Have any of you experienced leaders, whether general or local, direct the membership to stay away from specific books? I have:

Harry Potter
Dan Brown's books

Maybe others have too?

Never experienced leaders doing any such thing, but I remember one F&T meeting, this old guy got up and started railing about the evils of Harry Potter. The family in front of me were huge Harry Potter fans, and the kids got all wide-eyed and abruptly looked at their parents at the exact same time. (They never stopped reading those books, iirc.) It was pretty hilarious in hindsight.

What about McConkies book? Is that not frowned on?

I seem to have forgotten the title.

Mormon Doctrine? I'd love to see someone use this quote from Mormon Doctrine in a SM talk:

"In imitation of the true order of heaven whereby seers receive revelations from God through a Urim and Thummim, the devil gives his own revelations to some of his followers through peep stones or crystal balls."

...and so we see that the BoM is from the devil. However, we must not let this simple fact shake our testimonies! SO WHAT if the BoM is from the devil if it makes us happy!

You think like me. Excellent suggestion.

My freshman year seminary teacher brought in Mormon Doctrine (MD) and quoted from it regularly. The MD 'peep stone' quote you cited combined with the LDS.org essay on the translation of the BoM would produce a priceless talk. Oh to be at the pulpit, pause, and watch the information (cognitive dissonance) ping-ponging between the collective Morgbot ears! I'd conclude my talk with a testimony: now how does it sound in your head? The church has spoken on LDS.org and so did an apostle in MD. I testify that this is the Mormon Church doctrine at its best.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2014 12:38PM by jiminycricket.

Dan Brown! Really!?! Dan Brown. Wow Mormons are dumb. His work is all fiction people. Pure fiction. Wow!

Mormons believe that marriage is one of the ordinances you need to attain glory. Problem is while the bible does relate Jesus' baptism, it doesn't say a thing about Jesus' marriage. The hypothesis that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene is one I've always heard in Mormon circles since I was a kid in the 70's. The 80's book "The Holy Blood the Holy Grail" also put forth this hypothesis. (The authors sued for plagiarism when the "Da Vinci" code became wildly popular, but lost, because the hypothesis predates their book too.)

Early Mormon authorities said Jesus was married polygamously.

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

Maybe this guy just didn't want people getting curious and looking up early Mormon quotes on this stuff. Or he just was wigged out by the Catholicism in it. Lots of crappy quotes about Catholics by Mormon leaders too.

I read banned books.

I'm with you Dave. Banning books sounds like Nazism, creepy.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2014 11:33PM by brandywine.

I never heard any specific books being forbidden, but I did once hear a bishop tell everyone that there were certain types of books that were not to be read:

science-fiction & fantasy
murder mysteries
any novels where any non-LDS religion was portrayed as good
books that had been translated from another language
any book that contained any sort of erotic scene
self-help books
philosophy books, including such as Plato


I found the one about no "translated" books to be just plain stupid. What about the Bible? And isn't one of the big points of the LDS religion the "translation" of the Book of Mormon?

So, just don't read anything worth reading in other words.

Books translated from another language.

I guess the Bible and the Book of Mormon are out then.

Not books but an older TBM lady told me that good Mormons don't listen to NPR.

Because they might learn to think for themselves if they did that. Look where thinking got all of us!

Mormons went all up in arms when the high school assigned "The Handmaid's Tale"...I probably wouldn't have read it if they would not have made such a fuss. Great book - recommended!

I remember that watching Married with Children and Friends was strongly discouraged.

Back in the day, twice, I remember Relief Society book clubs where the Stake President had to o.k. all of the books we read. Obviously, only Dicks had the discernment to decide what Jane could read!

unbelievable! Just when I think I've heard all the TBM madness...

deco - the title is MORMON DOCTRINE. I have read it and it will probably be banned unless they just say that was his opinion. He was not speaking as a revelator at the time.

I can see what the CULT would not like the Handmaid's Tale. Too much like the way they treat women! Just sayin.......

When I was teaching at a Jesuit University, they were totally freaked out about the Dan Brown novels. They went so far as to have class time spent on making sure that the students knew it was fiction, like college students who got accepted there would be too dumb to know that. So the CULT is not the only ones upset about Dan Brown.

"books that had been translated from another language" - this is FUNNY! So the BoM is forbidden right? Fine with me..(reformed Egyptian!)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2014 01:43AM by verilyverily.

Gee, I figured that TSCC would be thrilled about the Dan Brown book suggesting that Jesus was a father. I went to see the movie and remarked how it fit Mormon doctrine. Also, the idea of symbols and treasure seeking fit in with TSCC history.

I know many mos entranced with Harry Potter as well as romance novels.

Still waiting for the Book of Abraham to be banned...
And older BOMs...
And the Book of Commandments...
And the non-JST KJV bible...

Come to think of it, three of the four standard works have been edited/rewritten, and the PoGP'll be dropped soon, or reclassified as "inspired prevarication".

Actually, one should avoid books claiming to be true which are clearly frauds like the BoA, the BoM, PoGP, D&C, and just about anything written by the leaders of TSCC, unless read with the statement in the front jacket: "This is fiction".

