Below is a link to a story on today's Morning Edition about the legacy of this Pope. http://thin.npr.org/s.php?sId=139723904&rid=3 Though I've never read it anywhere, I have long suspected that Pope Benedict XVI actually envied the leaders of the LDS church for the kinds of behavioral controls they had over their followers.
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Note that the lawsuit, while filed on behalf of an individual, is actually a class action one. For a church whose members claim historic persecution, this smacks of the very persecution they claim that others have done to them.
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As some of you may know, I am totally blind, hence my monicker. Below is a link to a press release about a lawsuit (you will need Adobe to read it) filed on behalf of blind employees of the Mormon-owned Marriott hotel chain against their employer. Sadly, while many businesses behave in the way that Marriott is alleged to have in this suit, the fact that Marriott is owned by a Mormon whose religio
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Those of you on the fence about leaving Utah because of its religious zealotry now have another reason to leave given in the link to the below article. http://www.zcommunications.org/contents/190843/print I'm afrait that those who follow their prophet for short-term profits will find their lives shortened as well if this deal goes through.
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When I graduated from Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles, California) in 1985, our guest speaker was Peter Euberoff who was responsible for making the summer Olympics Games in Los Angeles a success a year earlier. The 1984 guest speaker was the late Frank Sinatra, the well-known 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s singer and actor, but there was a lot of controversy surrounding that choice. A large
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The Christmas song I would recommend (and yes, it is one of my personal favorites as a practicing agnostic) is Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas". While the singer (who did not write the song) claims that the song is anti-materialist and not "the atheists' Christmas song", the first part of the song's second verse (see below) disputes that claim: "They sold me
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As a few of the oldtimers may know, I have never been, nor will ever be, a Mormon. My interest in what was going on in the LDS church began in 2007 when I became attracted to my braille proofreading partner, a practicing member of the LDS church. She tried to convert me once, but I feigned sleep, and she has never tried again. This woman was (and as far as I know remains) a devout Mormon. When
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While they may have been dumb, the early Mormon converts were not any dumber than a lot of the people I know here in the U.S. Despite all of their education, people still very much want to believe that there is a magic being in the sky who will come down and save them from themselves and others. And the fact that we want to believe in magic explains why people, both then and now, fall for this cr
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Unfortunately, NPR feels the need to play up to that party and its upright Presidential candidate from a radical religion (you know who I'm talking about) in order to keep that religiously radicalized President from seeking to end Federal support for the network altogether. For the U.S. public broadcaster, that may well be a lost cause.
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http://thin.npr.org/s.php?sId=163631875&rId=3&x=1 This is a bit of a puff piece (note the comment about the LDS church's speedy growth at its end), but note the last names of the two teenagers who supported this change that were interviewed for the story: Young (female) and Holland (male). If those aren't BIC and from pioneer stock, I'll be a monkey's uncle.
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Obviously what the LDS church is looking for is better public relations people who will do what they're told and give the church's viewpoint a great spin (No investigative reporters need apply). I wonder with all of that spin going on if anyone involved will ever get dizzy and fall flat on the ground.
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If you looked at what happened in Eldorado, Texas, a couple of years back or the Warren Jeffs community in southern Utah, you might think differently. What usually happens in these situations is that polygamy becomes a way for the males to show their dominance over women. The males can strut their stuff and say, "See? I am a real man--I now have 5 wives that I can get pregnant, and I want mo
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http://www.alternet.org/belief/mitt-romneys-role-mormon-bishop-shows-his-extremist-religious-beliefs This is a very good article with a lot of documentation that shows, among other things, how Mr. Romney's religious beliefs affected his policies while he was governor of Massachusetts. Also, keep an eye out for the differences that Mr. Romney and the late JFK had when faced with the question of
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http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2012/09/churches-ignore-separation-church-and-state The entry is very short and should only take a few minutes to read. While the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not named in particular, I wouldn't be surprised, especially given that the Mormons do have a candidate in the Presidential race, if some of its bishops followed suit in their sacrament
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Yes, I heard that too. The issue seems to be complicated, because while some of the researchers thoroughly dislike the Mormons' baptizing others not of their faith into their church, they also need the Mormon records to fill in the gaps in their own studies. I think this puts the LDS church in a controlling position here.
