Breakfast in the Castro: Erasure as a musketeer says "Nothing to see here."

Me: Mibes, thanks for meeting me for a breakfast two days in a row!

Mibes: You’re welcome. I’m happy to be here. How are you feeling? 

Me: I’m doing OK. I’ve learned what to expect. I love most of the music and some parts of some of the talks. 

Mibes: What about the Holland talk? 

Me: First of all, I’m so glad we had breakfast yesterday. Our discussion helped me to be prepared. 

Mibes: What’s your overall reaction? If you could sum up his talk with just one word, what would that word be? 

Me: Erasure. 

Mibes: Erasure? In what sense. 

Me: In the Star Wars sense of “nothing to see here.” In the sense of “an insignificant few of you may have heard some static coming out of Provo, but I assure you there’s nothing of substance to acknowledge.” 

Mibes: Oh, I see. Tell me more. 

Me: By completely avoiding any discussion of his musket fire talk, he engaged in his own form commandeering. He used the huge platform of the second talk on the first session of conference to wordlessly convey “nothing to see here” and “I’m following Christ and Christ finds no fault in what I’ve done, so you should follow Christ and find no fault either.” 

Mibes: He could have said I’m following Christ and I realize that in attacking “the least of these” I’ve attacked the Savior. 

Me: Maybe that’s what he drafted, but Oaks reminded him that “We don’t apologize or do anything like unto it.” 

Mibes: I doubt that. 

Me: You’re probably right. Although part of me wants to think that perhaps he offered a private apology to Matt Easton. 

Mibes: I have thought about that, but if he offered a private apology for a very public flogging, wouldn’t it be fitting for him to also offer a public apology? 

Me: It might be fitting, but would it be expedient for the church? 

Mibes: Yes, if the church is concerned about the long haul and actually showing love to all, but no if the church is doubling down on musket fire. 

Me: So now we know what we didn’t know yesterday morning.

Mibes: So what is that?

Me: It's that Holland has chosen to remain a musketeer.

Breakfast in the Castro: Jeffrey Holland, Musketeers and LDSCON

Me: Mibes, how’d you like to join me for another breakfast in the Castro? 

Mibes: Sounds great. Especially on this Saturday morning, just before LDS General Conference starts. 

Me: I’m glad you called it LDS General Conference instead of the Semi-Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Mibes: Why does it matter what I call it? 

Me: It doesn’t matter but I just find it refreshing. 

Mibes: Well, in that case, I’m glad I could lend some refreshment. 

Me: So what do you think Elder Holland is going to say? Do you think he'll try to summon more musketeers or try to shove them in a closet?

Mibes: Musketeers? Very clever along with closeting of people deemed in need of it. 

Me: Thought you might like that. But back to my question, seriously, what do you think he'll say?

Mibes. He might surprise some people and actually offer an apology for using the words “musket” and “commandeering” but just as likely he may brush off the controversy with a line about how he’s sorry that his recent talk was widely misinterpreted. He may say nothing and talk entirely about the Savior and perhaps even how the Savior’s words were misinterpreted. 

Me: He certainly knows that perception become reality.

Mibes: He knows but whether he'll admit it is another thing.

Me: So he may address it, he may not, he may try to move on.

Me: Those are all possibilities. Does it really matter what he says? 

Mibes: That's the second time you've asked a question like that. Yes, I think it does. He's got an awful lot of attention in traditional media and on social media. The church cares about how it’s perceived. 

Me: It’s certainly true that his BYU talk was widely disparaged as being anti-gay, but I think the church is more concerned about how the media in general portrays it rather than any impact to the LGBTQ community. 

 

Mibes: He might engage in some victim blaming. He might blame the LGBTQ community for being overly sensitive and or taking his comments out of context. In essence he might double down and say he stands by what he said and if “some people” misinterpreted his words, that’s their problem. 

Me: No matter what I think he’ll do his best to be perceived a man of Christ, as someone who is compassionate, perhaps someone who was injured himself by being misunderstood. 

Mibes: Maybe he’ll play the victim. 

Me: Maybe he’ll be slightly contrite and say he never intended his words to be controversial and that he’s a loving, caring man who strives to love and care for all people in and out of the church, even the church’s critics and enemies. 

Mibes: I don’t think he’ll go that far. 

Me: You’re probably right. If he says anything it’s likely to be brief. 

Mibes: But he might try – either intentionally or just by virtue of Mormon-speak – to give dual dog whistles, a subtle one of compassion for LGBTQ people and their supporters and one to the people who are offended that the church is too supportive of gays and their allies. Maybe he’ll try to bridge the gap. 

Me: Or to put in another way, maybe he’ll try to appear as the great peacemaker, the one who is most like the Savior in compassion mixed with tough love. 

Mibes: You don’t really want to spend our whole breakfast talking about this, do you? 

Me: No, I’m happy to move on. What else is on your mind? 

Mibes: I’m grateful we could be together. No matter what the topic, it’s always good to renew our friendship. We could sit here in silence and that would be ok. 

Me: It would be, but I doubt that would ever happen. 

Mibes: Me, too. We always have plenty to talk about. 

Me: I agree. Well the breakfast hour is long past. 

Mibes: It is and conference is about to start.

Me: I’ll be watching or at least listening. 

Mibes: I may listen but watching isn’t that great for me. You get to see facial expressions but I’d rather be outdoors and taking advantage of listening live while I do something else. 

Me: I agree. Listening leaves you free do multitask, to walk or drive or tend to the yard or the clutter in the garage. 

Mibes: Well, whatever you do, I hope it goes well. If you like we can meet again tomorrow morning. If you want to talk about your Holland adventure, or anything else about LDSCON, I’m happy to. 

Me: I may just take you upon on that. Thanks, Mibes! 

Mibes: Thank to you as well.