I think that Influencer term has a distinct ring to it.....I at once pictured my first time in the temple (one of 3 or 4) where Satan appeared and was an Influencer for sure. Maybe that word was even used...you know, influencing the world for eeevil. And, in the temple ceremony clear back in the Bronze Age of 1965, yes I hiked with the T-Rex, this Influencer Satan stole the show. He actual
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It definitively is the policy of Mormonism that members are not allowed to criticize the church. Take the temple ceremony (and yes, please take it far away), in the ceremony the temple goer is required to promise to not criticize the leaders (speak evil of the Lord's annointed which means The Church itself)....and is asked to make this promise without being told before hand this is what will
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(swearing included) Victim! Victim! Victim! Who is the Victim? Oh, the goddesses tempted poor little ole me and just kept on tempting me and ruining my day... I mean really making me have a bad day. I just could not find anything else to do, you know, not anything else....sooo, it was my right, my RIGHT, goddamit, my right to remove these temptations! Why should I have to put up wit
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Deeply sorry for the hurt and unfairness you are experiencing. Thanks for sharing this exceptionally well-written article by Jamie Belnap.....and I do hope that it may impact your family's thinking, if not now, perhaps some time down the line. I give you a shout-out for your standing firm for what you know to be right and just....hang in there. Solidarity means a lot - even if we are separa
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You did such an outstanding job of describing the turmoil of "not having much in common with your family anymore." I feel like I can change weekly on how I am going to approach it...or not. At times, I scream inwardly and at other times I cry outwardly, or I turn my back and say I do not care or I look myself in the mirror and declare, "But damn, I do care." The thing abo
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Another reason for their actions. CES employees receive vigorous training and cuts if they do not measure up. In other words they are indoctrinated to the hilt. Plus, they have spent years working with youth, gaining the skills to bullshit them as well as being adored by these same youth. I think these combinations, the charisma the CES educators possess, are a good fit for a lot of the stude
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"Fear of freedom", a term used by Christopher Hitchens, is an indoctrination alive and well in the youthful mission program of the church. I can report this as I have been witnessing it first hand in the correspondence between myself and a young missionary. "Are you encouraged or allowed even to keep up with the current events in your area?" "Is door to door mission
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It's only fair....oh wait, since when does the church give two (or even 3) hoots about being FAIR, or honest, or giving, or..... At the moment I have a close family member on a mission who, as is usually the case with a young enthusiastic teen,is SOO certain that where they are right now in their life is where they are supposed to be. This person goes on and on and on in weekly correspondence
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Choices....challenging they are, yet think what life would be like without them....I'm picturing North Korea. Posters have shared some terrific advice with you. I have one other suggestion. Would your school counselor be a resource you could trust and talk to? From your story you shared and the insights you have, I think you are doing a terrific job of thinking on your own. You have alrea
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So appreciate your support and kind words. I have been able to mostly heal from the trauma and abuse of my childhood....been very fortunate for the help of many who have made this journey possible. I feel especially blessed and so ever grateful to mental health professionals who devoted their time and talents to understanding how children were affected growing up in an alcoholic home; it was
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Thanks for the complement! Deeply sorry for your nightmares and for c12's also. Nightmares are, well, terrifying. I happened to be present when one of my grandchildren woke up screaming....screaming in such a way that it terrified me and made me want to join her. Her Dad just held her tight, saying and eventually singing to her in a calm reassuring manner. My dad was the Satan who gave m
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A wise Mom indeed. I must confess when I hear words like these I wax a little envious. My Mom was so busy working in a drudgery job as a single Mom and so caught up in the Mormon web of hating her life as an alone single Mormon woman who had to leave her dead-beat husband that she just seemed to go through life in a depressed daze. I can now appreciate all the reasons for her state of mind,
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^^^funny
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Ain't that an interesting thought. I've also heard it said.... Love is everywhere therefore Love is in Satan therefore Love IS Satan Interesting thought for Valentine's
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Satan, painted in Mormon Lore as a him that you better not mess with because he is so cunning, strong, and evil beyond human imagination. This so called brother, our brother who turned left when he should have turned right, did not figure in my life until I was eightteen. This was when Mormonism had become my angelic steps leading to Happiness and Heaven and was no longer just a place I was
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^^^^Funny
