Isn't it now relegated to some sort of 'Gift For Administration'?


I don't see any claims of miracles anymore, no spectacular 'saves' from weapons, sinking ships, or falling planes, etc.


just a thought? maybe!

Yes, it is now known as the MORmON priestDUD, due to its lack of efficacy.

Priesthood is the power to move and stack folding chairs.

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Priesthood is the power to move and stack folding
> chairs.


And furniture! One elders quorum loads it up, and then another elders quorum unloads it. Probably beats barn raising...

My "power of discernment" prompted me to NEVER own a pickup truck the entire time I was a member of an EQ.

Good old boys group

My DH says all p.holders know they don't have a special power but figure that "other men" are way more righteous and they DO have the power. When my DH was Elder's Quorum president in the early 90s, the order came down from the top (at least to my recollection) that p.holders should no longer make promises in blessings. No more "you'll be healed" or "you'll live to see your grandkids" kind of promises. My DH said he felt relieved that he wouldn't be under that kind of pressure while giving a blessing, however, the change lessened the significance of being a p.holder. Blessings became nothing more than prayers. In hindsight, after learning our way out of the cult, we know it's all rubbish anyway, no matter how you lable it.

Isn't there something about priesthood keys? You know, the power to find keys when you can't remember where you put them? Are you disputing the reality of the amazing priesthood key finding power? Women don't hold that power because they don't lose keys in the first place. That is why women will never receive the priesthood keys.

"Gift of Administration" is almost the same as "Excuse to not hire women".

Church members will always claim that mormon priesthood miracles occur all of the time. When someone is in the hospital on the verge of death and they're given a priesthood blessing and then recover, the priesthood will be given credit for the recovery, as if modern medicine had nothing to do with it. But if the same person were to have died, it would just be accepted by almost everyone that it was just this person's time to go. How can anything compete with that kind of performance record?

The only thing that has changed is that the extreme BS factors get reduced now days. With the internet and statistics for just about everything these days, outlandish 'faith promoting' false stories and false statistics get rapidly dis-proven for everyone to see. So next time you hear stories of mormon apostles raising someone from the dead, there's no excuse for any lack of evidence... and of course there never is any evidence for something like that.

As the recent recipient of oil blessings (Blah) It pretty much went like this "we bless you that YOU will have the ability to blah blah and YOU can blah blah AND PREDICATED ON YOUR FAITH blah blah blah'

Instead of promising miracles it just makes it sound like it's your fault if they don't happpen but if they do you were faithful. Granted these people weren't really giving me a life or death kind of blessing, really one of comfort. I was in hell, detoxing off of benzos and methadone in a mental hospital

The blessing didn't help. Fuck blessings and fuck mormonism.

Today the priesthood is simply a big stick. A tool designed to define corporate lines of authority, reporting and status.

I used to teach kids that the priesthood was the authority to ACT on behalf of God. To be HIS hands, HIS feet and HIS back. To do things for mankind that he wanted done.

Now it's simply the basis for "follow the brethren" and that they can do no wrong.

I now believe the priesthood introduced by Smith was fake and the fact the TSCC uses it to purport to represent God is an affront to God if you believe in him. If you don't it's simply a con.

The LDS priesthood was always a farce.

You could say that the priesthood is diminishing in terms of the respect it receives from members, but non-mormons must wonder how such a total farce could be said to deteriorate. It was already useless.

The priesthood did have a negative effect on all female members of TSCC, and a negative effect on all women who live in mormon-dominated communities. Maybe that effect is now diminishing.

Oh, that imaginary power that only men can have. I haven't seen it deteriorate in the eyes of the TBM's and they certainly do not want to share as they learned to do in kindergarten.

Woman, get into the kitchen and fix me dinner pronto, and if you think you'll ever have the Priesthood like me, well think again!

...that's because I was reading in Journal of Discourse his talk "The Holy Priesthood—Judgment—Separation of Spirit and Body" Vol 8:

He said that the Priesthood had nothing to do with administration or temporal needs. The 2nd paragraph is the true meat of his talk: "Now, if he really has spoken to us—if he really has given to us the holy Priesthood, which is the power that rules in heaven, and the prayers of all Christendom are, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven" —if these prayers be heard and answered, the same power that rules in the heavens must eventually rule on earth. Then, if the Priesthood has been given to us, as we claim it has, we are occupying a very important position in the world. What is this Priesthood? What is this power that is conferred upon us in the holy Priesthood? What particular power do you give when you send a man to some other land to transact business in your name? You give him a power of attorney, authorizing him to transact in your name the business that you wish to be performed; and in that letter of appointment would be conveyed all your power, your authority, and ability to transact that business, even as effectually as if you yourself were present to perform it with your own hand.

It is an agency, then, though it may be said that the Priesthood, which is authority from God to act in his name, differs from that authority which is given to man to transact business for his fellows. I am willing to admit that there is a difference so far as the business for which they are delegated is concerned; for one is temporal, the other is spiritual; the one is earthly, the other heavenly. But let me ask, Where is the man who is authorized to go forth and act in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? If I obey my own will—my inclination or burning desire to go and preach what I believe to be the Gospel, that does not authorize me to go in the name of the Lord. If I, by my own act and deed, have authorized my friend to go in my name, to give receipts and acquittances, to sign conveyances for me or in my behalf, and under my own signature he has received that authority, he then has authority in himself; that is, the authority in me is transferred to him to go and transact business in my name. Am I then bound by what he does? Yes, to all intents and purposes. Am I bound by the act of any individual authorized by another person, yet not authorized by me? No, I am not. Is the transaction of any other than my legally appointed attorney valid to me in law? No, it is not: it is worth nothing. "--http://journalofdiscourses.com/8/4

Yesterday, I posted this about Orson Hyde: the "almost" prophet and president of the church http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1481748,1481748#msg-1481748



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2015 01:44PM by dydimus.

If God is omnipotent and omnipresent, why does he need to delegate his authority? Deep down, I always felt like a fraud when I gave blessings because there was never any voice or inspiration giving me direction. When a blessing did not "come to pass", it was even more evident that I possessed no real power. Seriously, what kind of a jerk god gives you his authority, then doesn't back you up? My boss at work treats me much better than that and has my back when he delegates responsibility to me and supports my decisions,even if he would have done differently. I believe most priesthood holders know, deep down, that this power is nothing more than authorization to perform administrative functions of the church, and any metaphysical powers are pure fantasy. They just won't allow themselves to admit it.

It is abusive to give men the priesthood.

Countless dads have blessed their children to live, only to have them die. They then blame their child's death on their lack of faith. And women want that responsibility? You can have my priesthood - it is useless.

Years ago my brother and dad blessed a man on his death bed that he would live many more years. He died that night. My brother said he went to the stake president and asked what happened. He was told to just put that experience in a little black box and forget about it. He is still a TBM, so apparently he was able to do that.

Faith is the act of ignoring facts that contradict what you want to believe. Self-deception, in other words, lying. They teach honesty and lying at the same time.

(am I wrong?)

if fearguiltpromise's DH's experience isn't a retreat, IDK what c/would be.


It's a MAJOR step backwards IMHO.

Thanks for the thoughtful posts.

The penishood has the power to clean toilets if (and only if) they have Automatic Vanish.

I sure wish Automatic Vanish would work on other things besides scum in toilets.