I have borrowed Summer's acronym (PISS) from the church's intellectual, spiritual, social and physical goal setting for the youth. Boys will now follow a similar program to the young women with a repeating theme week.

Are you ready for this?

The young men and young women will meet separately, but will meet together for...(drum roll please) Primary Activities. Yes, that's what it is to be called. Remember, mutual has been officially retired and is no longer to be used.

Now hold onto your seats.

Each child upon baptism will receive two items to cherish forever and ever. A picture of a temple! Woo-hoo!!!

And a custom designed CTR ring surrounding a temple symbol. Wow!

When these youngsters hit the age of 12, the church plans to hold nothing back. The boys will get a ring that points them to the temple, and girls will get a medallion and gemstone necklace. Both groups will receive temple recommend holders.

Now I know why I had so much trouble as a young man. I was never offered a glorious recommend holder!

Added:

At 18, young men will receive a vial for consecrated oil to use with priesthood blessings, given only by males, and young women will get a pendant to add to their necklaces.

As an emblem of achievement if they complete their goals and fulfill gospel requirements, young men and women will get a certificate signed by the governing First Presidency, the church’s top leaders, and a replica of the Christus statue in a crystal arch.

Let the face palms begin.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2019 11:50PM by messygoop.

"Strive to be" is the new mantra for the youth.

I hope the youth will "strive to be" themselves.

HAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHA!!!! OK so what we know is someone high up now has a jewelry business :) And really, PRIMARY is the best they can do? Really? Can you get more blatant about trying to keep them children? So now you are in Primary from ages 3(?) to 18? No recognition of the teen years at all. Maybe that way they can lump it all together and not have to report, and face, the low teen retention. Nice try at keeping them all children too. Good luck with that!

Yep. Ask: Who Benefits. I'm pretty sure you nailed it.

Well, I feel cheated. I was never offered any swag. Just boring meetings.

you just have to custom order it.

How about a huge gold chain and a CTR medallion (Choose The Ridiculous!)?

How about a consecrated oil vial big enough to hold a decent amount of whiskey.

How about a Follow the Prophet T-shirt with that famous song:
++++

Joe Smith sleepin' in the Shed,
Cuz Emma kicked Joe right outta her bed,

But golly gosh darn,darn, darn
Em had no clue about the barn, barn, barn

'Til late on one sleepless night,
The moon was full and all below quite bright

She thought she heard an odd sound
Maybe from the shed, but Joe was not found

Maybe in the barn, she thought
And that, boys and girls, is how Joe was caught

Fanny thought it God's command
But from Emma came a stern reprimand.

Silly goose, it's not from God
It's just an obvious prophetic fraud

It's round, it's full of gum wrappers, lint, a half-licked lollipop, many used tissue papers and other odds and ends, and it gets emptied out about once per week.

Photos of a temple, rings, jewelry, vials of oil, and a plastic card holder..... Where is Jesus in all of this? I thought the new theme was to center their lives in Christ? It seems rather to fixate their minds on a building they cannot go into and that does secret stuff inside (spoiler alert: You'll have to swear to give your whole life and all you posses to a corporation pretending to be run by Jesus Christ).

When I was a protestant youth I received a rather nice edition of the Bible and membership into our congregation at age 12. I could use that Bible in any other protestant church in town if I decided I wasn't happy in my first church. No strings attached and no hoops or hurdles to jump. No creepy secrets kept from me.

If the youth don't want their achievement certificate and do not fulfill their assigned "gospel" goals (did Jesus assign gospel goals???) will LDS, Inc. let them out of the cult? That would be the prize I'd like to win. Early release for good behavior. And please tell Mom and Dad not to guilt me the rest of my life.

I think a big reason for the jewelry is to mark the worthy and the not so worthy.

Nailed it!

You're absolutely right! The Mormons would like to mark them with silly underwear, but jewelry is more noticeable. They gots to have the right bling to show they's in the right club. Kids in Jr. High will look on the finger, before they make a friend. My children bore the brunt of this BRANDING, in Utah. My daughter threw away her CTR ring, when it turned her finger green, and the other Mormons gave her such a hard time, that she had to buy another one. The cult would brand them with a branding iron, if they could. Coercing the members to dress a certain way is not extreme enough. Put a slave collar around their neck and add a jewel (a fake one made of cheap glass). It's barbaric.

