At the men’s session of the April 2019 General Conference, apostle Dallin H. Oaks presented a parable that perfectly describes our course over the past 2 years. You can watch the entire address HERE.
Some decisions are choices between doing something and doing nothing. I heard an example of this kind of choice at a stake conference in the United States many years ago. The setting was a beautiful college campus. A crowd of young students were seated on the grass. The speaker who described the circumstance said they were watching a handsome tree squirrel with a large bushy tail playing around the base of a beautiful hardwood tree. Sometimes it was on the ground. Sometimes up and down and around the trunk.
But why would that familiar sight attract a crowd of students?
Stretched out prone on the grass nearby was an Irish Setter. He was the object of the students’ interest and the squirrel was the object of his. Each time the squirrel was momentarily out of sight circling the tree, the Setter would quietly creep forward a few inches and then resume his apparently indifferent posture. This is what held the student’s interest. Silent and immobile, their eyes were riveted on the event whose outcome was increasingly obvious.
Finally, the Setter was close enough to bound at the squirrel and catch it in his mouth. A gasp of horror arose and the crowd of students surged forward and wrested the little animal away from the dog. But it was too late. The squirrel was dead. (Audience laughs???)
Anyone in that crowd could have warned the squirrel at any time by waving arms or by crying out, but none did. They just watched while the inevitable outcome got closer and closer. No one asked, where will this lead? When the predictable occurred, all rushed to prevent the outcome. But it was too late. Tearful regret was all they could offer.
That true story is a parable of sorts. It applies to things we see in our own lives and in lives and circumstances around us. As we see threats creeping up on things or persons we love, we have the choice of speaking or acting or remaining silent. It is well to ask ourselves, where will this lead? Where the consequences are immediate and serious, we cannot afford to do nothing. We must sound the appropriate warnings or support appropriate preventative efforts while there is still time.
Thank you Elder Oaks for your validation.
Almost everyday we are witnessing the predictable consequences of leaving children unprotected. “We must sound the appropriate warnings.”
Don’t sit silent and immobile. Children are crying out for our voices to be lifted up.
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Together, we are going to save those precious squirrels.
Tocubit Is Invisible's Cubit 
Run Squirrel, Run!! (Thank you for reminding us to have the courage we need to protect children.)
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If only Oaks knew he supported Protect LDS Children! What else could he be talking about tho? I mean, it describes what you’ve done exactly! Hello! Pres Oaks? Over here!
Could it be he was secretly inspired by you?
I don’t get the audience laugh either. I think it’s evidence of their real selves being overridden by their allegiance to their leader, they must’ve thought he was trying to make them laugh?
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The laugh is the part which hurts the worst and brings to mind the song by Lady Gaga, “‘Til It Happens To You”. I am PLDSC story 622, and I throw your laughter back in your faces.
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Thant’s not validation. He said nothing about you or your movement. I 100% guarantee that he wouldn’t support apostasy. In fact, there was a comment about speaking against the Lord’s anointed. Guess you missed that part…
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Ok. I guess I should have stayed silent and immobile. And let the little squirrels continue to be chomped on.
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Jim, do we need to buy you a dictionary so you can look up the meaning of the word “satire”?
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What does that say about the church leaders, When you, Sam, and others have sounded alarms and the leaders came over and punched you in the face to get you to shut up, like the bullies they are?
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I call it hypocrisy.
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Regardless if Oakes intended to validate this movement or not, he did just that. This story fits the dynamics of this movement and the church behavior. The morality of the story is what it is regardless if you like it or not.
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So they excommunicated you for doing it, and now encourage that behavior a mere 6 months later. That’s an even faster reversal than the policy on children of gay parents.
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Ha!
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“Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Oak’s story can be taken two ways, and I don’t think his words were in support or appreciation of you, Sam. It’s an insidious story with a lot of hidden meanings and a number of different interpretations. A leopard doesn’t change it’s spots, and Oak’s a leopard, a cunning one. So are his cohorts. Walk softly and carry a big stick. Yes, I sound cynical and I am. I’ve lived long enough, experienced enough, seen enough, and learned enough about the church and its tactics that I can and will say these things without any hesitation. Stay your course, Sam. You are in the right. And be cautious about interpreting the words of others who would like to discredit you. You have a good and pure heart. They don’t.
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I kept pondering over the talk concerning the “snake” thinking the snake was a Mormon Bishop taking a child behind closed doors and asking the child if he/she masturbates. And, then there is Mormon leadership watching the snakes instead of taking action.
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Do you not know that in the papyrus, the very image that Joseph translated to represent God the Father is actually Min, the phallic Egyptian god of sex?
You can’t make this stuff up.
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So Sam, I finally went and WATCHED this section of the address, just to make sure that people really truly laughed. They did.
But I also noticed the look of humor and amusement on the countenance of Dallin H Oaks the whole time he told it. So maybe part of the reason they laughed is because the tone had been set for the trained minions to respond on cue.
Still I ask: WHAT the HELL kind of men LAUGH at the fate of a totally innocent victim?
Shelf. Breaker.
I am done. I am so done.
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