August 9, 2023: Church growth, business principles and church callings, Hitler, Delusional disorder vs revelation

Real Mormonism

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This week we are introducing a new segment called The Argumentative Edge. Each of us will introduce a topic and after we discuss the topic we will determine the winner based on how well the individual provoked new ideas or motivated us to consider a new perspective.

First up, Shawn:

The church’s published membership numbers show a boom in growth in the 80s, 90s and early 2000’s averaging around 330,000 per year. but in the 2010s and 2020s growth has slowed, averaging around 200,000 per year. That’s a 40% decrease in growth. What is the cause of this growth slowdown? Possible reasons could be: less births due to policy changes on birth control, more emphasis on temples and work for the dead over missionary work, the technology era is influencing youth to become more secular.

Is the slowed growth a big deal or not really? Are there things we could do to reverse the trend?

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/see-the-churchs-growth-over-191-years

Next up, Sam:

Called To Serve?

Quality leadership is lacking in all aspects of our society including Politics, Business, and even Religion. Members of our Church are named by inspiration to positions of leadership and service. Aspiring to leadership roles is frowned upon. In business, I continuously have to teach and reinforce the importance of developing leadership, preparing for that leadership, and charting a leadership path. Even so, we don’t have enough good, developed leaders. How could the business world learn from the LDS approach? Could the LDS approach possibly benefit from encouraging leadership development in similar ways to business?

Finally, Matt:

How did American religious groups view Hitler pre-war? Using publications from the 25 most prominent religious groups in 1935, new research finds that religious groups who sympathized with Hitler were 1) friendly to white supremacy and 2) atop the religious hierarchy. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is classified as “distant from Hitler” They accepted the U.S. racial hierarchy and did not express strong judgment about Hitler’s actions, except in relation to the state of the church or the lack of religious freedom in Germany. The articles from the Improvement Era examined at the time show that the church was primarily concerned with promoting peace and religious freedom. Should the church take a stronger stand against world leaders like Hitler?

Who wins?

The Big Question:

Lori Vallow Daybell was sentenced this week. She made a statement at sentencing that reminded me of things I read about in the scriptures when prophets testify and are mocked. The judge in the case and the news media were quick to dismiss what she said. Court documents reveal that Lori suffers from something called delusion disorder. Her sister says she has been suffering from this since late 2017. Her husband, Charles Vallow went to the police and told them that his wife was delusional, b