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Domus posted:Then how did Mormonism get so big? It's hard to grow your cult if you're pushing out 40 percent of the population.
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Sep 3, 2016 23:49
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Pixelante posted:From what I've read about polygamous cults in British Columbia, it's standard for a lot of the boys to be pushed out as teenagers, while the girls are taught to be frightened of the outside world. The actual polygamous cults only have membership in the hundreds, I think the FLDS have membership in the thousands. Yeah the boys are usually pushed out of the community when they are reaching adulthood. I have not done any decent research into it though.
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Sep 4, 2016 13:38
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Hey op I see what u did with that avatar. I'm also exmormon but quit during college. Could you please sperg about patriarchal blessings? I got my recommend but never followed through. The best thing I wish my kids could experiences is Girls Camp. Idk maybe they will, if they stay at grandma's house during summer break.
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Sep 6, 2016 02:14
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peanut posted:Hey op I see what u did with that avatar. Im back at work now so my Internet access time is limited, I will write something up regarding the bullshit of patriarchal blessings soon though. From having to originally pay for them to some of the more batshit crazy ones that have been given.
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Sep 6, 2016 06:20
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Why do Mormons like basketball so much? The boy scout troop I (not a Mormon) was in as a youth was sponsored by a Mormon church and they had a bad-rear end full length basketball court built into the church. And Clint Howard was in some Mormon-sponsored basketball flick.
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Sep 6, 2016 22:57
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a lot of church buildings from the past few decades are multi-function spaces that often include the ability to use the big worship or fellowship room as a gym. and basketball hoops are something best installed to the walls, so you end up with a lot of basketball hoops
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Sep 6, 2016 23:18
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Mormon wedding reception in the multi-purpose hall.
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Sep 6, 2016 23:25
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peanut posted:Mormon wedding reception in the multi-purpose hall. is there a table for each wife
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Sep 7, 2016 01:28
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jumba posted:Why do Mormons like basketball so much? The boy scout troop I (not a Mormon) was in as a youth was sponsored by a Mormon church and they had a bad-rear end full length basketball court built into the church. And Clint Howard was in some Mormon-sponsored basketball flick. Pretty much every building the church has actually built has a full court or half court. Even in Europe where people dont give a poo poo about basketball there will still be one built. The hall is also used for other functions (wedding receptions etc).
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Sep 7, 2016 06:43
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I've read recently that basketball is one of the world's fastest-growing sports, and/or is now the world's second favorite sport. Mormonism is also one of the world's fastest-growing religions. Coincidence???  Triggered posted:Mormons believe a little while after Jesus Christ was killed the church he setup fell into apostasy. All priesthood authority was lost off the Earth, Catholic baptism and whatever authority protestants claim is worthless. The priesthood (authority to act in the name of God) was given to Joseph Smith by Peter, James and John. Christs only true church was restored by Joseph in 1830. As a big believer in ecumenism and interfaith understanding, the way you have described this makes me do the  face. It also makes me confused about why Mormons promote the "we are Christians" thing. Is it an attempt at saming* themselves with more established and "respectable" denominations? Is it a genuine expression of their doctrinal exclusivism? How genuinely self-aware are Mormons of the origins of their religion, and the fact that part of their claim to legitimacy lies in their claim that the religion of over two billion people is illegitimate?* The verb "saming" is a term I learned in a religion class, it means roughly the opposite of "othering". It's one of those postmodern-ish critical-theory things.
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Sep 7, 2016 16:52
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Lutha Mahtin posted:I've read recently that basketball is one of the world's fastest-growing sports, and/or is now the world's second favorite sport. Mormonism is also one of the world's fastest-growing religions. Coincidence??? Id imagine they aren't aware of this at all, otherwise they wouldn't be Mormons.
