Talktrine

I went back to my home ward today, along with my family, and it was...well, interesting.

Now, I love my family, and I had a blast with them, but the Sacrament meeting talks were both classic examples of first-rate talktrine (talk-trin...like doctrine, except not). My ward here practices the full use of talktrine all the time. "Let me 'splain. No, there is too much, let me sum up."

Talktrine is what some church members use when they give their talks. In order to use talktrine, you don't generally read scriptures, you quote them...from memory...or at least you quote what you think you remember them being. You may also use any bit of Mormon heresy that you think you might have heard in some devotional/fireside from someone who may have been a general authority. As long as it sounds good and righteous, it must be right, right? Right. You don't have sources, unless it's the Ensign, and even then it has to be something that you remember reading a long time ago. Personal stories of how you may or may not have been saved at one time by the Three Nephites are encouraged, and use of poems, quotes, and stories out of non church-approved sources are common.

That being explained, today we heard how Ether saw the finger of Jesus, and how we could know who the next prophet was before he was called through revelation. Bet you didn't know that Joseph Smith prayed in the grove because he read, "ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened to you." The things I learn in church...