I don't know if this has already been posted, but it was something I've been following and today was the day Sam announced the decision that was made by his disciplinary council.
They decided to excommunicate him.
They said it wasn't because he had concerns or questions, but rather that he had "aggressively and persistently attempted to persuade others to his point of view." (Quick note: Now I'm sorry, but the Mormons are the LAST people on Earth who should be making such an accusation considering how often they cram their viewpoints down the throats of their fellow members and citizens of the world alike. Besides mindlessly pontificating and virtue signalling at every chance they get, trying to persuade others to their point of view is their next pet hobby.)
What I interpret from their phrasing is the same 'ol same 'ol dogma they insist upon: "Sure, you wicked peasant, you're allowed to quietly question something, even dislike it. But the second you voice it out loud and other people start agreeing with you, Shut Up or Get The Fuck Out." The moment you speak up, the church will come for you. Make an example of you to their less-courageous-but-questioning members so that they don't dare make a peep, lest end up excommunicated like you.
I should've expected this. I just couldn't fathom excommunicating someone for their "aggressive and persistent" efforts to protect children from sexual predators. When children are being abused, do the circumstances not warrant getting persistent and aggressive about it until it is stopped? I believe it's a worthy cause deserving of all the righteous anger and indignation a person can muster. Jesus himself, the church's supposed Savior, said that those who abuse children should have a millstone put around their neck and thrown off a cliff into the depths of the ocean (AND that such a sentence is better than what God will do to them for their heinous crimes). So if Jesus' answer to child abusers is attaching a heavy weight to their necks and drowning them, then I don't see what is so wrong with demanding that the church discontinue bishop "worthiness" interviews. If Jesus is truly the leader of the mormon church, I doubt he would've instituted these stupid interviews, anyway, he would've been right there with Sam Young condemning them.
But let's be honest, the mormon church isn't led by Jesus. Never was, never will be. It's led by corporate businessmen who spend twice a year telling the sheep what not to do, and then privately using their sheep's tithes to buy Florida real estate, theme parks, stock in fast food chains, and build malls.
How anyone can support the church at this point is beyond me. The fact they excommunicated Sam tells me that they are even worse than I previously believed.

This was posted in the Exit Stories forum four days ago, and since it is not an Exit Story, it has been moved here.

Welcome to RfM, Emanuelle!

Great post, btw.

Emmanuelle Wrote:
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> The fact they excommunicated Sam tells
> me that they are even worse than I previously
> believed.

The facts in their excommunication tell me that insubordination = apostacy. Not the kind of organization I like.

It's all about appearances, the church doesn't like anybody mucking up their polished image. It's always been that way.

A thousand pardons to those that know the story of my dad and his little renegade group of outlaws. Essentially, a small group of brothers and sisters took up the church foyer during gospel doctrine class; Sunday School. This resulted from the request of a condescending prick (the GD teacher) that complained about certain members "intentionally" sabotaging his lesson by asking impossible-to-answer (defend) questions about embarrassing church questions. (The Laban story, gold plates, polygamy, BY doctrines).

These members were singled out by the bishopric and threatened to stop asking questions during GD class. This gave Brother Prick-alot a free reign to teach (and humiliate) members by calling them to answer at his will. So this renegade group started meeting to the foyer and a sense of peace was achieved.

All was good until the visiting stake president had a shit-fit when he saw this group enjoying themselves in the foyer. He cornered the SS presidency and they lied to him by insisting they were rebellious members that were insubordinate to priesthood edicts. So the next step was to hide the church's foyer couch and high back chairs. One of the SS councilors took it upon himself to stack the foyer furniture in the designated coat rooms. Naturally, he broke a couple of legs and ripped some of the cushions.

Ultimately, the bishop bluntly told every rogue member to either attend Sunday School or get out. He grew tired of members challenging his leadership. That's when my Dad stopped attending until a new SP and Bishop were called.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2018 12:51PM by messygoop.

Of course Sam was being "apostate" because his participation in a Disciplinary Council for "apostasy" without having video-audio recording is very bad. In a Church that is true - i.e. honest/transparent its expected that we'll be completely honest. Howver the failure of Sam/others to produce such recordings is going to cause people to have Doubts and start questioning whether or not this Church is fully true or not. So don't forget that if you get called into a Court of Love for apostasy that you make the recordings :)

Of all the funny posts TB this one is the hardest to make funny for me. There just isn't anything one can really correlate and/or see an "honest" eternal perspective in this one.

I can't make funny any of this situation. This hits home.

Power and control. I look back now and am sickened as to how I let a man control me and my family. What the hell is wrong with the human being. Are we that weak we need someone to tell us what to do, what to think, how to act?

oregon Wrote:
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> Are we that weak we need someone to tell
> us what to do, what to think, how to act?

The Mormon Church would like you to think so. So much so that you would pay them instead of paying bills.