth instead of trusting and wondering, and we have free agency to make our own decisions, dammit. But this broadcast is a good reminder that Mormonism, in practice, merely teaches us which specific crowd it wants us to follow. Follow the prophet. Don't leave because look at all the people who've found reasons to stay. Follow them.
Also, where's the acknowledgement that Harry's decision may be extremely difficult and emotionally traumatic? Rasband is far more concerned about driving home his point of you better fucking not than he is about Harry.
Oh, but it gets worse.
Sister Rasband then sets up a video clip about a man named Dominic, who has recently joined the church. Through his interviews and voice-overs, Dominic explains that he was on the verge of suicide, but fasting, prayer, and baptism...basically cured him of his suicidal ideation. I understand why a religious organization like this would want to present themselves as an ecclesiastical panacea, but this is extremely irresponsible.
The first side of the coin is that there's no mention in Dominic's video of professional help. No counseling, no therapy, just the pure love of Christ and the fellowship of the virtuous Saints. Dominic seems okay now, and that's obviously great news, but in no way should any religious organization ever imply like this that the organization and the organization alone can cure you of your suicidal tendencies. This is a medical issue. It's a psychological issue. If it worked for Dominic, fantastic. But that doesn't mean it's going to work for everyone and it's fucking reprehensible to pretend like this is a normal thing that people joining the church should expect will happen to them.
The other side of the coin is that, since the response to a question about why someone should stay in the church includes someone explaining how his non-Mormon existence was so miserable that he was planning on ending it, the inescapable implication here is that the Rasbands are telling Harry: "If you leave the church, you might kill yourself." Even if this is not their intended message, thematically tying apostasy to suicide is disrespectful to apostates, to people who struggle with thoughts of suicide, and to anyone who's ever lost a loved one to suicide.
The third side of the coin (and we can do three-sided coins now since this broadcast has ventured deep into the badlands of the bizarro realm) is that there are undoubtedly young Mormons watching this broadcast who already have the gospel in their lives and still have suicidal thoughts. This video is a slap in the face to those people. Look at this wonderful story about someone who found meaning and purpose in life by joining the church! Look at how he was this close to killing himself but now the gospel has fixed him! Oh...but you think about slitting your wrists sometimes? Since we're not going to address that possibility here, you'll be left to draw your own conclusions, and we're not doing anything to prevent you from drawing the conclusion that you still think about suicide because your faith is inadequate.
Nobody thought through the ramifications of this video? Or did someone think it through and not care enough?
Then the Rasbands have Dominic stand in the audience and respond to Harry himself. Disclaimer: Although I think it's important to address Dominic's answer, he's a regular person and not a public leader of the church. My ire is focused on the leadership, not on the membership. I hope anything negative I have to say about Dominic will be understood to be critical of the way the church is using him as a prop and not to be critical of his experience or his character. Here's what Dominic had to say:
Harry, I just wanna say...we're here for you. I wish I could shake your hand and give you a hug right now. This church has given me everything, Harry. I remember being in a spot where I had nothing and I have everything now. I have happiness, I have joy, I just...I literally have everything. I have Christ's name on my back. Harry, if you're really having such a hard time, you're having these questions, I'd advise you go read James 1:5. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." He will give you every single reason and answer that you need, Harry, I promise you that. And he's already given you one of the biggest reasons to stay—and that's Christ, his son.
Applause to him for him not killing himself, and applause to him for his courage in sharing an intensely personal story with a worldwide audience like this, but I don't think this is going to be particularly helpful for someone like Harry. If Harry has spent like fifteen minutes in the church, he's probably already read James 1:5. That's the scripture Joseph Smith credits with triggering the First Vision. We all know it.
But, of course, Dominic's not an apostle. It's not his job to give inspired advice to church members. So I'm willing to cut him plenty of slack for an insufficient answer. He tried to help. I don't think it will work, but he tried to help. Unlike the Rasbands, he actually answered the question, too—he provided Harry with a reason. His reason is Christ, which is a pretty lame reason, considering there are about a kajillion religions that claim to give members access to Christ, but at least he took on the original question directly.
