Great are the words of Isaiah except when we differ with him!

*Hebrews 11:37 (King James Version) They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword…

Thank you for your perspective. I certainly don’t know Peter Danzig, and am not in a position to comment on his personality as you are.

I think it’s important to separate the issue of personality versus action. Peter Danzig may be the most gentle person on earth, but he could still do things that are defined as apostasy.

I appreciate you sharing your personal experiences with us. It puts a human face on what would otherwise be an academic discussion.

I feel the need to comment because I do know Peter Danzig. I served with him in the Germany Dresden Mission. I was not his companion, but I lived with him in same apartment in the city of Erfurt for a month–a month I considered to be the most fun and enjoyable of my entire mission, and he was largely the reason for this.

I only saw him a couple of times post-mission. One of those was in the lobby at a Utah Symphony concert. I am not going to post any opinion on the entire affair. But I wanted to provide a perspective from somebody who did know Peter, albeit 16 years ago. He WAS a very gentle, kind individual. He had an effervescent personality and the most winning smile you can imagine. I never recall hearing him express any dissent about church doctrine or policy in the mission field. In fact, he was a bright-eyed, very enthusiastic missionary. Perhaps I shouldn’t mention this, but I feel that I must to give you an insight into his personality. Before my arrival in the city, his previous companion had become involved in sexual immorality–sneaking out of the apartment while Peter slept–to rendezvous with a particularly attractive femail recent convert who had previously gained a reputation as a “missionary killer.” This affair came to the knowledge of the MP (a very stereotyipcal German general-type if ever there was one) while I was in Erfurt with Peter and two other missionaries, including my companion. This experience deeply affected Peter, and he blamed himself for his companion’s discretion (the companion was sent home, presumably for a disciplinary council), although he was blameless in the matter, and was a notoriously heavy sleeper. He felt genuine remorse about it–I can say that with conviction, and it was the only time I ever saw his cheery, positive disposition fall.

The Peter Danzig I knew seems incongruous with the individual who has sparked the bloggernacle this week. I remember a kind and fun-loving sould who loved to discuss classical music with me. We lived in a hole of an East German apartment that was infested with fungus, but we enjoyed ourselves immensely. There was a distinctive graffito across from our apartment that read “Killing the Nazi’s Pigs” (which of course implies the process of slaughtering the swine that are the property of a single Nazi). One of my favorite mission pictures is one of me and Peter and the other two missionaries posing next to this graffito. My memories of Peter have not changed, and I can honestly say that I loved him then. Without taking ANY position on this matter, I do have to at least testify with certainty that the adjective “gentle” as quoted in the Trib. story was most CERTAINLY applicaple to Peter Danzig as I knew him in the mission field in Erfurt, Germany in 1992.

I am an active member in good standing, and the choir director of the Boulder, Colorado ward.

http://mormoninquiry.typepad.com/mormon_inquiry/2008/02/reflections-on.html

I don’t know what this means but it implies, at least, that there were other problems.

You’re right that we don’t know that he continued to teach his belief in the 18 months, but you seam to be equally willing to jump the opposite conclusion that he didn’t.

The fact is we have no idea what happened in the 18 months from when he wrote the letters to when he left the church, other than that he was kicked out of the orchestra and was meeting with his Bishop.

And let’s not forget that he was not excommunicated, he left the church. We don’t know for sure if excommunication was threatened, and we probably never will as Mr. Danzig says they did but the church denies it, so its his word against theirs. So it’s not consistent to use that as an argument that the church excommunicates people because of their belief.

So the bottom line is that there is a lot of conclusion jumping here on both sides of the debate. This is why, as I said before, this should have been a private matter and it’s unfortunate that it is now a public debate, since the public does not know all of the facts and is using this to forward their own opinions, for or against the church.

The Church’s rightful director is, has always been, and will always be the Lord, Jesus Christ. We acknowledge as much, and make a conscious choice to unite ourselves with His Church, by professing belief in its doctrines and requesting baptism. Subsequent disbelief conveys no new right to direct or remake the Church or its doctrines.

It is both intellectually dishonest, and gratuitously insulting to believing Church members, for an apostate to presume that his/her newfound disbelief confers some right to demand that millions of believing Church members modify their prophetically-directed beliefs or practices. If such an apostate cannot summon the intellectual honesty to humbly seek the Lord’s will in these matters, he/she should at least abandon the transparent disingenuity of presuming to speak on my behalf.