This morning I flipped on the TV and it happened to be tuned in to "Music and the Spoken Word"- the song they were singing , titled "Morning Has Broken" was one very beautiful, one I have never heard before and they were showing slides of the mountains ,valleys, forests, beaches, seagulls and on and on, I mean it was beautiful and deeply moving.

I have never been a huge fan of the Mo Tab Choir and all the old boring church hymns, but this was something far different. I was nearly moved to tears. If I did not know better I would have sworn it was the Holy Ghost causing that warm feeling in my chest and making me feel what I did in order to testify to me "the church IS true."- I mean it was just a beautiful production, a lot different than 10 yrs. ago.

The speaker told a little story about Tony Blair, how when he was 10 his father had a stroke one morning, and he went to school very anxious and afraid that his father might die, and how his teacher sensed that and suggested that their class pray for his father. Tony said "I'm afraid my father does not believe in God," to which the teacher responded, "That doesn't matter, God believes in him". And his father recovered fully. Maybe this really struck home with me because my dad got cancer when he was just 38, and I was 10, and he did not believe in God either, and he died within months. Anyway, he went on to talk about "unconditional love", the very subject Dallin Oaks denied in general conference a couple sessions back.

For a moment I wanted to be a mormon again. I know this just sounds crazy, but it really explained alot to me, how VERY unreliable feelings can be and usually are. I honestly still feel like crying, for all I have lost by leaving in terms of my family, for the fact that I had to find out it was all a lie and then finally had no choice but to act upon my integrity and get out.

It was all so very painful, and with some of my family still is and always will be. My 87 yr. old mom was BIC and has always been TBM and I have broken her heart. One daughter does not speak to me. The biggest regret in my life is being raised a mormon from birth, so very much pain has this religion caused in my life. If my unbelieving father had lived, I know I would have left much, much earlier. I guess leaving at 56 was better than never. And now I need to just be alone and cry it out for a while.

Music is one place that still connects me with religion too, and I respond way out of proportion to it.

I'm sorry it's still so painful.

It can be so quiet for so long that we think we're past it. And then a small trigger brings it back to the surface and we move a little further in our loss. It's a process that we called "re-grieving" when I volunteered at a hotline. It's very healthy but always so unexpected and painful. Very sorry for what all you have gone through.

Morning Has Broken ????

You mean the song by the muslim terrorist Yusef Islam who was on the no fly list and arrested for trying to board a flight ?

Cat Stevens didn't write Morning has Broken, but he did sing it. It is an old Christian hymn predating Yusef by decades.

"Morning Has Broken" is a popular and well-known Christian hymn first published in 1931. It has words by English author Eleanor Farjeon and is set to a traditional Gaelic tune known as "Bunessan" (it shares this tune with the 19th century Christmas Carol "Child in the Manger"[1]). It is often sung in children's services. English pop musician and folk singer Cat Stevens included a version on his 1971 album Teaser and the Firecat. The song became identified with Stevens when it reached number six on the US pop chart and number one on the US easy listening chart in 1972

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_Has_Broken

"Gordon B. Hinckley" instead of "morning has broken".

Now I detest it.

No, the song wasn't written by Steven Demetre Georgiou AKA Cat Stevens AKA Yusuf Islam AKA Yusuf. He even gave it the title "Morning has broken (Old Gaelic melody)"

No, he's not a terrorist, he has actually spoken out against terrorism, apologized for some harsh comments from the 1980s, and has even received peace awards

No, he was never even any no-fly list. That was another person called Youssef Islam.

I hate islam and pity the fools who convert to it, but I do like the truth.

Join a real church, that at least keeps no secrets from outsiders and faces it's own history.
Cat Steven's wrote MORNING HAS BROKEN. Cat Stevens became a muslim convert and once defended the death sentencte that Muslim clerics ordered on Rushdie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens

You got me curious so I rewatched the beginning, I taped it for Colonel Moroni to see. It says " Morning Has Broken-traditionl Gaelic Melody , arr. by Mack Wilburg. So I don't know, maybe it is a different song? Anyway, it is stunningly beautiful, and honestly painful for me to watch.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2011 01:42PM by think4u.

Cat Stevens DID NOT write Morning Has Broken. It even notes that on the link you provided. Its an old Christian Hymn. Its in the hymnal at the church I go to. I like the fellowship there even though I am an unbeliever.

