tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82234975049991896082024-03-16T11:53:11.995-07:00Mormon DisclosuresDavid Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.comBlogger127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-51280744745930461532016-11-10T04:00:00.000-08:002017-02-05T18:00:11.398-08:00Trump Represents LDS Leaders but not its Marks<span style="font-size: large;">This is my final post to the MormonDisclosures blog. It started when I wrote political articles about Mitt Romney in his 2012 election bid, and was summoned for excommunication. After more than four years, and about 120,000 words written, I lay it to rest. It is finished. I forgive the Mormon members, for they know not what they do. I open a new viewpoint in my <a href="https://next-eyes.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Next Eyes blog</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Recently one of the editorial staff of <a href="http://mormonthink.com/" target="_blank">MormonThink </a>received an email from a former missionary companion telling her that she was leaving the church after more than half a century in the morg. This editor, who was with MormonThink almost since its inception once commented that the LDS church can not stop the leakage because the reality is the Church is actually the Corporation. A friend, who is no-mo, asked me a very interesting question: </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"As a business, what is the model the LDS Corporation should follow in order to minimize loss of capital in its member stock?" </span> </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The U.S. election of the elitist, ultimate capitalist, sexist Trump embodies the heart of the LDS leadership in how it stays the course of old-school, good old boy management. They, like Trump, want women suppressed, the minority view marginalized, and a wall erected around members from internet knowledge so that they are protected against an expanding world view.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I realize that most Mormon members did not want Trump as their president. They were actually vying for a local candidate named McMullin who urged the LDS electorate to "vote their conscience". That phrase is the one used by LDS leadership to urge their members to vote for the candidates they want by implication, without illicitly or explicitly breaching laws on election/charity/tax-exempt status. They use that phrase to support parties and candidates without naming them. McMullin caused a near crisis in Utah politics by using this LDS epithet. He divided the Mormon voters for a time between him and Trump (in polls) causing Clinton to surprisingly surge ahead in early polls, and almost take lead in Utah's presidential election. That would have been a disaster for the LDS leadership and their stranglehold on Utah politics. Trump even made an unscheduled visit to Utah about a week before the election because he worried about Utah's measly 6 electoral votes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I want to go back to my friend's statement. The LDS Corporation is really just a business. Its model and reaction to the factual leaks that sites like MormonThink have flooded the internet is to push out <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/10/tldr.html" target="_blank">subtle essays</a>. I have blogged at length, spoken at the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7NQqB6mzo" target="_blank">Exmormon Foundation Conference</a>, with my <em>writings being the subject of UT state legal court proceedings,</em> excommunication hearings, and posted online in forums about the motive of LDS essays on controversial topics such as <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/10/plural-adultery-in-kirtland-and-nauvoo.html" target="_blank">Joseph Smith's polyandry</a>, The <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-book-of-fabricam.html" target="_blank">Book of fAbricam</a>, the<a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/02/dna-part-1-putting-jesus-on-dis-mantle.html" target="_blank"> DNA crisis</a> of Amerindians, and more. The LDS corporation released essays because it had no choice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The LDS corp business model--<a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2015/04/mormons-will-throw-god-under-bus-to.html" target="_blank">keeping its marks content</a> and paying--required it to respond to criticism against it, that it had misled members about its founding, its purpose, its documents, its scripture and more. Its finances are still completely trade secret, more sacred than its temple rituals and death vows. The LDS CEOs could not come out, clear the air, tell the whole truth. That would have ended the <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2012/09/boogie-on-down-corporation-with-sole.html" target="_blank">LDS Sole Corporation Business</a>. In Enron fashion, they cooked the books by confessing just enough in the essays so that they could have local leaders point out to questioning members that they HAD indeed "come clean". They didn't advertise it broadly. They didn't need to; just have it in place to point to members that it is out there and if the member didn't see it, that was their problem, not the corporation's fault.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What is telling is: <i>Does</i> the LDS Corporation still sell the same pack of misleading, glossy sales-pitch lies to new marks? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> <i><b>YES</b></i>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Are the missionaries directed, trained and encouraged to send investigators to the essay web pages so that they can get a more full story?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Not on your life. The<a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-taming-of-shrewd.html" target="_blank"> missionary discussions/lessons</a> have hardly changed since the essays release (they still use the same <a href="https://www.lds.org/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service?lang=eng" target="_blank">"Preach my Gospel"</a> from 2005). This is telling because the deception continues to pull in new members and retain mission-lifelongers based on old lies. The Corporation is not about coming clean as much as combing clean cut marks in its scam. The field is Trump white and they reap a new season of investors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Furthermore, the essays are still full of lies. I won't take the time to reiterate those lies, because I wrote so many blogs about what the essays lacked, what they misrepresented and what they blatantly lied about, even after admitting to part of the falsehoods critics have been clamoring about for decades, if not a century.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Trump represents the capitalist spirit in promoting the ideals of those already at the top. He won by self-deception of pretending to be on the side of the common people. His election, yea verily, came to pass mostly because the opposing candidate was just about as elitist and likely dishonest. The LDS Corporation unscrupulously hides behind its essays as a church when it is in fact a business, using a business model to keep its marks from fleeing the sinking ship. They must trumpet happily that Trump lorded over Clinton. After all, to them--the alcohol-free 21st century Madmen--a woman's place is in the home, barefoot and pregnant, not in the Whitehouse or workplace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;">And now, to anachronistically quote the Book of Mormon, "I make an end of my writing upon these plates, which writing has been small; and to the reader I bid farewell, hoping that many of my brethren may read my words. Brethren, </span><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">adieu</span></i></b><span style="font-size: large;">."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;">Please check out my new </span></span><a href="https://next-eyes.blogspot.com/" style="font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">Next Eyes blog</a><span style="font-size: large;">.</span><br />
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<br />David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-74251767494146120752016-03-30T14:30:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.211-07:00The Twelve Men Who Walk Celestially<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">By my title, you might think I laud the 12 apostles of the LDS church. Don’t be silly. I speak of the twelve persons who have (so far) walked on a celestial body—namely on the moon. From July 1969 to December 1972, six manned missions to the moon enabled twelve men to walk on the moon. Let’s understand the costs of these missions. In order to go to the moon, millions of dollars go into training each astronaut so they can hold their arms high in navigating a spacecraft which must first leave the gravity well of the Earth, requiring a rocket of no less than 30,000 Kg of fuel, burned in three stages on variants of the Saturn V rocket engine. The cost of the lunar landing space program was enormous, even by today’s dollars. As <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/16/apollo-moon-landing-anniversary-opinions-contributors-cost-money.html" target="_blank">Michio Kaku stated</a>, <i>“At the height of the Cold War, the superpowers spared no expense in funding the latest space spectacular. Dazzling stunts in space, not cost-cutting, were the order of the day. No one bothered to read their price tag.”</i> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Some have put the lunar landing missions cost at around <a href="http://www.historyshotsinfoart.com/space/backstory.cfm" target="_blank">$24 billion dollars</a> over a decade. This is not much lower than what the LDS Church collected in tithing/donations and investments at about the same period of time—roughly $20 billion in the 1960s-70s. Presently, the LDS church collects an estimated $6 billion in donations per year and another estimated $2 billion in investment income. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Imagine if the LDS Apostles were to invest that money in something as heavenly and miraculous as missions to the moon or even Mars? There are naysayers about the lunar-missions, claiming they are hoaxes. However, the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_evidence_for_Apollo_Moon_landings" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">evidence and witnesses to the six lunar manned mission </a><span style="font-family: inherit;">are plenty: The photograph evidence, the ancient aged rocks and mineral evidence, the terrain mapping, the radio transmissions from amateurs, the amateur astronomer sightings, observed retro-reflectors placed on the moon, and more. The evidence supporting the miraculous twelve men who walked on celestial ground is enormous.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">What evidence does the LDS church have supporting the twelve men claiming to have celestial contact and authority for god on earth? Nada. They have faith. After collecting the same moneys as the lunar missions ($20+ billions) they have nothing.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Maybe you think NASA is a waste of money. Let's do another comparison. UNICEF - one of the largest secular charities - receives about $3.5 billion a year in donations (about a third privately). It has <a href="http://www.unicef.org/auditandinvestigation/index_65755.html" target="_blank">financial transparency</a>, listing its internal audits in complete, showing that it disperses just over <a href="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4617" target="_blank">90% of its receipts</a> back into charitable programs & services. The other ten percent pay to run and advertise its mission.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">If UNICEF stopped receiving donations, it would likely disappear in a year. Just evaporate. Because it's a true charity and has no profit making agenda. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">How would the LDS church appear if tithing abruptly quit flowing in? The LDS City Creek Mall would still retail fine apparel, gold watches and sixth-gen iPhones. Condos looking over the mall would still collect fees. The church-owned cattle ranches, timber farms, hunting preserves and Polynesian theme park would still butcher prime beef, hustle timbered oak, punch elite tickets and host luau dinners. Insurance agents would collect premiums. Deseret would still line the shelves with new books. LDS radio & TV stations would keep broadcasting advertisements. Money would flow, even if the members stopped prying open their wallets.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The LDS ”church” is a business--a tax exemption scheme disguised as a non-profit. It has no financial transparency, does not list audits information (other than to state it is well, and trust us), nor does it ever disclose its rate of disbursement on donations.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Let's continue the science comparison. What does the LDS church, with its billions each year, accomplish that science doesn't?</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Religion, speaking for God, seems to have enjoyed a monopoly of claimant powers; that is did, until science and technology caught up with and now surpasses its predictive and miracle claiming abilities. Science has gone a long way to eradicating famine, if not turning one loaf into thousands in terms of farmland efficiency. Medical science finds cures for plagues, mends the lame and gives sight to the blind, with numerical healings that far far exceed the onesy-twosy healing claims of ancient priesthood holders. Claims, I repeat, because in modern times, faith healing has never been truly verified, while modern science healing is verified daily in tens of thousands of hospitals and clinics. These days, the prophets seem silent and science vociferous in predicting all kinds of future events--from the gender of unborn children to eclipses and tsunami, and even general trends in climate change. Science is beginning to look forward in ways only God was once claimed to do.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Carl Sagan once wrote the following:<i> "...if you want to really be able to predict the future -- not in everything, but in some areas -- there's only one regime of human scholarship...that really delivers the goods, and that's science. Religions would give their eyeteeth to be able to predict anything like that well. Think of how much mileage they would make if they ever could do predictions comparably unambiguous and precise."</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In October 2015, LSD Apostle M. Russell Ballard gave a <a href="https://t.co/0PF5e0ATwI" target="_blank">BYU devotional</a> to young single adults (transcript <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3g0j1CYhLRXam5IMDNjbGhkT2M" target="_blank">here</a>). </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Even though the LDS church has failed miserably to use its money wisely to benefit society, Ballard and company want to claim that THEY are the cause for societal advancement.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Here is a quote, at 14:30 into the whole talk:</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"Where do you think the computer came from? Why did somebody invent the computer?</span> </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"I'll tell you why. Because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints needed it.</span> </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"Why did we need it? Because family history was moving and the church was growing and the temples were expanding and we needed more capacity to do family history.</span> </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"...you don't have to be a member of the church to have spiritual insight and promptings [for] the creation of that tool, the computer."</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Oh! The arrogance! Yes, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and the others were more inspired for temple work than the inept prophets and their own employees. Ballard said this in late 2015.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Many of you will remember many LDS leaders have often claimed that inventors were inspired only because God wanted them to build something that benefited his kingdom on earth. Satellites exist only to broadcast general conference. Airplanes were developed to transport missionaries world wide. The internet propagated to spread the gospel. Science and its labs exist to further the church and its dogma.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">An interesting difference between science and religion: churches have no laboratories. What I mean is that if a scientist has a clever thought (hypothesis), before he turns it into a belief (theory), he will comb the journals to see if it was already out there and tested. If not tested, he will go to the lab and painstakingly experiment until he has validated or--most often--eliminated the idea. It is in the lab where good ideas and bad ones are sorted out. Churches have no laboratories. Just belief systems.