The way I see it you have two options, 1) Tell your parents that you appreciate their offer and that you will respectively decline. From what you described, they seem like understanding parents and will probably force the issue 2) You go and when you get to the room where they do the ceremony, you can ask "Is this where your forced to do the blood oath?" If you are really uncom
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I guess Im looking at it as if everyone woke up tomorrow and religion was suddenly gone somehow. If the band-aid is pulled off slowly, then I do believe people would be better than they are now.
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Just smile and nod. My daughter goes off about the tooth fairy all the time, I think its cute.
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I no longer believe either, but I thought what would a world without religion really be like. I think at this point in human history, we need religion sadly enough. Religion drives people to do things they wouldn't do otherwise such as feed the hungry. It also prevents people from doing things such as stealing. One might argue that there have been countless wars started and many lives lost in
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Tom Philips was a SP and got it
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The word NO is so empowering Im finding. Good for you!
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These things have nothing to do with you being in the church or not. People in the church have the mentality that if you "turn to Jesus" and keep paying your tithing, everything will be fine. The fact of the matter is that these things likely would have happened if you were a faithful, full tithe paying member. Bad things happen to us all, its a harsh reality of life. There are peop
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I may not have got the same eductaton I would have received at BYU at East Hooterville, but it got me where it did today.
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I red this as CES letter for Christmas at first, I thought you were going to wrap up a nice laminated copy for someone this year. Maybe get it leather bound with the persons name printed on the front. And not to derail the thread, this sounds interesting, thanks for posting.
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Growing up, I didnt have that "knowledge" that everyone else says they had. I never had the witness from the HG and thought it would eventually come but thought that I wasnt getting an answer because of sins in my life. At that time, I say I was still 90% though. After my mission I was 100% probably for the next 2-3 years and then it started to go down hill from there to where I am n
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MY best advice is to be honest with your family. I kept everything hidden and locked up. I wouldn't share anything with my wife and I started to hate myself and held a lot of anger and resentment for far to long. I eventually came out and stopped pretending to live according to other peoples standards of me. I feel much more at peace now. The feelings of anger and resentment have been replaced wi
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I had a member ask me recently why I no longer believe in god. Without going into details, I told them that there were events in my past that shifted my perspective and how I view life. Those were almost my exact words and although I could tell they didnt understand, they didnt probe either.
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I may be way off here and someone can correct me, but I believe this was said by the presiding bishop, Edward Partridge. JS then wrote up section 119 to clarify that 2% wasn't enough and that 10% is how much members had to pay. I believe there was a lot of confusion about what tithing should be after the law of consecration failed. Someone with far more knowledge than myself can probably clari
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LTP came to our ward once for some reason a few years ago and I had to get a tissue from the bathroom. There was a member of the SP standing outside the bathroom and guarding it and asked me to find another bathroom. When I told him there was no other bathroom and that I just needed a tissue, he reluctantly let me in real fast. Its the closest I have ever been to a pooping GA an experience I will
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I should add, show your wife that you can be a better person without the church. For me, I really do want to be a better person and its not because Im expecting some great reward when I die. If she can see that you can be a good person without the church or god, then she MAY come around, no promises though, I am just starting this journey out myself.
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Have you told your wife? As someone that just came clean with my wife, I would say that its not worth hiding and pretending. It will only make things worse. There isnt ever really a "perfect" time to come out and tell her. My wife is TBM as well, I cant ever see her leaving the church. I dont try, its important to her and thats fine for me. If she decides she wants to learn more, I
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I could be completely wrong, but it almost seems to me that heaven as portrayed by most Christians is almost a parallel dimension type thing. I suppose someone might say he resides in our hearts.
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There is no proof of an afterlife and as far as I know the only way to prove it to oneself is to die and even then, if there is no life after death, you would never know. Part of what drives me is that I believe that I only have a limited amount of time. If I screw up, I dont have an eternity to make it right, there is no one to bail me out. Believing this pushes me to be the best I can, to b
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Its always bothered me even as a TBM when someone asks to give someone else a blessing. Its one thing to ask someone else for one I suppose, but to me its weird to offer one to someone.
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Very valid point. I dont know at what point he declared it the plates to be sealed, but this would make sense.
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I have heard this as well, I wonder who would be responsible for translating it? TSM or perhaps some learned BYU scholar?
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idleswell Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The problem was unless the new member could be > confirmed immediately the elders would "lose > contact" with their new convert in the intervening > week. The bishop said that he didn't want anyone > to become a member of the Church if their > commitment couldn't last a week. I had t
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I just have one question, what happened to the other half of the beer?
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I was thinking about the sealed portion of the BOM and why JS would talk about this. My guess is that it may have been his intention to write more? Is there any mention on this from anyone, OC or MH maybe? It seems odd to me that he would mention it. There is no purpose in anyone knowing this. No one would have ever known about it if he didnt say something about it. My best guess is that he pl
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As someone who pretended and tried to fake it, Im telling you now, its not worth it. The harsh reality is that your family may want nothing to do with you, but I promise you that your life will be much better if you are true to yourself. You might be surprised at the support your parents give you though. They will be hurt, but not as hurt if you are open and honest with them and not trying to hid
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All this is a pretty recent development and I would be lying if I said that I wasnt worried about that elderolddog as most of the ward doesnt have any idea what is going on. I will say that I am more at peace with myself now that I dont feel that I am hiding and pretending to be someone that I'm not, such a better feeling.
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Perhaps have her read the essays on lds.org and tell her that you would be happy to confound more on them. After she reads them, ask her what her thoughts on them are, what stood out to her. You can be very tactful how you ask her to read these. I fell you should be open and honest with her and tell her that you dont like the idea of her going on a mission. Its going to be her choice though.
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For the last several weeks the missionaries have been coming over and trying to save my soul. In a way its been really good because its helped me be more open with my wife and I feel I am more liberated now that I am more open and honest about my beliefs. This last week has been a breakthrough moment in my relationship with my wife as I was finally able to come completely clean about everything a
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I struggled with tithing, every time I handed the check to the bishopric, I would secretly hope that it would get lost somehow. It never did sadly. Due to some financial hardships (details I wont go into right now), we found ourselves in debt and maxed out credit cards. I stopped paying tithing and within months we were debt free, I found a better job (not related to tithing in any way, but I lik
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Maybe the handbook of instruction number 2? Never heard of this before.
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