Just "speaking" or "speaking as directed by the Holy Ghost"

[OrangeUte]

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55876876-78/church-lds-political-devisser.html.csp

I saw this on Facebook a few days ago and thought it was made up. Apparently it is am actual speech that was given by a stake president in the salt lake valley.

One of the beautiful things about religion is being able to speak your opinion as a leader, claim you're speaking the words the spirit wants you to say, and suddenly your words are more than just your own thoughts and opinions - they are backed by the Almighty himself.

I think this guy was speaking his opinions and wanted to be believed and seen as inspired as opposed to opinionated so he threw in that he was speaking by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Oh brother.

[LA Ute]

I am sure there was some face-palming going on over this at Public Communications. Good grief, what a series of dopey blunders.

[Expat]

This is an issue that crosses all boundaries. I think the Mormon church will handle this well.

Even though I'm not Mormon, the story strikes home for me. The reason I converted to Catholicism from my former religion (no, I was not Mormon) seven years ago was that I was tired of hearing a political speech every weekend, and not hearing God's word. I also got tired of hearing other parishioners tell me that they didn't understand "Godless Democrats." When I asked them if they knew that our congregation had many Democrat members, they were unable to reconcile that fact with their own political belief system. For them, religion and politics had become one, and I represented an apostate. In the end, me and my family left because we were spiritually under-nourished and politically excluded. Not much of a church, in my humble opinion. Just my own experience.