The thing I find comical about the Mormon angel beliefs is that Mormons, both institutionally and individually, are adamant that angels do not have wings. They avoid depictions of winged angels almost as much as they avoid carrying a Coke cup in public.
I seem to recall a relatively recent (2 years ago?) story of LDS Inc using some late Middle Ages artwork, but editing it to remove the wings from some cherubs. Wings on cherubs is right up there with naked shoulders on women as forbidden images in Mormonism.
Dave the Atheist Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Why would angels have wings ? does gravity affect > them or something ?
Because to primitive peoples, wings suggest flight. It was easy to portray in artwork.
To moderns, helicopters, balloons and rockets also indicate flight but are unwinged.
Angels have been replaced by a flashlight/ball point pen combo, plus prostate problems that force Russ to get up in the middle of the night. Isn't it marvelous?
And the rock in a hat has been replaced by Google Translate.
Those who accepted angel positions have done their duty and now been given their own planets.
There are more, waiting in the wings (sorry), for a time when more transformational revelation is needed. Some of these angels are former mortals who need a little extra credit to get into the celestial kingdom.
For example, Paul H. Dunn is on deck (again, sorry) to appear and direct Ensign Peak Advisors on how to manage the PR when the tax exempt status of the church is threatened in the future.
$50 billion seems a little extreme for a paperwork crime, failure to publicly report their holdings. Actually having the holdings was within the law. $5 million seems reasonable. It was meant to be a slap on the wrist.
I'm sure the $5 million was in the normal range for failing to file. But there are cases in which the failure is intentionally misleading--such as trying to conceal the extent of the church's wealth from its members--and then becomes fraud.
I would have liked to see a much more substantial fine: not $50 billion, but surely hundreds of millions would not have been inappropriate.
Apparently the waiting Angel candidates do not have the required certifications-
FAA, DOT, others.
A while back ChurchCo allowed a non-certified candidate to operate as an Angel 2nd Class, but a Federal Investigator became aware of this at an extemporaneous inspection so the oversight-infraction(s) were discontinued even though the candidate had experienced (his)(angels are non-binary) Third Anointing…
Speaking of Mickey Mouse, Google has alerted me to the fact that Disney's patent/trademark on its founding father has run out.
One is now free to use the Disney caricature in whatever fashion, original or distorted, as one choses and the Disney lawyers are powerless to control you, other than to voice an opinion.
Thus if one wishes to create a series of cartoon drawings showing Mickey Mouse and Joseph Smith founding the mormon church, one may have at it, knowing that while jaws may clench, the law cannot be used to impede one's progress.
Am I saying that the church is a Mickey Mouse organization? It could be...
I always think it’s ironic that the Bible says “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light,” and that when Moroni appeared to JS, “a light grew ‘as though the house was filled with consuming and unquenchable fire’."
Gordon B. Stinky Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I always think it’s ironic that the Bible says > “Satan disguises himself as an angel of > light,” and that when Moroni appeared to JS, > “a light grew ‘as though the house was filled > with consuming and unquenchable fire’."
Smith badly twisted the story of God becomes man, into meaning that man can become God and many dummies bought it.
There's also the use of the word Angel to describe the person far ahead of you in an organization's leadership who, for whatever reason, looks out for you and tries to advance you.
If this is a relative, then it's calle nepotism, or in mormondom, Nephitism, which explains why there are no Lamanites in high office...