We were talking about “signs of the times” and the teacher kicked it off with a tirade saying that it’s silly when humans try to improve the environment because they’re fighting God’s will, which was...interesting. But then he basically hinted that the tornadoes in the Midwest were God chastising people for their wickedness.

And then, the cherry on top was some guy saying that Hurricane Katrina happened because of Mardi Gras. God was slapping them into shape.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Really, God killed 1800 people to teach them a lesson? Including children? Umm...wow.

Man, I hate church.

God drives Jodie Foster around in a Taxi.

I remember some church guy saying at the time that Katrina was punishment for gays. So, there is always some idiot. When the bees have all been killed off from pesticides and the crops are no longer pollinated because of it, that dude can be smug and self-satisfied as the world starves, since it's god's will.

sorry you are upset. :(

This reminds me of the guy who catapulted bibles into an oncoming hurricane (I think it was last year or the year before). He was trying to repel the storm, so he must've thought the storm was Satan's fault. God or Satan are always getting the blame for bad weather.

valkyriequeen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This reminds me of the guy who catapulted bibles
> into an oncoming hurricane (I think it was last
> year or the year before). He was trying to repel
> the storm,...

This, I had to check out. Turned out to be a dark-humor site, along the lines of Babylon Bee or the Onion.

I hear you. I had an Institute teacher that said that the "natural disasters" took place to teach a less/punishments from God. Strangely enough, I didn't question it.

When I look back on it, I think, "Holy sh!t! I cannot believe that I wasn't disturbed by that!"

MondayBlues Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> God killed 1800 people to teach them a lesson?
> Including children?

I wish I knew where this comes from? Is it human nature?

It is common for many cultures to attribute divine justice for things said culture dislikes.

Kinda like God supports one sports team over another...

The book of mormon is probably the source.

3 Nephi 8:5-20 won't type it all but basically:

Great storms, lightning, thunder, earthquakes, whirlwinds and "the whole face of the land" changed.

Zarahemla burned, city of Moroni sank into the sea, Moronihah buried under a mountain.

"Many great and notable cities were sunk, many were burned and many were shaken....and the inhabitants thereof were slain, and the places were left desolate. "

Then Jesus appeared and taught his gospel of love and forgiveness!

Heartless Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 3 Nephi 8:5-20:
> Great storms, lightning, thunder, earthquakes,
> whirlwinds and "the whole face of the land"
> changed.
> Zarahemla burned, city of Moroni sank into the
> sea, Moronihah buried under a mountain.
> "Many great and notable cities were sunk, many
> were burned and many were shaken...

Thus, Holy Joe and his pals, who concocted this long and lame work of fiction, succeeded in handing us a fine explanation of why dirt-fisher scientists today are unable to find those Nephite coins described in Alma, "swords of the finest steel," or any trace of chariots.

Their flim-flam operation simply sinks into another sea.

Thus, we have zero evidence for a book put out by a Masonically-bound club of swindlers.

Suffer the little children to come unto me - after I killed their parents.

Does the church still teach the literal truth of the Noah's flood story, in which G-d kills everyone on earth except for eight people? That would seem to trump Katrina.

Also, the reason the wicked French Quarter survived Katrina probably has less to do with theology, than with the original founders of the city choosing the highest ground available.

When I was still attending, one old high priest was always going on about Hurricane Katrina being God's punishment.
A few months later that same guy got severe dementia and was killed driving the wrong way on the freeway. I wonder if that was God's punishment?

We get to choose one.

A - A supernatural being in the sky punishes us by using the weather.

B - Humans are releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, causing global climate change, thus more extreme weather patterns.

Sorry, you neglect to allow for AB (A and B) or O (none of the above). Can weather be like blood types?

I agree with B, but there should indeed be

C - Something else ;-)

but we're done for anyway (unless we can cut our own emissions, whether they are causing or just adding to the effect.

Tom in Paris

Some dinosaurs survived their extinction event by evolving into chickens. I wonder what we’ll evolve into.

I'm a little surprised there's not more like that taught in Sunday school. Is it really any different than what is in the Book of Mormon, specifically 3 Nephi 9?

I actually think that most members have the good sense and decency to keep such opinions, if they have them, to themselves.

More dehumanizing teachings that make Mormonism look more like a Doomsday Cult than a Christian church.

Well, most Christian churches have become doomsday cults too. The Earth IS dying out, through self-fulfilling prophecy. Could happen sooner than later, considering the political climate and the accompanying nuclear danger. Could take much longer and die out through environmental factors. But I'd imagine that right up until the end there will be nutcases waiting on Jeezus to come out of the sky. As there have been for centuries.

It's really kinda fun to ponderize on it. How far will they let it go before they realize that no one's coming down to save them? Or, barring a nuclear end, when the population of the Earth decreases enough, through natural means (war, famine, self-destruction, etc.) will it go through a renewal? Will the remnant of the human race band together to create a united front? I guess I just sort of believe that some human activity will always exist. And maybe they will still be creating Gods to try to control each other.

It always seems, at least with numerical odds that should cause wonder, that actors appear on the stage of history for exactly these scenarios. Humanity was never meant to fail. It’s a rigged game.

But as for the psychology of it, it’s just institutional ignorance. Giving people a scapegoat is just wrong, but how would TSCC know? It has blood baked into it.

Here’s a replacement for all of the war doctrines: Every drop of blood you draw is your own.

Vegans, you can stop high fiving now.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2019 08:10PM by babyloncansuckit.