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"Morning Has Broken" is a popular and well-known Christian hymn first published in 1931. It has words by English author Eleanor Farjeon and is set to a traditional Gaelic tune known as "Bunessan" (it shares this tune with the 19th century Christmas Carol "Child in the Manger"[1]). It is often sung in children's services. English pop musician and folk singer Cat Stevens included a version on his 1971 album Teaser and the Firecat. The song became identified with Stevens when it reached number six on the US pop chart and number one on the US easy listening chart in 1972.[2]

I had almost finally accepted that the church wasn't true, I'd been through the rollercoaster of emotions and then on a whim I popped on our DVD of The Restoration with its super gauzy imagery and emotional music, and while one side of my brain is thinking "umm, what about this missing or what about all I know regarding that issue". the other side of my brain was overcome with memories of what that story once meant to me, and how I had cried openly while testifying of its truth.

That really threw me for a loop. According to everything mormons are taught, that should have been undeniable proof that God Himsalef was testifying to me through the Holy Ghost that the church was true. I had been a fool and has been led astray...except that using Josephs own words and the words of the church and the undeniable eveidences I has studied for months, all point away from that version being true. And yet there it was in all its heartwarming power.

It was very hard to reconcile. How could ones heart leap with such joy, while ones brain could prove the opposite beyond doubt?

http://www.bonneville.com/?nid=32

At Bonneville Communications, our ability to touch the hearts and minds of audiences makes us an essential resource for organizations with vital messages.
For more than 30 years, our creative professionals have designed public service and direct response messages for national nonprofit organizations such as the Huntsman Cancer Institute, Boy Scouts of America, National Hospice Foundation, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and The Salvation Army.

Our unique strength is the ability to touch the hearts and minds of our audiences, evoking first feeling, then thought and, finally, action. We call this uniquely powerful brand of creative "HeartSell"® - strategic emotional advertising that stimulates response.

Our people not only create effective messages; we get them out effectively. We maintain an ongoing public service relationship with more than 11,000 radio and TV stations and networks, and cable networks and systems in North America alone. We distribute public service and paid media campaigns directly from our offices in Salt Lake City.

We provide all pre-production, production, and post-production services, as well as state-of-the-art special effects and post-production facilities, closed captioning, electronic tagging, and video and audio duplication.

We are an advertising agency engaged in communications for quality life. Our people are driven by the belief that advertising can - and should - be a powerful, positive influence on the values and lives of people.
----------

Bonneville communications also provides production for General Conference and all LDS media.

The apparent witness Holy Ghost is a craft, carefully honed over years of practice and analyzing the results.

That is chilling... reminds me a bit of Jean Kilbourne's research on the effects advertising has on people. It's all about winning hearts and minds and controlling people.

Ick.

Thank you so much for that. I mean I almost felt crazy for a minute there, and all of that you posted, especially the part about how they evoke feeling FIRST, then thought, and about how it is all about how GOOD they truly are at PR. That describes a huge corporation in my eyes, and nothing to do with God.

I'm listening to Tangerine Dream right now, and its giving me goosebumps. Therefore, Edgar Froese is a prophet, and Tangerine Dream is the one true German electronic music band. If I look at pictures of planets and stars while listening to them, I may even be moved to tears.

My point is, music has the ability to change our mood and affect our feelings. Religion takes advantage of that. Tangerine Dream also rocks!

Misfit Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm listening to Tangerine Dream right now, and
> its giving me goosebumps. Therefore, Edgar Froese
> is a prophet, and Tangerine Dream is the one true
> German electronic music band. If I look at
> pictures of planets and stars while listening to
> them, I may even be moved to tears.
>
> My point is, music has the ability to change our
> mood and affect our feelings. Religion takes
> advantage of that. Tangerine Dream also rocks!

"Tangerine Dream is the one true German electronic music band"

Sorry to start a religious war, but the One True German Electronic Music Band is Kraftwerk. ;-) (At least I THINK they're German!)

Kraftwerk rocks, too!
I used to have one of their albums.
And yes, they are german.

think4u - Hope I can be of some help here....

I know what you mean.... there are those moments.... and I think it's especially because of (as you alluded to) the pain we go through in terms of our families. When something beautiful like that song, performed by a pretty talented group, stirs your heart it is easy to start feeling that maybe you "missed the mark" and that you should go back. I've had those moments, but I've come to realize it's always because then things would be so much "easier". My parents would be totally happy and proud of me, no more weirdness with my siblings, no more being subtly pressured to come back to church. That's the thing many of us lose when we leave TSCC - the wholeness of our families and the joy they are supposed to bring.

This is also why I've grown to HATE this damn cult. They talk about families all day, but they are nothing but wreckers of families. They take parents away from their children to spend hours upon hours serving in callings, and they rip families apart when one or more family members realize what a sham the whole thing is. This does NOT happen in most churches. I've got plenty of friends who grew up in church, left, and still have totally great relationships with their parents. Hell, my brother-in-law is a case study of this.

