I look at the church's web site for humor, irony, hypocrisy, and cathartic relief.

It's fun for me to EASILY point out inconsistencies and the sheer hypocrisy - that is Mormonism.

Where the sheepie find faith promotion, I find questions abound in everythng they do. Take for instance the video on the cult's web site, where Dusty Rusty is greating a woman in a wheel chair. The irony here...it's mind boggling.

So here we are Mormons, with the grand poopy of the church, even the el presidente', the mouthpiece of the Lard, the keyholder of heaven and earth, even the glorious midnight penlight holder that he is, even President Dusty Rusty. Reportedly, this man talks to Jesus and Eloheim. He's not just a backstreet missinary...he's the real deal. I mean, this is the guy - the guy that can heal, right? So why doesn't he heal folks when given the opportunity? Who has he healed? Who have any of the Q15 healed recently?

In the video clip, I see him greeting her. That's nice. I like that BUT gosh darn it Rusty, you should said to her in that deep resonating prophetic voice of yours,

"Arise...Arise and walk my dear sister..because of your righteousness...you are hereby healed from your infirmity." Hell, even Jesus could have joined in the circle,invisibly of course.

Surely, surely the woman must be scratching her head right now, "I thought if I just touched the prophet I would be healed...I guess the Lord is trying to teach me OR maybe I am just not good enough."

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/president-russell-m-nelson-2019-latin-america-ministry

is ask God for the answer to the biggest question of my life and I was wrong. That pretty much did it for me.

The OP reminds me of one somewhat almost constant thought and another, disparate thought, that resides deep in my memory and seldom awakens.

The somewhat almost constant thought has to do with missionary work. It's one thing to believe that the mission is for 'church-breaking' the kids who serve, then they, the fabulous, called-of-ghawd leaders, are doing the best they can.

But if a mission is for taking the gospel to all nations, kindred and tongues, then they are really missing the boat. In early church history, the apostles didn't call missionaries, they WERE the missionaries. That is not the case now. So why aren't the 1st presidency and the 12 out knocking on doors and preaching on street corners, etc., etc.?


The seldom thought of memory is from my mission, in August of 1966, a little before the half-way point. (Amazing that that is over 55 years ago!! Well, I'm amazed.) The scene is Cuautla, Morelos, Mexico, then part of the Mexican Mission, which was one of the four missions then extant in that country.

Cuautla had a bit of a history with the church, for reasons I have never looked into. Suffice it to say that the chapel there in Cuautla was built in 1928 and was dedicated by David O. McKay, who in 1966 was at the head of the church.

Cuautla was a 'burnt over district' if there ever was one. One pair of elders could tract the town out in 45 days. I was there for three months, a brand new senior companion, with a greenie, and one other pair of elders. Definitely a 'burnt over district'. We played a lot of soccer and did a lot of visiting with the members.

The first Fast Sunday there my companion and I noted that the other pair of missionaries left sac meeting immediately after the closing prayer, which was strange because when church lets out, it's a great time for the elders to feast on adulation. Everyone wants a piece of us and they puff us up in their greetings and remarks and invitations. The other elders had vamoosed without partaking!

Of course, there was a reason. My greenie and I were standing near the entrance, out of the sun, but basking in the warm glow of member adulation, when the Branch President (36 years there and still not a ward) comes up to tell me that, "they're waiting, lined up outside my office, and the oil has already been blessed."

Wait, what? I then learned that as was the custom, those who wanted/needed priesthood blessings could get them on F&T Sunday, more or less, no questions asked. I can be a bit flippant now, but I surely wasn't at that time. We followed the BP back into the interior of the chapel, walked by the line at his door and into his office. He pointed to a little bottle of oil and then said he would send the first one in.

I explained to my greenie, in English, what I thought was happening. Elder P. was a good, pious young Utah lad, so he was down for it. The first person entered, told us what the problem was and Elder P. anointed him and I blessed the heck out of him. Then with the next one, we switched roles, which was hard on Elder P. because his Spanish was still not that good, but he got through it okay.

I did the blessing for the next one, then he took a turn, and at that point, we probably thought we had gotten the hang of it. and it made some sense to us. Because talking to the first contestants, we'd learned that the church had been stronger at times in that area and that there used to be missionaries in a nearby pueblito, Jojutla, and the majority of those in the line were from that area, and the surrounding hill country and they were in appearance pretty close to their indigenous roots.

The next contestants came in, a couple, in very traditional indigenous garb, with a baby. We learned that it's the baby who needs the blessing. She, the baby, is not developing as expected, so could we please make things right. We smile and say we'll do our best.

They unwrap the baby and jr. scientist me, well-read, informed and au courant with all that's new, immediately recognize what I properly tell my greenie is down syndrome. He asks, "Down's Syndrome?", and I can hear the capitals as well as the apostrophe, and I correct him, "It's just 'down syndrome', no capitals, no apostrophe 's'." Yay, me...

It would be interesting to be able to remember all that went through my mind at that point. One important aspect of my state of mind was that I didn't believe that if there were a ghawd, that he had any dealings with the mormon church or its hierarchy, meaning we didn't have any magical priesthood power. I gave 'mind over matter' a good deal of credence, in terms of explaining a lot of church history, but that was about it.

I do remember thinking, 'what would David O. McKay do?' I don't know if the couplet associated with him, "Whate'er thy art, act well thy part" went through my mind. I don't know if I considered trying to explain to the young indigenous couple what modern medical science had to say about their situation. It's all a bit of a haze now.

But I do know that Elder P. anointed the baby and I gave her a blessing. I don't remember what I said, other than to suppose that I was trying to be supportive, but I know I didn't promise anything. And I sure hope I didn't tie any future results to their faith! That would have been a horrendous thing to do! I'm pretty sure I didn't...

The couple and the baby were ushered out, with us smiling our butts off and then the next contestant came in... I/we never saw them again.

I do know that I wondered what David O. McKay would have said and done if he'd been in that office, doling out blessings, instead of me, a champion masturbator, with no belief in any divine connection between mormonism and ghawd, and no belief in the power of the priesthood. I sincerely believe that I did a better job of it than he would have. But that doesn't make me feel any better about that entire episode.

Being a surgeon, I'm pretty certain that Mr. Nelson (the physician, that is) has healed some people (else why be there, 'eh?)

How much of that was surgeon / how much penishood?

Here's a clue: How many has he healed since he left his medical occupation?

The Priesthood is probably the only thing Joe got right. Sure it’s made up, but that doesn’t matter. Belief that is will work is what matters. The principles of hermetic alchemy were well established by Joseph’s time and he knew what he was doing. But then if you know his gospel was a load of crap, why not go Wiccan?