Elder Rasband doesn't get that kind of slack. This is literally his job. And he still hasn't said "here's a reason to stay." Of course, he's not done yet, so maybe we'll actually get something useful from the Lord's anointed before moving onto the next segment. Sadly, [spoiler alert] this will not prove to be the case.
Instead, Rasband will pivot to weirdly toothless fearmongering:
Nonetheless, the sealing power of God found in the house of the Lord binds families together. So you also need to think about what your decision means and impacts future generations.
Ooooh, better watch out, Harry, your progeny won't be born into a religion you think you probably don't believe in! Id Software called and they're suing you for copyright infringement because you're Quake-ing in your boots right now.
Sorry, I guess I'm in a weird forced-sitcom-punchline mood today.
Other than the fact that Rasband is trying to capitalize on Harry's probably non-applicable concern for the spiritual welfare of his descendants, this threat also makes no sense as far as the Plan of Salvation is concerned. Is Rasband actually trying to say that our decisions can prevent our children from reaching the Celestial Kingdom? Because that doesn't sound like "we believe that men are punished for their own sins." Is Rasband forgetting that the whole proxy-temple-ordinance deal that he's going to refer to later on is designed to redeem those who didn't have the opportunity to jump through the required salvific hoops during their mortal lives? Because Harry's grandchildren can totally get in on that even if they don't wind up being born in the covenant.
This dynamic duo isn't done with Harry yet. Sister Rasband continues:
If I remember right, he [Elder Ballard] said: "Now, look, if you're going to focus on anti-church literature floating out on the internet, then you're gonna stay stuck in rebellion, in confusion, and disharmony. But if you listen and read the scriptures, if you listen to the words of the prophets, and if you pray, then the Holy Ghost has an opportunity to testify to you what is true and help give you peace and understanding."
This is obviously not a surprise, but it should still be a concern for everyone that we're not encouraging all perspectives. Anti-Mormon literature on the evil internet will lead to rebellion, confusion, and disharmony, so only listen to the scriptures, the prophets, and the Holy Ghost. Only use our method for finding truth.
I find it amusing that she seems to have assumed that Harry's doubts originate from anti-Mormon literature on the internet. Because of course there's just no way Harry could have come up with doubts on his own. It's not like the church's own scriptures and correlated materials are rife with evidence that the church is racist, misogynistic, homophobic, authoritarian, avaricious, and weirdly fixated on ancient prophets having huge biceps. There's just no way it could have happened without the involvement of those rabid internet anti-Mormons.
Also, it's telling that she says the Holy Ghost has an opportunity to reveal truth to us. Reread Moroni 10, ladies and gentlemen. It doesn't have this watered-down language. God will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost. But if we're changing scripture to leave some space for the Holy Ghost not to manifest truth unto us, is there somewhere I can lodge a complaint? Because I've repeatedly given the Holy Ghost the opportunity to tell me the Book of Mormon is true and he's never taken advantage of those opportunities. At this point, it's starting to feel like a personal affront.
Okay, last quote before we move on to question number four. From the old dude on the dais:
In one of his [Elder Andersen's] General Conference messages, he said this one simple sentence that has stuck with me ever since: "Will we understand everything? Of course not. We will need to put some issues on the shelf to be understood at a later time." So brothers and sisters, we're not trying to say that we're not gonna have these feelings, but they should never derail you off the covenant path. Put those items that would derail you or take you off the covenant path...put 'em on the shelf and in due course, in due time, Heavenly Father and the promptings of the Holy Ghost will give you answers to your questions along with your loving friends, family members, and leaders.
Hilarious. We're actually using the shelf metaphor like it's a normal, necessary thing. The problem is that it's not really books that we're putting on the shelf. It's red flags. It's time bombs. It's live grenades.
And the implication that the answers will be provided eventually is just plain dishonest. For example, if there were an acceptable, satisfying answer to why the degrees of glory were racially segregated prior to 1978, surely that would have been made widely available. I mean, so many people have such a big problem with that particular issue that if someone had learned why it was okay and why God isn't racist, that information would have circulated pretty rapidly. But instead, the best explanation the church has is that "over time, Church leaders and members advanced many theories to explain the priesthood and temple restrictions. None of these explanations is accepted today as the official doctrine of the Church."