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From written information and from observing people, I believe that people are influenced from both their genes and from their environment. I have wished more than once that we were free to pick and choose how these two influences would play out in our life - you know, that we would magically have the ability to understand and see the whole picture and make the very best choices possible. In
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Oh...the beautiful snow is erasing the monotony I have felt through Jan and Feb here in the Lord's (?) Valley. After speaking to some TBM's who did not seem to share my hatred of the Inversion Feel, I dared say to myself, "Why oh why, does not their Not-So-Dear-Leader", with all his supposed Money and supposed power do something spectacular to lift the spirits of his supposedly beloved
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>When we talk or text she demeans me or cut me short and then ignores me.< I have some thoughts about this. Perhaps you grew up being treated like this, but now recognize that it is not a healthy way to have a relationship. Have you tried to talk to her and explain how this makes you feel? She most likely grew up in this type of atmosphere also. You are seeing the situation for wha
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^^^ Yes, so agree that members' hanging on to their cult leader's every word is part of the whole scene - an amazing cult must have an amazing leader. So, the TBMs hang on his every word and declare most of them as inspiration and miracles straight from God. I also agree with the looks of the head hauncho.... he bleeds looks of arrogance down from his perch above his peons as he gives them hi
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I have questions, questions, and a few more for this man. 1) As a renown heart surgeon AND God's mouthpiece on earth, where is help from you and God on, at the very least, encouraging your flock of church members to wear a Life-Saving-Mask?????? Hells bells, as someone else said, you yourself have worn one of these for half your life as a Doc. You should have by now, reminded your flock, ov
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2 thoughts for these Covid blues: "I don't think I get enough credit for the fact that I do all of this unmedicated." "I'm not one to brag, but I made it out of bed."
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A few suggestions your way: 1) You are blessed to have some education in your life, plus blessed you are aware of some mental health issues. Might be helpful to contemplate that there are those in life who are not this fortunate. I am convinced that a gratitude list gets the brain juices flowing....it has helped me! 2) Take good care of yourself -- good food, good exercise, good sleep,
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Appreciate your very thoughtful words. Thank you. I shared this part of my life, because, as in my family's case, guns can and do immense damage. I, only through counseling and a university education, have been able to work through the PTSD I came to realize I had. My siblings all took their own individual paths, struggling with their own demons. I am sad that more communication and healin
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Amen to this statement....gun safety is an oxymoron. When I introduced this thread I decided to not include a background story of myself and my immediate family, but have changed my mind due to the comments which have been shared. My family was highly dysfunctional with a dead-beat alcoholic dad at the center who did, according to information I pulled out by the teeth from family members, ove
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Guns in Church being used as props...and for what pray tell? This is when I would have run like hell from the meeting. I hope to shout that people did just that....left (and never came back). I like the metaphor given by D&D - "In Mormonism there is always an invisable gun to your head with the message, 'Do as we say, or, you're out. And we mean way out, where it's uh, dark, really
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Golly gee, wouldn't Briggy and Joey be so proud that Utah holds the sole honor of having a gun as a state symbol? After all, they set the stage for guns to be the deciding factor in many, many instances....you know, rather than some Super-Dupper-Peaceful-Revelation-Solution delivered to them, THE prophets of the one true,restored church on earth. 200 plus years of UN-peace is their legacy. B
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About the congregation....only able to divulge that is was an upper-middle-class group. I just cannot emphasis enough that I found this type of gun inclusion in the remembrances of an individual shocking to the core. (And, in my opinion, there seemed to be no scarcity of stories that could be included as the talk was very lengthy). The deceased was a male who held the priesthood and highly spok
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I was shocked. So the story goes like this: seemingly loving remembrances were included in "family memories" delivered at a recent Mormon funeral service in a LDS ward. The elderly deceased loved one had greeted (?) the family member speaker with a gun after a date she had returned from. Plus, two other remembered times were shared with the audience when said gun was barnished by t
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Could not agree more. For me, Mormonism was a cage; it did have walls reaching up to the heavens promising glory and life after death, but walls never-the-less which made in impossible to explore and think outside the box and rules which circumscribed EXACTLY what you must do day and NIGHT. If you broke those rules you were indeed BROKEN until you repented, and even then, as a naive child, y
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