I started Mormonism as a teen in the 70's. People in my ward really talked about the Priesthood as though it was this wonderful, magical thing. Desperate and vulnerable, I truly latched on to this. It was full of wondrous treasure--all of these Holy Ghosty revelations,discernments, almost infallible guidance, healings, miracles,pointings to the future. I thought this way (though it did lessen in fairy-tale qualities) until I was thirty. I was shocked out of it when a "holy priesthood" guy lied and took severe advantage of me and my family.

Those ward members wanted converts, so they tended to overdo the wonders of Mormon things. But why did they take advantage of a depressed teen from an abuse background? They knew that something was wrong but they advised me not to see a counselor; pray and rely on the priesthood instead.

Power! The Priesthood was full of power. I remember guys singing about "Priesthood Power".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2018 07:30PM by Josephina.

The deception runs deep in the Mormon religion. Those people may have believed what they were telling you because they too were deceived. It is led by false prophets, and lay leaders who each believe themselves to be mini gods in embryo. As a young Mormon female, we were taught to follow whatever the male patriarchy told us to do in order to be subservient to their demands. It was the way they ruled and kept order in an otherwise disorderly world where feminism would typically drive women to stand up and assert themselves. Reach out for counseling through professionals, where needed, to get the help you need. Mormonism detours people to following only its lay leaders, prophets, even counselors who are as different as individuals are. Their advice is as disparate as themselves. To follow them is to disregard reason and your own intuition for what is best for your life.

They will take advantage of teenagers. I came from such a background myself, and I grew up LDS. When I tried to complain they looked the other way. The elephant in the middle of the room is the church, which they are taught to ignore.

I've been the recipient of some miraculous priesthood blessing/s on occasion. Still overall, the impressions that were made as an adult were that the church is full of paranoia, adulterated, and toxic. By and large that overcame the resistance and hesitation to stay in it. Once you learn of the duplicity of the founding 'prophet' J Smith, and the adulterous life he led, plus his plundering the wealth of his followers ... and exploiting their trust. By then you just know too much to go back and pretend.

I too had a few miraculous things happen. But I know now that it wasn't the priesthood--it was God directly, because of faith.

The 70's I remember as a strange, "overdoing" sort of time. I think people believed that the end was near, and we would be going to Zion soon. In the meantime, get a two year supply of food and stock up on ammunition to shoot the hungry raiders with.

In the 80's, we seemed to veer from this and over-glorify capitalism instead.

Leaving TSCC was a wakeup call. Since leaving there it became more apparent we spent more time worshiping Joseph Smith the man rather than the teachings of the bible. TSCC revolved around JS. If it didn't, the entire church would unravel.

I've compared it to a house of cards. Pull out one card, and the rest of them crumble.

People are rationalizing Joseph Smith's behavior by stating that he was imperfect. Prophets are not perfect, they remind us. None of us is perfect, so why do we expect Joseph Smith to be?

This is desperation to keep the church together.

He was more than imperfect. The man was a charlatan, lol.

TSCC doesn't acknowledge that he was worse than the worst sinners among them. By the standards the church holds court hearings today, he'd have been excommunicated at least for as many times as he committed fornication and adultery.

Lying and cheating were his methods of rationalizing. You break one commandment, and it often ends up causing others to be broken.

Lying, stealing, adultery. Coveting his neighbors wives. Idolatry. People who really emulate J Smith's example would lead them into county lockup or state pen!

They have to say something to try to keep the church together. "Stop expecting Joseph Smith to be perfect--that's unreasonable!" is the newest excuse for him. They are losing a lot of people, and are grasping at straws to stem the flow of ex-Mo's.

If they were really, truly honest instead of calling him simply imperfect, they'd call him what he was: a dirty, rotten low down scoundrel.

That would be telling the truth. The truth is something most TBM's aren't equipped to handle. They excel at rationalizing and compartmentalizing. We all do to some degree to make sense of our lives. They do it to make sense of an impossible scheme to defraud that has worked for going on 200 years. If the numbers are dwindling, they're long overdue.

:/

I always liked it when they raised the dead.

my BS detector just went off.

Dave the Atheist Wrote:
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> I always liked it when they raised the dead.


Me too Dave...
I always looked forward to that.

Don’t laugh, what do you think keeps these crypt keeper looking GAs going?

Is there something to this priesthood crap, I asked myself? I didn't have a useful answer, so my companion and I went ahead and tried to cure a Down Syndrome baby, at the parents' request.

We were unsuccessful.

Bummer...

Some people are testing priesthood power with the Curse of Korihor. Funny how it never seems to work.

