I’m at Yellowstone today with extremely limited WiFi, cell, parking, and outside lights so this will be extremely short.
I had fun interview with Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints prophet Terry Patience. He became prophet following death of Frederick Larsen 4 years ago. We discussed schism that happened when apostle Terry was chosen over First Presidency counselor Jim Vun Cannon who started his own Everlasting Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Days. We also discussed Remnant Church schism with RLDS Church following 1984 revelation allowing women to hold priesthood.
His church is very old-style RLDS: doesn’t allow ordination of women or gays, has international missions to India and Africa, will baptize polygamists in those countries if they promise not to get more wives, similar to RLDS Church policy, although that hasn’t come up yet. Terry is a Heartlander, believes in a young earth and rejects evolution. He would excommunicate gays who marry and understands why they have a hard time getting comfy in his church but thinks he’s following God’s will on the topic.
Comments? Questions?
Wheat & Tares 
I had no idea there were so many variations from the original LDS faith.
I’m curious about the level of orthodoxy and orthopraxy in the Indian and African congregations. In Steven Shields’s Divergent Paths of the Restoration, the section about the Conference of Restoration Branches (another descendent of the 1984 schism) includes an interesting anecdote:
“[There was] a dispute that arose regarding seating Seventy Ananda Rao and his daughter, Sunita Divikar, both from India, and representing more than 500 affiliated Indian members. Rao, a former high priest in Community of Christ, had been a key leader of that denomination in India for almost 40 years when he retired from active service in the mid-2000s. Not long after, he and many Community of Christ members who respected his leadership, joined the Joint Conference, and Rao was subsequently ordained to the office of seventy. The dispute concerned whether Rao and the church in India were following all the Joint Conference’s principles. He frankly admitted that neither the Book of Mormon nor Doctrine and Covenants were used in India and that the prayers for communion and baptism were done at the discretion of the officiant, rather than using the prescribed prayers in both books of scripture. Rao and his daughter were seated, with full voting rights, and the seventy quorum reported they would take corrective action in India at a later date.”
Steven L. Shields book Divergent Paths of the Restoration (I believe there are 4 editions, plus the newest on Kindle/Amazon) lists several hundred “variations”, both past and present.
Guy sounds like a real peach.
“For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. (James 3:16)
Not necessarily evil, but boy is there confusion! One can reject the succession pattern of the Mormon Church, but admit there is far less confusion than any of the groups of dissident, breakaway, divergent etc..
Lineal succession was a defining principle for the RLDS, and they ditched it after Wallace B. Smith. Now choosing a successor by inspired document is being cast aside. Also, a Prophet serving until death hasn’t happened since Israel A. Smith.
Schisms within schisms giving rise to additional schisms; some with only one viable congregation.
To familywomen: Take a trip to Independence and drive the streets. You’ll find literally dozens of denominations that identify with the restoration. The only commonalities are belief in Joseph as a prophet (but for how long varies), belief in the Book of Mormon, and belief in the center Place of Zion.
Still the strangest thing to me to call this an interview with a “prophet.” What makes him a prophet besides him saying he is? Why not call it an interview with an angel or a gryphon or Zeus or some other outlandish self-description?
BTW, I am the reincarnation of B-braham, Abraham’s largely unknown younger brother who deserves his proper place in religious history, and I’m available for interviews.
The Church’s belief in personal revelation makes all of this possible. It’s like opening Pandora’s Box.
Not one to put much weight on surveys but they do give some food for thought. This particular survey of high school seniors shows boys are becoming more conservative, girls more liberal.
If true it is interesting to consider the impact of this tend on religious participation. Those churches that are socially liberal may see gains in females but not in males. Those who lean conservative may gain males but lose females. I get the impression that strict, fundamentalist churches tend to be more patriarchal. All churches seem to be struggling to maintain, let alone grow, member participation.
“In annual surveys over the last three years, roughly one-quarter of high school seniors self-identified as conservative or “very conservative” on the Monitoring the Future survey, a scholarly endeavor that dates to the 1970s. Only 13 percent of boys identified as liberal or very liberal in those years.
The figures represent a striking shift in the political views of boys. As recently as the late 2000s, liberal boys occasionally outnumbered conservatives. Back in the Carter era, both boys and girls leaned liberal.
Nowadays, it is girls who are drifting to the left. The share of 12th-grade girls who identified as liberal rose from 19 percent in 2012 to 30 percent in 2022. Only 12 percent of girls identified as conservative in last year’s survey, administered by the University of Michigan. ”
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4125661-high-school-boys-are-trending-conservative/
The Remnant Church jettisoned all revelations after Israel Smith, at the time I think that was 145. Terry has had about 5 revelations, and previous prophet Frederick Larsen had about 21 or so. Current D&C has about 171, ahead of CoC at 165, and LDS Church way behind at 138. Judging by that metric, he has 5 times more revelations than the LDS church since 1978. So I guess he should qualify as a prophet in more than just name only.
A Disciple: It’s not surprising to me that more young females than males are liberal. Females are more into expressing, analyzing, and encouraging feelings; and that is a great part of liberal thought. Also, females are better at hysterical ranting which is a large part of liberal activism.
Consider this: A liberal umpire, who has just watched a batter strike out, would let him take his base if the umpire felt the batter was a victim of social injustice!
As epopt-comptroller of my own sect, I challenge this anti-prophet-president to three rounds in a cage fight. Hiyyya!
It doesn’t matter if someone is LDS, Evangelical, or just a right wing political nut, if a group is not pure or righteous enough someone is going to break away and form another group to correct the wrong. All the teachings about love, forgiveness, repentance, turning the other cheek, or not judging will not make a difference accept the opposite will be the foundation of the new sect. The old groups left behind then get tighter in their own beliefs or join the mainstream and fade away.