Assuming people only started trying to figure out why the racial ban happened after it was lifted (which obviously isn't the case), we've had 42 years to learn the inspired truth. How many people have died still not having a satisfactory answer? How can Rasband possibly say, with a straight face, that answers to concerns with church doctrines and policies will come "in due time" when it's patently obvious that they do not?
If you learn something that indicates that the path you're on is the wrong path, you owe it to yourself to examine that new information. You owe it to yourself to adjust your path based on that new information. And you owe it to yourself to make your life decisions based on the information you actually have, not on the information someone promises you that you'll get after you've made numerous life decisions on the assumption that the missing information exists and is acceptable to you.
To paraphrase J. Reuben Clark, if we're on the covenant path, we cannot be derailed by investigation. If we're not on the covenant path, we ought to be derailed.
Question 4: How did you come to know that Joseph Smith truly is called of God to be the prophet of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ? / How did you receive your testimony of the Book of Mormon?
Elder Rasband cites the gifts of the spirit laid out in Doctrine and Covenants 46, reminding us that "to some it is given by the Holy Ghost to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" and that "to others it is given to believe on their words." He explains:
Some of us have those burning testimonies and others of us are believing on the testimonies of others and that's okay. You can believe on ours or you can believe on your friends', your parents', your leaders', your teachers'...it's okay to accept the testimony of others. In fact, it's a gift to be able to do that also. So for those of you working on your testimonies, remember that this is a journey. It's a process, and...grow for your own testimony and don't be discouraged if you find yourself having to believe on the testimony of others. That, in and of itself, is a gift.
Uh...has this guy ever been Mormon?
How many times have we been told in Sunday School classes, seminary classes, institute classes, ward/stake/general conferences and Ensign articles that we can gain a testimony ourselves? How many times have we been taught about the promise in Moroni 10? How many times have we been encouraged to follow Alma 32's instructions about experimenting upon the word? How many times have we been directed to D&C 9 to learn that our bosom shall burn within us when we pray about something right? How many times have the missionaries taught that Mormonism is so wonderful specifically because we can learn for ourselves that it's true?
How is an apostle advising us that it's fine if we never receive our own testimonies of the gospel anything other than a tacit admission that the concepts of personal revelation and spiritual confirmation are complete bunk?
And, call me crazy, but deciding to frame your entire existence around someone else's convictions is an extremely risky move. Shifting that kind of responsibility away from yourself is dangerous. Because there are a lot of people out there with a lot of very strong beliefs, and they can't all be right. You'll be able to find well-meaning, trustworthy, honorable people in tons of different belief systems. You could be Mormon by believing in the testimony of your mom. You could be an atheist by believing in the testimony of Carl Sagan. You could be Baháʼà by believing in the testimony of Rainn Wilson.
The way to get the closest you can to the truth is to take the responsibility yourself. If you trust other people's opinions, great. Take what knowledge they have and decide how you feel about it. Take a little bit of your mom, a bit of Carl Sagan, and a bit of Rainn Wilson and figure out what makes the most sense to you. And definitely don't trust people who tell you that something as important as the existential, ecclesiastical, and ontological questions of your life can all be so casually invested in an external source.
Question 5: In the proclamation, it says, 'We, as the apostles, invite all to know as we do that the heavens are open.' What does this invitation mean to you? / I want nothing more than to have direct communion with God, yet I find it extremely difficult, as most of my friends. If God wishes to speak with us, why is it so hard to hear him?
Sister Rasband starts this one off:
Well, I think most of what's worth obtaining in this life doesn't come easy, and I think that by humbly seeking and praying to learn how we hear the Holy Ghost is a key to learning how to hear him.
Saw the first part of this answer coming a mile off.
It may be a reassuring prepackaged adage to say that anything worth having doesn't come easy, but the problem is that it's not true. Let's use a relevant example. One thing that's worth having for me is a relationship with my parents. And it's incredibly easy. All I have to do to maintain communication with my earthly parents is send a text message. Sometimes they send me text messages. And emails. And Zoom meeting invites. And the occasional phone call. See, when a parent wants to communicate with their child, they're not going to make it difficult. They're not going to throw up arbitrary impediments and then send proxies out to explain that the reason communication is so difficult is because most of what's worth obtaining in this life doesn't come easy.
