Hi, I noticed your post on Elder Hinckley's talk. I wanted to ask you very
sincerely if you could kindly remove it. I understand that it is very moving and
inspiring. I know the author of the original email and she had meant for only
close family and friends to receive her email. Her message has spread like
wildfire among the church. What was meant to be a sacred and touching story,
only to be shared in sacrament meeting has been twisted and desecrated as it
passes through the internet. We have no proof of the authenticity of this story,
nor do we need risk starting any rumors. I appreciate your efforts to share an
uplifting message, but please ask that you consider the Hinckley family and
allow them to share their message through channels of the church, such as
general conference or the Ensign. Thank you so much for understanding!
What are your thoughts about that request? Please take a second to formulate your own thoughts on it and then make a comment.
Don't let my feelings influence you're initial reaction to it, but I'm going to go ahead and express my own position on the request. First, I went ahead and removed the post, though I do still have a draft of it, and the comments that followed. From the comments that followed about the post, it would seem to confirm the truth of what was expressed in the post. And I am somewhat bothered by someone else going out and taking the initiative on behalf of the original author to go around and have members who appreciated the story to have them remove it from their personal blogs.
Do you feel sometimes that as members of the church we sometimes, if not often, hold these types of stories to close to ourselves? Within the last couple of months we were encouraged by the church to have open dialogue using the new forums that are available to us. Was this particular experience and story too personal to recount on such an open and public forum? I've reread that post now several times and I have trouble finding anything that can be misconstrued to the point of damaging the church, or hurting those who were most closely affected by his passing. I think I need some more time to further develop my thoughts on this issue, but I really do feel like that as members we are often too sensitive about the things that often put us in the best kind of light. I fully understand that there is a realm of sacred experiences and feelings where we should not tread, but I really feel like we are overly cautious about a great many of these kinds of things. There is an openness that I'm afraid we lack sometimes. I worry that by preserving a sense of reverence for these experiences and feelings, more often we do it at the cost of closing ourselves off from the rest of the world that we are trying to attract.
On second though, I'm going to go ahead and leave up the original post through the weekend so you can have another look at it.
5 comments:
Here's a good rule for anyone: if you don't want someone to know somnething, don't put it in an email.
There's a difference between standing up for your faith and forwarding emails about apperances of 3 Nephites.
Personally, when I get forwards like the post about Hinckley, I don't read them or give them much stalk, especially since you can't verify the validity on snopes.com.
Ive recieved this email from numerous sources, and it has been the same each time, so Im not sure what this person is thinking has been twisted and desecrated. It is a beautifully uplifting story about our former prophet, and I dont see what the harm is in spreading it to other members who appreciated this man.
Maybe it's not entirely true, but why would someone who personally was in attendance in that meeting distort that story? Or why would a member feel the need to create such a story? My thought is that if you felt it appropriate to share it with your ward family, why is it not appropriate to share it with the other members of the church that truly loved this prophet?
I have to agree with valerie. If it was something that was shared over the pulpit, I don't think it was meant to remain "secretive". And so true, if you don't want something distributed, don't send in an email. And I do not see anything "twisted and desecrated" whatsoever.
Yep... Don't say stuff over the pulpit if you feel like they are too sacred to be shared openly. I can't see how this is any different than someone relating this story if they were there in person to hear the account. Don't take the post down. I think more people should have access to inspiring stories such as these.
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