Recovery Board  : RfM
Recovery from Mormonism (RfM) discussion forum. 

Results 1651 - 1680 of 2283
5 years ago
blindguy
Before I supply my comments, let me state up front that I am not now nor have ever been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My brother's ex is one; so is my niece by that short marriage; and so is a woman with whom I used to work with (and who I was considering dating before investigating the religious angle), meaning your former church has affected me and my life. Tha
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5 years ago
blindguy
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/01/883115867/white-supremacist-ideas-have-historical-roots-in-u-s-christianity I wasn't able to place a segment of the text here, but this story about religion's role in white supremacy is very much worth the listen. While the Mormons certainly had (and still have) racist teachings (see both Joseph Smith's and Brigham Young's teachings on the subject), what they re
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5 years ago
blindguy
When I read the subject line, I immediately thought about whether the U.S. government should do the licensing. While you might get some good standards out of that, you would also run into some big constitutional issues (government supporting a single religion or religious viewpoint). You would also have to look at the experience of places such as the People's Republic of China, where the governme
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5 years ago
blindguy
In Christian theology, the Old Testament is even more fantastical than the new. Consider that there are no place names for where people lived in the book of Genesis other than the supposed Garden of Eden. In addition, Abraham was supposed to have founded Egypt with the children of his servant, Hagar, but there is absolutely no way that the country of Egypt as Joseph found it later in that text co
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5 years ago
blindguy
While I suspect that your response was an ironic one, nevertheless it points out something that a lot of people, especially religious people, miss. It's called the middle ground. In this case, you either are perfect or sinful (mediocre in the case of the post I'm responding to). There is no room for "good," or "basically good." As noted, this applys in other areas as wel
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5 years ago
blindguy
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/29/874458692/supreme-court-hands-abortion-rights-a-victory-in-louisiana-case From the article: "A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court on Monday stood by its most recent abortion precedent. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's four liberals, citing the Supreme Court's adherence to precedent, to invalidate a Louisiana law that required doctors at clin
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5 years ago
blindguy
Dagny wrote in part: "Over time, God was used to justify more and more and define the expectations of group behavior. Maybe that provided a benefit too." You're right! Several years ago, NPR's "All Things Considered," did a special report on the development of religious beliefs by early humans. During that report, it was stated (and I'm paraphrasing here) that early huma
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5 years ago
blindguy
First, for the record, I enjoyed your piece and thought it was very much worth the read. One of the things that I am very much struck by is how we humans in any ordering of the world try to make ourselves the center of attention, the thing around which the world evolves. I think that's why first with Gallileo's theory of the earth revolving around the sun and then later with Darwin's Theory of Ev
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5 years ago
blindguy
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/18/880269697/supreme-court-rules-against-trump-administration-in-daca-case It appears I was wrong about this case in my comments in the last Supreme Court ruling thread. From the site: "The Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration from ending DACA and protection of "DREAMers." Host Steve Inskeep speaks with DACA recipient Jose Munoz, NPR's Jo
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5 years ago
blindguy
I beg to differ. If we do not apologize for the behavior of our ancestors--particularly for behavior as heinous as Brigham Young's was--then we are only encouraging current and future generations to glorify that behavior.
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5 years ago
blindguy
I beg to differ. If we do not apologize for the behavior of our ancestors--particularly for behavior as heinous as Brigham Young's was--then we are only encouraging current and future generations to glorify that behavior.
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5 years ago
blindguy
Antifa, short for antifascist, and it's not really one organization at all.
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5 years ago
blindguy
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/17/879255417/amid-confusion-about-reopening-an-expert-explains-how-to-assess-covid-risk Dr. Michael Osterholm is the founder and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Polic y at the University of Minnesota. His 2017 book, Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs, was recently republished with a new foreword about COVID-19. Mark Olshaker
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5 years ago
blindguy
If you read the article that Anybody posted about the white Atlanta pastor who calls slavery "a blessing for whites,", then you may see the problem with this whole line of thinking. Certain segments of the Caucasian population, particularly in the southern United States, continue to eulogize the Confederacy and slavery. The fact that their generation is five or six generations removed f
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5 years ago
blindguy
While I wasn't a fan of that style of music, I still manage to have a lot of respect for this woman who gave tirelessly of herself to entertain and give comfort to others. May she rest in peace.