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Even the <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/09/articles-of-incorporation-archive.html" target="_blank">LDS Articles of Incorporation</a> hints at the idea that the church should or could have scientific merit. From the fifth article:</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"Upon the winding up and dissolution of this corporation, after paying or adequately providing for the debts and obligations of the corporation, the remaining assets shall be distributed to a nonprofit fund, foundation or corporation, which is organized and operated exclusively for charitable, educational, or religious and/or scientific purposes and which has established its tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code."</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">So, the LDS Corporate Sole considerable wealth, property and ownership of businesses could be disposed of to any non-profit "fund" in the form of a "corporation" organized for "charitable, educational, religious or scientific purposes".</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">But this depends on them failing. WTF? Why not succeed now? LDS church, put your money where your mouth is. You're not even as much a religion as a business. Invest your considerable wealth in the very purposes and benefits you claim are yours when you are "winding up" and in "dissolution". Imagine--with those billions, you could cure cancer. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">So far, you 12 Apostles haven't even bored me enough to cure my insomnia. Dammit. Compared with the dozen, hands-high navigating moon walking astronauts, the apostles are knuckle-dragging flat-earthers.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4j-fYnMxELP47u9Tyj5YnPoZWDZlDt9gRyPmVU0gmKaZQ690A_GWbgUzCIUpxOkvdiRsqdQ9RVcoUooBtqieN9Bok10GqbPZmWWoRPIdDab7D9bUksPZA3VeCDLOdG4G20gOsoBIru1E/s1600/small_DSC0020_%25C2%25A9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4j-fYnMxELP47u9Tyj5YnPoZWDZlDt9gRyPmVU0gmKaZQ690A_GWbgUzCIUpxOkvdiRsqdQ9RVcoUooBtqieN9Bok10GqbPZmWWoRPIdDab7D9bUksPZA3VeCDLOdG4G20gOsoBIru1E/s640/small_DSC0020_%25C2%25A9.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, I have been on a hiatus. I was impeded from writing/posting on LDS topics due to an order (legal) on writings I have posted here. I cannot yet comment on those issues here except to say my blog postings are being used as evidence in a kind of proceeding. Suffice to say, I have decided that I will resume my general discussion on the LDS church until the final judgment comes down that I am not allowed. </span><br /><div><br /></div></div>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-23381245569220724632016-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:002016-10-23T19:42:33.231-07:00In The Life of a Typical Exmormon<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">(Hello, I am a guest writer on this blog.)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There is a woman named Hope who left the Mormon church some years ago. Hope had three young children and a believing husband, who learning of her faithlessness, lost his love for her. They divorced and the children lived in Utah, as Mormons, even though Hope and her ex raised them in equal time. Hope's father learned of her apostasy and expressed disappointment often to her. Her brother and sister, also strong in the Mormon church tried to be tolerant, but they also told her she was making bad choices and they worried for her eternal soul. At family gatherings, the parents and siblings, with all their children and Hope's own kids, discussed Mormon events, doctrines, teachings, the lives of Mormon apostles and callings they had at church. Her father gave little testimonies to her children. She even over heard him quietly tell them to be strong, and to not follow their mother's "bad" example. </span><br /><div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hope felt saddened by how her family had judged her without actually trying to understand her reasons for leaving the family faith. She had tried to raise the questions that eventually ended her faith. She had explained her doubts to siblings. She had told her father that she wanted to leave religion aside and have a relationship without it coming between them. Every time she visited her parents, her siblings, the topics of church dominated the discussions and the events. Hope's family entwined themselves so fully in either business or career and church life, they talked about little else. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> In order to explain to her father, to her brother or her sister, Hope tried raising the questions, the issues and the historical problems of many gaps in Mormonism. They took offense. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hope's children, however, did listen. They began to doubt. Hope's ex husband watched as their children developed their own views. Hope's father worried and his testimony to the children increased. She was called an "anti-christ" and told her lifestyle was inappropriate. Her siblings petitioned Hope to stop discussing her anti-Mormon views with her own children. One of her nieces went online to chastise Hope's involvement in the ex-Mormon community, calling her a liar. Her niece's parent applauded this and the brother in law joined online to also personally berate Hope. This same brother in-law went as far as having many conversations with Hope's ex husband about Hope's post-Mormon "lifestyle" and her "anti-mormon" views, and worse expressing a desire that God would stop Hope from hurting her own children. Hope learned that the ex used some of the information exchanged to fight in court to limit Hope's involvement with her children.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So centric stood the Mormon church in the lives of everyone around her that Hope felt more determined to explain how she felt to family. If only they would listen and understand why she left, to at least have empathy with her position. Yet, any "negativity" she raised only increased the hostility and the urges from her father and siblings to stop "deceiving" her own children about facts she had learned concerning church history, doctrine and even shady financial dealings. Meanwhile the family circled around their belief and unintentionally pushed Hope aside.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Hope felt isolated. At family gatherings, she felt like a ternary member, below even the in-laws and her own ex-spouse. They were all faithful. Hope was not. Her family treated her with some respect and over time, they grew to tolerate each other. Hope heard that some of her adult-aged cousins had increasing doubts about the church, and in order to feel a kinship on this account with some family, she reached out to them. Given they were adults who were studying, she didn't think it would be wrong to discuss it with them. Uncles and aunts, brother and sister quickly contacted Hope and told her to lay off these adult family members, and to respect the wishes of the family not to be bothered with "anti-Mormonism". Hope mentioned to some that they had involved themselves quite deeply in how she raised her own young children, how they bore testimony and made digs about her "choices" to her own children, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Meanwhile, Hope struggled as a single parent emotionally, financially, and had some health problems. Her family dismissed or ignored these because either their careers had continual urgent needs or their church callings kept them far too busy. When the family counseled about issues concerning the ailing health of her parents or the long-time family estate, Hope was barely considered in the early discussions. Her father grew old and they called on her and everyone to share equally in supporting him. Hope wanted to participate, but soon realized that the mess created was in part because she had been excluded for so many years, partly like a step-child who is never really part of the inner circle. Whenever she made a irritable comment or a less than tactful statement, her family used them as justification for why she was wrong and invalidated her feelings or concerns. Her imperfections proved their correctness.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">She remembered when she had been near death in health problems, when she had lost her job, when she struggled with her ex's attempts at removing her parental rights, that most of the family barely acknowledged her struggles. Now they wanted her equal involvement when it came to financial contribution. Her sister, however told her that her views caused her father to sicken. That she would have blame if he died. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Hope made plenty of mistakes in her interactions. Sometimes she was overly zealous in her ex-Mormon views. Sometimes she did not consider how the family view her. Sometimes she said things that hurt. Families do that. But then Hope realized something. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While her own close associates and family may not have viewed her at the level they treated their faithful members of the family--that she wasn't as moral; she lived inappropriately; that as a parent she corrupted her own children; as a sibling her views were suspect; as an offspring she was wayward and disappointing; as an ex-spouse she was no longer an equal parent but merely an afterthought--Hope felt saddened that her position was subordinate and always would be; that her struggles were foreign to those supposed to be closest to her; that the geographical, spiritual and emotional distance was a deep chasm she couldn't cross alone and that the others blamed her for digging.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps they had a point. Maybe she had dug the pit out of being raised with lesson after lesson infusing her with guilt for almost anything she did in life that was not canonized and correlated in priesthood executive committees. Sometimes Hope imagined eyes peering at her for every little mistake she made. Sometimes she ran away from those eyes into dark corners with drink and profane talk. Sometimes she felt the former chains so tightly wound on her, the chapel she'd escaped became like a morgue. Sometimes she lashed out at the indiscernible anger of losing her youth to lies and institutionalized greed disguised as religion. Sometimes she rubbed others the wrong way when she painfully dealt with the latent shame, the bitterness and the dread that the Mormon church had placed in her. Sometimes she screamed at learning how the so-called church had calculatingly abused her with psychological manipulations such as confirmation bias, ego-identity bias, outgroup homogeneity bias, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">estrangement or ostracization for leaving, and the double bind or</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> inner tension from the dual conflict of being both special and sinful.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Especially the double bind—the special latter-day saint and most sinful generation pinnacle—created instability that the organization controlled. This imbalance becomes their grip on members. Many truly believing Mormons teeter between these two extremes—the special saved-latter-day feelings and the intense guilt of modern life—on edge of excitable anxieties and inadequate depression. The church plied this pressure with purpose on members.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Hope tried to accept this, and tried to accept the rest of humanity as a whole--all races, all genders, all orientations, all facts, and even all creeds--as having something valid--that life has many valid but diverse paths and choices which contradict the straight and narrow-minded way. The so-called love of Christ and charity was elusive to her as Mormon, and more easily grasped as an ex-member, realizing differences between people have foundation in complex levels of real life needing empathy from others. When loved ones exclude, ignore and set aside her life as "inauthentic" compared to the black and whiteness of Wasatch living, she learned to embrace the larger mass of a new family she had found in a broader community discovered when she grew more and more to leave the old petty judgment behind. </span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Those she met in the bigger community opened her views even more. She marveled at the vast diversity of studies, perspectives and opinions, the openness of those thoughtful people she met along the way compared with the naive stilted culture she'd escaped. She began feeling like she had found a new family, and she knew her birth family couldn't comprehend what had happened because they were still trapped victims of the cult. And yet overcoming her early programming and late-bloomed anger haunted.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtGcqqQeEtnW3vDxYhNp7HJtGtsJSGCdfXkyl1fUoXp-0N_bbVmJvntPT36mZ0kmsWEZzcj1CYMTZwDGWqebaKjMBDEBEzaShkrc03E6XptPdqCGlGeRMo4VfX31CANMfSUsqhh4Kku_Q/s1600/5fe09e1a0bbfc4f3233a0009d8dc5e90.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtGcqqQeEtnW3vDxYhNp7HJtGtsJSGCdfXkyl1fUoXp-0N_bbVmJvntPT36mZ0kmsWEZzcj1CYMTZwDGWqebaKjMBDEBEzaShkrc03E6XptPdqCGlGeRMo4VfX31CANMfSUsqhh4Kku_Q/s320/5fe09e1a0bbfc4f3233a0009d8dc5e90.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Mormons like to be considered family centric, </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">but they seem more interested in family history and </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">unity centered around their distinct dogma.</div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-19138237162790230472016-01-19T18:00:00.000-08:002016-10-23T19:42:33.251-07:00Post Mormon Family Therapy<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(This is not about me. It is a modified excerpt from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Second-Anointing-David-Twede-ebook/dp/B00GJX117S" target="_blank">Second Anointing</a> a novel about Porter Wight.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I’d studied books on religion, and slowly began doubting Mormonism years ago. The control exerted over me for decades pushed me into counseling—therapy tracking dozens of sessions, going through my childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, focusing mostly on the guilt felt over the years. The candy I’d shoplifted, taking extra ice-cream from the freezer, the little lies I told, sneaking into the theater, watching movies I shouldn’t, the confessions with my dad the bishop. We worked up to guilt over teen fantasies, desires to masturbate, the guilt about sex and saving myself for marriage. We spent sessions on guilt about not working hard enough in the mission, missing tithing payments, skipping church, delaying having kids or not having more kids, as the church taught we should. Adulthood guilt about looking down on gays, on non-Mormons, on people with body piercings, tattoos, who drank or smoked or cursed. The list piled high.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Then one session, the therapist asked, “Have you ever heard of <i>religious scrupulosity</i>?” I shook my head. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“It’s a fairly new disorder characterized by pathological guilt on moral and religious issues. It can result in dysfunction, OCD, extreme anxieties and more. The LDS Church compounds this with another element: ego-elevation.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“What?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“It's a double bind put on members--you're special, but you're sinful</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;">. On the one hand, as a life-long believing Mormon, you’re told from your earliest years that you are the most special spirit saved for the latter days. That you’re part of a strange, peculiar and wonderfully distinct group of people. That your world view is the only true one and that it will save the world in the end. You receive special patriarchal blessings telling you how wonderful you are, and how uniquely blessed your life will be. That Mormons have a special position in the world, to go out and find everyone else special. Mormons feel empowered, even narcissistic at times, by these kind of repeated extoling.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The therapist said truth, more or less. I felt regret over my former beliefs. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“On the other hand, you are given guilt over the smallest things. Alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea. No nudity, no masturbation, no petting or unmarried sex. Avoid tattoos, body piercing, dancing too close. Don’t question your leaders. Don’t talk about sex, even within your marriage. Shun doubters, shun gays, keep secrets.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It eerily reminded me of what I had heard all my life.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“The double bind</span><span style="font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;">—</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;">the saint and sinner pinnacle</span><span style="font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;">—</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;">creates instability that the organization controls. Your imbalance becomes their grip on you. Many truly believing Mormons teeter between these two extremes—the special feelings and the intense guilt—on edge of anxieties and depression. Their scrupulosity creates dysfunction, but their superiority allows them to avoid complete breakdown.