That's an excuse. And a shitty one, too. From a parent who's too shitty to even provide us with the excuse personally.
Sister Rasband goes on to cite 3 Nephi 11:5, explaining that the Nephites should be an example to us because they actively searched for communication from God. This is a laughable example.
You remember what was going on in 3 Nephi 11, right? Jesus had just been crucified, so God decided to mark the occasion by trashing a civilization on the other side of the planet. Entire cities were swallowed whole in the Americas and then the continent was plunged into days of darkness. Then, as the darkness cleared, there was an obviously supernatural voice coming from the sky. Does Sister Rasband actually think that if any of us had lived through such an experience, we wouldn't also open our ears to hear it and look steadfastly toward heaven from whence the sound came? Does she really think that the person who asked why it's so hard to hear God isn't already trying to actively seek out his voice in their life?
The person who submitted that question is slapping their forehead right now and chortling, "That's why it's so hard to hear God's voice! I was forgetting to listen! Silly me!"
The Rasbands then invite one of the youth hosts, Aaron, to share his thoughts on the subject. Aaron chooses to quote President Nelson:
When we reach up for the Lord's power in our lives with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours.
Oh, man, King "Unprofitable Servant" Benjamin would love this line. I really enjoy the way the church teaches that we are pitiful, hopeless, and doomed without the deity who runs the heaven that we pay money to learn the passwords to enter. We really need to be that desperate to have God's power in our lives? We need to be almost literally drowning?
And this is our loving Father in Heaven?
Then Elder Rasband adds his own thoughts:
For me, my young friends, I've found the word of the Lord by reading the scriptures. If I have issues that I'm troubled about or worried about in our family, in my work, in my assignment and calling, I'll topically try and find something that can apply and then something will jump out at me, and it's as if the Lord is giving me a very specific directive through his holy word in the scriptures. So it can happen in a multitude of different ways.
Again, if you've been Mormon for more than fifteen minutes, this is not a new concept to you. I've used the Topical Guide to search the scriptures for verses relevant to my circumstances many times. Rasband's advice is the equivalent of telling someone who's stuck on a crossword puzzle clue to see if they can try filling in some of the letters by answering some perpendicular clues. It's maybe a half-step better than telling someone playing a game of solitaire to see if there's a red six somewhere to put on that black seven.
Then Elder Rasband carefully articulates this gem:
He [God] will respond to you in ways that are familiar and correct for you.
How can God's methods of communication be considered familiar and correct if so many of us have so much trouble even recognizing them?
Question 6: How does the sealing ordinance and the doctrine of eternal marriage influence your relationship as a couple and how can it influence our relationships with our families?
I almost skipped this question because I was more interested in the discussions about doubts and apostasy and the like, but I can't let the excerpt Rasband chose to read from the Proclamation on the Family slide by without comment:
By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners.
How can you be equal partners when one of you presides and the other does not?
Question 7: What does the restoration teach about accessing priesthood power as a woman? How can I implement it more strongly in my life?
Sister Rasband:
Maybe we could be begin by remembering what President Nelson actually said. Dear, I think we have it, would you mind reading it?
Elder Rasband:
I will, thank you. From October 2019, President Nelson said this. I still remember sitting there and hearing him say this. It was so powerful. "How I yearn for you to understand that the restoration of the priesthood is just as relevant to women as it is to any man. Because the Melchizedek priesthood has been restored, both covenant-keeping women and men have access to all the spiritual blessings of this church, or, we might say, to all the spiritual treasures the Lord has for his children. Every woman and every man who makes covenants with God and keeps those covenants and who participates worthily in priesthood ordinances has direct access to the power of God."
What Nelson and Rasband cannot or will not get through their heads is that even though women have the same access to the blessings of the priesthood in theory, men are always required for those blessings to be granted and women are not. Without men, there can be no priesthood power. Without women, there will be just as much priesthood power as always.
