Tyson said:

If Mormons really wanted to keep the youth, they'd:

1. give women the priesthood
2. move to the vanguard on meaningful social issues: gay rights, women's rights, poverty, human dignity
3. reemphasize individuality and support "alternative lifestyles", including bringing back polygamy and supporting gay marriage
4. restructure to allow younger leaders, including single men and women - both single and married - to take a more active role in leading the church
5. drop antiquated notions about masturbation

I'm sure there are other things I haven't thought of.

_________________________________________________________

If they fixed all those things, everyone would stop going.

People only go to church because they want to feel better. If women were equal with men, if the church was a leader in social change, if individualism was ok'd, if non-nuclear families were ok, if masturbation was ok....then the church would have no definition.

Even with those changes I would never again have anything to do with the LDS church because I believe it was founded on fraud and exists only as self perpetuating large business that happens to own a religion.

Mormonism will remain conservative to retain its core membership and to attract new members. There are plenty of people out there who are conservative and admire organizations that promote and endorse conservative moral thinking and values.

I wouldn't be too quick to think attitudes toward gay people have changed appreciably. A lot of what passes for acceptance of gays is merely lip service from so-called liberals and conservatives alike. Gay bashing is still a popular pastime in some places and fagot, queer, and pervert are still prevalent adjectives for gays among youth. This might be because the 'gay rights' movement has brought homosexual issues front and center and therefore attracted more attention from people who are anti-gay.

Look at the hypocrisy from the entertainment business. They just love to support gays then make jokes about them, ala Kathy Griffin. It's just cheap whoring for bucks. Gay joke=guaranteed laughs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2010 10:13PM by verdacht.

Support for gay marriage has surged this year and now tops 50%.

Get out a bit more!

The NYPD and FBI report increases in 'gay bashing' and hate crimes against gays.

The very word 'gay' is used as a pejorative especially among kids.

I get out quite enough, thanks. I stand by what I said based on what I've observed.

Just saying we should be cautious of thinking attitudes have changed substantially when there is no accurate way of determining that's actually the case. I'm sure there's been progress even in the Church but the Church would pronounce homosexuality an acceptable lifestyle at it's own peril. I'll never see it.

A better understanding of homosexuality in or out the Church is very different than accepting homosexuals.

Mormonism is (happily) moving towards irrelevancy, given the information available through the internet that so easily proves it all so obviously a maze of lies. Combine that with our incredibly pervasive popular culture (TV, radio, movies, internet) and you can see the handwriting on the wall.

The internet, facebook, inexpensive computers, ipads, etc. puts critical information that might have taken years to ferret out now available instantaneously. And the younger generation won't even look at it because someone says so? Yeah right. That will only last so long.

How could mormonism, a system of absurd rules, dictated by a bunch of overbearing old goats running your life, be of any interest to a young person coming of age at this time, when it can be known so easily that it is NOT true? You might do it if you thought it was true, but not so much when you know it is false. It is a wonder that there is not a stampede for the exits.

#25 Martie Says:
November 20, 2010 at 10:46 pm

The inactivity rate for Young singles is 70%. That’s from the church statistical dept when my husband was bishop right in Salt Lake City, 3 years ago. It is real. The church is very concerned about it but doesn’t seem to know how to reverse the trend.

(From http://bycommonconsent.com/2010/11/20/the-nones/)