Have you ever heard of re-gifting...send it back to him and just tell him you purchased it for him a few months ago in anticipation for the holidays...teeheeheee, it would be even better if you took a highlighter to the sections you felt he should work on.
imbadash Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Have you ever heard of re-gifting...send it back > to him and just tell him you purchased it for him > a few months ago in anticipation for the > holidays...teeheeheee, > it would be even better if you took a highlighter > to the sections you felt he should work on.
YUP. Re-gifting right back to him---that's your answer! :-)
but still, that would have made me absolutely furious. I only read parts of that book but I thought it was outrageous. And I was TBM at the time. I forbid my kids reading that book, which thankfully they have no interest in - not even to see why Mom is on a rampage about it. Of course, they are both in the pre-teen, teen age but still, I find it an incredibly damaging book. I can't imagine gifting it, any more than I'd give Mein Kampf to people.
I remember that part well from when I read it on my mission. Always makes me chuckle to think about. I think there's a part about women wearing shorts only in the garden.
Sounds like the author, even Spencer W., is confessing to what gets him hot and bothered.
Sage advice from someone who read it long ago: BURN IT.
It's one of the most repulsive religious books ever written. Kimball rants against everything and if you read it as a believing Mormon, you end up convinced you're going to hell. Lots about sex, of course; I believe he even said something about married couples exercising restraint. What a life his poor wife must have had! To me it was much worse than McConkie's Mormon Doctrine.
Apparently when my dad became a member (before I was born) he gave BoMs to every family member for Christmas. The rest of my dad's family are not mormons.
Fast way to piss everyone off. He wasn't invited to any family events for years. My relatives told me that they reached out to our family for the sake of us kids. If not for my extended family I might not have known there was another world out there.
Do you know if it's been edited since 1990? I bought my copy around 1992. It mentioned that when a woman is raped, eventually and inevitably she will come to see her part in it and will need help resolving the issue or some such tripe. Just wondering if that part is still in it.
I don't know the answer. My understanding was that it was first edited to remove parts in the 1980s. It would only make sense if they have removed more since then. But I do remember reading the first version, and then another version in the 1990s that seemed so watered down. I couldn't find in that one, for example, where he had originally said it is a sin to sexually stimulate anyone other than your spouse "including yourself."
If you're really curious there are free downloads online of the entire book. But I don't know which editions.
“In order to help our people better understand Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation, we must bring clarity to the issue of the repentance which brings forgiveness. Unequivocally denouncing the distinctive system of teachings contained within Spencer W. Kimball’s Miracle of Forgiveness is a move that will bring comfort to many people who have felt spiritually devastated. In its place, we are issuing an official proclamation on the doctrine of forgiveness. For any person with brokenhearted faith who cries out to God for mercy, forgiveness is free and is simply for the asking. The scriptures tell us that we can know that we have eternal life in the present. Forgiveness is immediate and permanent, and as shepherds over our flock we want to care for them by teaching doctrines that will bring a peace that surpasses all understanding. We have decidedly rejected any idea of meriting eternal life (even with gracious assistance) or of proving ourselves worthy of the blessings of salvation. A man or woman is most empowered to fight hypocrisy and pursue genuine, authentic holiness when they have been given the assurance of permanent, comprehensive forgiveness and eternal life.”
I think it has caused the church some serious problems. I was feeling very guilty as usual while a missionary in the PI. MP told me to read this book. The day after starting to read I was on the phone to him asking if the book was doctrine. I can't remember what he told me but I kept reading, and kept having many questions for him. Finally I couldn't handle the disgusting judgement dolled out in the book and stopped reading trying to justify by telling myself it WASN"T doctrine but still not sure. It was a crack in my armor of god that led me out.
I think they are saying with this gift you need to repent.
Someone was wondering earlier in the thread about what makes this one a classic in Mormon stupidity. I'm sure there's other crap, but here's my bottom line review.
1. According to Kimball, masturbation leads to homosexuality, which leads to having sexual relations with animals. Many here speculate that this probably has something more to say about Kimball that it does about the human condition generally.
2. You may hear this book referred to as "It is a Miracle if You are Ever Forgiven." Kimball sets the standard of forgiveness, so high that it's like trying to pay off a million dollar debt on minimum wage. And if you manage to do everything that's required, don't do the same sin again, or all the former sins return and you start over. It can make people feel hopelessly guilty.
“Thus prophets anciently and today condemn masturbation….Our modern prophet has indicated that no young man should be called on a mission who is not free of this practice.” – Spencer W. Kimball, “The Miracle of Forgiveness,” Bookcraft, 1978, p. 77.
“Sin in sex practices tends to have a ‘snowballing’ effect….Thus it is through the ages, perhaps as an extension of homosexual practices, men and women have sunk even to seeking sexual satisfaction with animals.” – Ibid, p. 78.
The book is evidence of a very disturbed author. What is even more disturbing is that someone with as many problems as Kimball obviously had was able to negatively influence so many people.
Some of the most dysfunctional and destructive quotes from The Miracle of Forgiveness are being discussed on this thread:
I received this book from my mother and I'm sure it was her way of saying, "You need to repent and come back to the church." I skimmed a few lines in the book and threw it across the room. When I felt more courageous I used a stick to pick it up and carry it out to the trash. Kimball was a sick puppy to have written such garbage. That book has been more damaging to more people than any other I can think of in Mormon circles.