I'm generally am a live-and-let-live type of person, and I don't go out of my way to hand metaphorical red pills out to tbm's. Firstly, because I don't think a lot of them are ready, but also because I think that when you discover things for yourself, you're more likely to accept your findings.

However, I think there is an exception with people that actively try to get me back into the fold. In fact, I might be sending the new "Top 10 Problems with Mormonism" video to the next person that tries to re-convert me. I still manage to have some tbm friends, so this dilemma comes up on occasion.

Thoughts?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2012 03:06PM by archytas.

"...I don't go out of my way to hand metaphorical red pills out to tbm's. Firstly, because I don't think a lot of them are ready,..."


You mean like black people with the holy mormon priesthood???



(that's a joke...)

Sometimes I think that the best way to get Mormons to think is to act like you are defending the church. At least, that's the way it is for my mom. I can get away with telling her Anne Frank was baptized 9 times and they are repeating baptisms if I mention that someone is not thinking about how bad it makes the church look by selfishly baptizing famous people. And why don't these people CARE about the church? Or if I say something like "why are the PR people in the church so incompetent? When Professor Bott made his statement in the WSJ about blacks and the priesthood, why did the stupid PR person say it was just folklore? All the members know it isn't. I really hate incompetent PR people. With Mitt running for president, the church needs their best people on the job - not people who are going to misrepresent the church because they don't think about how what they are saying sounds."

Now I'm not a church defender but I've found I can slip in a lot of WTF facts if I seem sincere in caring that the church looks good to people who don't really understand what Mormons are all about. Otherwise, I seem like I'm attacking the church and the walls go up. And in the meantime, a couple more pounds of crap go on the TBM's denial shelf, hopefully leading to an eventual collapse.

Seems like a reasonable approach.

like, how do you reconcile what God says about polyandry in D&C 132 with the fact that both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young practiced it?

or

How do you reconcile the fact that the church discriminated against blacks for 120 years with Christ's commandment that we love our fellow men as ourselves? or

How do you explain the fact that God refers to Native Americans as "Lamanites" at least 6 times in the D&C, with the DNA evidence that proves no Native American tribes are descended from Jews? or

The list of Socratic questions is endless, but you can't be faulted for asking honest questions, especially when you've got the answers and they don't, which is the best.

The other good one is the 11th and 13th Articles of faith. If they really believed in being true and honest, then they wouldn't pretend that Joseph Smith was a monogamist and that his relationship with Emma was based upon the gospel of Christ and they sure as hell wouldn't be trying to manipulate you back into belief after you've made it clear to them that you don't buy their absurd beliefs, for good reason.