Comments on: Scripture Mastery

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:06:27 +0000

Wow, what ever happened to "not judging others"? Who knows why this missionary did not know the scripture, who cares? He knows it now and he is doing exactly what he should be. I feel sorry for those that are sterotyped into the "typical Porvo Mormon family". Thats a lot of pressure. I'm glad i'm in Florida!

By: ltbugaf

ltbugaf — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 03:45:12 +0000

I just think there’s still too much variety in families and individuals to categorize them as “typical.” No big deal, though. I get your point and I don’t think it’s invalid.

By: Kim Siever

Kim Siever — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 03:41:43 +0000

OK, then let me rephrase that: the typical Mormon family in the Provo Freedom Stake. That was the bulk of my exposure to Provo Mormon families.

By: ltbugaf

ltbugaf — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 03:36:57 +0000

Hmm. In regard to #5, I have two points:

1. There’s no such thing as a typical Provo Mormon family.

2. Being from a Provo Mormon family obviously doesn’t guarantee that a young man will have learned as much as he should about the scriptures, or that he will have attended or paid any attention in seminary.

By: Bradford Tuckfield

Bradford Tuckfield — Sat, 26 Mar 2005 15:49:00 +0000

We still devote Fridays to scripture mastery, but what we have lost (at least where I live) is the previously extensive award/competition program. We don't compete with the scriptures except for some mild intramural open-book jeopardy and we really don't have incentive to learn them, although never having seen them before is pretty weak.

A missionary told me recently that while seminary graduation was not necessary for a mission, most foreign missions required a four-year diploma. This saddened me as I'm going to finish only three years myself.

By: Rusty

Rusty — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 02:33:00 +0000

Yes, there are still scripture masteries. They are the same ones as before. I would imagine that this missionary didn't attend seminary or is a convert or his seminary teacher just didn't do scripture masteries. Last year the seminary teacher asked the kids if they wanted to do scripture masteries and of course they said no, so they didn't do them. It's been a bit of a challenge to do them this year.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

just a watered down version.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Scripture mastery is very much alive and is being emphasized even more strongly now with The Current Teaching Emphasis in CES. Don't know what happened for this Elder. Maybe he was sleeping :-)

Virtual Theology

By: nshumate

nshumate — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Backing up Rusty:

They don't ask to see your seminary graduation diploma before you can send in your papers, you know. In fact, I have a little more admiration for a missionary like this, who may not have come from a background where missionary service was always assumed for him.

Full disclosure: I never graduated from seminary. When I was in the ninth grade, I was the only student of seminary age in my branch -- ever. By the time they realized that there was a seminary program and I ought to have it, a whole year had gone by, and by that time the class had doubled -- to me and my sister. (Dad was called as our home-study seminary teacher.)

By: Kim Siever

Kim Siever — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I should point out that this missionary comes from a typical Provo Mormon family.