Comments on: The newest LDS urban legend? [updated]

By: Carl

Carl — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:47:58 +0000

Oh, only 62 million people would die. Whew, that’s a relief!
Actually, I’m glad to see this information. This is a good site. A two-week supply is certainly more feasible than 3 months, although I think we should try to eventually build up to 3 months.

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:28:59 +0000

As my dad used to say, while shaking his head ruefully, “Some kids’ people.”

By: Pandemic urban legend update from Dr. Puls | Adventures in Mormonism

Pandemic urban legend update from Dr. Puls | Adventures in Mormonism — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:29:29 +0000

[...] March 2, 2009 Posted under Current events, LDS Society, Main, PreparednessThe friend who sent me the original “Pandemic” e-mail pointed me to this site, which appears to have a response from Dr. Susan Puls: Several months ago, [...]

By: damienweiss

damienweiss — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:28:58 +0000

There is a certain class of person that this kind of UL speaks to:

1. “Sky Is Falling”/Lord is Coming sign looking everywhere folks.
2. Those who have bought a lot of the provident living stuff (2 – 3 years of food… shelves… water… generators…)
3. Folks who make money off the other two.

The first two desperately *want* the world to end so that they can be proven to be “right”. The third is simply evil.

By: bfwebster

bfwebster — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:44:00 +0000

Sorry for writing my own post-length comment.

Hey, I appreciate any comments, and the longer, the better. Besides, Ardis, you know first-hand the lengths of most of my comments on other blogs, so I would be the last to complain. ..bruce..

By: Ardis

Ardis — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:00:41 +0000

Ha! You might guess how much I like it when someone tracks an email farce to its roots! Thanks for doing this.

Our RS president has been concerned about a possible pandemic, but encourages us only to have a few weeks’ emergency supplies on hand, and to pay-your-debts-get-out-of-debt-don’t-buy-what-you-don’t-need standard advice. The same has been true of our bishop, who has used the 5th Sunday bully pulpit to speak of provident living a couple of times. We’ve been reminded that in the case of a contagious disease we might want to reduce our public exposure, and to recognize that even if stores can stay stocked, the employees might be ill or home taking care of ill families — there might be a defacto if not a dejure quarantine, in other words.

Nobody around here has scheduled any special seminar, and *certainly* nobody has given such numerically astounding predictions!

Why do people fall for these scaremails? Nobody quoted BKPacker’s last conference talk, but innumerable people circulated the bogus version of the talk he may or may not have given a week later in his home ward — would he really warn a single ward of a coming disaster without warning the rest of the church? Would the church warn of a pandemic through some seminar that reached a vanishingly small part of the church without warning us all? Does the Lord really who gets the chance to prepare for such a thing based on the happenstance of who is on somebody’s email mailing list?

If the answer is no, then why fall for such hyperventilations? They’re dangerous, because people tend to discount the official, calmer calls for preparation because they’re drowned out by these more sensational appeals.

Sorry for writing my own post-length comment. You touched a nerve. Thanks for tracking this one down.