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.