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;">Anxieties hovered in my life. I never could do enough. The church had mapped my life: baptism, priesthood, mission, marriage, kids and college, career and more kids, couple mission and retirement. They never felt like my choices. I’d traded away my life for seeing God.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“What intrigues me,</span><span style="font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;">” the therapist continued, </span><span style="font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;">“</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-indent: 0.5in;">is that something happened to you. Something pushed you off the tip away from shame, down the side of narcissism, toward a mild psychopathy.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“How do you mean?” I asked.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“Something released you from your guilt and imbalanced this unstable pinnacle Mormonism placed you on.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I knew what had done it. The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Second-Anointing-David-Twede-ebook/dp/B00GJX117S" target="_blank">Second Anointing</a> I’d received at the hands of an apostle.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“Do you know the DMSV criteria for psychopathy?” the therapist asked. We sat together, the man with his graying hair and crossed legs on a padded folding chair. I sat on another padded chair behind the table, my hands cuffed loosely to the underside hook.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“Not really.” I said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“The criteria include glibness, grandiose sense of worth, lying, manipulation, lack of remorse, lack of empathy, no demonstrable emotions, failure to accept responsibility.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I shrugged.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“Were you taught as a young Mormon boy that you were special?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“Yeah, of course. My parents loved me. At church, they told us we were the chosen generation. We would rise to preach salvation to all the world and make ready for Christ’s return.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The therapist nodded. He asked about the Mormon teaching that one can become a god in the afterlife. I told him it was no secret. I didn’t tell him that I’d received the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Second-Anointing-David-Twede-ebook/dp/B00GJX117S" target="_blank">Second Anointing</a> which granted godhood. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“How did your parents and church make you special? Did it justify lying or breaking the law?” The question sounded loaded to me. His plea required me to admit wrong. Justified or not, I couldn’t tell the therapist how the church put me up on a pedestal, and then put my family in the jury box. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I said, “As a missionary, we were told not to talk about certain subjects to non-members. We were supposed to avoid polygamy, doctrines about becoming gods, the temple oaths and penalties. If someone asked, we were told to pretend ignorance or to testify of something else.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“So they encouraged you to avoid and lie?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“It’s complicated.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The therapist nodded. He asked me about how justifying lies squared up with being saved. I told him apostles--lawyers--bishops-- muddy it up, and it gets complicated. I thought about how many lawyers worked at the top of LDS Church leadership. The Apostles surely lied for their own purposes. I’d had seen prophets wink at congregations over misleading the press on church history and events.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“All your life the church taught that non-Mormons would go to hell, right?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“No. There’s no hell for non-members.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The therapist nodded. “Ah, yes, I remember. The non-believers go to a lower heaven, not hell.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Only the most faithful believers who deny God and his spirit end up in outer darkness. I wouldn’t explain; the man wouldn’t understand. The therapist went on the usual bent about mom and dad. Did they neglect me? <i>No.</i> Did my dad spend a lot of time at work, at the bar, at church? My dad had served as bishop and then stake president for almost twenty years. I didn’t see my father that much. I reassured the therapist that my mother had cared for me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“Your mother and your church. The church is so important to you. It molded your early views; it harnessed your time and activity after school; it taught you right from wrong and gave you a sense of great worth. It taught you that you were a god in embryo and that it had the path to greatness.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">All true. “Yes.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“And the church constantly reminded you about obedience to it. You were special, but only if you obeyed.” I didn’t respond. “Why then, would you attack your church?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I sighed. “It’s complicated.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“We have time.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">There was no way to explain it. A Mormon therapist would reject it. A non-Mormon couldn’t comprehend.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Hrp0ZWKQVpkoqX9A5xXJ_5VFt-fHoJiej3Y_OL3eWTLgjTe_2fUh2L2fP_PV3NHy_rv2FmfOaxDidzhFpHyrCRuJIYo-6i2-ucCSzc39HrUKg6XuwK4NakleBKHUp1lKw2y0bcQgW-M/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Hrp0ZWKQVpkoqX9A5xXJ_5VFt-fHoJiej3Y_OL3eWTLgjTe_2fUh2L2fP_PV3NHy_rv2FmfOaxDidzhFpHyrCRuJIYo-6i2-ucCSzc39HrUKg6XuwK4NakleBKHUp1lKw2y0bcQgW-M/s400/Shingle_creek_knees_web36.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Inner contemplation reveals the manipulation of other systems and persons.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></o:p></div>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-74614627388046256192015-11-16T18:00:00.000-08:002016-10-23T19:42:33.267-07:00Gay Couples are the Paris Terrorists of LDS Corporation<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Unless you live in a cave, you will know the news upheaval that 129 (current count) deaths in France has caused in international circles. I want to say up front, I am saddened by the deaths caused by religious extremists who took their myths to such lengths that they would kill. I also want to say up front that I am saddened by the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children who go hungry every year, of those Africans who died by civil war, of a hundred thousand middle easterners dead as collateral damage in wars (east or west), of the death of tens of thousands of victims of drunk driving, of domestic abuse and death, of violent gun incidental death whether by accident or intentional, and of those deceased by incompetence due to error in our worldwide health system. Whew! That’s a lot of sadness. Thank goodness I have a little wine at hand. I wish I had time to link all of my writing to events and news articles, but alas, the wine runneth short.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">I want to also talk about the connection of the Paris Terrorist strikes to the Utah Same Sex strikes. I'm sure some will say that I equate gays to terrorists. No. The contrary. The LDS corporation does this. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"> Readers of my mormondisclosures blog (even though I personally have not commented until now) could not be oblivious to the facts that the LDS corporation released an official policy that stated (under a few revisions now) that children born outside of the Mormon church, to gay parents, cannot be blessed, baptized or have any other ordinance performed on their behalf due to the fact that they have gay parents. Exclusive to this are children already born or baptized under the covenant. The<i> LDS corporation affirmed</i> under protection of its tax-exempt shield that<i> it hates gay parents</i>. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The most obvious, silly transparency fact here is, while the LDS corporation claims that gay infidelity due to relationships between same-sex partners outside of marriage is immoral (and no law about their marriage will change this immorality), the opposite sex couples who choose not to marry and yet have children (or adopt children) are not held to the same standard as gay partnerships regarding the membership of their offspring.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">What I mean is, if a man-woman couple living together were to parent a child, and even if they were atheists, and even if one or both of them were pedophiles, and even if one or both of them were Satanist, the LDS corporation would still send missionaries over, and bestow priesthood leader blessings upon their children, hoping they join the Mormon company as entries in the Intellectual Reserve, Inc listed persons on the rosters of the COJCOLDS corporate membership. But if both parents are gay, married or not—even if not atheists, pedophiles, Satanist—just gay, well <i>forgettaboutit</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">I'm not saying that gays are equivalent to terrorists. The LDS church policy states that gays are so abhorrent that they and their children cannot migrate into the LDS nation because they are too destructive to the principles of that people. This is absurd, but expected.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The old school guard holding onto the church corporate reins in SLC can’t get past their squeamish feelings about gays. Decades ago they got past pedophiles in the church—they keep this quiet though. A few years ago, they might have even gotten past the idea that the majority of Mormons leaving their ranks become atheist. But to accept anal-sex-driven gay parents as equal. </span><i style="font-size: x-large;">Ew!! </i><span style="font-size: large;"> That really grosses them out, and they will have to put a stop to it even if it means forbidding the kids of those hedonists from joining and paying tithing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">That might seem really immature and prejudicial of the LDS corporate board to enact such rules. Boards, committees and whole groups of top-company men in the LDS empire approved this seemingly prejudicial policy. It might seem they're all just old, bigoted white men who joined together to ban something they find disgusting.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Actually, <i><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">the calculated SLC leadership did this for a more basic reason.</span></b></i> All the ex-mormon and liberal press haranguing serves their purpose. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">It affects the bottom, financial line. Control of their current demographic required that they rally the troops against an almost non-existent bogey man. I get it. Profit rules the prophets. Apathetic members don't pay up like enraged Morgbots.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Now, you might see this as possible, but unlikely. Yet, in the same vein as the current (relatively) small tragedy in Paris, with completely outweighed response show—with so many deaths in so many other countries not due to terrorism and soluble by far less than the trillion dollars spent on terrorism over the last decade—the powers that be love a bogey man to rally the citizens. The governments need a reason to call citizens to rally behind the powers, to give up their rights of privacy and to feel safe under the blanket of current (and enduring) leadership just before elections. <o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Politicians are debating about calls to stop immigration of family members from Middle East states where terrorism originates. It's too risky, say some politicians, to allow them into our country. Which is like LDS leaders saying children of gay parents cannot migrate into membership of their church because gays are just too immoral--even beyond unmarried heterosexual and open-marriage couples.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">However, the LDS corporation never expects more than a single child of gay parents to actually be upset over not joining their racist, prejudiced and outdated organization. What they need, however, are almost non-existent bogey men—or gay men, to rally the unsuspecting members of their multi-level-marketing empire. This multi-level-saving corporation--where if you succeed, in your white-n-delightsome enterprise toward exaltation in the race of Abrahamic tradition (with adaptation of other races not-gay into its family) then you exalt Elohim above you to the next level. And with your spirit children, you will eventually exalt to the level Elohim and Jesus achieved due to your generation’s diligence to the MLM rules of celestial exaltation product selling that—currently--80,000 free salespersons (missionaries) extol upon the ignorant masses who know not Mormon Jesus of Ancient America and his temple ordinances of saving grace.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The world needs a bogey man to keep us aligned with the powers-that-be—never mind the starving millions in Africa/India/South America. Never mind the civil wars of racial demographics uninteresting to white, straight, religious United America. Never mind the numbers of deaths related to incidental gun ownership, or to drunk and texting drivers. Never mind the numbers of deaths related to poisons of our environment or toxins of our pharmaceuticals. The almost 3000 dead at 9/11 and the 129 (current) dead in Paris are far more imperative, because the media, the religion and the government says so. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Oh, and gay couples are bad people (they say).<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">In 2013, there were over 40,000 suicides in the U.S. Many surveys indicate that LGBT persons are at least 2 times more likely to attempt and complete suicide than straight persons. Some estimates indicate that in the U.S. there are over 1,500 LGBT suicides each year. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">I understand that the terrorist attacks in Paris are a problem. I feel for the victims and their families. I also feel for the victims of suicide and oppression without reason happening in my own nation, at the behest of religious (seemingly charitable) persons.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY568WB0F22XaI81Ya18_Yjn4smBosBhbFrj0_tkPc_-GSuFJNvZGnj9uyFkgNyfvvoEfCWAmJjcSj9filT-845Z7p3m9ca1kYQ1ZqM0wg6dwtpTyIAV7OsFnU6IhFKHuXwd5EUlLTUAY/s1600/blog_image_16NOV2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY568WB0F22XaI81Ya18_Yjn4smBosBhbFrj0_tkPc_-GSuFJNvZGnj9uyFkgNyfvvoEfCWAmJjcSj9filT-845Z7p3m9ca1kYQ1ZqM0wg6dwtpTyIAV7OsFnU6IhFKHuXwd5EUlLTUAY/s640/blog_image_16NOV2015.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The News and the Cult may be a maze, but stand back and it is a clear picture.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-83102946875011848312015-10-29T09:00:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.281-07:00The LDS Church Needs Your Inventions<br />(part of this blog is from a Halloween blog in 2012)<br /><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The LDS corporation wants your inventions. They want to coopt your creativity and make it their own. They want you to know that God gave you the idea, so it's really theirs anyway.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />Recently, in October 2015, LSD Apostle M. Russell Ballard <a href="https://t.co/0PF5e0ATwI" target="_blank">gave a BYU devotional</a> to young single adults (transcript <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3g0j1CYhLRXam5IMDNjbGhkT2M" target="_blank">here</a>). It's interesting timing to me, because, I had a "Ballard" who claims to have a science background hit up my blog yesterday claiming science is quite undependable. I don't know if he's related to the apostle Ballard...<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Many have laughed at "Elder" Ballard's lipstick comments (at around 32 minutes, where he tells women if they want to get a man, to stop dressing like men and wear lipstick now and then).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">However, he says something more interesting at 14:30 into the whole talk:<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Where do you think the computer came from? Why did somebody invent the computer?</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"I'll tell you why. Because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints needed it.