So I am a new member of Twitter. Or X. Whatever it calls itself these days. Prince? I have noticed a ton of kickback against the church and their posts. Even more I have noticed even more "exmo" posts replying to member accounts.

There isnt a whole lot of rebuttle room from the members. They cant seem to refute questions or comments opposing the church. The best responses seem to come down to "well when I pray I know that RMN is the true prophet," or "the spirit tells me its true." Yes, i get it. Only the spirit converts and testifies. But when someone exposes some tidbit about the church that isnt super flattering and all you get is a member yelling about the person being a liar and avoiding the discussion the it looks as though those of us in the church may be hiding something. Or perhaps dont have the understanding to confront criticism. This cant continue. Social media is how most people will find out about the church. If members cant offer more than they do now then the battle is over. The dirty laundry of the LDS church is getting aired out. We need to do better job at confronting, maybe even accepting and then explaining the issues and questions that arise. My expectations for the discourse in Twitter battles is pretty low. These Bolsheviks largely exist in exquisitely fragile echo chambers. Mormons are pretty much the same. Post-Elon Musk X is exposing them to other viewpoints for the first time in a long time. Watching them get wedgied and slapped around is a rare joy. If serious people or ideas were being lost in this banter it wouldnt be good, but Im not seeing that.

I've been seeing the same thing. More exmos are commenting online, and the TBMs are doubling down with the party line. Good luck to them with that.

If all it takes is the spirit--the all seeing all knowing all mighty spirit that is everywhere---to let you know the church is true, why isn't the spirit letting everybody in the world know? Isn't that the goal? To give the whole world the chance to know the "truth"?

But, Mormons have that cowardly bit added on to give them an out: You have to ask! God wants you to ask or he can't tell you.

Of course the world has no way to know they have to ask. Unfortunately for 8 billion people they have no idea that the secret to returning to heaven is to ask if Russ Nelson is a prophet.

Isn't Heavenly Father's plan a loving marvel? What a guy!

Better yet.

God creates Universe. It has over a trillion of Galaxies in it, of which we can observe over 1 trillion planets, which does not include those we cannot see.

So God the creator of all is really bent over us using a bean from a plant to make a drink, or (heaven forbid) not go on a mission. Which steams God so much, that all those who partake or choose to have a life are going to be kicked out of his glorious presence. Think of the percentage of the "righteous Mormons" if you took all those God planets with Gods children on them, and calculated the numbers.

It just makes you wonder if there is any room left for religious stupidity to go lower. Plus, it seems odd how God seems to be super focused on us, making sure we find our keys, saving us from that close call, or prompting us to resist drinking evil drippings from that bean. I mean forget all those trillions of other planets.

"It just makes you wonder if there is any room left for religious stupidity to go lower."

Exactly. Thinking from the bottom of the barrel.

Oh it'll go lower. Religious stupidity is a bottomless pit. :-/

-Or perhaps dont have the understanding to confront criticism.

I have never confronted members online.

Want to start a fight?

State this truth: Visitors to a church sacrament meeting are ignored and don't feel welcomed.

I can state this as fact because I attended my former home ward and while I stood up in the chapel (the meeting had concluded), I smiled and held my hand out to shake hands- Well they mostly raced by. My mom had to flag (call out Brother/Sister So and so) to come say hello to Messy who is visiting.

At other churches, people who I have no idea who they are turn around and shake my hand with "Good Fellowship". Just friendlier at other churches.

Mormons don't like to meet new people, it threatens their sense of feeling special.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2023 02:38PM by messygoop.

"Mormons don't like to meet new people, it threatens their sense of feeling special."

That's very, very sad.

"Visitors to a church sacrament meeting are ignored and don't feel welcomed." Truth.

In general, I found Mormon wards to be very unfriendly, especially in Utah. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise though. When I was thinking about leaving the church, I realized that there was not one thing that was worth staying for. I didn't believe it and I didn't have a single friend in a ward that I had served in for many years. It made it easier to leave.

In the early days after I left the church, part of me hoped that someone in the ward might notice, show some concern and reach out to me. It never happened. They didn't care.

I had kind of the opposite experience.
I loved church.
I had a great group of friends there, and we’d get into heavy philosophical conversations in Elders Quorum every week. My best friends were three black guys who married three white sisters in our Ward. We all had kids the same age and we coached our kids exceptionally talented football and basketball teams together. We spoke outside of church about the topics we spoke about on Sunday, as it related to race, philosophy and our membership in a church that was obviously, unapologetically racist at its core. They had some valuable perspectives and knew I was an allie so they shared with me every time some Mormon said something incredibly racist. It was mind blowing.