Kinda on topic - I was a groupie at a Lutheran church when the first Harry Potter movie came out. One contingent of the congregation was going to picket it, because it was about magic. Another contingent of the congretation formed a theater party to go see it together. The two groups conversed amiably in the parking lot. Seemed funny to me.

I saw a little of that, mostly whole genres condemned by fireside speakers, no specific books. What I used to get was leaders condemning whatever book I was holding in my hand, which when I was a teen was usually something science fiction or fantasy. If they couldn't find something wrong with the cover, then they would condemn it for being a "waste of time." There were other things I should be doing. There was a default negativity and basic distrust of anything outside the Mormon church, especially during the 1980s. My favorite was being told that Lord of the Rings was "Satanic."

It's because Tolkin was a devout Catholic and that is the Great and Abominable Church.

That's brilliant! It never occurred to me to put those two facts together. :) It's always something!

Hey Twilight Saga seems to be okay for them ;)

But I remember I had a Ichthys sticker on my bible and Bishop bugged me to take it off for its not going okay with church doctrine. It stands for an other believe than "we" have. It was long ago before I had the faintest idea that Mormonism isn't a Christian religion. I was flabbergasted.

so not translated from a foreign language? good....means not only BOM and PoG is banned but nearly everything. even the sermon from the octogenarians. English is definitely a foreign language here. and hundreds of other countries.
But we also were taught thst we should stay away from self helping (psychological) and philosophical literature. Had a hard time when they got aware that I took a philosophy class instead of religious education in HS. (it's obligation to have religious education in catholic or lutheran or taking a philosophy or Ethics class instead here, from elementary to HS)
At least both might be wrong from T$CC point of view. .

I didn't know the rule against crosses until some years after joining and then only because some speaker at a campout commented that TSCC doesn't use the cross because it is the symbol of Christ's death and TSCC doesn't use it, not understanding the difference between the vacant cross and a crucifix. To Protestants the cross IS the symbol of the resurrection. Same speaker said only TSCC claimed succession by the laying on of hands, coming from Christ, neglecting that Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans and Episcopalians also make that claim. Considering the fraud of everything by JS, those Christians have a much better claim.

The ward I was in after I got married (RS & Priesthood) told us to NOT read anything BUT church literature. I was stupid enough to refrain from ordering any magazines I might enjoy. I guess home and gardens and and anything to do with self-improvement is evil and wrong. Can't believe I was hypnotized to the point of going along with that rule.

Aquarius, I think that "only read church books" was more than just a one ward "thing" It was one more thing on my "shelf" that made it break.

I remember an old granny from my ward telling me how 'The Work and the Glory' series was the only history books she needed. I told her it was historical fiction, it wasn't real but was loosely based on historical happenings.

She wanted to hear none of it, I still remember her getting riled up and saying "DO YOU THINK I WOULD WASTE MY TIME ON FICTION?!"

I've always thought that the W&G series was a pretty awsome method of sanitizing the history while making it "fun" for the masses to read. I read it while TBM and then read the "other versions" of history since I've been out. Some of those faith promoting stories...they sure had an unspoken half!

My minister did an entire month-long sermon series based on Harry Potter. It was awesome and very inspiring. I felt like an outsider, though, since I'd never read any of them. There are like 200 books on my Kindle that are in line above Harry Potter. Maybe when I'm retired.

I have to admit, I liked the Twilight books but thought some words/scenes were inappropriate for my kids, who were dying to read them. So since I'm an editor by profession, I went through and edited the books to be more age appropriate, then gave them to the kids. I told them they could read the whole books when they were older, if they wanted.

So Bishop Jackwagon, right after he became bishop, decided to have a "special" Relief Society/Priesthood session for all parents ESPECIALLY parents of teenagers. He had us all find substitutes for our classes if necessary - it was THAT special. Then he proceeded to spend the whole hour tearing into the parents over the clothes he sees them wearing (bad examples) said the music they listen to is inappropriate (he gave an example of someone pulling into the church parking lot with hard rock blaring on their car radio) said parents working on Sunday was setting a bad example for teenagers and then started in on Twilight, highlighting the inappropriate themes. At the time, Twilight was sold in Deseret Book and he spoke of how horrified he was that parents read the book and let their kids read it. He must have seen my smirk because he said "Even an edited version of the book is wrong." Like they hadn't been showing edited R-rated movies at BYU for years, as well as selling caffeine-free Coke. Basically, if you edit out the bad parts, how is it still bad?

A few weeks later, a member of the bishopric came across me reading Twilight while waiting for one of my kids after swim team practice and asked me what I thought of the Bishop's talk. I told him I thought the bishop was wrong, so I was ignoring him. To the counselor's credit, he dropped it right there and never mentioned it again, nor did he treat me any different. I had the distinct feeling the counselor agreed with me but couldn't say so. He was later released early from the bishopric. Bishop Jackwagon ended up replacing all his counselors during the 5 years he was in the bishopric because he was so hard to deal with.

We also got the "no Harry Potter" speech. This was right before a new one was supposed to come out. Everyone was too excited about the book and bought it anyway. So then the leaders turned it into "Please read the Book of Mormon with the same intensity and interest you read Harry Potter." Yeah... the two are nowhere on the same level!

...and remember kids, don't play your records backwards. Not only will you get a subliminal demonic message, it scratches the hell out of the vinyl.