</span> </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"Why did we need it? Because family history was moving and the church was growing and the temples were expanding and we needed more capacity to do family history.</span> </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"...you don't have to be a member of the church to have spiritual insight and promptings [for] the creation of that tool, the computer."</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Oh! The arrogance! Yes, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and the others were more inspired for temple work than the inept prophets and their own employees.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Then he talks about how Satan uses the computer for evil pornography. Now anyone knows that the internet and computers are vastly more usable in business, in communications, in data/mathematical analysis of scientific pursuits and far more “earthly pursuits” than used for LDS salesmanship. And yes, it's FAR more used for pornography than family history. So their god in his infinite wisdom inspired non-Mormons to produce a tool for the church, that reportedly by them, Satan uses far better against the “saints” than can be used for good.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Is their god this incompetent? Or is it free will that non-Mormons do far more good than their inspired prophets and leaders? Either way, thank the other gods for the internet of everything else. They hate the internet (and use pornography to scare members away from it) because there are so many sites with factual information about Mormonism, its invention (lauded by Ballard) will be its own undoing.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Now, I wonder... When I was a good Mormon boy, I had zero patents. Then I left the church and I have many patents and more pending. Does that mean I was more inspired as an exmo than I was as a Mormon? I've been more artistic, more prolific and published too, as an exmo.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Go figure. All I needed to receive the holy ghost's promptings was to leave the Mormon church.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Science does not benefit the Mormon corporation/church. It contradicts its claims. It predicts better than their prophets. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Then at 42 minutes into his talk, Ballard makes the audacious claim that: </span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Listen to the prophets, listen to the apostles. We won't lead you astray. We cannot lead you astray."</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">Think about that. Despite the inventiveness of non-members, Ballard reassures that they are prophets who won't lead people astray. Does their record match up to his claim?</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">As I wrote in 2012 [new writing in brackets]:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />When<a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1916AnP...354..769E" target="_blank"><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Einstein published his complete theory of general relativity in 1916</a>, he proposed three tests of general relativity, one of which was the deflection of light by the sun. Science could already predict the timing of eclipses, and knew that one would occur in a few years where the darkened sun would allow them to test Einstein's prediction that the sun deflected light. In 1919, an expedition set out to observe the deflection of light by the sun during an eclipse, in to the west African island of Principe. The expedition leader was British astronomer Arthur Eddington who acquired photograph negatives showing the deflection of light of stars that were near the sun. <o:p></o:p></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/1919_eclipse_negative.jpg/467px-1919_eclipse_negative.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/1919_eclipse_negative.jpg/467px-1919_eclipse_negative.jpg" height="320" width="249" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div align="center" class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The resulting observation precisely matched Einstein’s predictions. That is, Einstein had made a precise prophecy about the future down to meters of precision and within seconds of accurate timing. This is the kind of accuracy in prophetic ability one never sees in religion.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><u1:p></u1:p> </span><br /><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Religion, speaking for God, seems to have enjoyed a monopoly of claimant powers; that is did, until science and technology caught up with and now surpasses its predictive and miracle claiming abilities. Science has gone a long way to eradicating famine, if not turning one loaf into thousands in terms of farmland efficiency. Medical science finds cures for plagues, mends the lame and gives sight to the blind, with numerical healings that far far exceed the onesy-twosy healing claims of ancient priesthood holders. Claims, I repeat, because in modern times, faith healing has never been truly verified, while modern science healing is verified daily in tens of thousands of hospitals and clinics. These days, the prophets seem silent and science vociferous in predicting all kinds of future events--from the gender of unborn children to eclipses and tsunami, and even general trends in climate change. Science is beginning to look forward in ways only God was once claimed to do.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">[The science of quantum mechanics has yielded trillions of validating events of evidence to support it--every computer, every laser/CD/DVD player, every cell phone screen, every digital camera, every bit of nuclear medicine, etc--all evidence that quantum mechanics theory is valid. This is important--quantum mechanics could be seen to invalidate the concept of an omnipotent being--the uncertainty principle. Quantum theory could be seen to invalidate the idea of free will, as everything else is deterministic except the randomness of quanta, which are not subject to will (despite the pseudo science of "conscious dependencies" never confirmed). Additionally, evolutionary theory, validated billions of times with flu shots, antibiotics, paleontology, archeaology and more, yields far more evidence than any Book of Mormon claim. The LDS corporation doesn't like evolution because it squeezes out the need for reliance on their version of god and their prophetic utterances.]</span><br /><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Carl Sagan once wrote the following:<span class="apple-converted-space"><i> </i></span><i>"...if you want to really be able to predict the future -- not in everything, but in some areas -- there's only one regime of human scholarship...that really delivers the goods, and that's science. Religions would give their eyeteeth to be able to predict anything like that well. Think of how much mileage they would make if they ever could do predictions comparably unambiguous and precise."</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><u1:p></u1:p> </span><br /><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We don't really have to imagine, though, do we? When white European conquerors of ancient America were received as gods with their guns and eclipse predictions, they abused the power by controlling whole civilizations and fetching gold and slaves from the subordinate worshipping masses. If modern religions had the power of modern science (while hiding the source of their power), we'd hardly have to imagine the outcome. [Ballard would love to take credit for inventions of science while telling us that we cannot trust science to give us answers to more important questions--when they have yet to provide any real, validated answers themselves.]<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><u1:p></u1:p> </span><br /><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">But herein lays one difference between science and religion: religions cloud the source of their acclaimed powers in obscure passages and murky definitions of God. Science openly reports, competitively referees and carefully accredits each advancement to the whole world (if the world would but take the time to read the publications). Again, Sagan explains that while the scientist is human, science as a whole attempts to be objective and available to all:<span class="apple-converted-space"><i> </i></span><i>"Science has built-in error-correcting mechanisms -- because science recognizes that scientists, like everybody else, are fallible...Scientists do not trust what is intuitively obvious, because intuitively obvious gets you nowhere."</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><u1:p></u1:p> </span><br /><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Another interesting difference between science and religion:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u>churches have no laboratories</u>. What I mean is that if a scientist has a clever thought (hypothesis), before he turns it into a belief (theory), he will comb the journals to see if it was already out there and tested. If not tested, he will go to the lab and painstakingly experiment until he has validated or--most often--eliminated the idea.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">It is in the lab where good ideas and bad ones are sorted out. Churches have no laboratories. Just belief systems.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><u1:p></u1:p> </span><br /><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">[There are those that wish to believe that a single cherry-picked coincidence is science--that a "tree-of-life" stela in Mesoamerica proves the Book of Mormon--all the while throwing out the fruits of science that contradict their beliefs. The overwhelming evidence against the Book of Mormon anachronistic claims and linguistic errors are ignored because they don't fit a faithful pattern--and the lab is no place for finding faith.]</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Furthermore, the scientific methodology requires that any good finding should be re-found (repeatedly) and verified (openly) before it can be said to support hypothesis. Scientists pride themselves to be published in refereed journals, where honors go to those that can disprove findings or hypotheses with new findings--as Einstein did of Newton. It's a hard career at times--hard on the ego and personal life--but rewarding because of its unparalleled consistency and trustworthiness.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><u1:p></u1:p> </span><br /><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">As a former Mormon--who happily believed in modern prophecy--I used to wonder why the prophets are so reluctant to predict as they did only a hundred-fifty years back. Why have miracles become no more than rumors and subtle coincidences visible only to the chosen faithful? By comparison, technology and science deliver health and happiness in brightly printed packages available to all regardless of faith, creed, race or nationality. It would seem that the prophets have privately given into science. I believe it is because they know they haven't a chance to be so successful when science has been so wonderfully accurate. A smart man doesn't claim to be guided by the supreme intelligence and give predictions that could so easily be countered by lab-coated scientists whose probability calculations are greater than 90% correct.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><u1:p></u1:p> </span><br /><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Okay, yes, it would seem I am giving far too much credit to science. It can't heal everything nor correctly predict many things--from tomorrow's weather to next week's stock market. Yes, science is still dealing poor predictions often enough. But in comparison to latter-day seers and apostles, it is uncannily and openly predictive.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div align="center" class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f317/glowluzid/spooky/spooky_06.jpg" imageanchor="1"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; mso-no-proof: yes; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/></v:shapetype><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_1" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg-QghKf0KFkSfy-DR0R_ofL-19qc4ggAX5xwKSYpVfxpy6nPj4sQeAy1pxAJ_j1oOQuRONxg1gQILduLaEDdhSSe2lnbJhWsV1x817wq9wZjbkMc7-irCm9kMtDTJ0hZVt0eHjHUuXWhgGknodCSwWpoQx_xQKA_wRI6NECoayGfoBPO5d=" href="http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f317/glowluzid/spooky/spooky_06.jpg" style='width:480pt;height:5in;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square' o:button="t"> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\tweded\AppData\Local\Temp\1\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg" o:title="proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2Fi50.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Ff317%2Fglowluzid%2Fspooky%2Fspooky_06"/></v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnrcRn3WHJ8oxbT23ahfHmMKADNqdThQLeaAwfQdlYUToa35qPViZlX9OsyielC06EiQhInHCJx-Q4h7zjVFqO32HWQrwE3DBBw51F5_K2gidPshU3NwOsaK5ktn2elOLab-tCmt_whIU/s1600/Goth_Zan_019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnrcRn3WHJ8oxbT23ahfHmMKADNqdThQLeaAwfQdlYUToa35qPViZlX9OsyielC06EiQhInHCJx-Q4h7zjVFqO32HWQrwE3DBBw51F5_K2gidPshU3NwOsaK5ktn2elOLab-tCmt_whIU/s1600/Goth_Zan_019.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Happy Halloween! </div><div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2Fi50.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Ff317%2Fglowluzid%2Fspooky%2Fspooky_06.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg-QghKf0KFkSfy-DR0R_ofL-19qc4ggAX5xwKSYpVfxpy6nPj4sQeAy1pxAJ_j1oOQuRONxg1gQILduLaEDdhSSe2lnbJhWsV1x817wq9wZjbkMc7-irCm9kMtDTJ0hZVt0eHjHUuXWhgGknodCSwWpoQx_xQKA_wRI6NECoayGfoBPO5d=" --><!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg-QghKf0KFkSfy-DR0R_ofL-19qc4ggAX5xwKSYpVfxpy6nPj4sQeAy1pxAJ_j1oOQuRONxg1gQILduLaEDdhSSe2lnbJhWsV1x817wq9wZjbkMc7-irCm9kMtDTJ0hZVt0eHjHUuXWhgGknodCSwWpoQx_xQKA_wRI6NECoayGfoBPO5d=" with "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg-QghKf0KFkSfy-DR0R_ofL-19qc4ggAX5xwKSYpVfxpy6nPj4sQeAy1pxAJ_j1oOQuRONxg1gQILduLaEDdhSSe2lnbJhWsV1x817wq9wZjbkMc7-irCm9kMtDTJ0hZVt0eHjHUuXWhgGknodCSwWpoQx_xQKA_wRI6NECoayGfoBPO5d=" -->David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-44503987648181155432015-09-27T18:00:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.298-07:00Religion Greater Than Education and Nutrition In Utah<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfnPJ7TwSR4PK3pGzToOhEsACX4escjkzjBovqX-mWrY9x-4z7TQ5fEdgHPdzsYmHREWbvpQTIQ0EkMf5xx9qPeXM-yg9igzrKfPi_SLAVnOXdktfhLsChlFd2u2hTa86jWlIlASD1NMI/s1600/church-state-streets.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfnPJ7TwSR4PK3pGzToOhEsACX4escjkzjBovqX-mWrY9x-4z7TQ5fEdgHPdzsYmHREWbvpQTIQ0EkMf5xx9qPeXM-yg9igzrKfPi_SLAVnOXdktfhLsChlFd2u2hTa86jWlIlASD1NMI/s320/church-state-streets.png" width="281" /></a></div><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">What does a parent need to provide for raising a well-adjusted child? If you read the court-ordered evaluator recommendation in a random Utah custody case, it would seem as though “religion” and “morals” are the most important factors. In fact, the rules for Utah custody evaluations list many other things (with religion being one of about a dozen listed criteria). Shortly, that list includes: child’s preference, siblings, desire and bond, history, moral character, emotional stability, personal attention, drugs/alcohol use, religion, finances, and abuse.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">What Utah rule (<a href="https://www.utcourts.gov/resources/rules/ucja/ch04/4-903.htm" target="_blank">4-903</a>) fails to list as important to child rearing is more interesting. It has nothing on <i>education</i>, nothing on <i>nutrition</i>, nothing on immediate physical environment. That doesn’t mean a psychologist cannot evaluate those things. However, the state does not require them.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Let me reiterate here the criteria of Utah Custody evaluation so you can assess that the great state of Deseret, aka Utah, is lopsided on education, nutrition and safety over that of "religious compatibility" and "morals".</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Utah State Law, <a href="https://www.utcourts.gov/resources/rules/ucja/ch04/4-903.htm" target="_blank">Rule 4-903,</a> includes 15 items: </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">(5) The purpose of the custody evaluation will be to provide the court with information it can use to make decisions regarding custody and parenting time arrangements that are in the child’s best interest. …Unless otherwise specified in the order, evaluators must consider and respond to each of the following factors:<br />(5)(A) the child's preference;<br />(5)(B) the benefit of keeping siblings together;<br />(5)(C) the relative strength of the child's bond with one or both of the prospective custodians;<br />(5)(D) the general interest in continuing previously determined custody arrangements where the child is happy and well adjusted;<br />(5)(E) factors relating to the prospective custodians' character or status or their capacity or willingness to function as parents, including:<br />(5)(E)(i) moral character and emotional stability;<br />(5)(E)(ii) duration and depth of desire for custody;<br />(5)(E)(iii) ability to provide personal rather than surrogate care;<br />(5)(E)(iv) significant impairment of ability to function as a parent through drug abuse, excessive drinking or other causes;<br />(5)(E)(v) reasons for having relinquished custody in the past;<br />(5)(E)(vi) religious compatibility with the child;<br />(5)(E)(vii) kinship, including in extraordinary circumstances<br /> stepparent status;<br />(5)(E)(viii) financial condition; and<br />(5)(E)(ix) evidence of abuse of the subject child, another<br /> child, or spouse; and<br />(5)(F) any other factors deemed important by the evaluator, the parties, or the court.