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Sep 7, 2016 19:03
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Lutha Mahtin posted:I've read recently that basketball is one of the world's fastest-growing sports, and/or is now the world's second favorite sport. Mormonism is also one of the world's fastest-growing religions. Coincidence??? Maybe it is but its got a long way to go to get to soccer and cricket levels. Mormonism is lagging behind jehovahs witnesses and seventh day adventists at the moment and all of those are lagging behind Islam. Now even though im no longer mormon you wont find me defending other Christian faiths against them. As far as I am concerned the whole "mormons arent really Christians" is a mix of "no homers club" and  Mormons consider themselves Christian, they say they follow the teachings of Christ so thats good enough for me. They are desperate for inclusion in mainstream Christianity because they wanted to be popular, in the early days they didnt really give a gently caress. Those 2 billion people consider the other 5 to have illegitimate beliefs and I find it to be a really strange argument. Mormons at least have a clear line drawn, they know exactly where their church stands in regards to other faiths.
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Sep 7, 2016 19:19
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Lutha Mahtin posted:As a big believer in ecumenism and interfaith understanding, the way you have described this makes me do the Mormons believe they are Christian because they believe in Christ as their savior and redeemer, and they believe in baptism by immersion by way of making that covenant. They believe that their church is a second dispensation, and that Apostolic succession enjoyed by the Catholic and Orthodox churches is delinquent from shortly after Paul. They believe the Bible is definitely Scripture, but it's not as important as the Book of Mormon, which was held in reserve specifically for this dispensation and the restored church. The Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants are really esteemed highly, and Pearl of Great Price is considered super important but generally not discussed because it holds a lot of the "deeper doctrines" like the existence of the Holy Mother, the ultimate path to personal apotheosis, and so on. So the other churches are basically not Christian enough, but still Christian. I believe the official party line, if pushed on it, is that Catholics etc. may receive resurrection to the Telestial Kingdom, maybe just the Terrestrial Kingdom, but because they lack the Temple rituals they would never be able to make it to the Celestial Kingdom and become gods themselves. The second part is that they require baptism by submersion, but if someone dies non-Mormon they almost certainly have their baptism performed by proxy in the Temples, and I believe the idea goes that a Christian would obviously recognize that their baptism was not sufficient and accept the baptism by proxy. I had a brief dalliance with Mormonism around my Senior year in high school, Freshman year of college, and was ordained with both Priesthoods but I never did the temple rituals as I hosed off out of the Church over some issues of conflicting revelations and my not wanting to go on a Mission in the middle of my college years as my Catholic family made it pretty clear I'd be disinherited. While Mormonism's theology is pretty out there, and obviously based on extremely shaky premises, it's internally consistent, if only because they come up with apologetics for anything - easy to do if you have a living prophet. Edit: the spiritual beliefs and so on are internally consistent, but obviously the religion itself has very little correspondent validity. If you accept all of the premises, it logically follows, so the biggest challenges to the church are things like the lack of fossil records of horses and elephants in South America prior to European colonization, the lack of DNA evidence supporting the "Native Americans are secret-Hebrews" things, and especially if you get into the Patriarchal Blessings which identify the Jewish bloodline of everyone - I think most people get Ephraim though because they were a "lost tribe" and so the Mormons go "yeah they went to Europe, etc." but I'm not sure - patriachal blessings are super private and secret. OP, are you an Ephraim bro?? Paramemetic fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Sep 7, 2016 |
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Sep 7, 2016 19:51
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Paramemetic posted:Mormons believe they are Christian because they believe in Christ as their savior and redeemer, and they believe in baptism by immersion by way of making that covenant. They believe that their church is a second dispensation, and that Apostolic succession enjoyed by the Catholic and Orthodox churches is delinquent from shortly after Paul. They believe the Bible is definitely Scripture, but it's not as important as the Book of Mormon, which was held in reserve specifically for this dispensation and the restored church. The Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants are really esteemed highly, and Pearl of Great Price is considered super important but generally not discussed because it holds a lot of the "deeper doctrines" like the existence of the Holy Mother, the ultimate path to personal apotheosis, and so on. This is a good explanation, it pains me at the moment I dont have a computer to write things up properly. Going further on from the afterlife part, anyone who has not had a chance to hear the Gospel gets the chance to be taught and depending on how they lived their life can receive celestial glory. So your Catholics and Jews if they have lived good lives will get the temple work done and get to chill with the big guy. Terrestrial is reserved for good but not quite good enough and telestial is for your rapists and murderers etc. Mormonism suffers from the same theological faults as all religions do but they have a few unique ones such as temple sealings, when you think about it it does not make a lick of sense. Like you said there are also the physical problems such as physical evidence of the Nephites, Josephs whacky claims among many many others. Ephraim is the catch all tribe for the "gentiles", so yeah almost everyone in the church will be stuck in the Ephraim tribe in their patriarchal blessings. Why the church decided to include this in your blessing is completely beyond me and like many things in the church does not make any sense.
