Well actually I really am....

BUT

I'm not happy about it in the sense of how it is going to effect my Mormon family. Which, without question, is going to be to convince them that TSCC is being persecuted and get them to circle the wagons even more.

I can't wait to spend Thanksgiving hearing about how poor ol' Joe (praise to the man) is being dragged through the mud and how the world hates mormon god's prophets and his church, blah blah blah, while I sit there silent because there is no way I'm going to ruin the holidays.

I hear you.

*sigh*

I wonder if the topic will be spoken about at all during Thanksgiving time. I'm the oddman in my thinking and have left while the rest stayed in. I'd like to hear from the stake president family member how church growth has been in the last few months.

I have been hoping that the spread of the stories across the media will make more of them think (and break their shelves) than will retrench in the "we are sooooo persecuted" narrative. Over time stuff like this has to erode the persectution narrative. "We believe in being honest" is still a strong thread in the "faith." As is the TR question about being honest in one's dealings.

Yeah, I don't get it. I've known all this $hit about JS for years. When I said it, I was a liar and a evil anti-Mormon. Now TSCC actually admits that it was worse than I thought...not only teens and other guys' wives...as I always said...but that it was probably more like 40 women, when I thought 33 or 34. And it's no big deal to TBMs who congratulate TSCC on being so "open and honest." These fukken brain dead people deserve Mormonism.

My family just looks at it as more evidence as to why the church is true. The devil knows the church is true and is putting all his energy into fighting it. They also think that it's part of the sign of the times.

A nice, even-toned reply of something like:

"Gee, perhaps if he hadn't married other men's wives, had sex with 14 year olds, and lied about all of it, he wouldn't be having his name dragged through the mud at all?" might help :)

ificouldhietokolob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A nice, even-toned reply of something like:
>
> "Gee, perhaps if he hadn't married other men's
> wives, had sex with 14 year olds, and lied about
> all of it, he wouldn't be having his name dragged
> through the mud at all?" might help :)


I totally agree.

Then turn to the most 'pure and delightsome' married female, in your family and say, "I have a very important and sincere question for you. How would you feel if Thomas Monson called your husband tonight. Told him that the Lord had a special mission assignment for him. Sent him to China for one year. Then, one week after he leaves, Thomas Monson knocks on your front door. He says, the Lord has revealed to me that we need to be secretly married for time and all eternity. Don't tell your husband. I have Pres. Eyring here with me to perform the sealing now. Then we will have to consummate this marriage. What would you say?"

If she has any other answer than "SICK and wrong! Not of God!" Then you know just how brainwashed she is. If she is uncomfortable, you need to explain that is precisely what Joseph did. Yuck

If she's OK with it -

Her: "The prophet can do that."

You: "Can anyone do that, or just him? Can your husband steal away a second wife, or can a different man take you away like that?"

Her: "No, just the prophet."

You: "And if anyone else even tried, it would be perverted and sick?"

Her: "Absolutely."

You: "But why should a prophet of God be held to so much of a lower standard than everyone else?"

I agree...now is the time to be heard. In stark terms. Stripped from all the magical doublespeak that Mormons love so much. It's time we have the courage to kindly but blindly call a spade a spade. We in the exmo community have shouldered this burden for too long and let our dysfunctional families have both the bully pulpit and the microphone, and with the transparency that the cult claims it is achieving in releasing this information, we need to now ask our friends and families to shoulder the same burden of knowledge and pain that we have. It is time.

Err...that's bluntly, not blindly. :)

Love it!

WAIT! So...the members are crying because the church is dragging itself through the mud, persecuting itself by publishing these essays?

Help me understand!


Kathleen

I had the same reaction. How can they claim persecution when it is just (incomplete) facts published on the their own website? I also don't understand.

Exactly. TBMs should be gleefully jumping up and down over all of the free missionary work The New York Times is doing on their behalf by reporting on essays put out by the church itself. A Facebook friend said (boasting, actually) today that the Mormons have been the most persecuted group of people in American history. (I wanted to reply, "Just why is that, do you suppose?") I'm bewildered why it's persecution to give national attention to something the church has produced. Very confusing.

Wow. Even more persecuted than people who were forced to be slaves? That is an insane perspective.

Well I kinda doubt that it'll be mentioned at boring morg church services this week. More likely it'll be swept under the rug...

When he had 33 wives including two 14 year old girls and 11 women who were already married to OTHER MEN!!!

These freaking members are just as SICK as he was.....Another reason why NO WAY I can respect any of these morons...NO WAY!!!

They want to see "persecuted Christians"? look no farther, but what the ISIS are doing to Christians all over the Middle East...Not joe-joe or these morons all around us!

Guess what I'm 51 years old and I'm FINALLY willing to ruin the Holidays if my TBM relatives bring this up at Thanksgiving. I'm tired of faking it.

Good luck to us both!

rationalizations about the facts of church history in an attempt to make the unsavory truth palatable, so you can continue to believe that Joseph Smith was a Prophet.

How many people were ex-communicated or call anti-Mormon for speaking these truths before the Church was ready to publicly admit to them? How many lives and reputations were ruined by the Church because of their covering up and white washing the evidence?

For and organization that claims to be the ONE TRUE CHURCH, I expect, no demand more honesty and integrity from the leadership.

I've know for a long time the Church is not what it claims to be, the Public Relations team knows that the organization will loose a certain percentage of members over this but will still have enough people who are so emotionally and financially invested in their belief system that they will find a way to believe that this corrupted Church actually has the Priesthood authority.

They are just another in a long line of religions who profit by selling a belief system.

Your right it will cause many to be more defnensive, but on my news feed today I saw a lot of tbm's stating they were shocked and hurt by the church. I think a lot of tbm's are questioning the church right now. They are in denial and trying to somehow justify all this, but in the end like with us, it will just lead them to question more and more until they are out.

that would be wonderful news, if their own church validating what they've thought were lies all this time finally causes them to question things.

It does make me wonder how those who scream that they're being persecuted are going to justify this... who are they being persecuted by... their own truth? Their own church?

And how are they going to sell their religion/justify things now. I guess you'd have to own up and approach it as, "yeah, and aren't all of these things great?".. that'd take a LOT of mind-gymnastics for me to say that with a straight face.

I think it's interesting that tscc didn't warn the members that this was going to be breaking news. They don't even have the decency to warn their supporters that this probably won't be pretty. Nope, they've left each member to defend it however they may. If they don't defend it according to the church's liking they may find themselves in a court of love. It's a lovely church to be a member of.

Like go on Facebook or Twitter and warn them in advance!?? I doubt that the morg would even do that!!!

...that if these media articles are telling the truth, then your relatives can't claim "persecution." If it becomes an issue for you, I suggest that you ask your Mormon relatives to point out the falsehoods in the articles.