just for balance: I spent several days in Salt Lake Valley with a very TBM sister-in-law and brother-in-law: they were friendly and kind, and fun to be with: I felt quite comfortable with them.

Exceptions prove the Rule!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2017 04:10AM by GNPE.

I've met and interacted with many kind Mormons. They are just very deluded people in my opinion. The rubber meets the road when they interact with me because I'm a former Mormon. My appearance is the appearance of evil.

If a person can kindly interact with a disaffected member then they have gone beyond the prejudice of Mormonism. In fact one of the worst Mormons ever (Joseph Smith) was liked by many people who refused to join his church. He actually married a few of their wives.

There are many kind FLDS and kind Scientologists.

I'm related to plygs in the Allred group. My younger sister said the wives in one family we visited were the kindest and most fun women she knew. Of course the down side is that they "honored" their priesthood guys to the extreme and didn't wince if women were beaten, abused, and chased down the street barefoot trying to get away from a brutal man. This happened to my brother's second wife. She ran off down the street with a baby in arms because she wanted to avoid my brother's bad treatment. The women my sister admired looked on and said nothing.

Don't be fooled by social smothness and outward kindness. We've all known families who show up at church looking perfect and acting the part to perfection when their home life is chaotic and scary.

FLDS is only ONE group. There are hundreds of others each going by a different name.

I believe there is a difference to kindness and fun-ness and friendliness.

I've interacted with a few Mormon for whom their kindness extends beyond their religion though their treatment of fellow Mormons who have "left" because of sin and/or offense knows no bounds of rancor and disrespect. The Mormons who can get beyond their religion are Mormon I respect despite their religion and if they weren't so deluded they would see their kindness towards "apostates" as they themselves being kind beyond their religion.

Mormonism teaches people leave for two simple reasons - sin and offense. It actually teaches these things. Obviously these teachings don't get internalized by all Mormons who in their delusion think that they should actually be like their Jesus and hang out with their disaffected not bothering to avoid the appearance of their evil friends, family, and strangers.

You're right. There are some good ones. I don't like generalizing any group of people; TBM or exmos.

If the church were all bad, it would have failed long ago. The good part is insidious, and keeps people attached long enough to embrace and accept the bad parts.

I've had this theory for sometime now that the church isn't good. Its good at using trickery to attract good people. Those who stick around long enough start becomming bad people. Otherwise they leave. In the twilight between being new members and becomming corrupted and morally bankrupt or leaving alltogether, there are some good people and good feelings. When a person crosses the line from saying "this is just my church" to "this is the only true church" they become corrupted. It's just a fucking church, that's it. It's like a school or a hospital, nothing more. You use it like a tool to become a better person and that is why the church is tax-exempt. Hopefully it helps you to become a better person. But as a tax exempt organization, they owe you something before you ever enter the building. But when it becomes "the only true church" and every male member is taught starting at age twelve that he has the power and authority to act in the name of god, bad things happen. When the fatcats in Salt Lake teach that not paying tithing constitutes "stealing from god", the church is way off-track. It's evil, and exploits its members. Many of the good peolple in the congregation are victems too. And there can be love amongst those people. But the church itself is evil.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/2017 07:49AM by azsteve.