</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Religion and “moral character” are more important in Utah custody cases than health—than nutrition and a safe physical environment, the latter which do not appear in the rule. Religion is even more important according to Utah’s 4-903 than education. The words, "nutrition", "health", "education", "safety", and "environment" appear nowhere in rule 4-903, while "religious", "moral" and other like criteria do appear.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">What the hell? Only in Utah, apparently. I hope the Utah judicial bar who see so many cases of neglect can persuade the legislature that their idealistic views are not helping families.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Any decently educated psychologist and sociologist knows the importance of good food, physical safety and proper educ<span style="font-family: inherit;">ation on the best interest of a child's well being. Publications at the National Institutes of Health (US) clearly state, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776771/" target="_blank">for example</a>, that: </span></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“There is no aspect of our physical or psychological existence that is not affected in some way by nutrition. A profound lack of nutrition would obviously have a negative influence on all aspects of [child] development, and such effects of malnutrition are well documented.”</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, Utah's legislature doesn’t even see</span>m to care. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Education, smeducation—phaw! Nutrition, shrewmunition—meh! Utah-Utard! What will it take for the family courts to encourage their own legislatures to change the code so that education and nutrition have an equal stage with religion and "moral character"? </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMtv9_tlVrGiioHwR7ryvFSANq1kP3UO3C2Vy58n7fr_98N4QGsLA7DUCAxE0z25boLnU698VT2HfBMnZw85DTda0R6-lxFl5mkd2_4tQWoAU3ZB_bJPjEJTxgYMw7EbeQxP_JACe8yRs/s1600/education_religion_pr050826iii.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMtv9_tlVrGiioHwR7ryvFSANq1kP3UO3C2Vy58n7fr_98N4QGsLA7DUCAxE0z25boLnU698VT2HfBMnZw85DTda0R6-lxFl5mkd2_4tQWoAU3ZB_bJPjEJTxgYMw7EbeQxP_JACe8yRs/s640/education_religion_pr050826iii.gif" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/18136/public-favors-voluntary-prayer-public-schools.aspx" target="_blank">Gallup Poll</a> -- Are we due for a new one here in 2015? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> Let's hope there's a downward trend.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div></div><br /><div class="separator" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; clear: both; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></div>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-32805438471662242572015-09-24T15:30:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.313-07:00LDS SECRET Leadership Information System (LIS)<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In my <a href="https://youtu.be/2h7NQqB6mzo?t=46m22s" target="_blank">October 2014 Exmormon Foundation talk</a>, I told the audience about the LDS Leadership Information System, the LIS. This is the system that probably vetted the latest candidates for the next three apostles which may be called in just over a week at the October 2015 LDS General Conference.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Here is the slide from that 2014 talk, where I verbalize a lot of information about the information systems the LDS use to vet future leaders. The slide is a fraction of what I said.</span><br /><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Around 2008/09 the Q12 asked COB to produce a separate financial/contracts tracking system for contracts, which only Q12 and their assistants could access/monitor</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">COB Insider speculation is that this “Leadership Information System” monitored nepotistic contracts given to Q12 family</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Another insider: families and widows of GAs are financially blessed through church finance system</span></li></ul><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieerxKeY6dTkP_IFEfmVsVhwnqakp4xUFnEXvULIA6IFyaFsumzejTFdGyBowYinH-LJRoN_8XDrLvGLy2NrapLLEjOIn4EKkaC6xwSJivt2sA1-iiWCgiEacZjh89OuSmc4L5bVzv2ak/s1600/LIS.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieerxKeY6dTkP_IFEfmVsVhwnqakp4xUFnEXvULIA6IFyaFsumzejTFdGyBowYinH-LJRoN_8XDrLvGLy2NrapLLEjOIn4EKkaC6xwSJivt2sA1-iiWCgiEacZjh89OuSmc4L5bVzv2ak/s400/LIS.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">(Slide from the 2014 talk)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Second-Anointing-David-Twede-ebook/dp/B00GJX117S" target="_blank">my 2013 novel</a>, I revealed some of what I had already known, but used a fictional form to let the world know, because my sources were anonymous. Here's the text from 2013.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"Fellow SLCPD officers, including the non-Mormons, fondly referred to LDS security as Sacred Service agents. Over the years, Porter had helped the LDS Church with background investigations of individuals vetted for leadership—all off the books. Salt Lake City government played nice with the Mormon Church. Most of the councilmen and police attended LDS Church regularly."</span></blockquote><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">and</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"Bradenton showed him the dossier of a few member employees and it had far more information than what he had accessed as a bishop. It included all the church records of baptism, mission service, temple ordinances, and more. It showed scanned patriarchal blessings, callings held, discipline actions, employment history, background investigations, first generation family genealogy, and a geographical history of all locations the member had attended throughout their life. Extra fields on one member file Bradenton brought up indicated that church headquarters filed the notes a bishop or stake president had made on worthiness. Porter never knew they filed individual private matters. </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“If you need to know anything about a member, you access the dossier system and search by any relevant term,” said Bradenton. “If further background information is done for employment or higher calling, we put it in here as well.” </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Porter pointed at the screen. “Why does the church keep so much information members?”</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“Wouldn’t you if you needed to know who you can trust to run companies within the portfolio owned by the church? We need trust so there’s no financial disclosures. Enemies would use it against us.” "</span></blockquote><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">NOW THE LATEST: A most recent </span><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">revelation</span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> from an anonymous source inside LDS Church Offices (most of which was posted briefly on reddit) confirms this same information about the Leadership Information System. The LDS Church keeps extensive background on all members, especially those that rise to be vetted for upper office in its corporation. And why not? </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I quote extensively, and some of this may be verified in the next 10 days when LDS General Conference is held. If not, then we have a wee chink in our link at the COB.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">" Here's what I can tell you. There are enough people privy to this information that it won't be possible to identify me through this disclosure alone.</span> </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Basically, whenever new General Authorities are being proposed, the names are submitted to our department to do a final "background check"--you can think of it as a kind of "vetting" that is done in politics when Presidential candidates select a VP running mate. We get information consents from the candidate and check everything imaginable: financial, employment, educational, resumes, church callings, political involvement, criminal (never had an issue with this one!), disciplinary councils the candidate has been involved in as a leader. We write up a report flagging any possible areas of concern. For the most part, there are no issues, except for occasional ones that might "look bad" from a secular media perspective.</span> </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> They never tell us that these people are being proposed as General Authorities--we just get a generic request for the vetting--but when the next General Conference roll around and we see the people we vetted called ... well, it doesn't take long to figure out what your role is in the machinery.</span> </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Anyway, when an Apostle dies things get a little bit "obvious". For one, the request comes shortly after the death of the apostle. Secondly, rather than a bundle of names as is common to receive, we receive just three names. Thirdly, the submitted names usually contain one or more CURRENT General Authorities. All three of these are red flags to me at least that we are vetting the new Apostle. My suspicions in this regard were confirmed when we vetted Elder Anderson as one of the three candidates in late-2008, shortly after Joseph B. Wirthlin died, and he was subsequently called as the new Apostle in April 2009. I assume that the three names are submitted by the President of the Church, or possibly the First Presidency together, I don't know.</span> </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> I'm not exactly sure why we do a second "vetting" in this situation for someone who is already a General Authority and has undergone the process previously. I guess it's probably meant as a type of "fail safe" procedure, to catch anything that was possibly missed the first time around. We also do review what the person has done as their time as a General Authority and flag anything potentially problematic.</span> </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So basically, what I can tell you is that we've recently received a fresh submission to do background checks for three men and we've mostly completed the process. All three are currently General Authorities and are in the Presidency or Quorums of the Seventy. The three are <a href="https://www.lds.org/church/leader/james-j-hamula?lang=eng" target="_blank">James J. Hamula</a>, <a href="https://www.lds.org/church/leader/ronald-a-rasband?lang=eng" target="_blank">Ronald A. Rasband</a>, and L. <a href="https://www.lds.org/church/leader/l-whitney-clayton?lang=eng" target="_blank">Whitney Clayton</a>. <i>Clayton's report sent up a <a href="http://www.nearingkolob.com/elder-l-whitney-clayton-involved-church-discipline/" target="_blank">few flags</a> [<a href="http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/midway-woman-alleges-lds-leader-had-her-involuntarily-committed/article_52f4fd79-b61b-5c8f-9c6d-1eb67afc5fd6.html" target="_blank">2</a> & <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/01/top-officials-w.html" target="_blank">3</a>]</i>, definitely more than the other two, so I would bet against him being called. The reports for Hamula and Rasband were clean and we basically gave them both the thumbs up.</span> </span> </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">[While others at the office could be vetting many candidates not listed here...] At this stage, I see [it likely] that at least one of Hamula or Rasband is called. Since we have another vacancy in the Twelve, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Hamula and Rasband are BOTH called. I'm not sure if we are going to get another three names to vet for the second vacancy, or if they are just going to be happy with having done these three.</span> </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> So there you go. Oh--lastly the issue of timing--we won't find out for sure who is called until General Conference in October. I think that that is pretty well understood and accepted by the membership now. In the past, some Apostles have been called in between Conferences, but the last few First Presidencies have thought it best to wait until General Conference in order to maximize attention on the event.</span> </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I find the process a little bit ridiculous and I have often felt like it's weird that the Prophet and First Presidency need us to flag issues of concern for them when they are considering inspired callings. Are the calls inspired? Well, Elder Clayton was being considered [for something], but now I can basically guarantee that he won't be called because of the work I participated in. Can it hardly be said to be inspiration when the decisions are based on paid workers doing research? "</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">You read it back in 2013 in my novel, and heard it again in 2014 in my talk. The LIS of the LDS church help them to keep the LIES going.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Now is the day of their power. They rule reign from the rivers to the ends of the earth. There is none who dares to molest or make afraid.</span></div>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-35333723040327762282015-09-23T16:00:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.336-07:00Monson Vs. Francis -- The Pope and a Prophet<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Pope Francis arrived in the US, riding in a <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/22/autos/pope-francis-fiat-500l/" target="_blank">Fiat 500L car</a>, priced around $20,000.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">On the other hand, Mormon Prophet <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2012/09/pay-lay-clergy.html" target="_blank">Monson rides around in Utah (at the 2011-2014 Days of '47 parade) in much much fancier transportation</a>, including an armored security edition Audi A8 that with full upgrades runs over half a million dollars to buy new.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1AOVFqj8mbj2so13oel61II3k0OQqNgmrf-rO5vX9t_ewLu9JAdpnHcwHLqZPpIv55KiAMGSdSuEvkycdG7E__yWeJ9ciMXk-EKSXorj_IUHxUveiJzh2ZAYh1EyNoI59rHJ9UL1pCDo/s1600/MonsonIMG_9853-2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1AOVFqj8mbj2so13oel61II3k0OQqNgmrf-rO5vX9t_ewLu9JAdpnHcwHLqZPpIv55KiAMGSdSuEvkycdG7E__yWeJ9ciMXk-EKSXorj_IUHxUveiJzh2ZAYh1EyNoI59rHJ9UL1pCDo/s320/MonsonIMG_9853-2.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Pope Francis speaks to human rights, humbly asks leaders to help the poor, and<a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/pope-francis-visits-america/pope-makes-splash-america-social-media-n432206" target="_blank"> takes selfies.</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Monson cuts ribbons at super-malls and kicks off condo-high-rise developments, while only letting professional, LDS photographers take his likeness.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5SRhjdZ42qNVkdwbooPakUQlAPEqpUz7ffOR6kFU6H9EXqXYJLBWub-vHYcjmawwtsdH0XOl11S1fUFZSleRveXsDAe6ZpkPudnq52DFbulNIwbCUpdOPLOQznDexXZqM3UHsAMd8DSU/s1600/6877930838_fb13fba9b1_k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5SRhjdZ42qNVkdwbooPakUQlAPEqpUz7ffOR6kFU6H9EXqXYJLBWub-vHYcjmawwtsdH0XOl11S1fUFZSleRveXsDAe6ZpkPudnq52DFbulNIwbCUpdOPLOQznDexXZqM3UHsAMd8DSU/s320/6877930838_fb13fba9b1_k.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Pope Francis encourages the US government and the world to<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/06/18/10-key-excerpts-from-pope-franciss-encyclical-on-the-environment/" target="_blank"> improve the environment,</a> releases a 40,000 word official statement/<a href="http://www.catholic.com/blog/jimmy-akin/pope-francis%E2%80%99s-environmental-encyclical-13-things-to-know-and-share" target="_blank">encyclical on global climate change</a>, and has proclaimed the environment is just as important many moral issues facing the world</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Monson buys up land to develop into profitable industry, <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2015/05/theyre-all-about-christ.html" target="_blank">lobbies Florida counties for permission on a development at LDS owned Deseret Ranch</a> "for accommodating a half-million residents on an enormous piece of ranch east of Orlando [that] has triggered an environmental dispute that could be tough for even the state to solve.... The development plan for the 133,000 acres..."