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Sep 7, 2016 20:38
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How common is it for (otherwise orthodox) mormons to not buy the obviously false history stuff? It's one of the more surprising aspects of mormonism from an outside perspective.
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Sep 7, 2016 21:00
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Jeb Bush 2012 posted:How common is it for (otherwise orthodox) mormons to not buy the obviously false history stuff? It's one of the more surprising aspects of mormonism from an outside perspective. For starters the church does not teach about it and tells members to stay away from anything that isnt published by the church. Members are conditioned from birth to follow and obey, you are taught defence mechanisms early on as well. Start to feel like your are being duped by the church? Stay away from it and sing a hymn! Other methods of avoiding any probing questions in the church is "im not feeling the spirit any more" and the ultimate get out of jail free card is "thats not pertinent to my salvation". The church sinks its claws into you, it wants your money and time and has all sorts of dirty mind tricks to do it. The most effective being the thought of losing your eternal family by asking questions and leaving the church.
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Sep 7, 2016 21:42
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When I went to university, I spent a year sharing a house with a mormon student. There was a small yet relatively active local mormon community, and one of their roles seemed to be keeping an eye on the mormon students, and making sure they didn't stray. They rotated weekly meetings around several houses including mine, so I got a fairly good look at the local community. Most were actually pleasant, but one man in his 30s was a complete creep around the younger women, especially the students. I found out that he was asking the local bishop to pressurise one girl (around 19, and the only black mormon I met) into marriage with him. Is this kind of thing (older men creeping on younger women and arranged marriages) common, or relatively isolated in mainstream mormonism? One thing that did happen that year was that one of the other people staying in the house expressed an interest in converting. This was the cue for a conversion squad to turn up for lengthy indoctrination sessions in our living room. In the end they scored something of an own-goal, as the conversion didn't work, and seeing the recruitment process solidified doubts my mormon housemate had been having for a while. Shortly afterwards, she cut herself off from them completely. My room was closest to the front door, so I spent the rest of the university year turning away pretty much every mormon in the city as they tried to reclaim her. She eventually joined the Labour Party instead. My second mormon story involves a friend my father met via the internet. A number of years ago, he struck up a friendship with a man from Utah via an internet forum. Eventually, him and his wife decided to come over to the UK for a holiday, and stayed with my parents for a few days. My father put in a big stock of booze in preparation, but surprise-surprise, he was a Mormon. Next year, he came over to visit without his wife, and drank like a fish. How much is the alcohol prohibition generally kept to? Is it common for some people to relax or ignore it when they're away from supervision?
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Sep 9, 2016 09:55
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Once my dad accidentally drank some iced tea because he thought it was apple juice 
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Sep 9, 2016 11:48
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Soylent Yellow posted:When I went to university, I spent a year sharing a house with a mormon student. There was a small yet relatively active local mormon community, and one of their roles seemed to be keeping an eye on the mormon students, and making sure they didn't stray. They rotated weekly meetings around several houses including mine, so I got a fairly good look at the local community. Most were actually pleasant, but one man in his 30s was a complete creep around the younger women, especially the students. I found out that he was asking the local bishop to pressurise one girl (around 19, and the only black mormon I met) into marriage with him. Is this kind of thing (older men creeping on younger women and arranged marriages) common, or relatively isolated in mainstream mormonism? I havnt found situations of arranged marriages in the church, it is heavily taught that you marry in the church though (and girls should get married to return missionaries). In the states you will have entire congregations composed of YSA's (young single adults) which is basically set up to get them married. This brings me onto another part of Mormon culture. As mentioned before girls are taught to get married to return missionaries. Too many girls would not even think to date a guy unless he was an RM. This of course puts huge pressure on young guys to go on missions. Missions are not about converting people this is a mistake many inside and outside the church make. Missions are about the retention of the missionary themselves. Conversion rates are abysmal in many missions around the world and retention of those new members is around 15%. Missions are there to further indoctrinate the missionary into the church because the real strength of the church comes from multi generational families. Thats why the church recently lowered the missionary age from 19 to 18. Too many young people were being lost so the church has desperately tried to retain them. A lot of missionaries have a year of college and independence before they leave for missions, the church did not like that one little bit. Mormons who say they believe but dont follow the commandments are called "jack" mormons. They are even more annoying than active faithful members. Jack Mormons will swear the church is the truest church that has ever trued but they dont follow any of the hard stuff.
