How would you change the church so that you would go back?

I would stop being anti gay,
I would dump the book of mormon
I would emphasize Christ mormon
I would keep the structure of the church
I would let women have the priesthood
I would keep the word of wisdom

How would you change it?

Get rid of the suits (GAs)
Get rid of sanctimonious pricks
Get rid of untrained 'clergy'
Get rid of holy underwear
Get rid of secret temple rituals
Get rid of tithing payment as a measure of faithfulness
Get rid of anything that was conceived in deceitfulness

Well, that leaves just about NOTHING to return to, doesn't it?

For starters: They would have to find some way to make god actually exist.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2011 06:29PM by dapperdan.

1. Stripper poles,in every meeting house.
2. Open bar during Sacarment.
3. Some sort of band up on the stage.
4. Comdey night, every Thursday.
5. Pie eating contests.

I want to go to THAT Relief Society night. Tonights activity: Working the Pole!

I would change the temples into a chain of fancy hotels and I would turn as many church houses as I could into office space and fitness clubs.

In all seriousness there are no changes they could make to attract my interest. I doubt I would even investigate it if they did.

Though if they did hypothetically make drastic changes I would lobby to keep the word of wisdom because it's so damned fun to violate.

The whole thing is a fraud from day one.

Why would anyone go back?

No churchy stuff.
Since they look to be kinda big, I would make 3 shelters out of each temple...

1. A homeless shelter with job and life training, not just 3 hots and a cot.

2. A shelter for abuse victims- female OR male!

3. A no-kill shelter for dogs and cats (and any abused animals!)

If there IS a God, shouldn't we take care of his creatures?
And if there ain't, all the more reason to help each other.

Yer Pal,
Reggie
The Yeah-Dream-On-Ya-Dumb-Old-Dog StalkerDog™

Teach reason rather than faith.

Dump the whole God thing including all the scriptures and all the revelations.

Dump the whole temple thing, all of it.

Dump the missionary program.

Dump the WoW.

Teach people how to think for themselves.

Stop telling people how to dress, including the magic undies.

Teach people not to so easily offended.

Dump any rules regarding piercings, tattoos, facial hair, etc.

Teach people not to be snoops.

Do away with home teaching.

Do away with bishop interviews

Do away with bishops.

Teach responsible attitudes toward alcohol, sex, marriage, family size, finances (contributions to charities and church comes only AFTER the family needs are taken care of), pretty much living life in general.

Adopt a more humanist agenda based on equality and respect for everyone.

Adopt a policy of honesty and admit to all the things that TSCC has lied an apologize for those lies.

Teach respect for diversity, including gays (including gays that are sexually active), women, minorities, etc..

No indoctrination of kids or anyone else for that matter.

Contributions would have to be voluntary and with full and complete fiscal accountability.

Full and complete, sincere, apologies to gays, women, blacks, jews, etc. for all the harm TSCC has done.

Historic sights turned over to the state with the understanding that an accurate history would be taught.

Stop interfering with politics.

Open the vaults and allow legitimate historians access to all LDS historical documents and artifacts.

Change the egotistical name.

Hire someone that can build nice, charming, buildings, the kind people would actually want to go to.

Create selfless community service programs that never pushes an agenda on those they serve.

Never go bragging about how much good they do.

Dump the whole "one true church" thing.

Heck, dump the whole church thing.

Dump the structure of the Church to allow for a more democratic leadership that can be held accountable for their actions.

Return the walk way between Temple Square and the COB to the city.

Well, pretty much dump anything that makes it Mormon, a hate group, a cult, etc. and make it into something almost the total opposite of what it is now.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2011 07:48PM by MJ.

Give all their money to the poor and needy. Sell all their corporate assets and give give give it all away.

suckafoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Give all their money to the poor and needy. Sell
> all their corporate assets and give give give it
> all away.

+1

Actually even if they did that I still wouldn't go back.

Turn all the churches into strip clubs... with $1.00 beers and all you can eat chicken wings... Then I might go back to church.

Turn the wardhouses into community rec centers.

They'll have to make up for it by becoming relevant to todays world and relevant to the unique cultural issues throughout in the world, inastead of trying to fit natives into a Utah shaped box.

They need to exist for more than their own self interests.

Once they've committed to a concerted effort on these fronts, I'll need to be born twenty years in the future.

If they were to begin to worship Amon Ra or the Aton or some other nebulous god, I might go back just for the pagentry. Hey! They could even worship me.

I have no interest in returning to full activity. I haven't physically left the church, but I mentally checked long ago. It would loiterally take divine intervention to get me to re-engage. Jesus wold have to show up, answer all of my questions and then show himself to everyone else in the world before I would reconsider my attitude toward religion (especially a false religion like the morg pushes).

I feel bad for some of the folks that are still engaged b/c they seem so stressed and unfulfilled. If the church decided to become more "fun" things might be better for those I left in the dust.

is the notion that people have to belong to a hierarchical organization led by men who have been given special authority over everyone else. It's the classical few-ruling-over-the-many paradigm, in which the many give everything to the few, so that the few can then have power by deciding who is "worthy" to receive an allotment of the loot. Curiously, the few seem to always discover that it is they who are the most worthy and so they deserve to get most of the loot.

Other than using the real estate assets of the Church for things that would actually benefit the communities in which they are located, I can't think of what point there would be in rearranging the doctrines and teachings--if you would still end up with a hierarchical organization led by a few authorities dictating to everyone else what it is that they should believe and not believe.

I left largely because of women's second-class status and financial demands/secrecy. But even if those things were to change, I'd never go back. It's moot, however; The 15 will never give up the power those two issues give them.

Why would I want to go back? Even if it was true that still wouldn't be enough for me. Old timers say that the child that gets burned shuns the stove.

Short list of bare minimum changes--

1. Church must be open and honest about its history and apologize for its mistakes (i.e. MMM)

2. Church financials are made available at least to church members (who are financing the entire operation!)

3. Temple endowment and washing and annointings are eliminated and temples become open to all and used for weddings, worship and study

4. Church stops using its massive resources on for-profit ventures and instead focuses on doing charitable work that benefits all

5. Garments - eliminated

6. "worthiness interviews" - eliminated

7. Focus is on charity and service to all instead of conformity and blind obedience

8. Political pushes - eliminated

9. Tithing is voluntary without tithing settlement interviews

10. All people, including women, gays, blacks, and the people formerly known as Lamanites, are held in equal regard

11. Cult-like devotion to church leaders - eliminated. Titles such as prophet and apostle - eliminated

I would get rid of:
the anti-gay crap, racism, and misogyny
missionaries
temples and creepy secrets
"the only true church"
general authorities
the end of the world nonsense

I would keep:
the family focus
the community
I don't mind the word of wisdom
Jesus

Basically I just like having friends and I don't smoke.