They’d talk to the Bishop and Stake President about the blatant racism they were experiencing as Mormons, and the Stake President actually told him,”Well don’t expect an apology because it’s doctrinal.”

I was livid when I heard that at first and wanted to confront the racist Stake President about it, but the more I looked into it, the more I really couldn’t argue that Mormon Doctrine wasn’t racist. Every time I opened my scriptures they fell open to a highlighted verse that was either white supremacist or really dehumanizing of dark or black skin. IOW, racist.


When I couldn’t keep my mouth shut about the racism, I just had to leave and take my beautiful family with me. And I did. I explained it to my friends outside of church. One of them told me that we had a utopia. Everything was great until I spoiled it all. The Stake President and Bishop who threatened me with excommunication for sharing my doubts with other Mormons, advised my Mormon friends to avoid speaking with me, and blamed me for all of their doubts.


Eventually all three of them found their way to the exit door and we are still fond friends to this day. I’m grateful for that.

In fairness to Mormons, they've been told that bearing testimony is the best kind of rebuttal and that it actually works. Their special spirit and "truth" will be noticed somehow. They've also been told that anything unflattering about the church is a lie. The church has pretty much left its members defenseless to attacks with real truth. But they don't know it, so they keep trying with the only thing they've got and they have no idea how foolish they look. Honestly, how can you defend the indefensible anyway?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2023 11:54AM by want2bx.

That's what my wife said to me about a year before our house burned. I was still trying to keep the faith. She later told me that she had never believed that JS was a prophet, had seen God or translated the BoM.

It was a hell of a whammy. And obviously, she had been baptized as a convert without having this doubt about prophets resolved.


Honestly, I don't know what I can say or do to get her mind back into the Mormon boat. So I fell back on the stupid defense of sharing my (incorrect) beliefs- not facts.

I'm not surprised.

I rarely open anything from Twitter now. I don't want to support it in any way routinely. There are other places to read what Mormons are doing.

I don't even think they could defend themselves twenty years ago. This is nothing new.

Or, here's an idea, you could leave the "member accounts" you mention alone and stop harassing strangers about their beliefs.

  

No kidding EOD. The mormons are one of the few "religions" that show up at doors, unannounced, uninvited and most of the time unwelcome.

The really hysterical thing is how uneducated they are about their own "religion". They don't know the history. They don't know the teachings. They don't know diddly or squat. They just feel and parrot what they have heard from others.

A member of the church went to my wife's account and wrote this:

When we choose to walk away from our covenants, then expect bad things in life. God is not bound to keep broken promises. Don't expect to see him in the next life.

All my wife needed from this member of a hateful religion was a simple "I'm sorry for your loss during this hard time. My condolences."

That's all. Nothing more. My wife didn't need some harsh judgment about her decision to stop attending a hateful church.

How do we know God isn't really a spiteful dick?

bradley Wrote:
--------------------------
> How do we know God isn't
> really a spiteful dick?


Because he allows his faithful servants, yea, even his 15 holy prophets, to pass out The Second Annoying, thus allowing imperfect people to be judged as being perfect.

It's a much better system than the phony Catholic practice of buying indulgences ... right?

Spiteful. Why you so kind?

If God is anything he's a sadist. Totally enjoys causing pain. There was no spite for Job. That was just for fun and a chance to bond with Lucifer. He likes to have a go at those who don't deserve it at all and lets all the ones who deserve his wrath do anything they want.

Really made me sick what the church member said to Messy's wife but I'm sure it would please god as he likes to 'kick 'em while they're down". Sadist.

> If God is anything he's a sadist. Totally enjoys
> causing pain. There was no spite for Job. That
> was just for fun and a chance to bond with
> Lucifer.

Well put, D&D. Either God does not exist or he is a sadist.

a) Most don’t feel any need to ‘defend’
b) Even if they thought they needed to, most are too lazy, Thanks to ChurchCo to a great extent.

They do have a good support group, as long as they are a "good Mormon".

Tis the time of the year I should bear my testimony that I know Santa is real and reindeer can fly.

Ho ho ho, whichIsayinthenameoftheprophetJosephSmithJrAmen.

GNPE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> a) Most don’t feel any need to ‘defend’
> b) Even if they thought they needed to, most are
> too lazy, Thanks to ChurchCo to a great extent.

They definitely encourage lazy thinking although they don't make for lazy callings.

GNPE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> a) Most don’t feel any need to ‘defend’
> b) Even if they thought they needed to, most are
> too lazy, Thanks to ChurchCo to a great extent.

How can one defend the indefensible? It's based on feelings and contradicting what the last leader said.

Social media is the sewer of the internet.