Growing up in a highly agricultural ward that had a bitterly cold winters, many of the men in my ward would grow beards in the winter to help keep the frostbite off their faces. Some of those people were bishops at one time or another or on the high council. Since it is more against culture and policy than against commandment, in some places it isn't as prevalent.
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That bothered me even when I was TBM. It seemed ANYTHING but humble.
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Very well put! +1000
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14. And it came to pass that Ammon, yea even the Ammon who was the Son of Mosiah the King, even the Ammon who was visited by an angel and told to repent even though people who don’t have the royal connections are just cursed with horrible diseases when they doubt God, went to preach among the Lamanites because it is always the duty of the white religious zealots to force their religion on the d
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Bednar had a reputation for having a temper when he was president of BYU-I. He was promoted to apostle during my first semester there and, after that, but before he was replaced as BYU-I pres, he had a family home evening meeting that my ward happened to be scheduled for. At it, the discussion was both spiritual and scholastic and a variety of topics were covered. A young man made what turned out
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She claims she has the scars. She didn't exactly post photographs to prove it. I'm not saying that I think she's lying, but rather that what she said should be treated neutrally. The LDS church and most of its loudest defenders lie through their teeth. Although ex-Mormons, on the whole, are more honest, not all of them are. Some of what she said, like Nibley's tendency to lie through his teeth
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Someone really should name a planet joesmithsleftteste.
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The fastest way to make something desirable in ways that aren't always healthy is to make it forbidden. The LDS church is doing ten times as much harm to it "purity" crusade by its treatment of women as the amount of good it could ever hope to accomplish. It sends the wrong message to both men and women and it turns women into perpetrators of sin simply for being women and it turns men
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While the idea of "reformed Egyptian" is absurd, the practice of oral and literary fluency in the language of the greatest power of the region was a common practice so that all in the region, regardless of mother tongue, could communicate. For example, during the middle ages and clear through into the 1800s, the Italian peninsula consisted of around two dozen city states (the better kno
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I understand the sentiment, but don't lie about Joseph Smith. Lying about the church actually keeps people in it because TBMs point to the lies as "all the anti-Mormons have against us." Anti-Mormon lies kept me in the church an extra 3-6 years at least because I wasn't willing to read anything critical of the church because I knew that some sources lied. I honestly think it's a grea
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Agreed. And that's why I think that there must be some sort of labor law violation involved and, if there isn't, we should lobby for the laws to require more free time for the poor idiots who have been pressured into going.
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I think that we could make a case from it. Either from labor law violations, or from explaining that the church forces people to go on missions through teaching women not to marry men who don't go and it is fraud because the youths who go out aren't told the truth about the church that they're trying to promote. I think that the pressure for young men to go on missions is about equal to the press
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Supposedly, a number of legal experts claim that you couldn't sue the church to get your tithing money back. I disagree and suspect that it is a matter of finding the right law and presenting it from the right angle. But assuming that those opinions are actually correct, who says we have to limit our lawsuits to the US? Many of us served missions overseas and the church may very well be breaking
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They are told that they can't get to heaven if they don't pay and they are told to pay tithing before paying debts, before paying bills, and before buying food for their children. Their tithing demands have cost people their retirements, their health, and have even cost some their lives.
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Lol. Yep.
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So people both on anti-LDS boards and on pro-LDS boards keep saying that they don't understand how it can be fraud if no one forced the victims to pay tithing. I think that the proper response should be to ask how can Bernie Madoff have been convicted of fraud when no one forced his victims to invest. Inform them that if someone forces someone else to give up their money, it's typically called
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I say that while suicide is always a selfish act, sometimes people are at a place in life where a completely selfish act is what is best for them. It's tragic, but not something that people should judge. A truly empathetic person will be saddened by suicide, not driven to judgment.
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Yes, Wikipedia does have a moderator who will check up on things and lock it if an editing war breaks out. Keep changing it back until the moderator gets to it. Good luck!
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I'm not saying anything about the merits of the case - if British law reflects standard human decency, the case should be strong. The subject of this thread was about questions for you regarding the USA Today article. I just wanted to know if the reporter was in the church's pocket. Thanks for answering. After researching them a little, I'm not impressed by the subjects he interviewed.
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Steve, how well do you know the author of the article? Would he have any bias in favor of the church (he works at the same paper as you, correct)? I understand if you can't answer.
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I agree. The most valuable thing that could come out of this suit is information, not money. Also, the chance to put church leaders on trial and have them on the record either lying or admitting that they lied.
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Ok, so I don't love you enough to have your babies, but you rock, dude.
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LOL!
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This got some good laughs on another exmormon group, so I thought I would share it here. A satire on the slaying of Laban 6. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, crept into the city like a creeper and went forth toward the house of Laban. And I was led forth by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Even though I had already been to his house, verily I needed the Spi
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I don't think you're being entirely fair. I could have traveled abroad without Mormonism and learned a second language, but without it, it wouldn't have happened.
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I can relate to this one. I'm glad that I don't smoke and I'm glad that I'm cautious with alcohol (although that may be in part to how badly smashed I got the first time I tried it after leaving the church).
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I can totally understand that. I am desperate to go back to Italy so I can try a few of those million different ways. But even though I now hate my reasons for being in Italy, being there had many benefits for me.
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Good for you. You're at the start of living an authentic life.
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I got to live in Italy and met my wife because of it. I won't deny the good it has done, but that doesn't justify the bad.
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I second that. I kept all of my LDS books as references so I can look things up quickly and efficiently if I want to remind myself of how dumb my beliefs used to be. It takes up the better part of a book shelf in my attic, but I'm glade I kept them. It's kind of intimidating to people who know about it that we are willing to keep our LDS scriptures and other books as proof it's false. If we had t
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