I'm interested to hear some of the folk beliefs that have made their way around in Mormon Culture. Those really strange claims that aren't doctrine.

One that comes to mind is that "The temple is so blessed, every time they dig the foundations for one they find a spring of water."

If th builders of their temples think that building a foundation over ground that is saturated enough to produce a spring, it shouldn't be too long before sink holes develop under them and they all start falling down. The increased cost of building like that is not the way a corporation should be run.

The local Sacramento temple is built right next to Aerojet, a facility that produces and tests rockets. The grounds there are saturated with toxic chemicals and leaked fuels. The church owned a perfectly clean lot in nearby Roseville and chose to sell that property to Wal Mart for $37 million. Maybe the fumes will enhance the believability of the temple rites by killing some brain cells. Shouldn't be a total loss.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2014 07:09PM by donbagley.

Bigfoot = Cain. Awesome.

Yes, I know they're part of official doctrine. But they're really nothing more than church-sanctioned fortune telling. TOTAL folk superstition.

Any time someone claims to have received x benefit from paying tithing, I count it as a folk belief.

Even if you do believe it gives you "blessings", how are you supposed to know when tithing is the cause versus natural causes? It's folklore.

Pure folk magic

My mom keeps telling me that: "Moroni visited the area where the Moroni temple is and blessed the ground for the future building of the temple." Every time I say " No, Mom that didn't happen" She grew up in that area.

I heard it was the Manti temple Moroni pre dedicsted.

Gads I am getting old.... dedicated

PFFT!...Good on me...I'm forgetting the names of the temples :) Manti is right

Your poor mom believes that because they straight up say it happened in the Manti pageant.

Okay, that makes sense. Moroni got around I guess...NY, UT, south America

Mormons are more physically attractive than non-Mormons because they have the light of Christ that others don't have.

That JS found gold plates.

Seriously though, pick up a copy of "Early Mormonism and the Magical World View" by Michael Quinn. It's a thick read, but it's amazing to realize how much folk magic was in the early church.

And check out http://holyfetch.com for a good catalog of the more modern myths (run by a TBM so sadly any myth that traces back to the claim of a GA is considered verified).

A gold bible. Jewish sailors who evolve into native Americans. No eating before ritual prayer. Hairstyle restrictions. Underburqas. White shirts. Tithe blessings. Seer stones. Movie ratings. Dietary covenants. Joseph Smith had "powers." Attendance is service. Service is attendance. Obey!

The Three Nephites still roam the earth, performing good deeds anonymously, and likely a few pranks on the Catholics.

Oh man, I don't even know how many times I've heard that one. Every time someone told me that I had to quell the urge to laugh hysterically.

It seems almost everywhere I went in central and south America, it was taboo for women to enter the chapel unless they wore a dress, even if it was to clean it.

They have a relationship with the holy ghost that no other religion is privy to. They know things that other people don't because they have discernment.

Patriarchal blessings are the biggest load of bs ever.

There's supposedly a scripture that says that Nephi (or some other standard BoM guy) saw a vision of giant birds with whirling wings, or something similar. According to my seminary teacher who was telling me this, he saw a vision of helicopters and other modern day technology.

Uh huh, right.

I always hated seminary for its stupidity.

donbagley Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A gold bible. Jewish sailors who evolve into
> native Americans. No eating before ritual prayer.
> Hairstyle restrictions. Underburqas. White shirts.
> Tithe blessings. Seer stones. Movie ratings.
> Dietary covenants. Joseph Smith had "powers."
> Attendance is service. Service is attendance.
> Obey!

Yeah.. Since naval technology had that ability in those times to cross the Atlantic.. Even the vikings in the 8 and 900's A.D. "island hopped" to and from greenland and iceland



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2014 04:06AM by roya1b100d.

The lost tribe is living in a hole in the North Pole.

Briggy

??? i havent heard that one. i have heard they are hiding in the Bermuda triangle under the waters..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2014 04:12AM by roya1b100d.

Nope, I heard they were living underground at the north pole too..

;-)

any number of stories of people being injured in car crashes, or badly burned...

except for where the garments covered their bodies..


the mission pres. at the time of our baptism telling us, how he had seen three angels laying their hands on our heads while we were given the holy ghost and confirmed to be members..

That thought srewed with my mind something awful when I was leaving the church.. thanks pal!

Oh yes, I remember that sis! We were very special (not many people became mormons in Holland, so any baptism was big news) and we had angels welcoming us, wow

I heard the North Pole too.

Never take sacrament with the left hand or step out of bed with the left foot. That would not be "choosing the right" and will bring on bad luck.

oooh.. ooh..
yes..

Never let garments touch the floor. That will make them loose their sacredness or something like that...

Google "Hollow earth theory." It is not exclusive to Mormons. They just put their spin on the rubbish.

I don't think anyone has mentioned this one: when I was young we were all going to be walking back to Jackson County Missouri someday.

Also the recent myth: You can become Gods and have your own planet. That's a goner, unless of course you believe the D&C over the present day claims.

Keep in mind that the definition of a folk religion practice is one that differs or is not found in the orthodoxy.

Mormonism has many unusual beliefs which are/were found in the orthodoxy of earlier times and which are now being roundly denied.

The leadership is moving the entire Plan of Salvation into the category of folk practice because it is hindering the missionary work. They have changed their goal from proudly trumpeting that they are NOT Christian and a "peculiar" people, to announcing that they most definitely ARE Christian and are "just another Protestant religion," no more goofy than any other.

Academics will be studying the speed of this transformation for years.

The church attempted to allow this to take place slowly by using silence and attrition, it's two best friends. Unfortunately, members don't die off fast enough to allow the Church to move its focus from proving the Book of Mormon true to proving they are Christians and the Book of Mormon is a secondary text. Want them to send you a Bible? Just ask.

Remember the old Reader's Digest days when they would send out a Book of Mormon? This is really a big change.

The Bible used to be sneered at and now it's climbed right up to the top because the Mormon church leaders are peddling a scam and members are its customers.

The orthodoxy or yesterday is the folk religion of today.

After all, Joseph Smith informed us that people dressed as Puritans lived on the moon. People that say that nowadays are just ignorant folk believers or enemies of the church.

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