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Sep 9, 2016 12:51
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I've heard recently the commands out of Provo are that missionaries aren't to do cold knocking anymore but rather do the thing where they sidle up and offer to help with yard work or groceries or what not to get their foot in the door, then they start their push. This is in the last 4 years or so I think. Were you before or after this push and can you tell us more? A lot of people don't realize just how downright scientific the missionaries are about it. The language academy, though a bit limited, is one of the best in the world, and the amount of marketing and advertising research that goes on at the MTC is ridiculous. Since you did your mission, can you tell the thread some about that?
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Sep 9, 2016 13:03
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Paramemetic posted:I've heard recently the commands out of Provo are that missionaries aren't to do cold knocking anymore but rather do the thing where they sidle up and offer to help with yard work or groceries or what not to get their foot in the door, then they start their push. This is in the last 4 years or so I think. Were you before or after this push and can you tell us more? Man I would totally be down with having someone weed the front yard for me during the summer months in exchange for a 10 minute lecture about space Jesus. I know a Mormon couple where the wife is in college and the husband stays home with their single kid. But I think it's because he's from another country (Canada) and can't work? Either way they seem decent enough....until he came to me all upset that the Church might have to do something about supporting the Boy Scouts because "now they're making child rapists counselors and you can't ask who is one!" Sub child rapist for gay men. They don't know I'm a lesbian. Part of me feels almost slighted that they haven't tried to convert me, but we are only friends in a fish club sense (we meet once a month and most of the members are Catholic but religion somehow never comes up when we are discussing breeding fish and tank upkeep) so maybe they are waiting?
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Sep 9, 2016 15:58
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Paramemetic posted:A lot of people don't realize just how downright scientific the missionaries are about it. The language academy, though a bit limited, is one of the best in the world, and the amount of marketing and advertising research that goes on at the MTC is ridiculous.
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Sep 9, 2016 16:58
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There's an incredibly old joke: Why shouldn't you go fishing with just one Mormon? Because he'll drink all of your beer.
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Sep 9, 2016 17:59
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Sigh. This is anecdotal , obviously, and not some scientific study. Many years ago, when I was married to my first husband, he worked with several Mormon couples over the course of about a year or so. He was an electrical engineer, and the men from the couples were as well. They brought their wives along from Utah to maine on their work trips. Each of the three couples were a pair of raging swingers/porn junkies/ bar & strip club fanatics. They hit on us constantly, tried to get us out to the strip clubs nightly, etc.. It was like they were missionaries from the Church of Larry Flynn. Do you think they were a statistical aberration, ' Jack' members, people who had heard of all this poo poo and thought this was their one and only chance to secretly try it, or was/ is there some raging Mormon couples- related poonhound sect I have never heard of? This is really something that stuck with me after all these years, these weirdos from Utah, and i'd love to know your thought on them in relation to your ex-religion. One last thing, while the humor of my experiences meeting these people is not lost on me, I mean you no disrespect in asking you about them. Until you, they were my first and last impressions of Mormons.
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Sep 9, 2016 19:03
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Update: Missionaries not interested in food since it would be a sin to visit a single woman even if she is literally old enough to be their mum.
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Sep 10, 2016 13:29
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BattyKiara posted:Update: Missionaries not interested in food since it would be a sin to visit a single woman even if she is literally old enough to be their mum. Must be new in the mission field, pro move here is to grab another guy to come along and observe and bear testimony, then they aren't alone with a woman and can still get the grub.
