Kishkumen wrote:I am puzzled by the basketball metaphor. It is primal masculinity expressed in a sports metaphor and applied to the task of preaching Christianity. What one might rather think about is the art of persuasion. What can I do to persuade another person that the message I bear is true, useful, or both? Others attempt to do the same; and if they fear they are losing parishioners to the LDS Church, they act out in fear and print ridiculous criticisms. How one responds to those criticisms is absolutely critical. This is where one can lose or gain a convert. Unfortunately, there is no single solution to this problem. It may be that some people react positively to the classic-FARMS method, but there are many people, and I hope their number is growing, who want something more than the tribal response that Elder Maxwell alludes to. Classic-FARMS appeals more to the ape than the angel.
Fantastic research and analysis, Dean Robbers.
Gadianton remains unmatched in his perspicacity and lucidity.
Your comment about persuasion, Kish, reminds me of what Christian apologetics once looked like:
Justin wrote:To the Emperor Titus Ælius Adrianus Antoninus Pius Augustus Cæsar, and to his son Verissimus the Philosopher, and to Lucius the Philosopher, the natural son of Cæsar, and the adopted son of Pius, a lover of learning, and to the sacred Senate, with the whole People of the Romans, I, Justin, the son of Priscus and grandson of Bacchius, natives of Flavia Neapolis in Palestine, present this address and petition on behalf of those of all nations who are unjustly hated and wantonly abused, myself being one of them.
Apologetics was once a persuasive, not a combative art.