Sometimes I think there's an underlying WISH for all those bad "prophesies" to happen.

Am I reading too much into it, or do Mormons enjoy seeing the "wicked" suffer?

I do take this personally. I know for a fact that some of my Mormon neighbors/former friends are waiting and hoping to see me and my children "fail in life", and "God withdraw His blessings", just as they threatened would happen to us, if we left the cult. Instead, we are prospering! We're healthy, happy, grandchildren excelling in school and sports, houses being updated, new cars in our driveways, bla-bla--all the things that illustrate to them that God is NOT punishing us, but blessing us.

Katrina and all the "wicked" people in New Orleans, are a good example of this. I think this goes deeper, also. Most of those people were Black. A lot were Catholics. Some were gay. Some were drinking, dancing, wearing sexy costumes, and whatever else Mormons like to hate. In Mormonism, when a child dies, they say it was a "pure soul", who didn't need a trial-by-existance, and God wanted the little darling in Heaven. The Mormon philosophy causes them to become DESENSITIZED to death, IMO. (For example, the handcart deaths, and MMM murders.) That's why they can spout off these horrible, in-humane judgments, and attribute these judgments and executions to "God."

I know I'm too upset. As Mel says, "So, there is always some idiot...that dude can be smug and self-satisfied as the world starves, since it's god's will."

The Mormons will be cheering and rejoicing in the Second Coming, while the rest of the world burns.

They're idiots. We're not obligated to respect idiots.

as she wasn't in from about age 8 to 20. She is very much GREEN, was before I was. She doesn't plan on having more than 2 children (if she has them). And she doesn't for ONE MINUTE believe that things like Katrina are to punish the wicked.

She says that there have been talks recently about people not having children or enough children.

But she also is a history major and when people talk about how evil the world is or how bad living conditions are, etc., she will speak out in meetings about these things. Even if her mormon friends tell her otherwise, she still speaks out.

I do know there are mormons who still wait for my relationship with my boyfriend to fail--after 14-1/2 years. And they sure wish my husband would divorce me as they want him (some of the women still do want him--as they are righteous). So they watch and wait for all kind of bad things to happen to us.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2019 02:57PM by cl2.

these days sure seems to be smacking states who are trying to limit a woman's right to choose. Just saying.

News flash: The only demographic more in denial of science is the JW's.

https://www.pewforum.org/2009/02/04/religious-differences-on-the-question-of-evolution/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2019 03:47PM by koriwhore.

wow! that's bad even for mormon standards, but it doesn't surprise me. My friend told me a similar story from Sunday School this week except they used a new testament parable to shame someone in the class. And he walked out of the room.

(Afterwards the teacher said he hated the lesson and didn't want to teach it)

It's God's punishment as long as it only affects someone else.

Why not? Remember the flood?

Seeing the world through religious lenses isn't unique to Mormonism. It's a problem across all religions. A religious world view often taints one's perception of reality and causality regarding problems or events.

I had one guy tell me while discussing possible solutions to societal problems that my approach was tantamount to "arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic". He said that all these problems were prophesied and would occur in spite of any efforts to fix them.

He said the only thing I should concern myself with was to "get right with god".

That is a fatalistic view that seems it would discourage people from taking any meaningful actions to solve problems.

never, never say people deserve the bad weather because of their sins. the most fallible stupid stuff that could come out of an uneducated mouth.

I distinctly remember hearing LDS people saying this; as I recall it was specific to welfare reform.

Best Guess: it was Oaks (his allegedly 'legal mind', ha ha)...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2019 03:07AM by GNPE.

I wonder what he thought of the AIDS epidemic back in the day.

Options would be to walk out, not return, show disdain, say something to indicate how one feels, shrug and groan, anything but sitting and acting compliant and supportive.

When good people do nothing, evil thrives.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2019 08:09AM by Cheryl.

someone posted a profound comment regarding this subject here before. he/she said, when the oklahoma tornado hit the elementry school killing little children..."how come god works in mysterious ways?", but if it were adults then they werent living righteously.

I see many parallels between ChurchCo strategies & the current federal administration;


to me, Fear of sometimes vague, sometimes explicit events or future is the bedrock of their appeal.

Instead of addressing significant doctrinal or social-political-economic issues/questions, they persist in painting the outside of the building, only occasionally SLIGHTLY changing the tint...

Only the most zealous of the tribe get much cred, but the top leaders (except in Trump's case) hide their true motivations & goals. Church-broke is akin to a domesticated wild horse.


ChurchCo GAs know the score, they know who their core constituents are; the rest are placated with the decorations of conformity-compliance.

Hurricanes have been occurring for thousands of years, humans and CO2 does not cause hurricanes.

I live a short drive from New Orleans. If Katrina was "God's punishment, then their god has bad aim. He missed the French Quarters and hit the lower 9th Ward where all the poor people live.
Also, since Katrina the New Orleans Saints have been a good football team.The city has come back stronger than ever.

God needs to get the sites on his gun checked.

Mormon Jesus has killed lots of people.

The climate change leading to vast tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts and floods are a natural consequence to bad behaviors. I remember being taught that 2018 was the point of no return. People had to reduce their carbon footprint, stop cutting down trees,etc, etc.
We left the point of no return last year. We are paying for the sins of a decade before now. Sins being the overwhelming disregard as the earth as a home. You can call them sins, you can call them wrongdoing, you can call it as almost criminal disregard.