Would Jesus Say That? Masterpost

A study of April 2022 Gen Conf by E.A. Nelson

• Preaching the Gospel of Peace[5/22/2022]
• Missionary Service Blessed My Life Forever [5/29/2022]

Would Jesus Say That?

A study of April 2022 Gen Conf by E.A. Nelson | Masterpost

Whew, okay, so I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and it’s been over a month, but the thing is there was a LOT in General Conference. A lot of it good, a lot of it neutral, and a lot of it bad. While the good was very good, the bad was very bad.

Supposedly, the Prophet and Apostles are talking for Christ and saying what He would say. Well, we have written accounts of what Christ said so we know how He talks. So with that lense, I will be embarking on a personal project to annotate and summarize every single talk in April 2022 General Conference and determine how likely Jesus Christ Himself would say each talk.

I will be sharing the link to the talk plus my personal summary of it each Sunday, and once the project is done I’ll link the google doc I was doing all of my annotating in. For now, please have today’s summary of the First Talk.

Preaching the Gospel of Peace

By President Russell M. Nelson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | Summary: We have the sacred responsibility to share the power and peace of Jesus Christ with all who will listen.

Rating: 7/10, Jesus would say this but not like how he did it.

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Okay, so starting off the entire conference with a talk about emphasizing missionary work. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, there are many good things about the gospel and the church that are helpful to many people, including a ward structure and the ability to work together as a community (cough, like socialism, cough). My main bug is that he talks of the gospel like it’s the end-all, fix-all solution, as if we don’t need to make sure there are political and social structures in place to prevent issues from happening. 

Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but when he says quote “I love the Lord Jesus Christ and testify that His gospel is the only enduring solution for peace” unquote, that just rubs me wrong. No, we’re just as mortal as everyone else. If the Church suddenly got control over the entire U.S.A., especially in the state that it’s in, they’d royally screw it up. No amount of Heavenly Revelation can save you if you won’t listen. 

While there’s plenty of gendered language, I do like how he emphasizes that anyone can choose to serve, and that serving in any capacity is still serving. I feel like that if the Church spent more time serving and listening to LGBT+ and PoC members, they could expand that definition and see to it that all diverse members are served. Maybe we all wouldn’t be struggling so much! 

All in all, a very neutral talk. Would Jesus Say This? The overall message, yes. Saying it verbatim? No. I give it a 7/10 on the scale.