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

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4 years ago
mrx
The U.S. government is warning that the virus pandemic could last 18 months or longer. How long will Americans be told to stay away from religious gatherings on Sundays? If Mormons go a long time without attending church, many things will happen (or could happen). Here's a few: People will enjoy Sunday much more without the hassle of dreadful meetings at the chapel. Kids will find out
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4 years ago
mrx
Vallow Daybell killed her 2 kids for sure. I know it. I'm sure. She's as guilty as Jack the Ripper- it's just a matter of what they can prove. I can tell just by looking at her stressed-out face.
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
In about 1984, non-LDS professor of sociology Rodney Stark famously wrote a paper with a 100 year prediction of LDS growth. https://www.deseret.com/1998/5/23/19381742/lds-church-growing-at-warp-speed-sociologist-says Stark believed that by 2080, TCOJCOLDS could grow to about 64 million to 267 million members. It would truly be skyrocketing astronomical success if the church reached 267 mil
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
OK so it's not officially "Mormonism" anymore, but who cares? It is what it is. 10 year trends show shocking decline in religious activity. Americans describing themselves as Christian 2009 77% 2019 65% Americans religiously unaffiliated 2009 17% 2019 26% In just 10 years, there was an increase of 30 million Americans in this category. USA Protestants 2009 51% 2019 43
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
https://www.deseret.com/2017/5/1/20611411/lawsuit-claims-bsa-lds-church-concealed-information-on-abuse-by-idaho-scout-leaders 2017 lawsuit claims that both BSA and TCOJCOLDS engaged in coverup and intentionally concealed sexual abuse from families, participants, volunteers, church members, and law enforcement. One legal theory is claiming "fraud" because the BSA purported to engag
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/boy-scouts-face-new-legal-broadside/ar-BBYIrw6?ocid=spartanntp Many years ago, Paul Iwaniec was a scout leader of Mormon troop 224 in North Carolina. This loser was remarried to a Mormon woman, and he horribly abused his stepson at ages 11 to 14. Other scouts may have also been abused. Iwaniec awarded merit badges "for performing sexual acts" and
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
So if you don't receive any answer to prayers, then that's solid proof of miracles . . . . don't really follow the logic http://www.ldsliving.com/Why-Not-Receiving-an-Answer-to-Your-Prayers-Is-Actually-a-Proof-of-Miracles/s/86416
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
If you ignore the incomprehensible enormity of space, and concentrate only on our little old solar system, it's fair to say that in this little part of space, we can find an infinite number of spectacularly amazing things. How can it be logically explained that the sun formed in just a few million years, and then puts out astronomical amounts of energy for over 10 billion years. Mind boggling to
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
Warrior71783 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- The universe is a big place with endless possibilities really. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - UNIVERSE: really really big place Our Milky Way galaxy is above average size for a galaxy, but not even close to some of the super-gigantic galaxies discovered. In the Milky Way, there's about 500 billion stars,
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
The sun is about 4.57 billion years old and will continue for about 5 billion years when it will enter the death spiral phase of its existence. Each second, the sun converts 600 million tons of matter into neutrinos (aka solar radiation energy). In the beginning, it took about 100,000 years for the collapsing protostar phase to cause interior fusion at the core. After a few million years, the sun
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
In general, the "new and improved" modern church as we approach 2020 seems to be centered on 1- Jesus Christ, and 2- temples. They don't mention Joseph Smith and Brigham Young too much in Conference or in the latest church manuals. They know that the wild and crazy life of JS is becoming more well-known with each passing year. And it's most certainly CONTROVERSIAL. Focusing a lot
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
Holland clearly refers to Heavenly Father as "God of the Universe". well . . . the universe is a big place. Here in the Milky Way galaxy, there's an estimated 400 to 500 billion stars, and virtually all of them have revolving planets. Not too many years ago, the Milky Way estimate was generally "about 100 billion stars". As science advances, the numbers change. How many
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4 years ago
mrx
Women won't be getting the PH this time. That will certainly happen at some point, but not this time around.
