Me too. I sometimes just sit and wonder, thinking, "I'm smarter than that! How did I stay in so long!"
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As an RM, former mormon, bisexual, and lover of equal rights, I am SO HAPPY that more gay marriages will happen in Utah today than ever before! For once, this is a holy day!
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I felt certain that the antis made up the hat thing!
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My domineering parents got a high off of this. My dad was the "escort" for each of his boys, so he knew each of our secrets. It was a power thing.
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I feel like I must have been blind to have missed it for so many years.
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n/t
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I was a choir leader ("president" - a calling that could only happen in a BYU ward), and I told the bishop I was so excited becuase the choir was going to sing Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" a lovely, simple song that I was hoping would help them build their confidence. He said No. I hadn't even been asking for permission. He said "we do not sing in Latin at church."
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I have made that my Facebook status.
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There has been more than one Great Depression in U.S. history. I have read several books talking about the way this affected laboreres in the Northeast, including JS and his cohort. Poverty makes people vulnerable to cults, in my experience.
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The church wants people to go for the first time just as they are going on mission or right when they are first married: both times that they believe they can get you to go every few weeks. In the MTC you are forced to spend time in the temple EVERY week. By the end of my 9 weeks, it all seemed rather mundane. But when I first sat in that endowment room, and the loudspeaker said that we could
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When I was in Utah four or five years ago, I listened to a radio host interview the "South Park" creators about their episode on Mormonism. By that time, I had come to terms with the fact that JS was wrong about polygamy and BY was wrong about race. I doubted the BOM's veracity, and felt certain that D&C was nonsense. In listening to this interview, and later watching the South P
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Is that in Latin America during the 1980s and 1990s, missionaries were encouraged to baptize any willing investigator right away, resulting in Sundays where hundreds of "converts" were baptized, never to attend church. I knew two guys who went to Brazil and Chile who told me this. If it is true, then the numbers in Central and South America are probably super-inflated.
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100 and 200. I like your calculus. I think the actual number is probably around 3M.
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Third. 20% in US 10% in Latin America No accounting for the dead or resigned members. They are just kept on the roles.
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has worked for BYU for a long time. During my time at BYU law, she constantly complained that they were being wasteful and extravagant when they were trying to impress someone, but didnt really invest in the school. So there is a second testimony from a TBM.
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n/t
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By the meaninglessness of visitors' centers. My nevermo wife and I were recently in SLC, and we stopped by Temple Square. We were astounded at how much square footage (electricity, maintenance costs) is dedicated to showing how great the church is. There was even a shrine to Tommy Monny downstairs! Needless to say, my nevermo sweetheart was disgusted.
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Thanks. If you ever need to talk, you can email me at dandtrva@gmail.com It was a long road, with some therapy, that got me to a place where I only look at porn casually, with no compulsion or depression involved. Congrats on finding your way out during your mission. I wish I had been so courageous.
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Before I left the church, I was convinced that I had "sexual addiciton" as well. As time has passed, I have come to know and accept myself more, and I don't feel anywhere near as compulsive. The repression of the church CAUSED the problem for me. Being away has been a real cure.
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My post has a lot more to do with the conundrom of a TBM: When you hear truth, you feel good, but you don't feel good at church. I left the LDS cult On November 28, 2009 for a list of reasons that could fill a book. Theology is definitely part of it.
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And if there weren't any benefits, I wouldn't come to work.
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The "scarlet letter" theory makes a lot of sense to me. Obviously, the SP is sharing the member's name with everyone who asks him, since god told him to share the letter.
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Exactly. But wouldn't she be "supporting" that person a lot more by NOT artificially inflating the attendance at the baptism, etc. I always felt dishonest when I would suck it up and pretend to enjoy the temple, just so others around me didnt feel insecure.
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But really funny.
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I just forwareded this to the Washington Post National Desk and the Richmond Times Dispatch. I included the following note: Dear Sir or Madam: I wanted to make you aware of a battle that is being fought in West Virginia. The Mormon Church needs to be held accountable for its cover-up. For some reason, it is politically incorrect to take on Mormonism, even as the Catholic church, Penn State,
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This is a conversation I had with my TBM father at least 20 times during my last decade in the church: Roger: I feel so uncomfortable at church. I disagree with at least half of what is said, and I only feel the spirit once every few months. Dad: You are looking at church the wrong way. We don't come to church to feel good. We come to serve other people, and to focus on something other than
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Thanks for the insight. I had the impression that the Spanish branches were weakening, instead of strengthening.
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I know some of you are in California. I served my mission in San Diego in 2001. Right as I was leaving, Apostle Haight came to the stake and told us that they were going to start sending almost only Spanish-speaking missionaries to California, becuase the latinos were the chosen people who were accepting the gospel. That was before LDS shifted its entire focus to fighting gay rights. When P
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I taught several people on this list. Far more common, though: 1. 14 year old, learning the discussions without her parents or family, basically looking at the church as a place of love and acceptance for teenagers; and 2. Nine-year-old child of EXTREMELY inactive parents who will remain inactive after the baptism, but just want to make sure their child "learns about god."
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Of all the holes I have read and found, this one is actually new, thank you. On a related note, TBMs who know the teachings beleive that Elohim grew up as a man on some planet at one point, and that he was a "Savior." My mission president told me that this pattern goes on and on into "eternity." For Elohim to have been a "Savior," though, there had to be a Fath
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