NOM

Probably not the most harmful, but here are a couple lies that take my breath away when I think about them. Separating Joseph Smith's murder from polygamy. Somehow I didn't connect the dots from Joseph Smith's murder to the printing press destruction to polygamy for years after no longer believing ...

Man, what a night. It makes sense that the US wouldn't escape the incumbent backlash going around the world right now, but I was hoping. The post-COVID inflation shock was real and probably drove much of this, despite the US rebound significantly outperforming most other developed countries. I fear ...

I attended sacrament meeting yesterday and it was packed. For the believers there it seemed pretty special to have all the pews full again with the crowd filling half the gym. My DW had a 2 hour meeting as a primary presidency to review options because the number of children has tripled. It is nice ...

It looks like my ward and a neighboring ward are combining, in addition to my stake and a neighboring stake combining. Attendance has been pretty sparse since covid, so this is an overdue change. This is in Salt Lake County. I'm not looking forward to a bunch of new faces who may not know to just ...

I do miss the oneness I felt with my fellow mormons as a believer. I don't think you get that closeness without a significant amount of organization. And part of that organization requires demanding support from those within the organization so that they feel part of it. I get something similar from ...

In the morridor, my current bishop shaved his 15+ year goatee when he became bishop a couple years ago. One of his counselors has a beard. All the male stake leadership are clean shaven. I think there is more pressure on bishops and "above". But I suspect that is dwindling the further we get from ...

Oaks has the critical thinking horsepower of a nematode. But I agree with him about the Book of Mormon; it is either historical or it isn't. Until Mr. Oaks can prove that there were Nephites, logic compels me to stick with the latter. His takes are epistemologically violent, any non-indoctrinated ...

Thanks Cap!

This perspective was slapped down pretty hard by Oaks in the opening of a FARMS dinner speech in 1993 - https://rsc.byu.edu/historicity-latter-day-saint-scriptures/historicity-book-mormon . Some who term themselves believing Latter-day Saints are advocating that Latter-day Saints should “abandon c ...

I'm still here!! Thanks for getting things up and running again! It felt weird not doing NOMference. But Oaks will probably in charge in April, so we'll have to do something special for that sh!tshow!!! I missed NOMference too. It's nice to commiserate here. Although this session there was not much ...

“… The combined income from all of these business interests is relatively small... Relative to what? Assuming you don't play their game, but include their investments along with the pioneer era businesses, they exceed all other churches, so I guess we have to look at it relative to national tre ...

I'm trying to get into my former TBM justification mode on these statements, but they are making it hard! It seems like this kind of write up by the church is short-sighted. It may win some battles, but it is so obviously dishonest that it's going to lose them the war. "The majority of financial ...

The second sign of a Cult, (yes, I'm going to use that word) is it will demand, or coerce, or manipulate however it can, loyalty to the cult/personality over loyalty to the family. My family happily put more importance on my relationship with church than my relationship with them. Family was there ...

No trek-aged kids in the Linked home yet, but it's coming too soon. Any tips for keeping kids safe and less indoctrinated by it all?

What a depressing mission story. Middle of nowhere Idaho for 2 years with a highlight of baptizing a member kid, that poor young man. What a waste. I also attended church this week, there must be something in the water for all of us to go on the same week... I was happily distracted by watching Team ...

Coercion can occur when a leader compels a child using religious language or authority that implies a spiritual obligation or duty , permission, sanction, punishment, justification, intimidation, or threat. This is contrary to the Savior’s teaching that individuals should lead “only by persuasion, b ...

Yeah, but it is still impossible to meet their demands. No one, no matter how desperately they try, can exercise absolute control over the lives of their children and their children's children, who also must pay the mob boss for their entire lives to buy the promised protection. So, chances are ...

Preach Hagoth. This perspective is difficult to come to from the inside though. It seems so positive, that God made it so we can be together! The assumption here is that families would be scattered apart by Satan or nature without God's kind plan. But it's God's plan, not Satan's, and it includes ...

Happy Father's Day!

I supported my family at sacrament meeting, but to celebrate the day played retro video games on my phone the whole time. And accidently pulled the hair of the lady in front of me. I could have sworn it was not attached to her head.

Oof, that sounds rough. Those 2 questions were in the wrong direction for that lesson unfortunately. Any lively discussion on the subject has to be about finding creative justification to wear them even more or a random coincidence that sounds deep like someone in a fire getting no burns under their ...