Anyway, one thing that was great for me after I left the Morg was that I started attending a mainstream, non-denominational Christian church. I LOVE IT and I feel like I connect with God in a way I never did before. The music is beautiful, the preaching is meaningful, deep, and interesting (and done by a professional who actually knows what he's doing and talking about), and there is so much love and friendship there. I am a theistic evolutionist - totally believe in evolution - and my church leaders are A-OK with that. They just treat me with love and are glad I'm there.

The really great thing for me is this: I no longer have to KNOW. I simply believe. "Lord I believe, only help my unbelief".... that's totally me. And I think it's a great place to be. I've never seen Jesus face to face, and I totally have moments where I think all religion, Christianity included, is a sham. It's possible that I'm wrong, and I'm totally fine with that.... I don't have to be burdened with knowing with every fiber of my being that something I can't absolutely prove is true. All I know is that I have reasons to believe, and that I'm much happier and at peace when I'm living as a Christian than when I'm not. But gone from my mind is the idea that God is out to get me, or that I'm going to hell if I'm not 100% sure (or is anyone who doubts for that matter. I think God, if He's real, is a lot more merciful than us backwards humans give Him credit for. Paul alludes to this in the NT by the way).

Wow, I've written a book here. Anyway, my point is not to convert you or anything. I think you can be a very intellectually honest agnostic/atheist or Christian, and I certainly don't judge you for whatever you think. I just hope that I can be of some help, and want you to be aware that a lot of deeply beautiful moments, music, and experience can be found in places outside TSCC - and that in fact I've found them to be much more so. So go sit by the ocean, or get up to the mountains, or go visit a vibrant non-denominational congregation. I think you'll be surprised at the joy you find. All the best.

I am going home to the ocean , where I grew up for the first 18 yrs. of my life, the beaches of So. Cal. I will be there for at least 2 weeks in April, most of the time alone. It will be wonderful!

DW and I recently went through (and still are) a personal crisis where we have had to turn to TBM family for emotional support. DW's family is ultra TBM and the whole experience has brought us back to childhood church memories when life was so simple and pure. We have been overwhelmed with it all. We know it is all a lie, but it so tempting to just play the game and fall in line with the cult for emotional/psychological support. Listening to the MoTabs or stepping foot in an LDS church has brought back so many mixed emotions. I think we are grieving again. No doubt about it, it works on the emotions.

We sang that in choir in junior high in 1980. Very beautiful song. I grew up in a musical family, mostly dad. I cry at music still now, even glee songs sometimes. Music gets to our core, and we can feel spiritual, or something else. Does not make the church true though.

I was crying a couple weeks ago to some song on TV and I had to tell my son that music gets me sometimes. It had nothing to do with religion though.

Cat Steven's version is tear-inducing to me...does that make him a prophet? Hmmmm.

I'll tell this unrelated story again to illustrate "emotion connection": I have a deep interest in World War Two, and years ago I was driving to an airshow when I saw, off in the distance, a B-17 bomber doing flyovers. I almost had to stop the car because my eyes teared up and my heart was thumping. Why? The B-17 wasn't the Holy Ghost, but it was a trigger that represented to me the sacrifices of millions during the most epic struggle in history. To most people it would be a big hunk of old aluminum.

I love your story! Thanks for sharing.

I'll pull over and watch everytime I see a B-17 as well.
Except once in Pasco Wa. it flew right over on the freeway saw it mybe 500 yqrds out and up over out my drivers side window. And it flew over maybe 200 yards up. Awesome

Oh dear! Hugs and prayers of peace your way!

Music is the only thing that kept me in the church for so long, I'm sure. First of all, I was a musician from age 10, so that came first. I earned my living teaching music (instrument) for over two decades.

As a convert, I was very interested in the music of the church and at one point, was going to college be a Music Minister (the only thing a woman could do in those days) in the church I belonged to at the time. Then I converted to the LDS Church, and changed my plans. I was involved in music for over three decades in the LDS Church.

Music is a universal language. It reaches us in ways nothing else can.

There is no requirement to believe in the words, or even understand them, to enjoy and appreciate religious music, for instance.

Historically, the greatest music was written (much was commissioned) for religious purposes.

Music is also associated with strong memories. Many times, when we hear a piece of music, we can recall exactly what we were doing when we heard it before.

I have always had a love for religious music of the church, Mormon and others. Most of Mormon religious music is borrowed.

There is great value in music and I find it is one of the sustaining factors of my life, whether I am listening, performing, or writing music.

Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk took the late seventies by storm. What? It's not rock and roll. It's German. It's not top 40. It was a triumph of the will that set the stage for DEVO and other mutations.

