svcw, he did not teach anyone how to lie. He was teaching a group of missionaries how to bring the discussion back to a central point from which they can teach.
I do not happen to agree with how he proposed to do that for the very reasons you are trying to illicit...that is, without any intent to do so, people like yourself, looking for a reason, will say they are deceiving people (which is not their intent at all). I personally would not deflect the question but would answer it with scripture from the Bible which would serve to support our interpretation, and then I would proceed to go where he went and ask them if they want to know why we have come to believe that.
IMHO, something like that is not a very good video for you to use to try and say that Mormons teach their members to lie. You have taken a speech given to LDS Missionaries who are specifically sent out to teach about the Restoratioon of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified through Joseph Smith and an individual trying to help them not get bushwacked and sidetracked away from that goal by all sorts of questions that are usually meant to attack.
As I said, I would address it and approach it differently and myself have taught missionaries and prospective missionaries the to do so.
Anyhow...we could go on with this all night...and I do not intend to do so. The Church is large with millions of members. They are not perfect by any stretch. They make mistakes...we all do.
I do not agree with the method this individual used, for the reason I just explained. I have taught differently, both at the Mission Training Center in Provo years ago, and where I have lived since.
But I have also found that people can just about find whatever they want to find when you are talking about a population of millions.
I see the good fruit from the church and there is a whole lot of it. You concentrate on the bad fruit and there is some of that too because people are human.
In the end, the Savior, and God in Heaven will judge us all by our hearts and true acceptance of Him in our hearts and souls. The church brings people to Christ...the interpretations are different than yours, but the central, critical point is that Christ Jesus saves, and His atonement alone.
Bringing people to Christ is a good thing and I appluad anyone who does so, to whatever degree they can, and to whateve measure of His truth they have...all of that is good and is a boon to our nation.
God bless you for your own efforts in that regard. I will continue doing the same from the perspective I have through the Holy Ghost and try and help people by so doing, not the least of which have been my own family, kids and grandkids.
“The fruit”, (assuming here ‘by their fruit you shall know them’) has to do with false prophets.
Jeff, you use a lot of words to explain the most simple of concepts. The video was one of the lds leader teaching other lds how to avoid answering questions, how to change the subject and NOT answer direct questions about mormonISM.
Sorry, in this universe that is lying.
This one is calling you both : #186 as I watched the whole training video after Elsie posted a link to it.
There is also the part where they teach them not to defend their beliefs, which they call arguing or debate as bad. Better to seek those that are easy targets.
Jef, I’m gonna ask you a question about your religion ... oh wait, your religious instructions teach that you are to answer the question I should have asked, not the question I ask. So, I don’t need to ask a question because if you want to deceive me you have been trained to ‘answer the question you deem or your instructors deem I should have asked.’ Yes, Jeff, that is teaching young ‘missionaries’ how to be deceptive and deceitful, deceiving for ‘the faith’.
SOME calling it teaching; most call it misinformation.