Wednesday, June 18, 2008

This is just dumb

I saw this on fox news, and i read through it quickly. My first thought is why does it even matter? I bet if anyone asked a bishop or anyone else that knew what was in the book (which i doubt is secret) that they could share most of the information. And I feel that there is much information that we don't know, but will know about on a need to know basis. When I became Relief Society President I didn't know a lot about how things were done, but because I had that responsibility, I knew it. But there really isn't a reason to know it otherwise. I don't know much about the Scientologists issues. Sometimes I think that the media thinks that we (the public) need to know everything about everything. But that just isn't true. Leaked information in criminal cases can jeopardize things. Too much information can be bad. And some things just need to stay secret. I haven't checked out the information myself, but I think I'll already know much of it just from experience. So, I doubt it's "secret". What do you think?

UPDATED
Here is the actual link to what it is talking about on the dumb wiki whatever it's called. They also had a link to a Mormon Female Beauty Manual. For some reason I couldn't get it to work, but I'm going to try again. Seriously, a mormon female beauty manual???? Maybe they should come to church with us sometime. Especially when we have church at 9 and have small children to feed and get dressed, on top of taking care of ourselves, and remembering to bring everything that we need for our calling.

UPDATED AGAIN
Ok, here is the link to the female beauty manual. Which I can't seem to see for some reason, every time I try. This is killing me. I'm dying to read it!!!! Wouldn't FMH totally rip this thing to shreds???

5 comments:

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

I didn't think it was considered "Secret" either. DH had a copy for one of his callings, and I admit I peeked (I didn't know I wasn't supposed to either...?). It was nothing new. It's exactly like you say, when you are in charge of something, you need to know how to do it and its just a reference manual of policies and procedures. No surprises.

Heidi said...

There is nothing "secret" about the handbook of instructions. My feeling about the reason why only bishops and people in leadership positions have these manuals is this...our church runs so well because there is an order and a heirarchy that is clearly laid out. When counsel is given or decisions are made they come through that order. So I think that only leaders in the church have these manuals so that the members of the church will follow the proper order of things and go to their bishops, etc. when they need counsel. Imagine if all members were running around with the "official" handbook, how many people would start trying to call the shots when it isn't their calling to do so! It would be chaos and many people would be confused and led away from the true sources of revelation and direction.

Just my opinion.

Chelsea said...

I actually think it would be a good thing for all members to have access to the CHI. It might prevent some abuse of power and bad advice from local leaders (which is rare, but does happen in some instances.) But yeah, not a big deal, and definitely not worthy of the conspiracy-like attention it's given in the media.

nikko said...

Wow. I hadn't heard about this yet. I love how they have to point out in the news article that the document isn't available to women in the church. Makes it sound like all the men have a copy and that it's some sort of secret document.

My opinion: It's a leadership manual -- meant to be a guidebook for leaders in the church. It's not meant for the general church membership. I'm sure if I had a question about something that is directly mentioned in the handbook but in no other source, I could ask my bishop and he would share that portion with me. Why in the world would I want the whole thing? My stewardship is over me and my family, not the ward or anyone else. Why would I want that responsibility of all that knowledge? (Ugh... does this make sense?) And it's not like there's anything earth-shattering in there, I'm sure we wouldn't be too surprised if we were to read the whole thing. (Which I won't.)

And hello! Copyright infringement!

There will always be people who strive to bring down the church or create controversy. It doesn't surprise me at all.

Anonymous said...

Hi - I enjoyed your comment on fMh so here I am...
From FOX article: "The document is not available to the public or to women in the Mormon church. In fact, a number of Mormon women wrote us describing how happy they were to see this information listed," Assange said."
I agree it could very well be a handbook for bishops and above but for some reason, saying that it's not available to women hits a nerve. The whole thing's being blown way out of proportion. It's designed to draw attention and generate more hits!