Saturday, October 23, 2004

Ebenezer's Orthodoxy: Criticizing and Disobeying Leadership

I cannot say how delighted I was to find Ebenezer Orthodoxy! And the topic of Criticizing and Disobeying Leadership: Analyzing the Subtext of the Bloggernacle’s favorite argument was particularly intriguing to me, because as a new blogger, I was astonished by some of the LDS blogs out there.

My favorite parts of this piece are:

"In reading and rereading the arguments of those that worry about unrighteous dominion among local leaders, however, it is evident that appeal to higher authority is nearly completely absent from their reasoning...In example after example they present real or hypothetical cases of episcopal unrighteous dominion that would almost certainly be corrected by an appeal to higher church authority. But that process seems to be purposefully ignored in favor of disobedience...Why this predilection for disobedience? I suspect that this curious avoidance of appeal to higher authority reveals an underlying subtext that is conveniently masked by the debate's focus on local leaders...With that in mind, avoiding appeal to higher church authority and advocating, instead, disobedience to local leaders appears to be a way to mask this disagreement with, or at least lack of faith in, the general authorities of the Church...Ultimately, the real issue is that of prophetic authority and revelation. Is the church guided by well meaning old men who do their best with infrequent flickers of hard-to-interpret inspiration? Or is it guided by prophets of God who receive clear communications from the Lord and guide the church with power and authority from Him?"


Amen, Brother! It does my heart good to hear the Spirit of Truth in your words, thank you so very much!!
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