Sorry, think4you. I get carried away. But that song, Morning Has Broken, is very nice. It's gentle and measured, and I'm sure LDS Inc would like to be thought of that way. They aren't. They cause division in families, not you.

I love Morning Has Broken...I was in high school when this record was released. All I know is that Cat Stevens sang this song and I loved it. I don't care where it came from, or what Cat changed his name to. I really loved this song.

think4,I left at 57-last year. I also regret spending my whole life as a Mormon. And I especially regret raising my children in the church. I also have a child that won't speak to me. 4 of my kids are tbm and it breaks my heart everyday.

The music triggered memories, and we always tend to remember the good and exciting things from the past, not the pain and boredom. Memories also trigger thoughts of missed opportunities and make us wonder what might have been.

Religions take advantage of this. They are always on the prowl for new victims, and people are most open to spirituality when they are at their weakest, like when there's a bereavement. You make more converts at funerals than at weddings. That's why every denomination likes to receive non-member relatives at the funeral of a member.

Probably, as a whole, you life is already much better. I sympathize with your problems with your TBM family and TBM former friends.

Have you been out very long?

It took me a long time to adjust. I kept denying that I was actually being shunned. I was very quiet about my leaving, and I haven't changed my lifestyle. No one ever asked why, and I never talked about it. The Mormons just went ahead and made up their own stories about me. It hurt! I thought everything was my fault, until I came upon RFM.

I hope you enjoy your stay in California! I'm from there, too, and my frequent visits there are like a "return to sanity." Over the years, I've been able to take the best of life--whatever it was that I had in California that made me so happy--and bring it back with me to Utah (I live in SLC), and nurture that California optimism right here. I go to Park City, every chance I get, and I have purchased a condo there.

If you are patient, you will end up with a better set of friends, that's for sure! Also, as your family members find out the truth about the cult, they will leave, one by one, and they might need your support. There is life after Mormonism.

We all feel nostalgic sometimes, even though we all know that you can't go home again.

On to the future! I still honestly feel that if I had only one week to live, I would still leave that cult all over again--it would be so worth it to have just one week of freedom. Your future life is very valuable, no matter how much of it you have left. Make the most of it.

Congratulations for following the truth!

BTW, I enjoy the Methodist church, and feel even more warm fuzzy feelings there than I ever did in the Mormon church. When I go out into the forest, I feel God's presence in His handiwork.

You will learn to look at your loneliness as "solitude." I love being alone. (But I work full-time among people, and my children visit often, so I can't complain.)

Forestpal, I have been out 3.5 years now, and there was no way for me to do it quietly. I was married, and my marriage came tumbling down, and there was a lot of arguing, and my kids saw it, even though they were out of the house. I had to tell each of them that I no longer believed, because they already pretty much knew, and I ended up getting divorced as my ex became meaner and meaner, thinking , I guess that I would eventually submit to his way of thinking.

I moved, but not too far, still live in Sandy. I have no illusions about the shunning, it is very real, everyone in my old ward knows I do not believe, and when I see one of them it is so strange. I really do not care about them, have made new friends out of the church , and have a few pretty close exmo friends. They are great people. I have 5 married tbm kids and it is the one that will not speak to me or let me see her kids that is just killing me. I just have to let it go. I have tried everything, done so very much for her, and she is just SO ungrateful. My friends think she is a spoiled brat. You would be shocked to know of all I have done for her, and there is just no gratitude, ever. I guess I quit.

I do not ever regret leaving the church, even at the high cost I paid. I pretty much hate the mormon church. I want to move back to So. Cal. , I grew up about 30 mi. No. of San Diego, a small coastal town, Cardiff by the Sea. It is so beautiful and peaceful there, but if I go I will really be distancing myself from my entire family, and the other 4 are at least respectful of my right to choose to believe differently. 3 live here in the valley. Some days are much better than others. Things have gotten worse over the past year with my one daughter, because her baby died and she blames me for not having enough mormon faith. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it is true. She has to blame someone, it cannot be her, or God ,or the priesthood , so she chooses to blame me. 2010 was the worst year of my life.

"Music and the spoken word" does not portray Mormonism as it really is.

Like so many Mo programs designed in the 60s, it seeks to impress the general public and touch heart strings.

The program talks in generalities and espouses high and lofty goals.
Not a word about toilet cleaning, overburdened members, obedience, lack of funds in wards,conditional love, rude leaders etc.

THAT is the reality of Mormonism in wards and stakes.
On the local level they won't even allow you to play the same music the Mo Tab Choir sings.

Talk about false advertisement.