Isn't that how the Indians (i.e. the native Americans) were converted to Christianity? Seems we haven't come a long way baby.
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Blindguy’s Manifesto on Religion Over the 10-plus years I’ve been visiting this board, I have read many commentaries about why and how we should respect the religious rights of others, most notably Mormons. After giving this subject some thought, here is the deal I would make with the religious around me: 1) I will respect your right to believe what you believe. This respect includes li
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Babyloncansuckit wrote in part: "The pope seems to get it. Churches evolve. Catholics familiar with Mormonism should be rejoicing that they don’t have a reactionary doofus." As a person who considers himself to be a former Catholic, that part about the Pope is very important. That church has had some doufus popes (the current one's immediate predecessor comes directly to mind)--
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Here is the Daily Kos take on this trory: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/8/17/1788874/-Mormons-say-Utah-marijuana-ballot-initiative-violates-their-religious-freedom-file-2nd-lawsuit?detail=emaildkre I have a funny feeling that the author is either an ex-Mormon or somebody who has been reading this board. Note his references to other planets and magic underwear. On a slightly note,
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NPR's "All Things Considered," had two interviews on this topic today that are both enlightening and disturbing. https://www.npr.org/2018/08/14/636855561/report-reveals-widespread-sexual-abuse-by-over-300-priests-in-pa and https://www.npr.org/2018/08/14/638629435/sex-abuse-problems-persist-inside-the-roman-catholic-church One of the most disturbing aspects of this comes from th
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What will be interesting will be how the more conservative Catholic media in the U.S. (EWTN, anyone?) react to this changed church teaching. I also want to know if a certain prominent U.S. representative from the portion of a state known for its cheese is on board with this policy and if he will be exed if he is not. And, of course, how does this change in Roman church teaching affect its ongoing
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Summer wrote in part: "To deny yourself food is so...Mormon." I hate to break the news, but that is not true. When I was attending Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles during the early 1980s, several good Catholics I know participated in a hunger strike to try to get the U.S. to change its dictator-supporting policies in central and south American countries. Did it work? No!
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If you are marginalized, you find ways to get the basics of what you need. This is true in both religion and society. Many years ago, I supplied an article to this board (I don't have the link now) about how Sally Hemmings told Thomas Jefferson that she would only be his mistress if he agreed to give any children they created together their freedom (Sally was black) upon his death. I don't hav
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While I agree with much of your argument, I don't think it's settled legally or constitutionally that churches can be taxed, even on nonchurch benefits. With that in mind, I think that one should keep an eye out for a lawsuit from mainline and evangelical churches challenging these new taxes, claiming them to be a violation of the separation of church and state (that'll be a new one for that grou
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Excellent essay! Thanks for posting it. It reminds me of my brother's daughter who was raised as a Mormon by her native American mother. Though she rejected the religion during high school (she was half native American and was often picked on by the Caucasian Mormon kids), when she married into a family of TBMs, she became TBM herself, if for nothing more than to keep the in-laws supporting he
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I am very impressed with SCMD1's comments on this topic. I note that many of the responders who support home schooling seem to support more how well-behaved the home-schooled kids are or how they aren't learning "immoral" science (actually since the sciences don't teach morality, the proper terminology for that subject may be amoral, not immoral). I am also not convinced that the majori
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/30/1776800/-Churches-are-fuming-over-being-taxed-by-Republicans-and-Trump?detail=emaildkre This is a fun read, though highly partisan. However, it does beg the question. Didn't Hinckley, Monson, or even Nelson see this coming? If so, why didn't they use their prophesy skills to warn not only their own folks but other churches about what was coming down t
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The U.S. constitution's First Amendment gives all persons the right to practice their religions as they choose. By extension, that right also includes bringing up their offspring in that religion. Therefore, if you were to try to "save" others in Mormonism from its cult-like tactics and mentality, you should not expect to get government assistance for doing this. Unless religious leader
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Question from the original post: " So does this mean no more "Little House on the Prairie" reruns on TV!??" No.
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Congratulations on the publication of your book on Amazon and Kindle. I hope you earn a lot of money out of it. As for being an inspiration (sic), thank you for the kind words. When I was younger, I used to not take very kindly to those who told me I was an inspiration to them, believing that being inspired by others meant that one overlooked the fact that we all have feet of clay. However, th
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How much Mr. Romney will go along with the POTUS when they disagree may very well depend on how reliant upon GOP funding Mr. Romney is for his political campaign.