In my 82+ years on this planet I have NEVER witnessed first hand anyone recovering from an illness from which they would not have otherwise recovered by means of a "priesthood blessing"

I did once. I was in the throes of a near miscarriage in my first trimester. My college roommate's friends from the Nazarene church came to pray over me. Not only did nothing happen, I felt worse than before. There wasn't anything the doctors could do for me at that point to save the pregnancy.

Then, a girlfriend of mine sent two elders over who administered a blessing. Immediately I felt an angelic presence fill our little home, and a holiness surround me as the elders prayed over me. I was immediately healed, and the bleeding stopped. The rest of the pregnancy was normal from then on.

It was a miracle to me. My baby went full term and was born weighing in at 9 lbs, 9 oz. I didn't ask why or why not. I just gave a heartfelt thanks to my Creator for saving my baby.

Any number of miscarriages occur every year during the first trimester.

"Studies tally 10 to 25 percent of all recognized pregnancies as ending in miscarriage. However, the total number of miscarriages may be greater still than that."
https://www.medicaldaily.com/first-trimester-miscarriage-how-common-it-and-whats-cause-310116

I don't think I'm alone in taking note of just how blessed you tell us you've been all your life. I've never come across, ever, anyone who claimed so many special blessings and marvelous spiritual experiences, and I simply can't help feeling perplexed: Why you? But luckily we know that we can trust los interwebz!

(Do you happen to have a list of all the marvelous blessings and miracles you've experienced, or do you just remember as the spirit moves you?)

How does one identify angelic and/or holy feelings compared to other feelings? How would you know that's what it it was. Is there a place one can go and experience these things in a standard repeatable way so I can recognize it in the future.

Is there a label I can refer to that appears in those instances. What is the identifier? By your own words you can separate it from other things. So how?

I just knew when it happened it was real to me. Not imagined. It's a powerful experience to have. It's hard to describe like love. It's like the sixth sense, only from another realm.

And transformative. There is more mystery to our existence than the known. I'm okay with the mysterious.

Amyjo Wrote:
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> I just knew when it happened it was real to me.
> Not imagined. It's a powerful experience to have.
> It's hard to describe like love. It's like the
> sixth sense, only from another realm.
>
> And transformative. There is more mystery to our
> existence than the known. I'm okay with the
> mysterious.

https://www.suggestibleyou.com/

Well I believe you. There actually is something there that we don’t understand. Yet. The oil blessing is a very old Jewish custom that uses simple belief as part of its method.

Amyjo,

I totally agree with you. There are many things that are unexplained. That's what makes life worth living!

A while ago, I read one of your posts on ghosts. Since Halloween is coming up, I will post my ghost story that happened on my mission. I would love to read your insight and of course everyone else.

I found my mission journal a couple of months ago and read through it amazed at how much I forgot what happened.

Was it my dad's New England ghost in the house he built on a 200 year old foundation?

Dad told us kids that story when I was a child, so many times I lost count. After he passed away, I took my children the following year to see the house he'd built in the 1940's while married to his second wife. (My mom had been his third wife.) His stepson and his wife took us on a tour of the farm, and showed us the house my dad built. They still live in it, and are keeping in their family for future generations.

When we were sitting in the livingroom of their home I inquired of the ghostly visitor my dad would recount to me as a child? My step-brother's wife told me she didn't believe in ghosts before moving into that house, but she does now. They shared details of the ghostly visitor that was the same as my dad experienced when he lived there, after building the house on the 200 acre farm. :)

I'd love to hear your story. If it isn't too scary that is. :)

rosysam Wrote:
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> There are many things
> that are unexplained.

Yes, but unexplained means unexplained. It doesn't mean "god did it."

Don't they still have those beliefs? I'm just asking because it's been quite a while since I was an active member.

Yeah, I do remember those things.

Beware
My arm to the square
I send thee back
To Satan's lair!
For torment&shame
In Jeehezuz Name!

Poof! Shazaam! Booboom!

Magic Melchizedek Priesthood spells like that would fit right in on an episode of "Supernatural", with Dean and the other guy (Sam?) finding out that the Mormons have some powers.

A once-thriving town dies in mysterious circumstances. Nothing but dead dogs and skeletons in the street. Everything is covered in dust.

Sam and Dean find out that there was a witness who got away before the calamity hit. They track her down. Her name is Eleanor--an elderly woman now--and she tells them the story of what she witnessed 65 years ago.