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Sep 10, 2016 13:33
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BattyKiara posted:Update: Missionaries not interested in food since it would be a sin to visit a single woman even if she is literally old enough to be their mum. This is to protect the missionaries. You cannot see any single woman no matter what age she is by yourselves. If you bring someone else with you it would be all kosher but a single missionary companionship wouldnt do it.
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Sep 10, 2016 16:16
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When you say someone else, you mean in addition to your missionary companion? Because I've never seen them not in pairs.
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Sep 10, 2016 19:02
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Yes you will need at least three people to see a single woman. The ideal sitltuation would be to go with a member to teach. Same rules applies to the girls as well, they could not see a single male during a visit.
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Sep 10, 2016 19:18
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Does it seem a higher than normal percentage of Mormons are involved into Pyramid scams (err Multi-level marketing)? These aren't your run-of-the-mill kinda trashy moms pitching "It Works". These Mormons pushing "business opportunities" are usually already well off, upper middle class professional men and women (or wives of such). Is there something in the culture of the Church that makes them susceptible? CatchrNdRy fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Sep 10, 2016 |
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Sep 10, 2016 19:40
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They spent two years of their lives selling the gospel for free. Those amazing business opportunities are perfect for a go-getter like me who already knows all about cold recruitment! My wife can help while we're still getting started. A stay-at-home mom can earn money online while her kids are at school! Just ask the sisters from Boy Scouts after making craft kits at your house for Scout Camp. Maybe the piano teacher would like it too, I saw her drink orange juice once!
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Sep 11, 2016 02:24
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CatchrNdRy posted:Does it seem a higher than normal percentage of Mormons are involved into Pyramid scams (err Multi-level marketing)? These aren't your run-of-the-mill kinda trashy moms pitching "It Works". These Mormons pushing "business opportunities" are usually already well off, upper middle class professional men and women (or wives of such). I wrote something about this in the GBS Utah thread: Okay there are many things that add up to why so many Mormons fall for MLM's, here are the big hitters. 1. Mormons are kept in a child like state for all of their lives. Everything is planned for them from birth. At birth you will get a childs blessing, at 8 you will be baptised, boys will receive the priesthood at 12 and get upgrades at 14 and 16. They will get their patriarchal blessing wt 16-18, they will become Elders at 18, they will go on a mission 18-19. They will get married in their early twenties and start having kids. The rest of their lives are devoted to the church. When you retire you will pay to go on a mission with your wife. If you have a skill the church needs you might pay to work on the churches for profit businesses. All of this means you dont have to think a lot, you constantly submit to a higher church authority and get told what to do. 2. Mormons believe obedience is the most important principle in the Gospel. In the temple you promise to literally give everything to the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. They are told they will be blessed if they follow something they know is wrong as long as a higher church authority tells them to do it. This is a huge mind gently caress whichever way you look at it. 3. Women are told to stay in the home and have kids when they are married. Even though we are living in a dual income world, poor old husband has to get a job that can support a mcmansion, 12 kids and a fleet of cars. This is obviously not a realistic scenario so women think they are going to strike it rich with essential oils or whatever stupid poo poo is popular at the time. 4. The church is a prosperity based religion, the richer you are the more righteous you are because God has blessed you. All of this creates a perfect storm for scamming. A rich Mormon comes along who holds a prominent church calling in the area and says he has a wonderful investment opportunity. He already has a local network he can hit up. All of the Mormons in the area go "well brother so and so is rich and is successful in the church, he cant be lying!". Pensions get withdrawn and lost, others lose their house and declare bankruptcy. Rich Mormon gets richer and adds another wing to his mansion. This gets repeated over and over again. Mormons are desperate to get rich so they can be seen as being righteous so they fall for the same investment scams and MLM poo poo over and over again.
