An Analysis of a Facebook post by a Critic of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

An Analysis of a Facebook post by a Critic of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (his words are in black, my comments are in blue)

When I read something criticizing the Church I like to find out a little bit about the author's background.  Thanks to the internet there is usually some information available.  This person appears to be a former member of the Church.  I don’t know the nature of his dissatisfaction, whether it was doctrinal or started out as some other disagreement of another kind.  He is now a professional or semi-professional apologist for his "traditional", "biblical" Christian faith. This includes defending the faith against Latter-day Saint theology and its implications. I am sure he has some well written and thought-provoking articles to his credit.

The Great Prophet-centered Church Video Controversy: Exhibit B

compiled by Fred W. Anson

The first indication that the critique will contain fallacies is calling it a "controversy".  Where is the controversy? It is only in the mind of the critic. The video is a simple message. Its message is not controversial. The critic seems bothered by the fact that so many people are responding to such a simple request from a faith leader in a worldwide community.

This argument or premise is established with a mocking tone.  This an indication that the discussion may not be a genuine attempt to reason.  Due to his current theological situation, he doesn't believe in prophetic authority or counsel in the modern age. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints declares to be led by a man called of God to preside over the Church on the earth. Currently, that leader is Russell M. Nelson.

On November 20, 2020, I posted the YoutTube 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 arguments 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 demonstrate that Latter-day Saints are not Christian he keeps as an ongoing part of his strategy the “Mormon” reference to members. 

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. The question is a fallacy and is begging for answers, none of which will be acceptable to him. He answers his own question with another fallacious question.

Once again, Christ was MIA here, wasn't He?

He is again begging a response to support his false premise.

The answer is no he was not MIA. Christ was delivering the message through his spokesman.

His personal opinion of the prophet's message bears no weight on its purpose.  The Prophet is a spokesman for Christ, it is Jesus who is prompting President Nelson to give a special message with a particular emphasis. This is Mr. Ansons one 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?

Again, his question is to beg a response to support his false premise. 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 when 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 tell something about their life experience.  Mr. Anson 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 is 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.

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.

(see https://www.facebook.com/groups/659429537470202/permalink/3500511750028619/ )  While Mr Anson’s suggestion may be sincere, the message 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.

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. 

Now 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 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 a 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 making a false premise.  His premise is that members “exalt” the prophet over Christ. 

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?

The question I have here is what body of evidence?  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 his “prophet exalting”.  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. 

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.