So even though apostles try to make the case that an all-male priesthood isn't sexist because women have full access to the blessings of the priesthood, it's as useful to me as arguing over whether a lending practice is unfair because of disparate treatment or disparate impact. Does it really matter? Either way, it's messed up and it needs to be fixed.
But now that we've had a woman answer a question about possible sexism by passing it off to her husband so that he can read an answer written by another man, Sister Rasband will finally offer her own thoughts:
Sarah, I personally have never wanted to hold the priesthood, although I am fortunate to be able to hold my husband, who worthily bears the priesthood. [sort-of cute pseudo-romantic gesturing between the old married couple] God has given us distributions of divine errands and I, for one, love being a woman. I am grateful for the blessing and the opportunity to be a wife, to be a mother, a grandmother, and now a great-grandmother!
Oh, good going, Sister Rasband. You've just reinforced the concept that womanhood is defined by motherhood...and grandmotherhood and great-grandmotherhood. That's so helpful. Women who haven't married or who are unable to have children or who don't have the resources to adopt probably feel great right now.
She continues:
As women, I believe that we can use all of our gifts and our talents to contribute, to serve, and to serve in callings, to teach and testify of the doctrine. And we can always ask for priesthood blessings.
While it's true that a man would also need to ask for a priesthood blessing, it still means that those blessings are only available through men. She can't ask a woman for a blessing. Because women can't do that.
But, please, tell us more about how men and women are equal partners.
She goes on:
You know, God requires faith of both men and women and we can study and seek and pray to be able to increase our faith. I am so grateful for righteous brethren who honor the priesthood God-given to them and bear it with honor, I am so grateful for them. When my husband was very ill at one time, I was scared, and yet I feel that my tearful, pleading prayer of faith was received as well as the priesthood blessing that had been given him.
What an interesting comment to make. If a prayer of faith can heal someone, what's the point of having the concept of a priesthood blessing? If a priesthood blessing is required to heal someone, what's the point of having people pray for assistance? And if it really can be one or the other or both that heals a person, then what's the point of restricting the priesthood to men if a woman's prayer can have the same effect as a priesthood blessing?
Gosh, it's almost like the rules to this stuff are completely made up or something.
Then, because the female host of this event is a female, Ariana is permitted to share her insights as well:
I've learned very young that you have to have a testimony of the priesthood yourself and you have to keep your covenants in order to call upon those powers from God.
Has anyone else ever wondered why men are never required to have a testimony of something only women are allowed to do?
Elder Rasband then wraps this segment by explaining his personal credo that his priesthood should always be used to help people. He adds:
I believe the Lord felt so strongly about this that he gave the revelation in the 121st section of the Doctrine and Covenants about what the Lord called "unrighteous dominion" by the priesthood holders. I hope that none of us are guilty of that.
God does indeed condemn unrighteous dominion in Doctrine and Covenants 121. It's a pretty epic passage that I firmly believe represents some of the finest prose Joseph Smith produced in his mostly sub-par writing career. But if God condemns the unrighteous dominion of a priesthood holder, doesn't that imply there's such a thing as righteous dominion of a priesthood holder? Who would a priesthood holder have righteous dominion over? Would it be over someone who doesn't hold the priesthood?
Explain further how men and the women they can righteously hold dominion over are equal partners.
Oh, nope, wait, they're done, we're moving on, I guess I'll have to put that question on my shelf.
Question 8: How can I better use this proclamation and the restoration to combat the fear and worry with faith and hope? / 2020 has been very difficult. How can we keep firm in the faith in the face of these events?
These two aren't particularly incisive questions, but they're crucial. They're relevant and speak to church members' expectation that the gospel is something they're supposed to be able to apply to their daily lives. Boy, are these two people about to be disappointed. Elder Rasband responds:
I would say that people have been asking these questions for decades and decades of time. Believe it or not, I had my kind of young adult years in the sixties, and that was a pretty trial-filled era also. ...And I think of my father who grew up with two world wars and how difficult it was for them, and we can go on and on and on through Book of Mormon times and other times that people of God have always seemed to face trials and have always seemed to face times in their life when they have to rise up from those.