Absolutely, Deseret Book jewelry sales will soar! The rings and necklasses that don't turn green are more expensive. I have a feeling that my baptized Mormon grandchildren will keep losing theirs, every time they come to Grandma's house.

I agree that this is very superficial and materialistic. Where's the spirit of the thing? Shouldn't good deeds be done for their own sake? Well, the Mormon obedience hoops have nothing to do with helping others at all, anyway.

Obedience, with no growth. Keep 'em in Primary.

The kids aren't going to like this! We girls didn't like "Mutual" or "MIA", and we begged to actually DO SOMETHING, like the Scouts did. They boys aren't going to want to do all of our boring girly stuff.

It's all leading to more indoctrination, materialistic bribes, more control, more lies.

BIG FAIL! I wonder how my NOM children will feel, forcing my grandchildren to participate. They don't like religious icons cluttering the shelves, or Mormon-type pictures on the walls. My grandkids' other grandparents are hysterically fanatical Mormons, and will force this. They are always giving the grandchildren religious gifts, which seem to vanish into thin air.

You will go down in history, Summer!

You are one of my favorite posters. This evening, I read a response you made to the woman who's husband arranged for his shunning, silent-treatment TBM sister to stay at their house. You wrote, "Good riddance to that lot!"

It gave me the courage to write, immediately, and politely turn down an invitation by my phony TBM in-laws.

It takes guts, and wisdom, to say, "Good riddance to that lot!", and to stick with your boundary.

Now I can say, "PISS on them!"

:)

I always wondered why the church went with the garments instead of jewelry, which is far more noticeable. They could have different stones for different achievement levels -- diamond level for 100 temple visits, sapphire for 500 visits, etc. Make it into a real holy competition!

What I find oddest about the increasing focus on temples and temple ordinances is that these things are poorly supported, if at all, in the "standard works".

The Mormon scriptures give more explicit support to polygamy, the priesthood ban against Africans, and the notion that dark skin is a curse from god based on iniquity. The Church leaders have disavowed wholly or in substantial part all of these doctrines that are plainly taught in their "Holy Scriptures" and yet cling to the temple insanity, which is not at all supported in the scriptures. Nobody even has a copy of any word-for-word "revelation" by which Joseph Smith supposedly introduced the temple ordinances and rituals. As a result, they delete and modify the temple things whenever convenient. But persist in holding it up as the pinnacle of spiritual endeavors and righteousness. It's such a grotesquely obvious scam.

I took a tour of Nauvoo a few years back and the tour guide showed us a photo (very rare one) that showed the last minute construction on top of the temple for the endowment ceremony. It showed hastily nailed together boards in the shape of an A-frame. I found it interesting that a temple guide showed this to us.

It seems that originally both the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples were supposed to be more like schools for teaching the elders about the gospel and the performing of proxy baptisms. Marriages had nothing to do with the temple.

At the last minute, when the ordinary members of the church found out that Joseph and his elite were practicing spiritual marriage, Joseph had to announce the new revelation that had just come from God about plural marriage and he had to stop performing the ceremonies secretly in the upstairs of his store. To make it more Godlike he slapped together the ceremony and the sealing rooms on the roof of the temple. When the saints left Nauvoo they took down the endowment rooms on top of the temple in order to hide what was going on up there. The temple guide actually told us this.

Without the temple endowment, Joseph Smith was just an adulterous, charismatic, slime ball. He kept his sexual exploits a secret, even from Emma, as long as he could and really had to scramble to create a godly alibi. Not everyone fell for it, including Emma. That's what caused the brake between Emma and Brigham Young later on. Emma would never admit that Jospeh practiced plural marriage (i.e.. adultery) and Brigham kept insisting she knew and needed to come clean about it.

It's sickening that Joseph Smith's shame is being taught to Mormon children as if it is sacred. It's really just white washed adultery.

Red to white. Kinda like the embroidery on temple garments.

>>I have borrowed Summer's acronym (PISS) from the church's intellectual, spiritual, social and physical goal setting for the youth.