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I'm going to take a very different tack than what the posters thus far have taken on this subject. A few weeks back, I happened upon a conversation with a female enginer on a Pacifica outlet station. When asked a similar question about the differences between females and males, she commented that most of us really don't know a lot of members of the opposite sex personally and so we tend to tak
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Josephina is correct. In addition, you can go to any Catholic church you wish and you will be welcome. Furthermore, Catholic priests don't send out their minions to your house to kidnap your children and take them to Mass, as some of the stories I've read say that some Mormon bishops do. While I consider myself to be no longer Roman Catholic (I was raised in the religion), I can assure you tha
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After listening to Nina Totenberg's report about this case on NPR, I have to conclude that SCOTUS is trying to have it both ways on this issue. On the one hand, it wants the state to recognize the rights of sincerely religious people; on the other hand, it doesn't want to abrogate the human and legal rights of homosexuals. The fact that the Court is trying to please everybody here may ultimately
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While it is certainly away from the intent of Amyjo's original post, nevertheless I find Nightingale's post to be of great interest. The words we use in and of themselves are not "bad" by any stretch of the imagination--they are just sounds that float from our tongues and teeth. It is we humans who give meanings to the sounds we make and then determine that some are "bad"
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https://www.npr.org/2018/05/31/615911082/mormon-church-celebration-of-40-years-of-black-priesthood-brings-up-painful-past Both audio and a transcript of Lee Hale's story are available on the link above. That said, this story troubles me, primarily because Mr. Hale only used comments from currently practicing Mormons for it. And that reliance makes for some rather questionable facts and assumpt
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Agreed. If you look at the capsule biographies of ex-Mormons over at Cricket's site, http://www.salamandersociety.com you will find out that only two of the 400 or so people who signed said that they had become roman Catholics. In fact, judging by the mini-biographies on that site, I would say that a lot more ex-Mormons have become evangelical Christians than have become Catholics. (For the
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Actually, I think that SLskipper's point is right on target and well worth the read. That said, I did like your last paragraph. However, given that there are some 8 billion plus humans currently on this planet, I'm not so sure that replacing our individual selves to keep our current society going is something we should be doing.
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Your question is complicated because poverty and its causes are complicated. First, you need to determine a definition of poverty. If memory serves, the Federal government defines poverty for a family of four as earning income of less than $12,000 per year, and that number changes with the number of people living inside of that household. Is that a good definition of poverty? Well, if you have
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While the below is not Mormon per se, it is religious and deeply offensive, at least to me. As some of you may know, I was raised Roman Catholic though I consider myself to be an atheist/agnostic now. However, I live with my mom who is still quite wedded to Catholicism. This morning, my mom had the TV on with some priest/minister (I'm thinking priest because of the subject matter). This par
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I agree with your topic liner but for a very different reason than most; namely, we all don't think and believe in the same things. What is considered the moral high ground (or moral high ground) to some is absolutely beneath the feet of others. Donbagley's point about what Mormons consider to be the moral high ground is pretty much on target--what they consider to be the moral high ground (not d
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Calvinism is also known as Puritanism, and many founders of the U.S., particularly those that founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Pilgrims, were Calvinists/Puritans. What drove these people to these shores was the fact that the other countries they were in )England and Holland) couldn't stand their proseletising. And while we may like to think that we're better than our ancestors, every
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Yes. A little history may suffice here. During the 1980s, then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan was once quoted as saying that, pertaining to Nicaragua and its then-leader, Daniel Ortega, "I want them to say uncle." It never happened. Daniel Ortega, despite the Reagan sanctions, eventually became the Nicaraguan leader again after Mr. Reagan left office. People don't drop their beliefs
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This is a continuation of the thread found at https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2078290 Near the bottom of this thread there is a conversation between Amyjo (the thread's originator), Ificouldhietokelob (I hope I remembered his monicker correctly), and Henry Bemis about the basic probabilities of our universe being a simulation. During that discussion, Amyjo noted that the whole qu
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Despite what its majority religion says, Utah sure don't look like no "straight and narrow corridor" (I-15 anyone?); rather, it looks like it's (mostly) a square, and the people who live there often behave like squares.
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