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http://www.theworld.org/2012/08/polish-archives-used-in-mormon-baptism-of-holocaust-victims/ From this article which was also heard on the radio: "By the early 1960s, the Mormon Church had developed a reputation for its interest in archives with a voluminous list of names. Poland had that, but it didn’t have a lot of money to take care of its records. So in 1968 the Poles approached
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While much of this article, especially the part dealing with Mormon history, is a puff piece (where much of what is said is false), the portion written about former Utah governor John Huntsman's Presidential run earlier this year, especially the last two paragraphs, is pretty much on target. to wit: "It is no small thing to Mormons that not one but two of their number were considered appe
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First, I apologize if this video was already discussed on this board--I don't always look every day. http://watchdocumentary.com/watch/mitt-romney-and-the-mormon-factor-video_c36a102ef.html Al Jazeera produced this back in late March, I believe. It includes interviews with Richard Hinckley (he really squirms while trying to explain the Mormon progression from manhood to godhood), ex-Mormon
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http://www.alternet.org/story/155990/what_happens_if_we_wake_up_with_a_mormo This is an outstanding commentary that reflects much of what I have read on this Board and elsewhere on both Romney and Mormonism. My personal favorite paragraph in this very excellent piece: "Romney, a seventh-generation Mormon who has served as a Latter-day Saint bishop, has distanced himself from the founde
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I agree with Cheryl. I would also add that your ex-inlaws should be seeing the kids only when your ex has them, especially in the kind of situation you describe.
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I agree with poster Cheryl--we are becoming a more divided society, and we are tending to only hang out with friends who believe the same as us. And while I liked the L.A. Times article that StrayMutt posted, I always keep returning to chapter 4 of a book written by Kevin Philips back in 2005 about the history of religions in the U.S. and their affects on theGOP. One of the things that Mr. Philli
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If I had to make a guess, I suppose that it's the same reason why some blind people can joke about their disability with other blind people but then come defensive when those same jokes are told by sighted people--we think that it makes us as a group look bad. Yes, you are no longer a Mormon in terms of your beliefs, etc., but I would bet that somewhere deep inside--possibly unconsciously--you
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Right you are! And I think that it is ultimately education--specifically learning what possibly could happen versus what is completely impossible (either in that time or even now)--that ultimately seals the deal.
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...which suggests to me that Mormonism, though Mormons surely won't ever admit it, is simply a fundamentalist religion with the added baggage of polygamy.
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While I suspect that this article/commentary appeals more to the educated Western mind, I still get a kick out of reading it. http://www.alternet.org/story/155553/8_ways_christian_fundamentalists_make_p While 1, 4, and 6 will surely resonate with those leaving Mormonism, I think 8 will hold a special place in your hearts because of its introduction. "8. Intrusion. Australian comedia
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I've read on this board and other places that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) has never started or supported a Girl Scout troop. The suggested reason I've seen is that the Mormon church believes that this organization may encourage independent thinking among girls, something that would be anathema to current church doctrine. Well now here is another church (my former one)
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Uncle Dale: The basic problem I have with your argument is the (implied) starting point that everybody has to believe in something beyond themselves without any backing evidence. Religion, including Mormonism, trains us to believe things that are not true about how we got here and the world in which we live. More importantly, it trains us that belief/faith is more powerful than any evidence th
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According to the network, the below is the first in a series. I wonder if any ex-Mormons will be interviewed. http://thin.npr.org/s.php?sId=151681248&rId=2&x=1 Teresa's story is very similar to many I have read on this very board with the possible exception that her family, unlike some current Mormon families, continues to support her, despite her non-belief.
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My mom's slightly older sister called me to the phone last night. "Did you see the Los Angeles Times article on the differences between atheists/agnostics and the rest of us?" she asked. "No, I didn't," I responded. "What did it say." "well," intoned my mom's slightly older sister, "it says that people who are not religious tend to be thinkers. T
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When I was attending Loyola Marymount University, a Jesuit-run Catholic college in the city of Los Angeles during the early 1980s, I got to know Sister Yvonne, the nun who ran the Business Office. She was both intelligent and professional, and she certainly knew what she was doing. I came to admire this woman who occasionally assisted me with my own financing issues as they pertained to the colle
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