Garfunkel and Oates explain “The Loophole” among young evangelicals in a hilarious video on YouTube (NSFW)
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Anyone here involved with the Life Spring self-realization seminar in 1980’s Salt Lake? I attended the seminar and it was a great help in extracting me from Mormonism. The cult-like persuasion and control techniques that Life Spring employed were so similar to what I experienced in the Mormon church that I was able to understand that I was in a cult. I left the Church immediately and never look
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I just read your post about your temple experiences. Good stuff. Loud laughter’s a no-no but a little vomit in the font is a-ok. LOL
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You are speculating that the loud laughter admonition came after an increase in temple attendance? Hmmmm, maybe you’re right. Laughter can be infectious. Wouldn’t want a whole chorus of sisters laughing when swearing to obey their husbands.
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Does the temple prohibition of “loud laughter” predate the Kinderhook plates or was it added after the introduction of aprons, baker’s hats, Pay Lay Ale and the sixty-ninth utterance of “Let us go down” into the ceremony? Seems to me the disembowelling pantomime would obviate the need. I mean, as long as snickering was still allowed.
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For those who prefer to freight the word evil with connotations of opposition to that which is “godly” may I suggest demonic. Kinda like those who insist that marriage is of divine origin I suggest they use the term “holy matrimony” and leave the neutral term “marriage” for the rest of us.
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Heartbroken said: I could never understand the oft quoted Book of Mormon scripture, "wickedness never was happiness." I think this is why testimony meetings always dripped with tearful professions of happiness. In the context of the church, admission of sadness is a confession of personal wickedness. Is it any wonder that Utahns self-report as among the happiest Americans while
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I’d have saved years of my life and thousands of dollars wasted on the Mormon church. From the TV series Six Feet Under: "If you think that life is a vending machine where you put in virtue and you get out happiness, then you're probably going to be disappointed.” Happiness, it seems, is not a reward to be earned but a skill to be learned.
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I can’t take anymore of this nickel and diming. Good night.
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Here I thought I was a cynic. Compared to you and L’s W, I’m Pollyanna on molly. And of course I mean that in the nicest possible way.
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“It isn't the purpose of this group to cure humanity's ills.” You seem to be saying humanity has had, does have and likely will continue to have ills. I concur. Condemning those who, in the past, exploited others changes nothing. I concur. “Analyzing those who proceeded us”in the sense of reporting a non-apologetic history is only important to those who believe humanity’s ills can
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Just curious what happens when you let him out on Groundhog Day
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I am not always sure about “the points of reference”. My original post references slavery. Outward evidence suggests Thomas Jefferson held himself in high regard. As a child I was taught to revere him. He enslaved hundreds. By today’s standards he is guilty of kidnap, torture and rape. I sometimes ask myself what am I doing now that future generations will see as an obvious moral failing.
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In my attempt to be epigrammatic, perhaps I oversimplified. I have no satisfactory answer as to the cause and meaning of events beyond my control. My unoriginal conclusion is that “s——t happens”, but it’s not happening to me or anyone else. I have observed that bad things happen but I have stopped trying to assign cause or meaning.“Why do bad things happen to good people?” I
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“Hardly anyone believes they are evil. Many people do evil things. Therefore the only conclusion is that many such people do evil thinking they are doing good.” Too many people waste time on the unanswerable question: Why do bad things happen to good people? The more useful question is Why do good people do bad things?
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Brigham Young:”When a master has a Negro and uses him well, he is much better off than if he was free.” Florida State Board of Education: “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
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From the Tribune: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/08/03/utah-therapist-built-reputation/ The official LDS website says: “it is unethical to focus professional treatment on an assumption that a change in sexual orientation will or must occur.” The church however, continues to exploit desperate and vulnerable members by referring them for expensive treatment with the suggestion
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And yet the statement is so unequivocal. Clearly not ready for prime time.
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“There is no evidence that the LDS Church hierarchy sanctioned or performed any plural marriages after publicly claiming to have ended the practice in 1890.”
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When someone starts in about how nice Mormons are I respond, “To quote Stephen Sondheim, ‘Nice is different than good’, and Mormons are among the nicest people you’ll ever meet.” That usually suffices.
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The Salt Lake Tribune reports: “In an unexpected move Tuesday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave its support to a proposed federal law, which recognizes all legal marriages, including ones between same-sex partners. The Utah-based faith’s doctrine “related to marriage between a man and a woman is well known and will remain unchanged,” according to a statement posted
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More than two. Between one and two percent of humanity are intersex. “The Proclamation on the Family” not withstanding.
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Rubicon Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Because some people see marriage as religious and > not just a legal act. They think if they support > it they are accountable and viewed as a sinner > before God. > > This whole mess could have been avoided if the > legal part of marriage is called a civil union. This whole mess could have
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I can really identify with how easy it was as a member, to conflate normal emotion from human interaction with “the spirit”. The beauty of human connection transcends any ginned up “spiritual experience”. Decades away from the church have demonstrated that truth to me countless times.
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One only speaks with certainty on behalf of another if they know there are no consequences for misrepresentation. Indeed, all the most consequential religious leaders in history share the knowledge that they can broadcast their brain farts with impunity because there is no God to stop them. Those who aren’t atheist are mentally ill and actually DO hear voices in their heads. Am I over simplif
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Maybe because eating non-Kosher on Easter underscores the distinction between Christian and Jew?
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The obvious answer: Only if you’re gay. That’s why our love is so pure. Like Jesus.
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OMG. “If You Could Hie to Kolob” on banjo. I can’t unhear that.
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During years of scrupulous obedience and sacrifice of time, labor and money, God never answered a single prayer with even a whispering “still, small voice”. God kept no promises. His existence became irrelevant. When I let go of magical thinking, my life really began.
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I have buyer’s remorse when I get a new t-shirt home. Besides, at my age, getting inked is like slapping paint on dry rot. I predict tattoo mania will ebb in the next ten years leaving millions with the stained skin equivalent of bell bottoms they can’t take off. And their children wondering what were they thinking?
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