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New scriptures are here! A summary of the “approved adjustments” has been published for your perusal along with a detailed description of general changes. Very cool!
The buzz I'm hearing is mostly over the heading changes for Official Declaration 1 (Manifesto) and Official Declaration 2 (temple/priesthood).
There seems to be a lot of satisfaction over the fact that the OD2 heading now says, “Church records offer no clear insights into the origins of [withholding priesthood from blacks].”
My surprise came because the new heading starts out with this:
The Book of Mormon teaches that…all are alike unto God…including black and white, bond and free, male and female…
It seems odd to me that the section declaring the priesthood open to blacks is now prefaced with a statement that men and women are “alike unto God.” To be clear, I'm not trying to make a case here about the status of women, but it seems a strange declaration to make right before launching into the section about the priesthood that is reserved exclusively for “every faithful, worthy man in the Church.”
I look forward to seeing the new things available in digital format and, later, printed versions.
What changes have you noticed? What are you most excited about?
Alison Moore Smith is a 61-year-old entrepreneur who graduated from BYU in 1987. She has been (very happily) married to Samuel M. Smith for 40 years. They are parents of six incredible children and grandparents to two astounding grandsons. She is the author of The 7 Success Habits of Homeschoolers.
I’m excited to see them in person. Nothing groundbreaking, but it’s nice that the church is being very straightforward about exactly what the changes are. Kind of defuses the “opposition”.
I just saw this. Thanks for pointing it out!
Great observation. I hadn’t noticed that. And while I doubt it was intentional, it’s great groundwork. 🙂
I didn’t notice that either. Isn’t it funny how we are so used to being in a different class that it goes right over our heads?
Carrie, MarieJohnasen, and Julie Smith, welcome. (Julie is one of the other perms over on T&S. She posted about this topic here.)
Carrie, I agree. It’s rather like when the published the handbook 2 online. Literally just hours after telling the local leaders not to disseminate the book, they sent it to the world. It has already been scanned and uploaded, so they weren’t going to contain it anyway. That way they just had control of the process.
Julie, you might be right! Perhaps they will notice the dissonance in that policy!
pardonthedust, I think there’s something to that. Watch an old sitcom someday. You’ll probably be appalled at the sexism you see, even though it was accepted back in the day.
Adam Greenwood pointed out an interesting bit about this on T&S:
Interesting.
I didn’t hear anything about this at church. Thanks for the links.
good to know! Does this mean we should all be running out to buy new scriptures? 😉
Better yet, jennycherie, just download them. 🙂 Fast and free!
I did not catch that wording in the preface of OD2. And I did not catch it in 2 Nephi 26:33 either. Both make sense to me.
Have you read this: ? I thought it was absolutely wonderful. No matter what may happen in the culture of the church, we really don’t need to feel like we’re less.