General Conference

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[edit] Quotes

"Today's bland platitudes do not compare with the spirit-driven exegeses and calls to service that used to be common. Since the Conference talks have been correlated and homogenized, I find them mostly boring and repetitive, and I remain totally uninspired by the 'large and spacious building' in which they are now delivered." - Armand Mauss (sociologist and Mormon Studies scholar; former board member of Dialogue)^[1]

"I just can’t get very excited over conference... I guess part of it is that it all seems so boring, so obvious, so cliched. The constraints of modernity–talks have to be vetted beforehand, the timing has to be to the second in a TV age, nothing too new or controversial may be broached–means there are no Brigham Youngs’ or J. Golden Kimballs’ or LeGrand Richards’ any more. The delivery is uniformly bland and monotone, the content is mostly highly repetitive. One of the curses of being a lifelong member of the Church is that there is nothing new under the sun. I know how heretical this sounds, and trust me, I’m not trying to proselyte anyone to my perspective. I’m glad most of you find spiritual nourishment in conference. I’ve heard the apologetic that they always teach the basics because we haven't really learned them yet. I realize that I’m in a minority among members of the Church. But conference just doesn’t do it for me." - Kevin Barney (on the board of FAIR)^[2]

"After years of just reading the conference Ensigns, I watched the Sunday sessions of April Conference. It was a mistake. Is anyone else struck by the grimness of it all? Almost no speaker smiled. President Hinckley did, as did Elder Jenson and RS Counselor Anne Pingrey, but most never showed the slightest positive expression. There’s joy in the gospel, but a nonmember happening upon Conference would not get an inkling. The average funeral is more joyful." - Molly Bennion (former board president and board member of Dialogue)