Having been in various positions of administration at the local level over the years, I've sat in councils with stake presidencies and bishoprics. On a few occasions I've seen/heard members testifying to other members in testimony meetings, classrooms, etc that they heard some policy, goal or assignment had come to some president or bishop through some poignant inspirational or revelatory experience. It would fascinate me when I'd hear such a thing, having sat in the very room for its inception and planning, and could witness it was hardly what they had conjured it up as in their minds.nightlight wrote: ↑September 17th, 2022, 5:14 pm LDS know more about the hearts and private lives of men they never met than they do about the Book of Mormon
It's fascinating
Now, I'm not suggesting this is always the case or that anyone has done that here -- and I can witness that some very inspirational leadership moments do occur -- but I've always wondered what motivated these specific individuals to fabricate/exaggerate such testimonies. And now I can't help but wonder how such things have manifested themselves at a macro scale, across the global church and throughout the entirety of its history.
It's not hard for me to imagine how someone could be aggrandized over time and through multiple retellings due simply to their social or institutional station that they held at the time.