What seems obvious to everybody but Mormons, is that they are the laughing stock of religions, as evidenced by tge fact that the Book of Mormon on Broadway is the biggest hit of the century, putting it in serious contention for biggest Broadway hit, ever, and it ain't over. By making fun of the easiest target out there, Josephs Myth and his golden Bible.
If the same creators created and staged the same play, only replaced the words "Book of Mormon" with "The Koran" Islam wouldn't take it as a huge compliment and purchase a 2 page centerfold ad in every playbook and start a multi billion dollar marketing campaign touting how AWEsome Muslims really are in real life!
They just kill the creators, producers, theater owners, audiences and a bunch of other people around the world just to make it clear that its not good to make fun of Allah by singing, "F you Allah, in the ass, mouth and C-word".
Why is it Mormons turn a blind eye to having their religion and identity mocked by just about every comedian/social critic?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2017 04:08PM by koriwhore.

Yes. And no.

No, because I personally think all religions are a "laughing stock," and that's entirely subjective anyway, and mormons subjectively consider it a badge of honor, being a "peculiar people."

Yes, because they don't look at WHY they're considered so ridiculous.

And although you didn't finish your sentence about Islam, remember that for more than a thousand years, anyone who made fun of the Catholic church or the pope was burned at the stake or imprisoned. The biggest reason the Catholic church doesn't do that anymore is that the governments in countries where Catholicism thrives stopped being theocracies, and stopped letting them do that. If the "Holy Roman Empire" still existed as a political entity, I have little doubt they'd still be doing it. Violent reactions to criticism are a feature of *religion,* not just a feature of one or two.

An historical quibble.

The Holy Roman Empire isn't really the key here. That was a political entity established in 800 through a deal between the Franks and the Papacy. In theory it was universal, or at least encompassed all of Christianity; but in fact that never occurred. Spain was never part of the HRE, nor was England or Scotland or Ireland. By 900 or so the HRE had lost control of France as well. The papacy also worked hard to keep its lands out of HRE hands, and at many points in time the majority of Italy was not part of the empire. In fact, there were wars between the papacy and the HRE. Then came the reformation, which made half of the empire Protestant. . .

The important point is that the HRE was not at all the same as Catholicism. Even where the empire had no power, the Catholic church was able to execute the inquisition (Spain) or pursue Crusades (France) or engage in civil wars (England, Protestant Germany in the 30 Years War). The critical variable was the relationship between the papacy and the local governments whether they were part of the Holy Roman Empire or not. A lot of the noteworthy atrocities were well outside of the HRE's borders.

Again, I don't think that detracts from your main point.

If they think that the gimmick of being ridiculed will bring in the converts then it's okay.

Unfortunately the Mormon's aren't the ones who wear their ridiculousness as a badge of honor. The world is laughing and the mentally challenged parade around asking "what is funny?" which only makes it more funny. What a great time to be alive...LOL

The longer/farther I am out of the religion the more incredulous I become that I ever bought into any of it in the first place. Today I am finding life so amusing

Yes, I have always been curious about that, since moving to Utah in the early 90s. And if they did, there would surely be more exmormons! I have always wondered how they could believe in such bunk but, as hie said, it is purely subjective.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2017 08:36PM by cinda.

Right, we all tell ourselves stories to comfort ourselves.
EVERYbody has a story they tell themselves.
Those most firmly tethered to reality are capable of looking at evidence and wieghing it objectively.
When I was TBM I was just as certain I was right. I had to, in order to survive.
Be a part of team, suspend disbelief, rara Joseph's Myth, sure, praise him.
That isnt wierd,
Look at all these Engineers, Drs and lawyers who believe this shit.
Group think is the beginning of delusion.

No. They only see what they have been taught for generations. The extreme of this system is Scientology, of course.

After studying social psychology, no, because it's all a part of the human condition. The leaders and the members are engaging in a form of widespread confabulation and letting go of that means losing everything to most of them.

“You can’t convince a believer on anything, for their belief(s) are not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep-seated need to believe.” Carl Sagan

Turn a blind eye. They don't have any I-eyes. They are blind!, fooled by their own "religion", founder's claims & mis(representations), profits/ (so-called) leaders [leading astray] and apostasizing 'church' doublespeak.

They also believe some/ all of this crap! Lies. Nonsense! Doublespeak: https://mormonbeliefs.org/2016/10/07/going-deeper-into-five-cool-mormon-beliefs/

Not at all.

I wrote a magazine article about 30 years ago about Mormon liberals. I interviewed a couple of Sunstone and Dialogue authors in the process, and really gained some insight.

One of my interviews was with John Kunich, a Harvard-educated lawyer. He wrote an article on BOM population sizes that essentially showed the BOM cannot possibly be true from a purely biological standpoint (he holds degrees in biology as well). The BOM simply has too many people living and dying in too small a timeframe. There is no comparable population growth to be found in any society.

Boom

But he was--and to my knowledge--still is, a faithful, believing Mormon. He explained the paradox as rooted in his conversion experience. While he was an undergrad, he met with a couple of missionaries. He prayed Moroni's prayer and had a dramatic answer. He felt a divine presence and enveloping feeling of love unlike anything he'd ever felt. It brought him to tears. It became a lens through which everything else in the faith was filtered. It was powerful enough that even the BOM can be demonstrably false, but Mormonism remain true.

It created a hierarchy or compartmentalized fracturing of truth and reality. And that's why some Mormons will never be reachable. They may even agree with you that the faith has massive holes and errors, but they'll never abandon it due to some powerful lynchpin that serves as their anchor.

Now that you mention it, it is strange. Someone should start a website where people can discuss some of the oddities.

Both yes and no. The heart of Morridor here isn't called the scam capitol of the world for nothing. There's always a few people who can "see through a brick wall in time". When DH and I were still TBM, we accompanied our daughter and soon to be son in law through the temple-first time for both of them. When it was done, our daughter said: " You guys! This is a &*%$ cult! After the wedding, I'm never coming back here again!" I patted her back and said, It's okay, the more you come back the more you'll feel comfortable."

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Healed Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> “One of the saddest lessons of history is this:
> If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to
> reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no
> longer interested in finding out the truth. The
> bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too
> painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that
> we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan
> power over you, you almost never get it back.”
> ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science
> as a Candle in the Dark

One of my favorite Sagan quotes, he sums up the delusion of Joseph's Myth perfectly.

Delusion: maintaining persistent erroneous beliefs, despite superior evidence to the contrary.

Mormonism fits the bill perfectly.