Is it just my imagination, or has the devil taken a real hit to his popularity lately?

When I was in high school (in the 80s), the devil was a much bigger deal.
We were warned in seminary about ouija boards, face cards, back-masking on records, seances, and other devilish things.

In fact, I had one teacher go into great detail about how you should NOT try to have an "out of body" experience because while you weren't in your body an evil spirit might sneak in there and then it wouldn't let you back in and THEN WHAT WOULD YOU DO???

I never hear stuff like that anymore.
Now it's just vague references to "the adversary".
Poor devil.

The Devil used to have the starring role in that little skit known as "Taking out your Endowments". I wonder if he's still a star or is now just a bit player?

Michael Ballam’s hair is the only thing that got me to the temple.

I was on a flight from SLC to Phoenix a few years ago and saw Michael Ballam sitting a few rows in front of me.

I remember thinking, "He is STILL one handsome devil."

:D

I hated everything about the temple, but I thought Stan had the best and funniest lines. A bunch of us normal people with a sense of humor would have to **cough** and pretend to clear our throats to keep from laughing out loud from the unintentional funny parts of the sacred temple movie.

A couple of times a missionary (from the mandatory MTC temple visits) would make funny faces during the temple movie. The more the temple workers told me to stop laughing, the funnier the situation got.

Sort of like other funny stuff at church. A big guy getting out of his seat to walk up to the sacrament table- letting out a big ripper- FART!!!

That stuff would crack me up!

Or waiting for the bishopric member Brother Snore to wake up from the closing talk so he could close sacrament meetings. All these men clearing their throats, kids dropping hymnals onto the floor. And finally a 14 year old Mia Maid yelled at the top of her lungs~ Hey wake up. I want to go home. I'm tired of being at church!

Out of boredom I would take the Sacrament meeting program and try and draw an accurate portrait of whoever the speaker was. Of course it always would turn out hilarious. I would show it to my sister and we both would start laughing. Then my mom would swat us.

It appears that he didn't go on a mission, if I'm doing the arithmetic correctly. Born in 1951, Bachelor in Music at 21, master's in 1974, PhD in 1976.

Well, I think it's interesting, anyway, that he didn't follow the dotted line that most morgbots my age did.

Satan just doesn’t get enough credit. Lehi even taught the need for opposition in all things. Otherwise, “righteousness could not be brought to pass.” (2 Nephi 2:11).

The devil is absolutely essential for Jesus’ plan to succeed. Without Satan there is no opposition. Without opposition, there is no righteousness. That sounds like the plan that Lucifer presented in the pre-earthly existence.

If it wasn’t for the devil, the devil would succeed.

You make me think the Mormons would be doing better if they hadn't side-lined Satan. I wonder if he still has the best apron and is the only one who knows what's going on in the temple ceremony. I was really shocked back in the day when Elohim asked Lucifer to explain things to him. The whole ceremony was just one big "Duh"

I was hoping the temple would be like a good ayahuasca trip where you would see angels, spirits and talk to dead relatives. Instead it's a very boring melodrama some 19th century weirdos cooked up and the church has to constantly change because it's no longer acceptable to the social norms even the church membership accept in modern times. Well at least they never did animal sacrifices.

Done & Done Wrote:
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> I was really shocked back in the day when Elohim
> asked Lucifer to explain things to him.

No kidding.

I seriously thought I must be losing every one of my little grey cells because say WHAT?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/2022 09:44PM by Nightingale.

Satan would be more effective if he had a body and could pop in and out of our lives as he does his evil works and temptations.

God stacked the deck against Satan. God cheats.

I wrote this story up awhile ago and this year I'm trying to be less wordy in 2022. On a youth temple trip in the 1980s, two of my peers were listening to heavy metal music. The driver, Brother Blowhard, somehow figured out that the two were rocking out on a Walkman cassette player.

Pulled off the interstate as if the station wagon's tire blew out. All of us were ordered out. Offensive satanic cassette tape was confiscated and destroyed. We were ordered into a prayer circle with the right arms to the square and Brother Blowhard began to cast the devil out of our midst. I can only imagine what passing motorists thought of a group of geeks standing in the weeds looking so stupid.

Now I'm wondering...how long is your basic roadside devil-casting good for?

You know, is it a certain length of time?
Or, is it based on mileage?

When we arrived at the temple some 90 minutes later~ Brother Blowhard sang church hymns for the entire 3 hour drive, he wouldn't allow the satan worshippin' boys to enter the Oakland temple for dead dunkings. He claimed that they were full of contention and had driven the spirit away. So according to Blowhard, the devil was still in the hearts and minds of those two aaronic priesthood holders.

Truth be told that Blowhard was drunk with anger. He's the one who was out of control.

Back when I was in my 20s, I spent some time as a Primary teacher with the 10-11 year old boys.
There was one boy in the class who just wouldn't stop being disruptive.
Eventually, I lost my temper. I yanked him by the arm out into the hallway and gave him a stern talking-to.

He was a little more obedient after that, but I regretted doing it.
I didn't want to be the Primary police. I was trying to teach them about Jesus, for heaven's sake!

I regret a lot of things I did when I was Mormon.
Hopefully, Brother Blowhard does, too.

elderbrother Wrote:
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> ...how long is your basic
> roadside devil-casting good for?
>
> You know, is it a certain length of time?
> Or, is it based on mileage?


"Consider enrolling in our Extended Protection Option. Your mileage may vary."

haha.

Ha! We were on a bus heading to youth conference and some kid put Prince's 1999 in the cassette player. The song Delirious is playing and the stake president jumps out of his seat. Ejects the tape. His face is beat red and he yells at the whole bus load that we need to repent for listening to such filthy music. I'm like holy heck, he could understand the lyrics.

I am satan.
Can you prove I'm not ?

Satan doesn't look out for people the way you do.

If Dave were the Devil he'd get to be the engineer driving the steam locomotive while us minions were shovelling coal to keep the train moving.

Reminds me of a song, "Bound for Hell", by Love and Rockets. It was one of my favorites during my youth, which was not as misspent as it should have been, thanks to my trying to be a good Mormon. Evil music was about the most scandalous indulgence I could get away with.

I've tried to make up for my lack of proper upbringing only to find out that "misspent adulthood" isn't romanticized in near the same way, and surprisingly looked down upon.

I had a seminary teacher who told us not to astral project ourselves. I thought he was just a weirdo but it must have been a CES script he was following. Anyways they had an astral projection specialist on Coast to Coast AM one time and it reminded me of seminary and I just laughed.

"Don't do that thing which isn't part of out doctrine and we don't believe in, but since we believe in other really crazy stuff, that other thing just might actually be true too. Best not risk it."

It was the same for ouija boards. And inexplicably, playing cards.

I didn't know there was a devil connection with playing cards. I was told "appearance of evil". Maybe it's the same thing.

There is a part in the film where Heavenly Father is getting on Satan's case after catching him tempting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

He asks Satan: "what are you doing?!" He knew perfectly well what was going on. Satan replies:"I'm doing that which has been done in other worlds." In other words, why are you getting on my case? I'm doing my part in a repeat performance from other places.

The whole thing never did make sense to me.

My hopefully soon to be ex-son-in-law must be the devil; our 5 year old grandson looked at him one day and simply said: "666".
Stranger things have happened, I guess.

Long time no see guys. I've been busy in Eastern Europe.

As a young guy watching 'Laugh-In', I always got a kick out of Flip Wilson's, "The Devil Made Me Do It"...