I was thinking about the famous "14 fundamentals of following the prophet" lately and how they are designed to make the members blind followers of their leaders. However, there is a flip side to this mind control technique. By claiming that the "prophet" is God's lone voice to the entire world about EVERYTHING (spiritual, political, temporal, civic, and even gardening I guess) it gives the "prophet" the responsibility to speak out about EVERYTHING. If there is an issue that faces mankind and the Mormon prophet does not proclaim the will of God about it, either God has nothing to say about it, or the Mormon prophet is a false prophet.

So, what has the Mormon prophet said about the political uprisings in the Middle East?
What has he said about the war in Libya?
What has he said about moral issues like stem cell research?
What has he said about conflicts between science and Mormonism?
What about the genocide in the Sudan and Darfur?
What warning did he give to the people of Chile, Indonesia, New Zealand, or Japan before the terrible natural disasters that they faced?

He is silent about these and every other major issue that faces mankind. Does God, if it exists, really have nothing to say to the people of the world about their problems?

All we get from the Mormon prophet is basic religious good speak (love others, be kind and charitable, have faith, etc) that every other religious leader says, and overly controlling rules about ear-rings, white shirts, and the sisters Sabbath day footwear. The result is that he becomes irrelevant to a world that knows nothing about "God's lone spokesman".

Rather than provide a way to control the membership, the 14 fundamentals expose the Mormon prophet as the fraud that he is.

I made yet another video fleshing this out a bit more that I thought some of you might enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ0alO-fSEM

You did a really good job on the whole thing.

I love "silence is a war crime"

Thanks, I hope I was able to get a laugh or two out of you as well.

Holy shit, this will make you look stupid (because it is stupid):

"Fifth: The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time.

"Sometimes there are those who feel their earthly knowledge on a certain subject is superior to the heavenly knowledge which God gives to His prophet on the same subject. They feel the prophet must have the same earthly credentials or training which they have had before they will accept anything the prophet has to say that might contradict their earthly schooling. How much earthly schooling did Joseph Smith have? Yet he gave revelations on all kinds of subjects. We haven't yet had a prophet who earned a doctorate in any subject, but as someone said, "A prophet may not have his Ph.D. but he certainly has his LDS." We encourage earthly knowledge in many areas, but remember, if there is ever a conflict between earthly knowledge and the words of the prophet, you stand with the prophet, and you'll be blessed and time will vindicate you."

It is true that Joseph did give revelations on all kinds of subjects. He did this for everything from the age of the earth, to the location of the garden of eden, to banking, to the origins of the native americans.

Of course he was wrong everytime. Maybe he should have educated himself about a topic before he started spouting off about it and demonstrating that he had no effing idea what he was talking about.

I just realized that it said to act, as well.
That means Tommy Monson can do brain surgery, fly to the moon, make cold fusion, or whatever because he's the prophet -- boy, he's really not living up to his true potential. Haha.
Anyone need a brain transplant? The prophet can do it!

I have to sorta disagree with the sentence,

"All we get from the Mormon prophet is basic religious good speak (love others, be kind and charitable, have faith, etc) that every other religious leader says..."

LDS leaders don't really preach these things. They preach things that other religious leaders do NOT preach. I would have phrased it,

"All we get from the Mormon prophet is basic Mormon dogma such as (obedience to the church, pay your tithing, go to the temple, have faith, read the scriptures, feel the spirit, etc) that every other LDS leader says..."

Sorry, but the LDS church doesn't seem to focus as much in the way of moral lessons such as kindness, charity, love others. They seem to focus more on superficial things like how the church is so true, and Joseph Smith is a prophet, and how we need to be more obedient and faithful to the church.

You are probably right. While the leaders do teach about kindness and charity, but it always seems to be framed in the context of being obediant, following the brethren, or some other testimony building scenario. It does not seem like they are more concerned about having people do good for the sake of doing good, but for promoting the church.

I do have to disagree with you that other religions do teach some of the things that you say are unique to Mormonism, such as their founding prophet was true (Islam), or that only their current leadership speaks for God (Catholics), or obediance.

The temple on the other had is unique. There is nothing else like it in other religions that I know of.

I'm afraid you're mistaken when you say that Catholics believe "that only their current leadership speaks for God."

Catholics do not believe that the Pope is a prophet, or that the Catholic Church is (to borrow an expression) the one true church. Although the latter of these beliefs was formerly held as a dogma of the Catholic Church, it is no longer held either as an official belief of the leadership or as a popular belief among most of the membership. The modern church teaches that Christ is the Way to salvation, and that he invites everyone to accept the free gift of His grace.

As for the doctrine of papal infallibility, it should be noted that it is, in Catholic terms, very recent, having been adopted at the First Vatican Council in about 1850. Also, it has only been invoked twice, in pronouncements concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary. The doctrine also remains controversial within the church, and is not accepted by a great many loyal and practicing Catholics.

Fair enough.

My point is that the Mormon prophet does not pronounce anything that is remotely prophetic or revelatory. Any good things that he might say, could and have been said by anyone else, secular or religious.

catholics may not believe the catholic church is the one true church, but the pope sure does. in july 07 pope benedict reasserted the primacy of the roman catholic church by saying other christian communities are either defective or not true churches and that catholicism provides the only true path to salvation. the pope is in the same catagory of douchebagism as the mormon profit

The prophets these days have no guts.

At least the old timers had the stones to shoot from the hip

So true. I remember as a member thinking, "How come they never reveal anything new? Or say something juicy?" Only the McConkies and ETB said anything authoritative whatsoever that is not already repeated ad nauseum in conference.

I had a 30 year old neighbor testify to me how wonderful it was to have a living prophet to follow. I asked him what revelations he heard from these living oracles changed his life the most. He stammered and hemmed and hawed for 5 minutes, but in the end just could not think of any. He ended with something like "but the church is still true!"

I wondered how someone so smart could be so stupid.

Thank you for such a well thought out line of reasoning.

thanks, that means a lot.