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5 years ago
blindguy
While you are correct that our bodies are ready to engage in sexual activity before our minds are engaged in caution (and STDs, Herpes, and AIDS can be added to the pregnancy issue already noted), nevertheless ignorance and "Just say no!" (advice given by nearly all religions about sexual activity) is terrible advice. As several experts on the topic have noted, if you don't give teenage
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5 years ago
blindguy
I think the biggest problem will come not with Roe, but with DACA. Neither Congress nor the Courts were involved in its creation so the High Court may well rule it to have been an illegal executive decision to begin with that the current executive can set aside.
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5 years ago
blindguy
From a never-Mormon who was raised Roman Catholic but who now is an atheist (me) to a still-practicing Mormon (you): Just because you believe something to be true doesn't make it true; it only means that you *believe* it to be true. If something you believe is actually true, then credible evidence from reputable and highly respected sources will emerge with legitimate factual information suppo
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5 years ago
blindguy
There are many answers to your question. First, and probably foremost, the Board moderators appear to have no, or few, issues with the subject matter. Second, COVID-19 will affect you if you're currently Mormon, ex-Mormon, or even never-Mormon (the latter of which applies to me). However, how you receive information on this subject and how you react to that information could very well be d
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5 years ago
blindguy
Here is the link to the report that Nina Totenberg gave to "All Things Considered," on this subject: https://www.npr.org/2020/06/15/877586646/supreme-court-rules-federal-law-protects-lgbtq-workers-from-sex-discrimination In the audio version of this report, Ms. Totenberg gives a possible answer to the question I had laid out at the end of my original message on this subject. Accor
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5 years ago
blindguy
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/15/877243714/supreme-court-rules-lgbtq-workers-protected-against-sex-discrimination From the website: "The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a victory for LGBTQ workers, ruling that the federal law that bars sex discrimination in employment applies to LGBTQ employees." This is a very big decision. What makes it more impressive (according to the audio inte
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5 years ago
blindguy
I suppose it's because Mr. Young is focusing on trying to get BYU's name changed, but he does ignore the blatant racism of Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith.
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5 years ago
blindguy
While most COVID-19 related sites are not very accessible to blind people (like yours truly), this one is: https://cvstats.net/ Looking at the current numbers for individual states from this site, one thing really stands out to me about the Arizona statistics. There is not a big difference between the number of cases (34,458) and the number of active cases (33,101). Compare that with the nu
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5 years ago
blindguy
We have come quite a ways towards this goal, but we haven't got there yet, and now we are slipping backwards. And I *very* strongly disagree with those who argue that the media, by reporting on the problem, has *caused* the problem. I'm afraid that many in that camp are people who would just prefer the issue to go away and hide under a rug. While it may be possible to hide this issue in the sh
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5 years ago
blindguy
Fortunately, the Supreme Court's chief Justice had enough independence and gumption to not vote along party-affiliation lines in this matter.
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5 years ago
blindguy
I had to look up the word "aeternus". Here is what I found: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aeternus I think that all of these definitions apply to how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints views Joseph Smith. And I also think that the OP is making a very critical (if somewhat intellectual) criticism of that church.
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5 years ago
blindguy
On this subject, I would strongly recommend all to read Milton Mayer's "They Thought They Were Free." That is all I can say.
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5 years ago
blindguy
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/500240-supreme-court-denies-california-churches-challenge-to-state From the article: "The Supreme Court issued a rare late-night ruling on Friday against a California church challenging their state’s stay-at-home order. In a 5-4 vote, Chief Justice John Roberts broke from other conservative justices to rule in favor of the state. The
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5 years ago
blindguy
Outside of possibly limiting the number of people that can be in the temple at any given time (physical distancing), I really don't see the LDS church doing much to change its temple practices right now. That's too bad, because there are other areas within the temple ceremony that need to be changed including anointings, baptisms, and the conversation that takes place at the veil.
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5 years ago
blindguy
This has already been done with audio so video can't be far behind. And, for those of us who think we can tell where the edit is, keep in mind that most people don't really listen that closely.
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