</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Confidants involved in an environmental impact independent study of the Deseret Ranch fiasco tell me that the part of Deseret Ranch that they want to reclassify as urban is beyond the borders of the urban growth line for Osceola County, and that they "petitioned the county to extend the Urban Growth Boundary into their property so that they can convert this land to a curated cityscape."</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Ecologically speaking, Deseret Ranch is a huge piece of the proposed Florida Wildlife Corridor which would provide a movement corridor for imperiled (and un-imperiled) species throughout the state (including black bear, Florida panther, etc.).</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Florida counties, probably seeing dollar signs from the potential tax dollars, have been reviewing the LDS corporation proposal. It would seem that it is pretty much set to go. However, one of the county commissioners is rumored to have refused to sign off on it until an independent review is conducted.</span><br /><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Pope Francis, in ecumenical cooperation, could you tell Thomas Monson to stop his destruction of the environment?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><br />---<br /><br />***That being said, I should update that I just saw on the news that Pope Francis took a military helicopter from JFK in NYC to Manhattan. I suppose chartering a plane would have been about as costly, and if he had flown coach, the plane would have been mobbed and a security disaster. But who paid for it?<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Addendum: A reply below is point on. Neither Pope Francis nor Thomas Monson are anything close to the persona that they claim to worship and desire to emulate. The character of Jesus Christ as described in the bible didn't ride in gold-plated chariots (the meridian times equivalent of an Audi A8 L or a military helicopter). Jesus didn't lay his head on silk-spun pillows in elaborate church-owned Vatican cities, nor have multiple homes including an upscale SLC condo near a billion dollar mall he commissioned.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The hypocrisy of both is telling.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-75900226628588041182015-09-21T13:00:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.350-07:00Neurosurgeons Are Going To Hell<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">In seminary this year, some students are learning about Noah's flood. One student asked the seminary teacher why God killed all the wicked of Noah's time and told Nephi to kill Laban, but spared genocidal mass murderers?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">When Nephi was commanded to kill Laban, that it is better that one man perishes than a whole nation “dwindles” in unbelief, God traded the brain of Laban for the brains of a nation. You see, God could have, in his omnipotent manner slightly, just perceptibly altered the brain of Laban, when he was drunk on the street, so that he forgot all about Nephi and his brothers coming for the Plates of Brass. God can change brain cells. Easily.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">But no. Free will—the altercation of a few brain cells—was far more untouchable to God than the actual life of Laban. Nephi had to kill Laban so that God didn’t have to touch Laban’s brain Yes, he could have eradicated Laban’s memory in his drunken state. But tinkering with his memory and free will is apparently a bigger line to cross than murdering Laban and completely eradicating his future free will. As long as Nephi did it. God is in the clear!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">When Noah asked God to spare humanity, it repented God (or if you’re Joseph Smith, it repented Noah to ask God) of thinking of eradicating a billion humans. (We can safely assume that <b>if</b> in the 6000 years since Noah we went from 8 persons to almost 8 billion, that in the 2000 years of Adam to Noah, there were probably a billion nomadic, sinful, Sodomy filled humans ripe for destruction.) God would never tamper with so many free wills, so he had to eliminate them. Lest they sin more and more and become so intellectually godless that they never allow a soul to be saved.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">So God killed them all. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">There is no tampering with free will. Neurosurgeons be warned. Don’t tamper with those brains. Alter those personalities. Change those temperaments.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">For that matter, psychiatrists, psychologist, psychics, sociologists, and even bishops beware. Wait, bishops are okay to judge and alter members' thinking. Bishops, seminary teachers, deacon advisors, Miamaid instructors, primary leaders and the like—you’re all fine. You can alter free will. You can dive right in and tell a toddler that Joseph Smith was inspired while hiding his polygamy. You can exact ten-percent of tithing while not declaring that the LDS church is a corporation. You can send them on "soul saving" missions while knowing that Africans are starving, bone-thin skeletons. That kind of brain tampering is okey-dokey.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God, however, cannot cross a line of taking away a memory, such as with Laban. God cannot tinker with free will, such as with a pre-flood billion of humanity. He must kill them instead. Hitler too. Stalin and Mao as well. Let them kill the masses if their free will gets out of bounds. Laban—deserved to die. Stalin, Mao and Hitler, well, they had free will and God couldn’t supersede to have them killed before nations upon nations dwindled in bloody unbelief. He couldn't intercede to </span>subtly change the mind of mass genocidal murderers<span style="font-family: inherit;">. You understand his godly omnipotence, I’m sure.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">But wait, hasn’t God changed memories already? Isn’t there a verse that says something about the Holy Ghost helping you to remember all things, to “bring all things to your remembrance” (John 14:26)? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">There’s also that story about the Nephite prisoners held by the Lamanites in Alma 55. Moroni’s guys brought them wine and “they did take of the wine freely”. Freely—free will. Shame shame. Word of wisdom be damned. The righteous can tempt the evil. Then the guards in their drunken stupor and deep sleep were unable to stop the escape. Laban was drunk. Maybe Nephi hadn’t brought the wine, but he found the sword. With Moroni’s men, however, “the Nephites could have slain them” yet Moroni didn’t want that. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">So wait, God got Nephites to use wine to get the Lamanites stupid. Surely there’s some kind of free will breech here. The Lamanites were pretty forgetful about what happened and never really succeeded in winning against the Nephites who were “slow to remember” their past. The point being, God helped inebriate Lamanites to free Nephites who were slow to remember God. WTF?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">What about the righteous? Does God play with their free will and memories? You bet. It’s a part of the LDS Doctrine that if you ponder on something false, that’s “not right you …shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong” (D&C 9:9). In other words, God makes the righteous stupid. He plays with the free will of the righteous all the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Laban—you’re dead dude because you’ll remember to do bad stuff. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Nephi—you’ll just forget false stuff.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The saying goes, God doesn't play with dice. Apparently not with scalpels either.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Neurosurgeons, psychiatrists and psychologists who play with memory, you better be a damned good judge of who’s righteous and who’s evil. You may end up in hell. God doesn’t play loosely with this stuff like you do.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Hitler, you’re in the clear, apparently, unlike Laban. At least, that's the message one student got in seminary.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg39C1Ktlv0b6A9KG5x7zKZaNIHmxzy_nL4QHEq_eszGT1ng4ZOfm3Nwj3QczaDInSWFsd8DRmRsFR90OHRl5WUwkP9eAMkvim_Q1DeogWEZS8kce5KrmHbK27Tr1TnjZVtM5Oq_HsGh_A/s1600/Hanigng+Lake+CO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg39C1Ktlv0b6A9KG5x7zKZaNIHmxzy_nL4QHEq_eszGT1ng4ZOfm3Nwj3QczaDInSWFsd8DRmRsFR90OHRl5WUwkP9eAMkvim_Q1DeogWEZS8kce5KrmHbK27Tr1TnjZVtM5Oq_HsGh_A/s640/Hanigng+Lake+CO.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></o:p></div>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-42891103874889598962015-08-11T13:30:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.365-07:00The 21st Century Rediscovery of the Seer Stone and the Second Latter-day Restoration<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">[A FUTURE LDS ESSAY TOPIC ON 21ST CENTURY USE OF THE SEER STONE]</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In mid 2015, <a href="https://www.lds.org/church/news/book-of-mormon-printers-manuscript-photos-of-seer-stone-featured-in-new-book?lang=eng" target="_blank">LDS archivists found the original printer's Book of Mormon manuscript and the brown striated seer stone</a> used by prophet Joseph Smith in the early 19th century to translate the divine record inscribed on the gold plates delivered to him by the angel Moroni. Members prior to this commonly believed the Urim and Thummim which came directly from God and have an aura of divinity about them were the only instruments used in the translation process. However, the brown striated seer stone which came from a well Joseph dug before receiving the gold plates, was documented quite readily to have been used for various non-spiritual activities before he employed it to translate the Book of Mormon.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoF2fPri_NYei8Hp7CPLsj1zPcxW27B3OMGRHrhNulZfc6HCSXtjpvQv5tZRISFeWAX5QB0QEuHOE-nqgSuSJ_abtPSIsBeukGX2llTO4Z1SJrniwjiN-R1NZZzI5BGGceo0go_zRzU0/s1600/hemawitch_stones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoF2fPri_NYei8Hp7CPLsj1zPcxW27B3OMGRHrhNulZfc6HCSXtjpvQv5tZRISFeWAX5QB0QEuHOE-nqgSuSJ_abtPSIsBeukGX2llTO4Z1SJrniwjiN-R1NZZzI5BGGceo0go_zRzU0/s320/hemawitch_stones.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">LDS Historian at the time, Richman Bushard, had stated that the seer stone "hadn't been taught in church curriculum, institute or Sunday lesson material--only found in scholarly references…Just as with the general membership, LDS general authorities knew little or nothing about the seer stone before its rediscovery."</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">President Yuma S.B. Kidden, the 18th LDS prophet used the seer stone to receive many revelations, including sections of the New Book of Laws, which outlines celestial sealing equality for heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual and polysexual couples, and several sections on new <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2015/07/early-21st-century-financial-secrecy.html" target="_blank">investment strategies for the Zion wetlands in the state of <b>Deserwet</b></a> (formerly Florida). Until the 21st century rediscovery of the seer stone, there is no historical evidence that any prophet, since Joseph Smith, used it or any other instrument to receive revelation. The seer stone’s last known location prior to this was on the altar of the Manti temple at its dedication, and where allegedly President Woodruff used it as a paperweight to hold down drafts of his Manifesto.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Once revealed again in 2015 (found in the Granite Mountain in a long lost well that was covered by the patch blanket woven by Sisters Sheri Dew and Wendy Watson, <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2015/07/20th-century-leaders-and-gay-rights.html" target="_blank">the first sealed LDS gay couple</a>), the seer stone caused many members to ask whether or not it would be used to infuse the prophets with new revelation. Rediscovered, the stone led to the Second Latter-day Restoration and a plethora of new revelations, starting with President Kidden in the 21st century, and is the first indication of using the seer stone since Smith's martyrdom.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">President Kidden has said, "The Lord took away the Urim and Thummim, in order that the saints have faith, while giving them the actual seer stone used for nearly all revelations, in order that they might have blessings both then and now."</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Much controversy surrounds the early use of the seer stone by founder Joseph Smith. Many members, including leaders felt embarrassed and shocked by it due to <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2013/01/patriarchs-psychic-supremacists.html" target="_blank">its connection to the early 19th century supernatural and magical culture</a> of up-state New York surrounding Smith, and Joseph's use of stones as an instrument of picking up polygamous wives in LDS taverns. Despite its mortal foundation and common practices by Smith who used his large stones for treasure and wife hunting, God never repudiated the use of the seer stone and its employment in translating. This shows that by natural methods, and by small and simple means does the Lord bring about his great work and purpose.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Hence the great Second Latter-day Restoration catalyzed by its rediscovery allowed reformation of the LDS Church. In the process of revelation, divinity is mixed and melded with humanity. The culture of the prophet is as much a part of the revelatory word as is the divine message sent directly from God to his prophet. Since it was re-revealed, knowledge of the seer stone was absorbed in the standard lessons and curricula of church education.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.lds.org/bc/content/ldsorg/church/news/2015/08/06/620-church-releases-book-of-mormon-printers-manuscript_19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://www.lds.org/bc/content/ldsorg/church/news/2015/08/06/620-church-releases-book-of-mormon-printers-manuscript_19.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">That the seer stone has been installed in Church History museums within a year of its rediscovery has led some to question the Second Latter-day Restoration since the prophet did not actually hold the seer stone during the revelatory process. However, just as Joseph Smith did not hold the gold plates or use the Urim and Thummim, but rather placed the seer stone in a hat and put his head into its brim--proximity to the plates or other instruments are unneeded. Furthermore, with the advancement in technology of modern culture, the Lord may use new devices and methods that far exceed a 19th century stone to reveal modern revelation to the most recent prophets.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-65160728832958690342015-07-08T07:00:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.378-07:00Early 21st Century Financial Secrecy, Speculation and Salvation<br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">[A FUTURE LDS ESSAY TOPIC ON LDS FINANCIAL SECRECY]</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">(Hello, I am a guest writer on this blog. David T is out on sabbatical for personal reasons.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">During the first half of the 20th century, the Church endured financial hardships that encumbered the church monetary means and required revelations on tithing by Presidents Lorenzo Snow and Heber J. Grant. President Snow increased tithing reserves by maintaining a ten-percent on income (instead of increase) and President Grant renewed Church Sole ownership by chartering the Church as a <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/09/articles-of-incorporation-archive.html" target="_blank">Sole Corporation in 1923</a>. Since that time, the Church enjoyed prosperity and return on investment that allowed it to invest excess tithing into non-profit land speculations and business opportunities that overall, on average, yielded a net increase of over 15% annually. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Critics have often complained that the Church is more about money than about increasing its talents as the Lord counsels in the parable of the talents (See "<a href="https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/the-parable-of-the-talents?lang=eng" target="_blank">Parable of Talents</a>"). One of the most beneficial investments happened in the last quarter of the 20th century and through the first quarter of the 21st century with investments in land in Florida, including the Deseret Ranch and Panhandle Forestry Reserve, of Property Reserve, Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Corporation of the First Presidency of COJCOLDS (<a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/09/articles-of-incorporation-archive.html">The Sole Corporation of all incorporated businesses owned by the Church</a>). