Any religion that does not treat women as equal to men cannot possibly be true. Any religion that does not prosecute abuse to the full extent of the law must be utterly false. Kimball's quote is barbaric and reason enough to ignore anything else he says.
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Hoped it helped! I maintain the way it is worded that saying "to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and the tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation..." To me, that sounds like an explanation of what it is supposed to be rather than a
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(sort of long) At the very beginning of the endowment, the members are told: “Your Endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and the tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and ga
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Well said. Excellent post! guilt, fear and control, a simple formula the church has perfected.
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Hello, Glad that some people found this helpful. It was one of those things I guess that had been building up inside that needed to be said. A couple of TBM brothers were emailing their exbishop dad, me and another exbishop who left the church (same ward, old story, sorry if you've heard it before) but all these scriptures were being tossed back and forth. My wife suggested a response based on
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Just to try to get him to understand... There is so much talk about free agency, but in reality, we are hemmed in on every angle. Tithing must be paid, there is a promise given for paying, but not paying doesn’t just bring a denial of the fore mentioned blessings, you are burned as stubble, utterly wasted. Perhaps other offerings aren’t commanded, but they are lumped together with tithing, m
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It's a stupid rule. A movie like Saving Private Ryan and something with a title like Beach Blanket Bimbos from Space would likely have the same rating, and both would be unacceptable to the church. There's no consideration for context.
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It's the perfect busy work. It justifies collecting money to build temples to show how influential the church is. It motivates the busy work of searching out your dead. And it justifies the existence of temples. If they were just for the living they would never get enough use. But ALL those ordinances must be done for the dead. That keeps the members so busy and feeling so good about what they ar
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Have your wife watch "Sister Wives." That disgusted my wife so much!
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They just want to drop you a note, but then, "oh, by the way, experienced a miraculous healing that I think will bring you back. Let me share that with you..." In my experience, these things always have a miracle bomb in them .
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My personal experience is more like 125 to 150 per ward. Most wards are fully staffed, they just give the members 2-3 callings.
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Sometimes they will say "Well, when you start following the other things the Lord has asked you to do (FHE, Food Storage, etc., etc.,) THEN the Lord will reveal more." So...these prophets are just loitering around waiting for the members to be more faithful before their superpowers work?
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Great post. The longer I'm out, the more epiphanies come to me on how ludicrous the whole thing is. My thoughts are along the same lines as Lenina.
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Religion is a man made device that is all about power and control. People see the false God, Jehovah, in the Old Testament and they are scared to death of him. They don't want to piss him off and so when a priest/pastor/bishop says: "No problem, I'll tell you how to act, what to do, etc., so you can stay on his good side. People are grateful for that, but they give all their power away, beca
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It makes me roll my eyes to hear that phrase now. However, if 1000 people want to put my name on the prayer rolls of the temple - I figure it's completely meaningless, so I don't care what they do.
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freckles, it was different for all three of us. The first one left because his shelf had been burdened down from years of collecting disturbing doctrine. He kept listening to the apologists and trying to make it all work, but finally he just couldn't do it anymore. After being released from being bishop, he just sort of gradually went inactive. The second one realized the emphasis on works w
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It's wrong. It absolutely is. I was a bishop and I feel terrible for buying into it all. But I am one of three bishops who have left the church from the same ward. So, it is possible for us to learn from our mistakes. And now we are each trying to convince people its all a sham.
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The copyright on the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price and probably the Doctrine of Discourses has long expired. From Wikipedia, the article on copyright: "In the United States, all books and other works published before 1923 have expired copyrights and are in the public domain."
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The word apostle means messenger. They should do nothing more than relay the Savior's message. Giving their interpretations, their folksy stories, their visiting of widows...just a bunch of me, me, me BS.
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Not afraid at all. I now believe God accepts unconditionally into his presence. We are all prodigal sons and daughters.
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And not once during the entire experience do you hear the word "love."
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Reminds of what Richard Nixon used to say: "I'm glad you asked me that question...(now, let me not answer it)
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Facts, Schmacts! If you'd just pray about it you'd feel that burning in your bosom and know you had acid reflux because of the stress it was causing you! Good points, by the way!
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I doubt it will ever be de-canonized. But here is what I think will happen. 1. Gradually reduce the number of times it is quoted or mentioned in conference talks. 2. Gradually par down the study of it in gospel doctrine and seminary. 3. Eventually remove the facsimiles (perhaps 20 years from now) 4. And finally, refer to it in some other way, such as "inspired writings of the prophet&q
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I want to hear an "apologist" say: "I really need to apologize for trying to pass this BS off as truth. I'm really sorry I tried to mislead you." That would be an actual Mormon apologist!
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using fiction to teach us that the fiction is true...hmmm
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About two years after I was originally called to be bishop, they combined our ward with another because they had both gotten so small. We then had about 250 people coming to sacrament meeting. But it was an inner city ward with no opportunities for growth and it kept shrinking. The other ward in the building kept shrinking also, until it had maybe 90 people coming to sacrament meeting. After
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1. While I was bishop I was told that a man was not supposed to teach primary by himself. Another adult was supposed to be in the room. 2. On a scout campout, at least two men had to be there. Also, every scout leader had to take BSA youth protection training. And all that is well and good and may help some. But the really stupid thing is, Home teaching does not fall into this arena. This &
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I'd step up to the pulpit and say "The true church is you, God, the Savior and Holy Spirit. Don't let anyone stand between you and God. Throw away the Book of Mormon, D & C, Peal of Great Price and most of the Old Testament. As of this moment the church is dissolved. Go home and have a great life."
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I was ordained a bishop in 2003 and I left a year and a half ago.
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