I am gratified to be recognized for my quality contributions to this board. :D

If something untoward happens, like a young couple confessing that they touched each other's 'forbidden areas' while on a date, what, if anything happens to their swag?

Will it be confiscated? Will it be destroyed during Sacrament meeting? Will a nail be driven through the picture of the temple? Will the young lady get a wad of gum?

I want to know about the enforcement arm of the church!

What will happen to the young men I cannot guess.

The females will probably find a licked cupcake left at their front door as a reminder of their shame.

Nothing has changed. It’s still about getting the boys on missions and the girls marrying a returned missionary in the temple.

The church is all about selling temple recommends.

PISS is rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. So now the kids get some cheap swag for wasting their time and money on the church.

And all these things will be lost and nobody will wear them. I still have my seminary medallion for graduating. And my whatever it is from primary. My mother saved them. Not me.

They always seem to think they've hit on something really special and it never is. Just like the last program, it is just a bunch of busy work for the children and the ones I had in Beehives years ago just found it boring and IRRITATING.

They made my mother, a wet behind the ears convert who knew nothing, the seminary teacher. When my father asked her to stop teaching it because he didn't like church meetings in our home, we got an even more clueless teacher.

Our weekly meetings (we had home study seminary) always generated into arguments between the new teacher and her sister. It kept me from having an after school job. After a couple of months I quit seminary and got an after school job.

My mother has never let me forget I was a seminary drop out. I always laugh and point out to her what has become of the graduates. It's my badge of honor.

Pooped Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> My mother has never let me forget I was a seminary
> drop out. I always laugh and point out to her what
> has become of the graduates. It's my badge of
> honor.

I was a seminary drop-out as well. It never worked the way leaders thought it should. I was consistently late to school because I walked instead of being driven.

It was awkward because I was the seminary teacher's home-teacher (with my Dad). I did try to do an at-home-study course. I failed both semesters. I didn't bother to enroll beyond my freshman year of high school.

Seminary was easy. None of the teachers expected much out of us. We just had to attend if we wanted to graduate and all the mormon kids went to seminary. I had my kids go for a few years as I hadn't decided I didn't believe and I wanted them to make their own decision. My son didn't attend much and they'd call my ex about his absences and they thought we gave a damn. We didn't. He finally called and got him released, but he had to do extra classes at the local business college to graduate. If he hadn't taken seminary, he would have probably been fine. Stupid me!

We had released time seminary. I was the class clown. I never took the church seriously. The best thing about seminary was there were cute girls there.

To paraphrase an infamous quote from Merrie Olde England: "Lie back, close your eyes, and think of temple."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2019 08:09AM by GregS.

Wow! The level of "watering down" here is amazing!

Ha! Careful you don't want to PISS the Mormons off with sarcasm cuz it will end up in a PISS'ing contest. Mormons have a PISS poor attitude toward us exmo's the way it is. By the way I saw the PISS conference last night on live stream at my parents house. That last one was a rim shot.

Golden Celestial Showers from The Urinals of Heaven.

I was told as 10 or 11 year old that it was improper/impolite/against the rules to wear my faith in god award to church. My Mom insisted that I wear the hideous bronze medallion on my white shirt. Priesthood leaders were notified and I was reminded not to wear it to church. Imagine that!

Here's what the awful thing looks like. I probably still have it lost in a box somewhere.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/faith-god-medal-award-boy-scouts-bsa-1885399501

Oh, I wore it with my scout uniform at a non-lds jamboree. They asked me to remove it because it wasn't recognized by the other non-lds packs at the time.

Added:

I seem to recall a few young women being awarded their personal progress pendants. One of them told me that she was asked not to wear it to church because it might make other young women feel bad (for not having one). Makes sense like changing temple rituals because people feel offended.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2019 12:49PM by messygoop.

Wait. Did you say they get a Jesus action figure posed in crystal arch? I can just see it now on a shelf with Batman, Captain America and Thor.

There might be another reason for adding more jewelry. The LDS have been making a pitch to appear more mainstream Christian. This might confuse the younger members who might start buying (gasp) Christian cross kitsch. Better to nip that in the bud and provide approved necklaces and rings.

