First of all, FAIR can't realistically silence Mormonism's internet critics. However, it can certainly try to flood the Earth with its internet B.S.

But it does so at its own--and the Mormon church's--risk, as apparently Oaks realizes. He has reportedly been privately complaining as of late that FAIR, et al, need to back off and not be so aggressive in their obsessed apologetics selectively designed and scripted to defend the Mormon church.

Why?

Reports have it that Oaks is concerned that such a tactic will simply focus more attention on controversial aspects of Mormon doctrine and history which would be better left alone. All the attention does, you see, is prompt people to google Mormonism and get the inconvenient stuff the Mormon church doesn't want you know and therefore doesn't teach anybody in Sunday School.

I suspect this will ultimately backfire on the Morg.
_____


Moreover, I am inclined to put stock in such reports because, if true, they back up what Oaks personally told me behind closed doors regarding his concerns over what he viewed as excessively enthusiastic and counterproductive efforts by Mormon apologetic zealots to fiercely fight to the death for the faith.

On 9 September 1993, I met with Oaks and fellow apostle Neal A. Maxwell in Maxwell's Salt Lake City Church Administration Building office. During that meeting, Oaks laid into FARMS, telling me that it sometimes gets "hyperactive" in trying to prove that the Book of Mormon is true. He said he becomes concerned when FARMS "stops making shields and starts turning out swords," because, he said, "you cannot prove the Book of Mormon out of the realm of faith."

More exposure of the Mormon church's bizarre and odious history/doctrine will not do the Mormon church much good. If anything, it will hurt desperate, deceptive efforts by the church to paint itself as mainstream Christian.

Oaks must be sweatin' bullets right now. The inmates are running the asylum.



Edited 16 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2012 11:51PM by steve benson.

Thanks for the heads up.

SB: (by all means!) Call him back, and explain how

a) the Bott fiasco hurt the church FAR MORE than ANYTHING FAIR could do....

b) ONLY a 100% 'come to Jesus' is going to work, including:

1. First Prez vault

2. Financials

3. other

Love these face to face meetings you tell us about. Good info.

If I weren't an atheistic, fatalistic, cynical naysayer, I'd think you have some kind of a mission from God, Steve. I might think that Mormonism is a cesspool of human usury and thought control. I shall not damn you with faint praise, this was a really good piece. Thanks for sharing.

One of the classic strategies in politics is to get the conversation to be about your opponents faults, real or imagined. If you opponent is defending him or her self then it brings the accusations to the forefront and links them with the accusations even if they are false. In the mind of the public they candidate is linked with the accusation, even if PROVEN false.

Having a tight-like-unto-a-dish barge-load of Mormons defending the Church's racist policies, Polygamy, J.S. taking other men's wives, the BOA fiasco, J.S. putting the moves on teen-aged girls, Mountain Meadows etc. etc. is not going to make them look good.

When it comes to mormonism, you have to ask what version. And when you get individuals trying to defend the faith, the fanatics seem to come out of the wood work. Look at the comments Richard Packham got on his article about the mormon temple rituals. Not one TBM could point to something that was factual wrong.

Most christian churches don't talk about their history or founder. Time makes it irrelevant, and a lot of the history isn't pretty. Do you think the lds church will jettison its history one of these days? Can they claim to be the only true church without JS's vision?

You are right dk. Most Christian churches don't talk about their founder. Why bother. The church is to be about JC - not the founder. I bet my pastor doesn't bring up our founder more than 4 times a yr. during a sermon.

"Now in this day of the Internet, there are new and exciting ways you can do missionary work. You can invite friends and neighbors to visit the new mormon.org Web site. If you have blogs and online social networks, you could link your sites to mormon.org. And there you can create your own personal profile. Each profile includes an expression of belief, an experience, and a testimony. Because this is a new feature, most of these profiles are available in English. Profiles in other languages will follow."

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/be-thou-an-example-of-the-believers?lang=eng&query=internet


I can't see this as going well, either. When people start realizing (as I'm sure many have), that every member's blog spouts the same boilerplate propaganda (rote testimonial), red flags will go up. I wouldn't be surprised if the emphasis on "every member an internet missionary" is soon dropped, like so many failed programs before it.

Unlike many other churches, the Mormon church has the misfortune of being relatively young in the internet age. The combination could be a fatal blow they never saw coming, in spite of their claims to revelations. Somehow they missed seeing the internet coming down the tracks like a freight train.

I don't think the internet age is going to be pretty for some of the older religions either.

The Book of Mormon, Book of Abraham, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Convenants... I'm sure church leaders thought that writing this stuff down was a great idea at the time. Too bad, they didn't have the revelation from god that their words will come back to bite them in the ass.

I also noticed that when the church writes about mormonism for the general public, it quotes the bible. But when speaking to members, it uses quotes from its other "scriptures".

LDS INC HATES!!!! this video!


this video would have over 200 K hits on it by now but LDS Inc has it pulled on a regular basis.


"joe Smith had no idea what DNA was"

"coriolis had no idea that man made satellites would be orbiting the earth some day"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Viin307tKRs

"Pooping a Peepstone" love it!!!!