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Sep 11, 2016 11:49
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peanut posted:Hey op I see what u did with that avatar. Okay Patriarchal blessing time. Right for non members a patriarchal blessing is something given by a "Patriarch", this is usually a very old man who lives in a set geographical location and the blessing is usually given around 16-18. The blessing is basically glorified fortune telling and I have unfortunately seen it wreck peoples lives. The blessing starts off by telling you which tribe of Israel you belong too, for more explanation mormons have a serious hard on for ancient Israel. Scriptures say that Jews and the rest of the tribes are Gods chosen people and Mormons want a slice of that action. When you become a member of the church you are adopted into a tribe. For most of the "gentiles" this will be Ephraim. I have heard of people being in Judah and Manasseh. Please note all of this is retarded and  You will then hear a blessing that tells you how you were before this life and whats in store for you in this life. Now according to my blessing I was a General during the war in heaven so all of you are pretty privileged being able to speaking to me. While I was kicking Lucifers rear end I guess you lot were basking in my glory. I was then told about how I would serve a mission, get married and have kids. I was told I would serve in the church for the rest of my life and get pretty high up the ladder of leadership. Also told me I would have a good job and be able to earn lots of $$$. How does this gently caress up your life you may ask? One of my male relatives said in his blessing that it hinted he probably wont get married. So thats that then, does not even try and date and will die alone. I know someone whos blessing said they would go into a business career, thats that then, does not want to follow their creative outlets and is stuck in middle management. I dont have any written proof of this but apparently patriarchs were told to stop telling people they would be alive during the second coming of Christ. It was being recorded in too many blessings and people kept uhmmm.... dying before it happened. Okay onto some history now. Joseph Smith Snr was the first patriarch in the church. He did them for $1 per blessing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchal_blessing There have been some truly batshit crazy blessings given. My favorite is Lorenzo Snows blessing, this is also copied from the GBS Utah thread: As for teleportation, did you think Neal Armstrong was the first man on the moon ()? Wrong! It was actually this guy:  Lorenzo Snow Now I spoke about Patriarchal blessings before, this is glorified fortune telling and you used to have to pay for it. Well Lorenzo Snows blessing said some crazy poo poo: This is the LDS faith promoting version: “God has looked upon thee from all eternity and has been bountiful in gifts; he has given thee intelligence, talent and great faculties of mind that thou mightest be useful in his cause. Thou hast a great work to perform. God has called thee to the ministry; thou must preach the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth. Thou shalt become a mighty man. Thou shalt have great faith … thou shalt have power … to rend the veil and see Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father. … there shall not be a mightier man on earth than thou. …” (Improvement Era 22:655, June 1919.) https://www.lds.org/ensign/1976/05/...o-snow?lang=eng The church sure loves them ... when it comes to church history. This is what they left out of the full recorded blessing, turns out he was a necromancer as well as the highlander: "Thou shalt have power to translate thyself from one planet to another; and power to go to the moon if thou so desire; power to preach to the spirits in prison; power to rend the veil and see Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father; power, like Enoch, to translate thyself to heaven,--there shall not be a Mightier man on earth than thou; thy faith shall increase and grow stronger, till it shall become like Peter's:--thy shadow shall restore the Sick; the diseased shall send to thee their aprons and handkershiefs and by thy touch their owners shall be made whole. Thou shall have power over unclean spirits; at thy command, the powers of darkness and devils shall flee away. If expedient the dead shall rise and come forth at thy bidding, even those who have long slept in the dust. Thou shalt have long life; live to the age of Moses yet not be old; age shall not come upon thee; the vigor of thy mind shall not be abated and the vigor of thy body shall be preserved. Thou shalt have power to stand in the flesh and see Jesus come in the clouds. No power shall be able to take thy life so long as thy life shall be useful to the children of men. Thou shalt preach the Gospel so long as there is an ear to hear or a heart to believe. Thou must open thy mouth and the Lord will fill it with arguments. Thy voice shall cause the earth to tremble. Thou must pray for thy kindred and be diligent and they shall all receive a celestial glory." http://lds-church-history.blogspot....5-december.html There is more but thats enough effort for now.