So, now the church has become nothing more than a charm bracelet, complete with an outward competition for who has the most charms.

LDS Holy Charms!

White temple pics, green CTR rings, silver oil vials, and crystal arches! They're Spiritually Delicious!

They're always after me Holy Charms!

Chortle!

Complete with pot o gold at the elusive end of the rainbow.

>> Complete with pot o gold at the elusive end of the rainbow.

Guarded by a white salamander of course!

yet another new low for ChurchCo...

Will anyone throw them a life-ring?

...and girls will get a medallion and gemstone necklace.

...and young women will get a pendant to add to their necklaces.

What if as an adult Mormon woman she gets another set of piercings and uses these to make the second set of earrings Celestially ring?

Or perhaps a CTR nose ring!

I like it. Take the sheep by the nose.

If you're a youth, you still have to attend church, go to your meetings and clean the church. They now say that the youth can have a separate camp-out (no co-eds) and the young women can rock climb or go rappelling (so long as they get their cookies and do-nuts baked first).

The church worthy interviews of children will continue as usual.

Just like your call for your mission is a call by a prophet that is a is a letter signed by a machine.

Now these certificates are going to be a real certificate of value signed by a machine.

I can’t help but think that Sheri and Wendy have a role in the trinkets that these kids are going to get. After all someone has to make them and the decision has already been made. And it’s just in time for Christmas right. Sheri did not high up in the book business not knowing how to make money been to Desert Books lately. It’s all about making money from the sheep.

Anyone one else think Sheri and Wendy are behind the trinkets?

Talk about a watered down program Duty for God Award now replaced with something for key chain. Eagle Scout award now replaced with a statue. Rings to replace scout uniforms. And just what every kids needs when baptized a picture of the temple.

I think I just came to a different planet.

I thought the scriptures talked about costly apparel. So why all the jewellery for the girls.

It would be interesting to know where the baubles are made and who makes money off them. It's quite a sizeable captive market.

? Nipple CTRs for the gals?

Hilarious. This may appeal to some but not all. I know plenty of girls and even women who don't enjoy wearing jewelry. It's stereotypical.

Deb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hilarious. This may appeal to some but not all. I
> know plenty of girls and even women who don't
> enjoy wearing jewelry. It's stereotypical.

I was thinking the same. I had a cheap CTR ring that sat at the bottom of the penny jar. It was a perfect spot for green copper junk.

We need to look at this from a business perspective. If the church loses its youth, they lose the next generation of missionaries and married mormon couples who pay tithing and have yet the next generation of mormons. In essence, they lose everything. Capturing each new generation of youth is critical to the survival and propagation of the church itself. Anyone who wants to seriously put a dent in to that process needs to provide a better alternative to the youth. That includes having activities that encourage them to socialize with the opposite sex, and to give them a a clear path to a future that doesn't include going on missions and getting married in the temple. It doesn't matter that the church is a cult. The youth will always go toward whatever gives them a better dating and social path. I grew up outside of the Mormon corridor. I had more access then to social activities and to date beautiful girls than most of the popular football players and wrestling team guys at my highschool did, and I wasn't in any group of popular people at school. I was only a very average guy in my social group at church. I just had a much much larger social network outside of school than any of the non-members at school had, because the church knows how to create environments where its youth are much more connected to eachother. So every time I see the church do this stuff it pisses me off, because I know it's going to work. We can criticize it all we want. But that won't change anything unless today's youth are given a better alternative socially than what the church offers them.

Going on a mission needs to be viewed as a weird thing. Young girls need to let the guys know that they do not want to marry a returned missionary and that they do not want a temple marriage. The guys need to let the women know that they (the men) want her to be their number-one priority in their marriages, not the church. Until that happens, the beliefs of the religion and any attachment to special jewelry are not even relevant. The church will retain its youth and the vicious cycle of missions, temple marriages, big families (large crops of the next mormon generation), and tithe-paying will continue. It doesn't matter how much collateral damage results to those who are harmed and who leave. The mormon people machine will keep pumping-out new people who support the church, at a higher rate then people leave.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/2019 07:34AM by azsteve.

May god have mercy on those kids souls and get them out of there before its too late.