I’m “Funny”

January 12, 2009    By: Matt W. @ 10:21 am   Category: Life

So I spoke in Church yesterday.

Here are some comments I got after my talk.

“Hillarious, as always!” – Teenager

“Do you do stand up, you should do stand up, your speech was just like a stand up routine.” – Sweet Old Widow

“Dude, you are a great public speaker” – Guy who dressed as a whoopy cushion for Halloween.

“Why didn’t you give the talk you wrote!?!” – Spouse

My talk was on the Book of Mormon being for our Day. I went a bit off of my topic, but I remember talking about:

  • A brief comment that the children were not doing well with the switch to afternoon church, and missed their naps (as did their fathers) as an Ice breaker.
  • The Old Testmant not being written for our day, and being worse than an R or X rated movie
  • Jeffrey R. Holland’s Master Thesis on the over 3,000 textual changes in the different editions of the book of Mormon (including the change last year)
  • The Expansion Theory of Book of Mormon translation, and Alexander Campbell’s “delusions”
  • The Book of Mormon pointing to Modern Revelation, Jesus being the Christ, and Prophetic Authority
  • The Book of Mormon being a guide that points us to the value of the Church and the need to participate in the church community
  • A passionate argument my wife and I had while reading “3 Questions for a Frantic Family” where we decided that the core purpose of our family was “working together to be happy and become like God”, which I believe is also the purpose of our church family.

    Not sure what was funny about any of that in hindsight.  Sometimes I worry about being funny.

    16 Comments

    1. If you managed to make all of that stuff seem like a stand up routine, that’s probably a good sign. If it was a stand up routine because you off-topic jokes the whole time, that would be more worrisome. If you are keeping people’s interest, you’re doing more than 90% of the speakers. Hard to get something out of a talk you don’t listen to.

      On the Old Testament being worse than an R or X rated movie, do you mean in terms of content or value to us as readers/watchers?

      Comment by Jacob J — January 12, 2009 @ 11:28 am

    2. Ha! I meant in terms of content. I was thinking in terms of David and his kids. I was trying to tie it to the idea that the Old Testament as we have it was definitely not written for our day and we definitely can not get the same doctrinal value there as is available to us in the Book of Mormon.

      Comment by Matt W. — January 12, 2009 @ 12:25 pm

    3. For violence, I think the BofM would get a hard R (it is virtually impossible to get an X for violence). There is a lot more sex in the Old Testament than any of the other scriptures. Actually, this gives me a new thought as to the KJV. Maybe one reason we keep it is so that people can feel comfortable reading the book of Leviticus in church. In a modern translation it can get pretty embarrassing.

      Comment by Jacob J — January 12, 2009 @ 12:34 pm

    4. “Jeffrey R. Holland’s Master Thesis on the over 3,000 textual changes in the different editions of the book of Mormon (including the change last year)”

      really intriguing. you know if it’s published, available anywhere?

      Comment by english — January 12, 2009 @ 2:01 pm

    5. english, here

      Comment by Matt W. — January 12, 2009 @ 2:10 pm

    6. Hillarious!

      Comment by Eric Nielson — January 12, 2009 @ 3:07 pm

    7. Thanks Eric

      (Adds Eric to the list of people to visit when he loses his mind, and thus all concept of right and wrong)

      Comment by Matt W. — January 12, 2009 @ 4:53 pm

    8. Wish you’d been speaking in our ward.

      Comment by Susan M — January 12, 2009 @ 7:24 pm

    9. we definitely can not get the same doctrinal value there as is available to us in the Book of Mormon.

      Not even from Isaiah?

      Comment by Kim Siever — January 13, 2009 @ 5:30 am

    10. Kim: Depends on the chapter. Now if I’d have thought of that during my talk, that would have been funny.

      Comment by Matt W. — January 13, 2009 @ 6:47 am

    11. Sure hope your Bishop is use to you by now.

      Comment by mondo cool — January 13, 2009 @ 10:26 am

    12. Probably is. You’ve got a good heart.

      Comment by mondo cool — January 13, 2009 @ 10:27 am

    13. “Dude, you are a great public speaker” – Guy who dressed as a whoopy cushion for Halloween.

      Love the description of this guy.

      Comment by Jacob J — January 14, 2009 @ 11:03 am

    14. I often get the “that was so funny” comment too. I don’t think I’m considered “uber spiritual” in my ward because of that.

      Oh well. I just go home and listen to “Tears of a Clown” and sob until I feel better.

      Comment by kristen j — January 23, 2009 @ 10:39 am

    15. Can you get Jeffery Hollands thesis in England? If yes, then where? If not,then where in the States? “Here” doesn’t mean much to us.Does the thesis have a title? Would love to read it!

      Comment by Judy Lee — February 12, 2009 @ 3:22 pm

    16. Judy Lee, the word “here” in #5 is a link to the thesis. It should be available to you in England, yes. If for some reason the link is not working for you, the title is “An Analysis of Selected Changes In Major Editions of the Book of Mormon.”

      Comment by Jacob J — February 12, 2009 @ 5:17 pm