NOM

Do the temples get charged property taxes based on building valuations? Seems the City of Orem would benefit greatly. It is my understanding that religious buildings are tax exempt, even property tax. I remember watching a documentary on the JWs and one comment they made was that NYC was salivating...

Bishop: Do you understand and obey the Word of Wisdom?

Me: I understand it, but I eat meat in the summertime and I don't put tobacco on my bruises. I do let my coffee cool down a bit before I drink it, so I'm good on the hot drinks thing! And I enjoy a cold one from time to time as prescribed...

-If God is the author of Mormonism, then God is actively trying to weed out critical thinkers.

-Mormon God is training people for slavery, not Godhood.

What it all comes down to for me is this: if God commanded and approved of the way Joseph Smith practiced polygamy, God should be ashamed of himself. A God who approves of sexual predation does not deserve worship. Arguments like Hales makes disgust me. It is defense of sexual predation. Sexual pred...

Excellent point. I can imagine Joseph falling back on Ethan's Isaiah quoting when he had to buy some time after the loss of the 116 pages (116 pages might be a good name for a post-mormon rock band!). The Spaulding manuscript may enter the picture in a similar way, and is also trampled over by apol...

Yeah, I think he was aware of it, especially considering that Oliver Cowdery would have certainly have known Ethan Smith, having lived in the same small town, and that he was probably one of Smith's congregants. What I'm saying is that apologists jump immediately to plagiarism of VotH and easily de...

View of the Hebrews is often employed as a staw man by apologists. Critics say Joseph used it to write the BoM. Apologists say he didn't copy and paste anything from it. I think the best way to look at is that both Smiths were writing their version of the same story that everyone around them was ta...

fetchface wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 17, 2019 11:25 am

I didn't watch, but I'll take a guess. It was something like "stay on the covenant path." or boat or something. Stay in the church no matter what.

Looks like I was wrong. It was, "we are right even when we are wrong." See consiglieri's new thread.

Just This Guy wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 17, 2019 10:58 am

Any reports on what this was all about?

I didn't watch, but I'll take a guess. It was something like "stay on the covenant path." or boat or something. Stay in the church no matter what.

The second coming was imminent (Class of '99). We talked about it all the time. I honestly believed that I would probably not live to be old enough to go on a mission or get married since I would probably be destroyed at the second coming because I wasn't pure enough.

Wait 'till you get to the parts where he copies long passages from Isaiah. That's gonna feel pretty familiar too.

Hagoth wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:28 am

I'm being sarcastic of course, but I guarantee that the Young Men would find this lesson about a billion times more interesting than the official pablum.

Sorry, Hagoth, you are wrong. It would be at least a trillion times more interesting.

I've got an extended family member who is a current sitting bishop, interviewing minors behind closed doors alone, who molested his younger sister when he was a teen, and she is 10 years younger. This outraged my wife who wrote several letters to Kirton McKonkie and church leaders about it and no ac...

People were understanding of how changes announced in April may not have made it into the April updates but are left wondering what the excuse is for the changes to not have been included in the August updates. Especially when reverting that section to the way it was before 2015 would involve all o...

I think that's a great attitude and I believe we should embrace any myth or symbol that resonates with us personally, not literally, but symbolically. Even if it is total nonsense it might be a catalyst for a personal insight. If I find deep meaning in the wisdom of Spongebob Squarepants, or The Du...

Does anyone feel like they want to go back? Seriously? I would rather sit in a chair and stare at a wall for 2 hours. If I'm going to be bored I would prefer to be left to myself. I think that is one of the things that bothered me most about church. It was both boring and it demanded constant inter...

Red Ryder, we can only hope and dream that they will...

Helping those in difficult circumstances.

Mormon Infographics has a simple chart. http://www.mormoninfographics.com/2012/08/book-of-abraham-facsimile-3-examined.html Edit: One example: Joseph Smith's translation: "King Pharaoh, whose name is given in the characters above his head" Actual translation of characters above head: "Isis the great...

The thing about the Book of Abraham that I couldn't get past was Facsimile 3. Joseph Smith said that particular characters had particular meanings and they don't. His translation was dead wrong. If that doesn't phase you, nothing will.