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">At the opening of the 21st century, the Church held approximately $60 Billion in assets and $15 Billion in liquid cash. (<a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-deseret-metropolis-state-review-20150704-story.html" target="_blank">See this news article for historical context.</a>) This value nearly tripled in value when development of the Deseret Ranch turned to residential estate management, which was pushed through by revelatory edict and proper inspired management in the Lord’s quorums. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-deseret-metropolis-state-review-20150704-story.html" target="_blank">Media of the time declared</a> that, <i>"The biggest development ever planned in Florida would cause no ‘adverse impacts’ to water, wetlands and wilderness in an enormous part of Osceola County, according to a brief statement by the state's top environmental agency."</i> Further that the development would bring, "<i>...rise of a Central Florida metropolis of a half-million residents within a 133,000-acre corner of the [Osceola] county."</i> Premature complaints that a <i>"...host of concerns about water supplies, transportation routes and population densities proposed ..."</i> were ill advised.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The investment and management by Church financial advisors tripled the Church assets in a mere decade by 2022, from $60 Billion to almost $200 Billion. The increase represented to most members at the time evidence of inspiration of the Lord’s anointed, but had been the subject of concern for many members of the US LDS congregation. This investment also marks the turn of membership increase to high levels of third world members (as the US membership diminished) which turned the tide of membership overwhelmingly to other nations outside of Americans. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2013/11/holy-golf-courses.html" target="_blank">Critics had predicted</a> such shifts in profit and wealth, suggesting it would lead to a reduction in Church membership. <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2015/05/theyre-all-about-christ.html" target="_blank">Their prophesies</a> proved false given the dramatic increase the Church saw worldwide due to its rapid rise in wealth and small increase in percent dedicated to humanitarian aide (from 1.8% to 2.6% in a decade of the first quarter of the 21st century), which attracted a vast influx of members in foreign lands. This abundant global wealth is in fulfillment that the word of the Lord would spread to all lands, tongues and people. Money, and investment, is necessary to spread the word of blessings to all lands. The Lord provides.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYpOS_TfLmns8GNDs5gaPdjuYgGICvBO6B8WyhtDukEiNFVpSWy80PEtUGSuVyS64P_BnWXWsqpJgaUdWhAe0bjvfhLX2NEV8FnApEJgJH2X0KP55PbAdsJpnVGDoX4IN5X03EO6YHeGk/s1600/os-deseret-ranches-development-preservation-20-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYpOS_TfLmns8GNDs5gaPdjuYgGICvBO6B8WyhtDukEiNFVpSWy80PEtUGSuVyS64P_BnWXWsqpJgaUdWhAe0bjvfhLX2NEV8FnApEJgJH2X0KP55PbAdsJpnVGDoX4IN5X03EO6YHeGk/s640/os-deseret-ranches-development-preservation-20-001.jpg" width="640" /></a>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-39481306284374163302015-07-07T13:00:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.399-07:0020th Century Leaders and Gay Rights<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">[A FUTURE LDS ESSAY TOPIC ON GAY RIGHTS]</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">(Hello, I am a guest writer on this blog. David T is out on sabbatical for personal reasons.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">In theology and practice, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints embraces the universal human family, loves all of God’s children and facilitates salvation to all diverse races and ethnicities while esteeming them all equally. As the Book of Mormon puts it, “all are alike unto God.” (See, 1.2 Nephi 26:33; Acts 10:34-35; 17:26; Romans 2:11; 10:12; Galatians 3:28.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The structure and organization of the modern Church encourage gender neutral integration and acceptance. By definition, this means that the sexual, economical, and demographical composition of Mormon congregations generally mirrors that of world communities. The Church’s lay ministry also tends to facilitate integration: a gay bishop may preside over a mostly heterosexual congregation; a lesbian woman may be paired with a straight woman to visit the homes of a martially diverse membership. Church members of different gender identities and sexualities regularly minister in one another’s homes and serve alongside one another as teachers, as youth leaders, and in myriad other assignments in their local congregations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Despite this modern reality, for most of its history--from the early and late 20th century to early 21st century—the Church did not accept homosexual members to its temple sealings or allow gay members to lead in priesthood or auxiliary functions, such as scouting or young men/women organizations. Even leaders of the late 20th century were misled to declare <a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng" target="_blank">“A Proclamation to the World”</a> on “The Family” where gender distinctions and prejudice were not just common but customary among faithful white Americans, and influenced all aspects of members’ lives. Under such cultural weight, the LDS leadership made personally misleading statements in so-called “Proclamations” as, <i>“Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose,”</i> and <i>“Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan.” </i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">During the first century of the Church’s existence, a few leaders engaged in polyamorous relationships within marriage, leading to sexual intimacy among men with other men, with women and other women, who were temporally and celestially sealed. These relationships, while not documented in acknowledged historicity of the 19th and 20th century, have recently come to light by LDS historians who have been given access to documents not-hitherto assessed. Historians have also re-assessed events surrounding Apostle Russel M. Nelson and his relationships with Wendy L. Watson and Sheri Dew (the first woman CEO of a major LDS corporation, namely Deseret Book). An interesting dynamic existed among Nelson, Watson and Dew. Despite that Nelson signed a petition by the “Religious Coalition for Marriage” including "a Letter from America's Religious Leaders in Defense of Marriage" demanding that the Constitution of the United States of America be amended to ban legalized same-sex marriage and define marriage "as the exclusive union of one man and one woman", recent LDS historians have uncovered that Nelson, Watson and Dew were actually secret advocates of same-sex marriage and polyamory. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Documents deep within Granite Mountain show that Russel M. Nelson was actually in favor of gay rights and believed that they deserve protection and respect equal to that others have enjoyed traditionally. To wit, Wendy L. Watson and Sheri L. Dew had been “best friends” for well over a decade in the last decade of the 20th century. In fact, in October, 2000, the women bought a vacation home together in Heber Valley (where the prophets of that era, Monson and many of the Apostles, had second or third homes). They were granted a warranty deed as “Wendy L. Watson, an unmarried person and Sheri L. Dew, an unmarried person, joint tenants” and later, in 2002, refinanced it together for $245,800, paying it off in 2007 and rearranging the ownership until at nearly 2020, they are both still listed together as co-owners, when Dew passed away after Nelson was recently deceased as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">There were some leaders that spoke out against gay rights in that same era, but were regarded by members and leaders as distorted and opinionated in ways not congruent with high LDS standards. For example, historians have admitted that Boyd K. Packer spoke insensitively, and is quoted: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"The dangers I speak of come from the gay-lesbian movement, the feminist movement (both of which are relatively new), and the ever-present challenge from the so-called scholars or intellectuals." (BKP. Talk to the All-Church Coordinating Council, May 18, 1993).</span></span></blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"That young man with gender disorientation needs to know that gender was not assigned at mortal birth, that we were sons and daughters of God in the premortal state.' ” (BKP, Case Reports of the Mormon Alliance. Volume 3, 1997. Salt Lake City, Utah: Mormon Alliance, 1997, chapter 9.)</span></span></blockquote><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“We've always counseled in the Church for our Mexican members to marry Mexicans, our Japanese members to marry Japanese, our Caucasians to marry Caucasians, our Polynesian members to marry Polynesians. The counsel has been wise. You may say again, ‘Well, I know of exceptions.’ I do, too, and they've been very successful marriages. I know some of them. You might even say, ‘I can show you local Church leaders or perhaps even general leaders who have married out of their race.’ I say, ‘Yes--exceptions.’ Then I would remind you of that Relief Society woman's near-scriptural statement, 'We'd like to follow the rule first, and then we'll take care of the exceptions.' " (BKP, 1977 BYU campus speech)</span><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">There are many other statements attributed to Boyd K. Packer about homosexuals during that era. At that time, news abounded that <span style="font-family: inherit;">the LDS Church was involved in California Proposition 8. The passage of California Proposition 8 during the November 2008 election has generated a number of criticisms of the Church regarding a variety of issues including the separation of church and state, the Church's position relative to people who experience same-sex attraction, accusations of bigotry by members, and the rights of a non-profit organization to participate in the democratic process on matters not associated with elections of candidates. The proposition added a single line to the state constitution defining marriage as being between "a man and a woman." The Church was alleged to have spent over $25 Million USD in its fight against same-sex marriage, but this was highly speculative and no evidence was ever uncovered in court to account for such charges. In fact, the Church in the 21st century since 2025 has spent twice as much, around $50 Million in support of gay rights in third world countries, where gay marriages were not accepted until decades later. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today, however, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that homosexuality is a sign o</span>f divine disfavor or sin, or that it reflects unrighteous actions in a premortal life; that gender disorientation or same-sex marriages are a sin; or that gays and lesbian unions are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all prejudice, past and present, in any form.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The 21st century Church today proclaims that redemption through Jesus Christ is available to the entire human family on the conditions God has prescribed. It affirms that God is “no respecter of persons” and emphatically declares that anyone who is righteous—regardless of sexuality—is favored of Him. The teachings of the Church in relation to God’s children are epitomized by a verse in the second book of Nephi: “[The Lord] denieth none that cometh unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; … all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.” (See 2 Nephi 26:33).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIFk2lam3qAlAaLcHBNRkqr_LMZKaHNonzFBaKiRuGTCXjU98uSZJ5ZG3hMppYAWeggFw3E182p6nTdpM6jha12l4PrmKQ_fwpkMiEi5Kd_1EeiKkGus2k2kaSvQ2rZ14hmJOqZA-cxMQ/s1600/gay_mormon_temple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIFk2lam3qAlAaLcHBNRkqr_LMZKaHNonzFBaKiRuGTCXjU98uSZJ5ZG3hMppYAWeggFw3E182p6nTdpM6jha12l4PrmKQ_fwpkMiEi5Kd_1EeiKkGus2k2kaSvQ2rZ14hmJOqZA-cxMQ/s640/gay_mormon_temple.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-20118295937754791652015-05-18T13:30:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.472-07:00They're all about Christ?<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Paul wrote in an epistle that you could be a world-class general conference speaker. You could prophesy the Higgs Boson, God Particle and end-of-days calamities. That you could unlock secrets of immortal life. You could be a billionaire philanthropist. You could build bombs that destroy evil nations that usher in the millennium...</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">But if you don't have the love of Christ, called charity, you really suck at Christianity.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Here's the actual KJV quote from Corinthians:</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." (1 Corinthians 13: 1-3)</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">You heard it at <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2013/11/holy-golf-courses.html" target="_blank">my blog in 2013</a>, based on personal communications I've had with other developers in my area. The LDS church truly wants money. They want to take their so-called charity ranch in central Florida and turn it into a hundred billion dollar development for their future benefit.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">My hometown paper, the Orlando Sentinel, is reporting what I essentially said two years ago.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">"[LDS Owned] Deseret Ranches and Osceola County's vision for accommodating a half-million residents on an enormous piece of ranch east of Orlando has triggered an environmental dispute that could be tough for even the state to solve.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The development plan for the 133,000 acres..."</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">See this Sentinel <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/osceola/os-deseret-ranch-conservation-debate-20150515-story.html" target="_blank">pay-per-view link</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">But don't worry, no animals were harmed in the making of this money, nor direct tithing used to make a fortune.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Really? So let's think about the cycle of LDS monies investment.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">When they receive donations--whether tithing, fast offering, missionary, humanitarian or whatever--they explicitly say they have a right to use your donation however they want. </span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1kVLQNWyLt5-UnJGJxyjk0v5Z3e-_H3lWe5nje3ssrPJja_si-MP_M2DnVunU4tdQOVqfnS4iQuaAafJWJOryn4z8LxmY3lOSkUF9kF7Gl88VNIEDnFuhpEqGs4xFhGAVI8NBhCSaOhs/s1600/tithingslip.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1kVLQNWyLt5-UnJGJxyjk0v5Z3e-_H3lWe5nje3ssrPJja_si-MP_M2DnVunU4tdQOVqfnS4iQuaAafJWJOryn4z8LxmY3lOSkUF9kF7Gl88VNIEDnFuhpEqGs4xFhGAVI8NBhCSaOhs/s1600/tithingslip.jpg" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">This is written into their<a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/09/articles-of-incorporation-archive.html" target="_blank"> incorporation documents </a>and bylaws. The second article says: "This corporation shall have power, without any authority or authorization from the members of said Church or religious society, to grant, sell, convey, rent, mortgage, exchange, or otherwise dispose of any part or all of such property."</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfGXW4vqQW0Lyxwqe-U627Ejw3-nlWx_CLnwALc3jUGViEqnGY0vX22cMKUJlUCp_qFCbzEOaTfGrSzHz9SvIUrQ0GMXVqRpWFTD0MdFwVo9A4mqy26cUHCgRWHngAMPPCIb36GaXBusE/s1600/LDS+investment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfGXW4vqQW0Lyxwqe-U627Ejw3-nlWx_CLnwALc3jUGViEqnGY0vX22cMKUJlUCp_qFCbzEOaTfGrSzHz9SvIUrQ0GMXVqRpWFTD0MdFwVo9A4mqy26cUHCgRWHngAMPPCIb36GaXBusE/s640/LDS+investment.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">They take your donation, invest it into interest or investment bearing accounts. Scoop the excess interest or investment cash and put that into for-profit ventures. They pay themselves from that so they can tell members the GAs do not steal tithing money, and then they use the excess for other investments which yield profits that are "donated" to LDS charity so the for-profit venture has little tax burden. The laundry cycle begins again.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">What to do with all that excess, tax-free investment cash?</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Put it down on huge developments that will rape the environment and yield a boatload of surplus they can use when the members wise up and stop donating.