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Sep 11, 2016 12:08
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Paramemetic posted:I've heard recently the commands out of Provo are that missionaries aren't to do cold knocking anymore but rather do the thing where they sidle up and offer to help with yard work or groceries or what not to get their foot in the door, then they start their push. This is in the last 4 years or so I think. Were you before or after this push and can you tell us more? No, cold calling still happens. This is an incredibly ineffective way to get converts and the church knows this. My own personal experience is that I have probably knocked hundreds and hundreds of doors, I would be able to count all the times I got let in on two hands. The church tries various schemes to try and improve baptism rates, the most effective is member referrals. Missionaries have pretty much always looked to help people out, when I was on my mission I got 4 set hours a week where we used to help out at old folks homes, libraries, or anything we could get our hands on. The church would do themselves a world of good by switching the service hours for the proselyting hours. So many weeks wasted on door knocking when I could have been helping in the community. The church always has this urban legend about US government agencies going to the Missionary Training Centers and not being about to figure out how the missionaries do so well in languages (  members know its the gift of tongues given by the Lard ). The reality of it all is that if you stick a young person into an environment where they have to learn a new language they will do it.The CIA loves the church apparently, foreign language trained yes men is their wet dream.
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Sep 11, 2016 12:18
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Do you think soda and other extreme modern empty calories will ever get added to the Word of Wisdom? It bothers me that my parents chug juice and ice cream but won't touch simple green tea.
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Sep 11, 2016 13:26
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peanut posted:Do you think soda and other extreme modern empty calories will ever get added to the Word of Wisdom? It bothers me that my parents chug juice and ice cream but won't touch simple green tea. The word of wisdom is just a case of mindless obedience now and Mormons still pick and choose bits they want to follow. They laugh at the "meat should be eaten sparingly" part for example. I pointed out many times that obese people should not be able to get temple recommends. Of course that would never ever happen as it would upset a large percentage of the North American membership. The coffee and tea thing came out because the upper leadership were pissed at Emma for getting tobacco banned so they went after her coffee club. Also hot soup used to be against the word of wisdom so ask your parents of they ever have that.
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Sep 11, 2016 13:37
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It's also worth noting I think that there's a huge difference culturally between "Utah Mormons" and diaspora Mormons. The further you get from Utah within the US, the less weird and indoctrinated they get, because the Church infrastructure isn't there to be involved in every facet of life. In Utah church and family and career intertwine but if you're in a branch in a predominantly Catholic or Christian region there simply won't be enough Mormons in positions of power to let that happen, so diaspora Mormons tend to function much better in society. Like Utah Mormons often straight up don't understand non Mormons. They just don't get anything about life outside the Church and they tend to act mega weird as a result, because where they are from everything is all church all the time.
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Sep 11, 2016 13:52
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Mormons are terrifying. Coming from the UK this is all unbelievably insane.
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Sep 11, 2016 16:43
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OwlFancier posted:Mormons are terrifying. Jehovah's Witnesses and Scientologists are arguably worse wrt indoctrination, and Scientology is actively evil where Mormonism and JWs just exert a lot of control over their members. The state of Utah is essentially a Mormon theocracy. I see Witnesses at major street intersections all the time just standing there with a poster and brochures, I can't imagine that's more effective than cold-knocking doors. JWs believe we're living in the End Times and Satan and his demons are here on Earth with us. They're taught to avoid contact (other than trying to convert) with non-JWs because everyone who is not a JW is under the influence or controlled by demons and Satan and they want to corrupt you. Only 144,000 will be saved, everyone around you is possessed by demons, there's a real siege mentality us vs. them paranoia aspect of the religion. Scientology is all of that but is also an elaborate scam that requires members to pay out huge amounts of money to advance. It exists to give leaders a power trip and money. They've also done a lot of outright criminal poo poo including infiltrating the US federal gov't to purge documents unfavorable to them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Snow_White Pellisworth fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Sep 11, 2016 |
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Sep 11, 2016 18:03
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Pellisworth posted:Jehovah's Witnesses and Scientologists are arguably worse wrt indoctrination, and Scientology is actively evil where Mormonism and JWs just exert a lot of control over their members. The state of Utah is essentially a Mormon theocracy. My personal terrible mainstream religion ranking list would be: Islam Scientology Jehovahs Witnesses Mormonism Jehovahs Witnesses encourage shunning if you leave the faith, it still happens in Mormonism but at least they put up a front of telling members its not supposed to happen.
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Sep 11, 2016 19:06
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