Before you read this, recognize that there are some excellent, excellent podcasts out there.
That said, you can wrap up a lot of podcasts by just plugging in the following review:
- They complained that the church should make people uncomfortable.
- Too many liberals at church who need to buck up and get a grip about reality.
- Too many conservatives at church who need to realize that progressive politics are the heart of the truth.
- Too many lazy people at church who don’t work hard enough on the speaker’s favorite cause.
- Too many driven people at church who don’t realize they need to stop and smell the roses.
- They complained about how some things at church made them uncomfortable.
- All those other people complaining and telling them what to do.
- All those other people judging them over the complaints.
- They complained that it was too hard to complain to the hierarchy about things.
- Who wants to just talk to a stake president?
- Come on, if it is only 2-3 people in each ward complaining each month, surely it wouldn’t take that many apostles to give them all personal hearings and listen to them at length.
- They were unhappy with people who complain to the hierarchy about them.
- Can’t people just quit complaining?
- Can’t they get some perspective and realize that my complaints are the valid ones?
- Don’t they realize “I the lord will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required …” doesn’t apply to me?!
- They complained about cultural imperialism.
- All those people trying to import other cultures to Utah from California or other foreign places.
- All those people trying to export Utah culture to other places.
- All those people thinking that where the most members are should drive most practices.
- All those people thinking that some diversity should be interjected.
- They complained about cultural practices of others (including the practice of polygamy in Nigeria and other places).
- And that green jello!
- And that red jello!
That will save you from listening to many podcasts. 😉
Humor aside, what are the best and the worst podcasts you have listened to? Why? Links?
Wheat & Tares 
BTW, giving Russell Flowers full credit, it isn’t as if Christ sided with the Pharisees or the Sadducee movements. Diversity in complaints is important because there isn’t a single group that has it all right.
Funny, I don’t hear any of this stuff coming from the many Christians and Catholics I know!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dialogue-journal-podcast/id573087232?mt=2&i=360766467
That was a great podcast. No complaints in it at all.
🙂 Howard.
Catholics have an office and a Cardinal devoted to avoiding schism.
Merrell in his book on leadership writes about that and the value it has.
Well I like “a thoughtful faith”, complaints notwithstanding.
The new fMh series “the color of heaven” is interesting, educational.
I enjoyed the recent Maxwell Institute podcast interview with N.T. Wright. Didn’t notice any complaining in that. Really interesting stuff.
IMHO – A bit if this comes from needing an outlet and there is a VERY strong pressure not to complain about ANYTHING at church.
Stephen, I’ve noticed that the Mormon Mentality blog is offline, I don’t know if that is just temporary or if it is gone for good. I think a great interview for you would be with the blog founder, David King Landrith, or DKL as he was later known. One of the original provocateurs on LDS blogs.
KLC, I once had him do a guest post on my personal blog. If I interviewed him, what would you suggest that I ask DKL?
http://mormanity.blogspot.com/ ?
Wrong blog. DKL’s is off-line still.
http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/2016/02/telephone-intent-and-interpretation/
“Each of these three individuals is a good friend. We live similar lives; all close in age, married, financially stable, and educated with strong Mormon heritages. But our personalities and lived experiences, our thoughts and constructed paradigms are unique. The biases we hold and the lens through which we view the world are colored by a host of internal and external factors. And the result is a collage owned and operated by individuals unlike the other players seated around the circle.
In this environment, how does one communicate their intended message effectively? On the receiver end, how does one know if their interpretation is accurate?”
Titus 1:15.
Interesting stuff I found looking for Mormon Mentality.
Stephen this is spot on about the two camps of podcasts, really. Recently I found Dialogue’s podcasts are rebroadcasts of Miller Eccles Study Group lectures. My new favorite.
The Dialogue podcasts are great. What is even more impressive is that sometimes the Dialogue podcasts are better than the times I’ve seen the same speakers in person.
Stephen, I think it could be time for some retrospective looks at the emergence of LDS blogs. 15 years ago the founders were young, just out of grad school, just getting married, on the cutting edge of tech. Now they are middle aged fathers and mothers, blogs are far from cutting edge and may be dying. Steve Evans, Kaimi Wenger, Nathan Oman, Jonathan Stapley are four names I think of, there are others in that very early group. DKL wasn’t a founder but he was an early jester who showed up and tossed molotov cocktails just to see how they would burn. It would be nice to see a look back at those early days.
KLC– I think a retrospective panel would be great.
I’m going to work on that.
BTW here is my blog index from 1993.
http://adrr.com/living/journal.htm
1997. Sorry about the mistype.