Is it supposed to be comforting to learn that the world has always been a giant suckhole of awfulness? Good thing we have an apostle of the Lord to tell us that things aren't really that bad comparatively because they've always been bad.
But I've interrupted him:
And so, we are grateful, actually, that we're going through these times together. That's why we started out tonight, all maybe five hundred thousand of us throughout the world, expressing our unity and our love for one another. We know these are difficult times. We know there are those of you who are mourning perhaps the loss of loved ones. We know fires are burning, we know hurricanes are occurring, we know winds are coming, and yet we can take comfort and confidence that the Lord Jesus Christ loves this church, loves this people, and as he has said in numerous times, if you're gonna stand on holy ground, you need not be troubled. And that's where we are.
Hmmm...how aware of things are you, really? Because, other than the pandemic that you mentioned earlier, the problems you just cited sound suspiciously like they might be specific to the news you see in the United States. If you're going to zero in on your home country, you could at least also mention the ramped-up fear and outrage people of color have been experiencing these last few months as well. I mean, if there's ever a time your organization could shed the reputation it has because of its racist history, you could do that now. You could acknowledge the experience of your black members, you could call for an increased outpouring of love and support for them, you could encourage members of all backgrounds to join the struggle toward justice and equality.
[You could also explicitly apologize for the racist actions and teachings of past leaders and prophets—ah, who am I kidding, that's never gonna happen.]
Oh, sorry. I forgot. You prefer not to wade into political issues unless something even more dangerous happens, such as when two people with penises try to marry each other. My mistake.
My criticisms of the details aside, the main thrust of this answer is empty. The question, you'll recall, was how we can ward off fear and stay firm in the faith. His answer boils down to "stand on holy ground and be not troubled." That's a scripturey way of saying "don't worry about it." Okay, but we're already worrying, so it's too late for that. Could you answer the goddamn question, please? Throw us a rope?
To be fair, he does also remind us that God loves this church and its people. But that's never been a guarantee of physical safety. Remember Abinadi? Remember the people of Ammonihah being burned alive? Remember the martyrdom of Christ's original apostles? Remember how the early Saints were driven out of Missouri? Remember Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith getting gunned down in jail? I mean, even Jesus suffered a pretty gruesome death. God loving his church has never given him any compunctions about killing his darlings. So forgive me if I don't expect that advice to be particularly reassuring for anyone.
Sister Rasband offers similarly unhelpful advice by quoting from Doctrine and Covenants section 68:
Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.
Does telling someone who's scared that they shouldn't be scared ever help? You gotta give them a reason not to be scared. And saying that the Lord will stand by them isn't a great reason because the Lord also was standing by the people I mentioned above who all suffered greatly. Reading this verse in the scriptures doesn't mean your family members won't die of the Corona virus. It doesn't mean your house won't burn down. It doesn't mean you won't lose your job. So what does it mean, then? How does it even help?
Perhaps Elder Rasband will enlighten us:
I love a quote that President Packer made about this subject that I think applies to every one of you. Here's what he said: "Sometimes you might be tempted to think, as I did from time to time in my youth, the way things are going, the world's going to be over with. The end of the world is going to come before I get to go where I should be. Not so," said President Packer. "You can look forward to doing it right, getting married, having a family, seeing your children and grandchildren, maybe even great-grandchildren." Back in the sixties, when I was seeing the commotion in the world and in our country of the United States, I didn't quite understand then that today, Sister Rasband and I would be seeing our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. So can you. The promises that are made to you in the temple, in baptism, at the sacrament table, will be fulfilled. Be not troubled.
Okay, well, I guess we can expect the Second Coming won't happen for at least a few more generations. That might actually reassure some people. Although it's pretty strange that we're still putting off the end of days when Joseph Smith seemed confident the Second Coming would be around the year 1891.
Question 9: What is your favorite part of the restoration or the First Vision? What truths do you hold most dearly that came as a result of that event?
Elder Rasband uses this as an opportunity to sermonize about asking questions:
Your questions are important. Everyone of you has questions, and they need to be asked and they need to be answered. Choose people who are faithful who can answer your questions. Your friends, your parents, leaders, teachers.