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
look at some of the changes: Temple ceremony - old penalties freaked some people out - GONE Temple ceremony - women didn't like to be subservient to men - CHANGED Temple initiation - old weirdness / nakedness freaked out many - CHANGED 3 Hr meetings - way too long & boring - PRESTO 2 HRS now Home/Visiting Teaching - tedious, a big pain, ineffective - CHANGED Young men were apostasizin
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
OK thanks for the excellent analysis, which seems to support the curious and mysterious expansion of the temple-building program to places where temples are seemingly totally unnecessary. Some may disagree, but LDS women are eventually getting the priesthood. It will happen. Maybe not soon, but it will certainly happen. Right now, there's no "existential requirement" for women to hol
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
A future step towards gender equality will be women allowed to lay hands on a sick person's head for a blessing via "limited priesthood" powers. As it stands now, a sick LDS woman could bypass the PH brethren, and call 2 of her women friends to come over and have a group prayer to request healing from on high. Technically this is not a priesthood blessing, but could be (in the minds
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
https://www.deseret.com/2019/10/2/20894166/church-women-policy-witnesses-lds-mormon-conference Witnesses have always been required for baptisms (and baptisms for the dead) and temple marriages (and sealings for the dead). The "witnesses" have always been "priesthood" holders, although witnesses for regular baptisms (not in the temple) could possibly be men without a temp
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4 years ago
mrx
This is worth looking at for a couple of minutes. https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/doctrine-and-covenants-1835/259 Section 101 of the 1835 Doctrine&Covenants strictly banned polygamy and members having more than one living wife. Once Joseph Smith figured out that he had a really strong urge to have lots of wives (including young teenagers and other men's wives), and li
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4 years ago
mrx
This is mildly interesting. According to Wikipedia, 250K member Community of Christ (formerly Reorganized COJCOLDS) generally tries to accommodate LGBT members, but they are fuzzy about the priesthood and same-sex marriages. At one time, the Community of Christ priesthood was available to practicing homosexual members since many were ordained already anyway. Then they reconsidered and chan
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
I think you underestimate the possibility of future change for TCOJCOLDS and various other religions. Look at the Reorganized LDS church (now known as "Community of Christ") as an example. One hundred years ago, members of TRCOJCOLDS would strenuously deny any possibility of the changes that have actually occurred in the 20th and 21st centuries. Blacks got the PH, women got the PH, m
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
. . . . so if I was to oversimplify the history of LDS growth, I'd say there's 2 main sources of growth: 1. encourage marrying within the faith & have lots of kids & encourage the kids to be dedicated to the cult & and repeat for the next generation. Once the Saints in early Utah reached membership of 100,000, the formula produced steady growth for many generations of Mormons. Chur
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/religion/mormon-church-warning-beware-those-fancy-coffee-drinks-n1043156 so here's my prediction about the future of this: Change 1.0 - as the various convoluted Starbucks-style drinks expand to a vast variety everywhere you look, the church will just go back to basics and make a historic change: hot coffee and hot tea (exception for "herbal tea" which
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
The 1958 edition of Bruce R McConkie's MORMON DOCTRINE states that those using condoms or any artificial contraception are "in rebellion against God and are guilty of gross wickedness." I never knew that it was once such an insane belief. The 1968 BYU Honor Code states that "the Church does not approve of any form of birth control." So in 1968, if a BYU married coupl
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
Here's my report about a recent Linger Longer potluck after church. I quit about 20 yrs ago, but my wife and youngest son are quite dedicated and active. They often have the potluck dinner outside at the pavilion next to the church. It's nice with lots of shade and vast numbers of picnic tables and open grassy areas around the place. One active family (mom & dad & 3 kids) didn't see
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
. . . and now here's a report from the 70s when I was going to church in the Kansas City area (very low percentage of Mormons in the area) . . . Our group of rebellious young men used to set a goal of skipping Sunday School class at least once a month and visiting a nearby donut shop. Sometimes we'd smuggle cake donuts back to church (glazed donuts too messy) and offer to the girls and they we
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
As reported in various articles, active young single women outnumber young men in many areas of Utah (not BYU obviously) and it's about 60% women, 40% men. This 60/40 problem used to be 52/48 a couple decades ago, but the trend is quite clear: young LDS men are leaving the church and going inactive in large numbers! This 60/40 problem seems to be mostly a Utah problem, and not necessarily appl
Forum: Recovery Board
4 years ago
mrx
147. Duluth
Try Duluth Free Range Cotton Boxer Briefs Extremely comfortable - far superior to any LDS garment bottoms ever made All kinds of waist sizes and 3 leg lengths - I like the extra long because I love the feel of the super-soft comfortable cotton on my legs. 94% ultra-soft organic cotton - 6% spandex knit to add a little "stretch" - the waistband is comfortable and seems to hold u
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5 years ago
mrx
. . . went to church today . . . I guess this dude didn't get the memo about what to wear to church . . . The guy (age 30s) wore casual pants, tennis shoes, dark hoodie, and a green camouflage baseball hat. Never removed hat for prayers or anything . . . sat by a married couple with no kids- maybe a relative or friend? if anyone's wondering (highly unlikely) the dude partook of the holy
Forum: Recovery Board
5 years ago
mrx
http://www.lds-mormon.com/churchgrowthrates.shtml U.S. News & World Report once suggested that the number of Mormons would grow to 265 million before 2100. But when using the Verhulst logistic equation in differential form combined with the least-squares method, worldwide Mormons will only number 30 million in 2100. If you assume a 33% activity rate now, and a future rate below 20% (
Forum: Recovery Board
5 years ago
mrx
If you love graphs and LDS statistics, then this website is clearly for you!! http://www.fullerconsideration.com/membership.php My observations: 1st graph - membership 3 million 1970 to over 16 million today (about 50 years). At the same future rate, membership could be 80 million by 2070. However the graph projects a HUGE slowdown and only 22 million members in 2060. It's well-known that
Forum: Recovery Board