Apparently a couple of Mormon missionaries were cursed out by the town elders and robbed by one of the town ruffians. A few hours later, Eleanor, as a young girl, heading out of the town to go visit a relative, passed the missionaries as they appeared to be doing some strange ritual that involved dusting off their shoes and mumbling something, while holding their right arms to the square, glaring intensely at the town. A few hours later a weird dust storm dropped 5,000 tons of dust on the town, choking out the life of every living thing in the town.

What a great episode (that would have been)!

Blessings, discernment, lie-detection, healing powers...supposedly they all work better with the Melchizedek Priesthood.

I guess Mark Hoffman found some work-arounds, though. One of the most hilarious photos in the world is the one where Hinckley, Kimball, et al, are bunched in together with Mark Hoffman, examining one of his counterfeit documents. Not an ounce of discernment in the room. Less discernment, in fact, than Jerald Tanner, the famous apostate (officially excommunicated by the Church). Jerald proved to have discernment and correctly discerned that Hoffman was peddling fake documents, while the top Melchizedek Priesthood holders in the universe, failed completely to have any discernment. Jerald even tried to warn them, thinking it was the decent thing to do. But they wouldn't listen. But we shouldn't let things like that discourage us from believing in the magic of the priesthood. LOL!

I do believe there's healing power in prayer. It can be transformative. So too can faith.

magical power, so I wasn't raised that way except what I heard at church. My dad did feel that the blessing the bishop gave my brother after he got run over by a truck helped save his life, but this is also the bishop who asked his daughters if we masturbated (let alone his sons, but my dad's daughters, he may have killed the guy).

When my ex told me he was gay, I just knew that there had to be some answers and I thought the leaders would have them. They didn't. BUT when I first found out, I just knew if I could get a blessing I would know how to handle this. The bishop was actually the one who suggested the first blessing when I went to him about the situation. Then after that, I would fast for days and then go for a blessing. NOTHING. Stupor of thought. I say it is like the heavens were slammed shut. It happened many times. I quit fasting. Then Packer wrote me the meanest letter I've ever received in my life when I asked him for answers.

No magic there.

I've had I'd call miraculous thing that have happened in my life and I don't pray. I don't have 'faith.' I have intuition and I listen to it now rather than basing all my feelings and decisions on mormonism and I still get many premonitions and many good things happen to me (as well as bad things). My boyfriend, who I dated at age 20, I had the premonition that I should look for him at Christmas. It was the summer of 2004 and I was out walking. I even wrote it down. I hadn't seen the guy in 26 or more years. So after Christmas, I was just waiting for a phone call and I checked to see if he and his wife were still on white pages (his friend had given me their address years before). And they weren't there. I kept looking and I found his name spelled wrong and his phone number. Then I found her listed under another number. Had my old boss call him and we've been together since.

I just listen to my own inner voice nowadays. I should have all along. I still tend to believe I ended up married to who I should have been. It got me out of mormonism, but I also think he NEEDED ME. He did. Even his gay friends and boyfriends tell me that he needs me still as his friend. And so I am.

All I know is that The Three Nephites™ were changing a lot more flat tires for people on isolated stretches of I-15 in central Utah than they are now. I don't know if we aren't worthy anymore, of if they got jobs at Little America in Wyoming, serving ice cream.

I had one of those "three Nephites" help me change a flat tire on the interstate right outside of Albany, NY. He was a state transportation worker (in disguise.)

;-)

Another time I left work in the middle of the afternoon, downtown. My car was in a parking lot where there was no foot traffic in mid-day.

My car had a flat tire there in the parking lot, with other cars sandwiching it in on all sides. I was tired, weak, and hadn't changed a tire since I was in driver's ed back in high school.

Some young guy was walking down the alley right at that moment I'd never seen before or since. He stopped at my car and offered to change my tire for me. He proceeded to tell me he was a mechanic, on his way to work. He was a veteran of the Iraq war, and newly returned to the USA.

I was floored. He was so kind to go out of his way like that. But in the middle of the day with only men and women in business suits at work downtown. Out of all the people that might've chanced across me in that parking lot it was a mechanic who had the time and went out of his way to help me.

He was my earth angel that day.

Dude I went so long without the real treatment that I needed so I understand to an extent. I was so confused why no blessings worked and the fact that god could not heal what was wrong with me. The answer is you can not get healed that way. There is no magic, no quick fix, just constant work with REAL professionals separate from any religion. My cure per say was leaving the religion and getting help on the outside. The religion was the main problem. It harmed me and it couldn't fix me as it claimed.

It is really the MORmON priestDUD because it really does NOTHING !!!!

I like the creed "God loves us just the way we are. He also loves us too much to leave us this way."

;-)

I remember being told a newly ordained deacon had more power at his command than the Pope.