Choose people who are faithful to answer your questions. Because objectivity is absolutely not something you should want when you're seeking for valuable life advice. Gathering information from varied sources is absolutely not something you should do when you're trying to determine the truth. Any high school history teacher will confirm this—when you're writing a research paper, pull all your facts from the same book. That's how you get a full picture of the truth. That's how you get it right.
Ask your questions. They all deserve to be answered, even the many that we couldn't get to tonight.
If they all deserve to be answered, why aren't they answered? Why aren't these things addressed in detail in General Conference? Why are people struggling with basic divine communication if it's so important to him for us to get our answers? Since you mentioned the time limits of the broadcasts, why aren't we doing livestreamed Q&As with apostles on a weekly basis so we can answer as many questions as we possibly can?
Joseph Smith actually was a model for us in this regard. He had a question that he'd been laboring with for a long time and he took his question to Heavenly Father expecting that he would get an answer and he did. Now, not all of our questions are gonna be answered like Joseph's was, but, like Sister Rasband described how she received and heard the promptings of the Holy Ghost, mine's been more along the nature of reading the Lord's words in the scriptures, all of you, our young friends, all of you can have responses to your questions.
I think it's funny that he adds "in this regard" when he uses Joseph Smith as an example. It's almost like he realizes Joseph Smith should not be a model for us in other regards. He was not a model citizen, he was not a model husband, he was not a model non-sexual-predator, he was not a model businessman, he was not a model mayor, he was not a model writer, he was not a model human being, but he was a model for us in regard to seeking answers from God. So at least there's that.
It's also interesting how he chooses to phrase the possibility of receiving responses to our questions. It's not that we will have responses, it's that we can. He's watering down the scriptures again so there's room for them not to fulfill their promises.
As a closing stunt, the Rasbands invite the teenagers and young adults of their family onstage with them. Surrounded by grandchildren, nieces, and nephews, Elder Rasband proclaims:
This, to me, for all of you to see, is an example of how the leaders of the church are not foreign to what's going on in your life. These young adults are what I call our young adult advisory council. And most closely, my own grandchildren, of course. But, all of them, we're a close family. We love each other. And the leaders of this church are not foreign to that which is going on in your lives because we have children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren that are helping us, telling us what's happening, and we love the young adults of this church. We want you to know that. In fact, I'd like to conclude with this: on behalf of the First Presidency, President Nelson, and the Quorum of the Twelve, we want all of you to know tonight, wherever you are in the world, we love you. We thank you. And we need you. We need you, everyone, as we go forward into what the world is going to offer to us in the future. We need you to be involved in the gathering of Israel on both sides of the veil. We need you to be involved in getting yourself and your friends on the covenant path. This is what the Lord would have us do.
Is "I'm not out of touch with the youngsters because I have youngsters in my family" the new "I'm not racist because I have black friends"?
Okay, probably not. But there are a few problems with this. Firstly, why does an apostle with a direct pipeline to heaven need someone other than God to tell him what's going on?
Secondly, while being close with a member of a certain demographic can give you useful insight into that demographic's experience, that doesn't actually mean you get it. And Elder Rasband's family is white, not in the lower economic strata, and essentially Mormon royalty. I think it's unlikely that his grandchildren have a typical teenage experience, and extremely unlikely that they have a typical teenage experience within Mormonism.
Do you think Donald Trump would get an accurate snapshot into American youth by asking Barron what the kids are talking about these days? Of course not. He may get an honest answer from his son, but he will not get an answer that reflects the breadth of experience for teenagers across the country.
In some ways, this display is a microcosm of one of the biggest flaws of Mormonism—we expect our bubble to be the whole world. Our beliefs need to become everyone's beliefs, our standards should be everyone's standards, and our experience should be everyone's experience. We adopt a dogged one-size-fits-all approach to life and, honestly, to eternity. Diversity and individuality are paid lip service as we toil our way toward an oppressively homogenized afterlife.
Also the masks everyone in the audience was wearing were unintentionally symbolic, but maybe that's a discussion for another time.