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Yes, the move to a for-profit venture per the "winding up" and "dissolution" clause of the LDS corporation article on incorporation is in full swing.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">I began telling you this in 2013. The Orlando Sentinel is now telling you again.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Stay tuned to see if the Mormon lawyers can force FL counties to let them bankroll a hundred billion dollar development. Of course, this is because they're such a charitable church.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-56169300166312265982015-05-18T08:00:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.486-07:00Through Fasting and Praying comes...<span style="font-size: large;">Ok, it's true, <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2015/05/re-taking-missionary-discussions.html" target="_blank">that last blog was an attention whore post.</a> I'm not re-taking the missionary discussions. Not exactly -- I am re-visitng them (see below). I didn't actually write that I was re-taking the discussions (I just used it in the title of the blog). I implied it, and yes, it was misleading, so I apologize.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">It was a trick--a short lived one. So are the emotional tricks of Mormonism that fool people everyday. Such is the parallel here to what I have done -- to show how "conversion" is an emotional manipulation trick. The LDS missionary discussions use a build up and an emotional tug to trick people into buying their story.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">No, I'm not reconverting to Mormonism or to any religion. Yes, I had a very emotional experience a few weeks ago. But I know, and most of my readers know that this is physiological and it is explicable. Transcendent or not, it is still biology.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">To illustrate the point I am making, I am re-visiting my missionary journal. This is an act of vulnerability. I was a silly, immature, caught-up in the MTC moment kid. And I'm embarrassed by how loopy I was then. Perhaps I still am.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">To wit, here are the first few entries of my own missionary journal. At the end, I talk about a very specific spiritual experience you might find interesting.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">---</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>9 Agosto - El Jueves</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Well I can't believe it's finally here! My mission has just started and the MTC is going to be great. It was a long day full of orientations and meetings. It would all wear me out except for the terrific spirit here keeps me going. This whole day has been one big spiritual experience. My district is all going to my same mission. ...</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We met our teachers and branch president. They all seem nice, and I'll say more about them tomorrow it's going to be hard to learn and study everything that needs to be done. I know I can do it with the help of the Lord! They might make a missionary out of me yet!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>12 Agosto – El Domingo</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In branch meetings today, we had a short testimony meeting and some of the elders who are getting ready to ship out bore their testimony. I felt a spirit, but not as much as I thought I should. They seem so sure of what they are about to do in the field, and I want to. I don’t know if I can speak with as much power as some of them. They’ve had spiritual experiences that proved the church is true. While I believe and feel the spirit, I don’t have that same experience. It makes me worried I won’t make a good missionary. Then after meeting, our branch president, Elder P___ interviewed our distrito and he heled me on some personal problems I had. He also told me to be patient with my full testimony. That if I fast and pray, it will come. I plan to do a long fast soon.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>16 Agosto – El Jueves</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I can't believe it's been a week. The time has gone by so fast. It's surprising how much I have gotten done. I started the baptismal commitment discussion today and learned it real fast in about 2 hours. I passed it off with two mistakes with pronunciation, but I got every word in. That's a great feeling. We’re supposed to get the investigators to commit to baptism after the first discussion or by the second. It feels fast to me, but I know the Lord has blessed me and helps me with Spanish and my testimony so that I can be a powerful missionary. I started a fast last night and continued all day today. I’m looking to have a spiritual experience like the ones I heard the elders leaving the MTC told us about on Sunday. I’m already feeling a little weak and praying all the time is harder than I thought. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>17 Agosto – El Viernes</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I'll tell you today was one big experience! I woke up really tired and cranky probably because I have been fasting. Today the district was falling apart. We all went our separate ways during P-Day. And we quit doing things together. I switch companions to get a haircut and the spirit about us was terrible. I think the whole district lost it. We could sense something was wrong in our night class. During scripture study after the teacher left, we talked for a little and decided to pray to get the spirit back together. After praying the spirit was better in the room. Then our teacher Elder M___ returned and was showing us how to present a discussion. He did it in English, and at the beginning he mentioned that by the end of the lesson we would feel the spirit very strongly. I was worried because I felt like my testimony was wavering even as I was fasting and praying so much. Near the end of his lesson I felt a little something strange I thought maybe I was tired or something because it felt like the light in the room had gotten a little brighter. My head then cleared. Like I could think faster. And then I felt like I was floating above my chair, and I was happy. Like the world was so beautiful. At that point Elder M____ turn to me and asked me if I was feeling something. And I barely got the words out that something was happening when I felt consumed or like my whole body was taken over by the feelings that had started. I was floating I knew right away what I was feeling; it was the spirit. It was almost as if I had left my body. Light headed and very pleasant, comforting and peaceful. It lasted for many minutes. I’m not sure how long. When I came back down, tired and I expected to be hungry, but I didn't feel like I needed to eat. I knew the Lord had answered my prayers. I had wanted a spiritual experience so that I could have proof in my soul to take to the mission field. I felt so elated that I just bore my testimony right there in class.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">---</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Was I experiencing a true spiritual experience?</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The experience on that last entry is probably what some call Fasting Ketosis. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The <a href="http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/ketosis-symptoms.html" target="_blank">process of ketosis</a> is one of the physiological effects of fasting in which the brain (and some other bodily processes) produces and uses ketones produced from fatty tissues as a fuel instead of the usual glucose. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">"Anecdotal evidence links the initial phase of fasting or a low-carbohydrate diet with feelings of well-being and mild euphoria. These feelings have often been attributed to ketosis, the production of ketone bodies which can replace glucose as an energy source for the brain." </span><span style="font-size: large;">See </span><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987706005779" style="font-size: x-large;">http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987706005779</a><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6zxUMiFbK4ZqdTBjBKJSOPiU203PtTE2ajnmMRaDvAPMiE-C8Uy5xMYfx_swxQJCqvHAomgLoN24cORXBPyxVymycBhUgzmSpw9iS4nrVU7aY9A6oAXOSsGKBgDnDyd6gYpYidZ8uOAY/s1600/DSC00721_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6zxUMiFbK4ZqdTBjBKJSOPiU203PtTE2ajnmMRaDvAPMiE-C8Uy5xMYfx_swxQJCqvHAomgLoN24cORXBPyxVymycBhUgzmSpw9iS4nrVU7aY9A6oAXOSsGKBgDnDyd6gYpYidZ8uOAY/s400/DSC00721_small.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijkFE9tGhAWIjCXroBWCVkVn4X2UqUgLsGl2YEBsrIx7kOr_cqBAhxLAfbrPV8P5J5O_UZaVT10YRPIQ4-3RvMBWfCG5ajFI_oNRr6ueCtBEEeqzwQ-Kw53KP9Q_LwyRYJRwBbwYzfqWc/s1600/DSC00719_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijkFE9tGhAWIjCXroBWCVkVn4X2UqUgLsGl2YEBsrIx7kOr_cqBAhxLAfbrPV8P5J5O_UZaVT10YRPIQ4-3RvMBWfCG5ajFI_oNRr6ueCtBEEeqzwQ-Kw53KP9Q_LwyRYJRwBbwYzfqWc/s400/DSC00719_small.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNv2ko9jMoWdLRUBkRnRpQqQ6-PSPU5f3NFkQHnJySAMuQpFOa1VmRR4sMOelpU7XDvKrJTEsbL092SmQAuVkjuYu_1kvlkZGYSvY_nagezG5DCkxcsxF89ZjtVSJff-imUkK-b3TcAmA/s1600/DSC00720_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNv2ko9jMoWdLRUBkRnRpQqQ6-PSPU5f3NFkQHnJySAMuQpFOa1VmRR4sMOelpU7XDvKrJTEsbL092SmQAuVkjuYu_1kvlkZGYSvY_nagezG5DCkxcsxF89ZjtVSJff-imUkK-b3TcAmA/s400/DSC00720_small.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-37203746078089940532015-05-05T09:00:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.507-07:00On Bended Knees<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In my <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2015/05/i-had-spiritual-experience.html" target="_blank">previous blog post</a>, I described a very personal experience while photographing cypress knees that could be called spiritual or transcendent. At the outset, I will admit, I do not have the answers, but I feel the same needs that others—believers or unbelievers—have felt. I ache just like you. Some accuse atheists and agnostics of being hard-hearted and unfeeling on what others call the spiritual. It’s not true. We feel it too, but perhaps we humbly accept that the answer is not yet in focus.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgum8wobmOQsO3qZ6tZdpHc7PqdGXsPH4XPUbweUsMmDW9FRyUbVd-2dLuc0yGEiEb40eoTIGAd1lYfB5GE4_NsabLSZhO0aB2U8oRw7JaH2kHqGTKaFhKDtyt7PTiwRObwUVq1Eb2CPQ/s1600/IMG_3455_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgum8wobmOQsO3qZ6tZdpHc7PqdGXsPH4XPUbweUsMmDW9FRyUbVd-2dLuc0yGEiEb40eoTIGAd1lYfB5GE4_NsabLSZhO0aB2U8oRw7JaH2kHqGTKaFhKDtyt7PTiwRObwUVq1Eb2CPQ/s1600/IMG_3455_web.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">(click on the images to see any of them larger)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</div><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The diversity of human individual experience leads to a diversity of belief. I find in the cypress knees vast iconic representations of the spectrum of belief. I wrote before that the uniqueness of these is like the uniqueness of experience each of us has that lead us to where we stand today. No knee is truly the same, but they are all of the same genus, and in groups they sprout from a common tree. Each knee representing distinct experiences of the one--some growing large, some remaining small.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEzTrjve9_pZ88sLDmtRgacUm1jvjhbvVhKvYGkA6NUY4wuixh3cnHDDCTeKmTGcTVg9xQLJ8XQO2WR-jlk33ehcdkJDKcw9MIJvmnbVJt1XAwWbvBRt2jv7_LzkosSsUHT7_3SOU1IBo/s1600/IMG_1540_BW_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEzTrjve9_pZ88sLDmtRgacUm1jvjhbvVhKvYGkA6NUY4wuixh3cnHDDCTeKmTGcTVg9xQLJ8XQO2WR-jlk33ehcdkJDKcw9MIJvmnbVJt1XAwWbvBRt2jv7_LzkosSsUHT7_3SOU1IBo/s1600/IMG_1540_BW_web.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One common element humans have is a yearning for an answer to a question we haven’t yet completely formalized. I really wish I knew the answer, if there is even an answer. But what am I questioning? It seems we all ask, generally—is there meaning in our chaotic and seemingly random life?</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Dn52n0xAFf2IWIVaw55DsvPcgL141y_78KA4TAEd8HmxzoV8YFAVeTnitQIlH4zg4Prx-uxFyRf6rI1Ju0ounAI7HJ8Pwx_809cTkBjPhjHNAL9WIhReQAz0OBGveoT88ctOLEsbTvk/s1600/IMG_0022_edit_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Dn52n0xAFf2IWIVaw55DsvPcgL141y_78KA4TAEd8HmxzoV8YFAVeTnitQIlH4zg4Prx-uxFyRf6rI1Ju0ounAI7HJ8Pwx_809cTkBjPhjHNAL9WIhReQAz0OBGveoT88ctOLEsbTvk/s1600/IMG_0022_edit_web.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I've studied the various forms of answers. I found so many and really no answers. At times I feel beaten by life; at others I find awareness raised as I look across the various forms and shadows we sculpt into meaning.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtxtRmGDR-8oyRxJV4IwIJX3Id3HFdrhaYFbfC_YuQ7b87JrwwEM0x74E8aRP8x0AHNtDND9kBCRpjwhOHu0eDX5tAk5oZKCAm1r2cJuW1tzA81yz6ecH6eerCvuzuG0cUsIqKHzlEW-c/s1600/IMG_3432_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtxtRmGDR-8oyRxJV4IwIJX3Id3HFdrhaYFbfC_YuQ7b87JrwwEM0x74E8aRP8x0AHNtDND9kBCRpjwhOHu0eDX5tAk5oZKCAm1r2cJuW1tzA81yz6ecH6eerCvuzuG0cUsIqKHzlEW-c/s1600/IMG_3432_web.jpg" width="266" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some find meaning in family. I dedicated my former life to this view. These build up a philosophy about a blessed mother and perfect child who became the deliverer of meaning through expiation, binding the family together. It drives at the most essential connection every person has—the desire for comfort and familiarity in the embrace of loved ones. However, for some, family hurts when human weakness injures their bonds. They look for self-reliance and abandon the pain.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm5cmVig6A-Jz-a62gi4Dr_2kEEAfAUOHeyCYHpZv-HqZV1EQWCgpjnI5QCI2BfUen6lnjhFjNJxpUG6nCpC6PFBKZx3GhoB3y4EulVJqLhUyFccoHepHHKZkN7fbjSKMvIMZ8E5TvWKM/s1600/IMG_3402_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm5cmVig6A-Jz-a62gi4Dr_2kEEAfAUOHeyCYHpZv-HqZV1EQWCgpjnI5QCI2BfUen6lnjhFjNJxpUG6nCpC6PFBKZx3GhoB3y4EulVJqLhUyFccoHepHHKZkN7fbjSKMvIMZ8E5TvWKM/s1600/IMG_3402_web.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some find meaning in pondering. In my post-Mormon exploration I have pursued a solitary search. Seclusion allows an inner-focused practice of contemplating the meaning of self, and sometimes finding the eradication of ego. Meditation has even found support in factual neuroscience, but by digging deeply into the psyche, it vanishes and meaning evaporates along with it. For some it is a truth they accept humbly; for many the yearning remains unsatisfied.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyBawxAp7F2rSDvD1Ujib1W2HDILos7LBFSSihWPdicTFHShyRhyQhw1O7WcNhOogaMoRZ52KoQuHtyG8hiwH7_YpzJ1e08W8K1YDsnRhF6jHakxb40cYcwOp7RnM2jTsaSdU2xnYJSOM/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyBawxAp7F2rSDvD1Ujib1W2HDILos7LBFSSihWPdicTFHShyRhyQhw1O7WcNhOogaMoRZ52KoQuHtyG8hiwH7_YpzJ1e08W8K1YDsnRhF6jHakxb40cYcwOp7RnM2jTsaSdU2xnYJSOM/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web36.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some find meaning in pleasure. Each of us has punctuated moments of self-indulgence. If there is no meaning, then the import is gratification. Life is short enough to waste, they say, and squander time on meaningless pursuits of elusive meaning. Hedonism promises instant rewards, and ancient religions and fertility gods such as Min have been devoted to its pursuit.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisFgRJ1GRlA6fC7vOcbOR86bk2WNVx2o83TPYau5oxVZ4lEfG2wywtDEBpcu-rBRxV2A6LqhD3q98mIlnAxbc18-VTfM1odZiEVGb3_Z2qgJsuk-89bMAcs2gbnz1KrGN9-pg5xB02aQ0/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisFgRJ1GRlA6fC7vOcbOR86bk2WNVx2o83TPYau5oxVZ4lEfG2wywtDEBpcu-rBRxV2A6LqhD3q98mIlnAxbc18-VTfM1odZiEVGb3_Z2qgJsuk-89bMAcs2gbnz1KrGN9-pg5xB02aQ0/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web40.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some find meaning in life after life after life. The impoverished find themselves unable to devote time to philosophical searches or hedonistic paths. This life has starved them of rewards and peace. Facts are useless to the hungry. They hold to the promise of life after life, where we live many different versions to gain a broader and more complete perspective. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtPx4njf6lFi8dPGRHy42FSbtFnY62TXqHwLurzLHOnD5f_aPae4o7SN4WtCt7jQeLGObU50-KPUbAKOxJHZG9YRu22CTLNYmNPjvUUxEX3PBrJ9wxApWedHnOai9mprByoiJWtS68_zw/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtPx4njf6lFi8dPGRHy42FSbtFnY62TXqHwLurzLHOnD5f_aPae4o7SN4WtCt7jQeLGObU50-KPUbAKOxJHZG9YRu22CTLNYmNPjvUUxEX3PBrJ9wxApWedHnOai9mprByoiJWtS68_zw/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web24.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some find meaning in facts and science—the field in which I work. My art is based on my own scientific pursuits in technology to sense unseen light. I have patents in detection of unseen light. Science delivers, as seen in the exponential burst of technology that even promises to save us from universal hunger, from pain to deliver prime </span>fulfillment<span style="font-family: inherit;">, and perhaps even reward future generations with immortality. Facts, however, yield no meaning to the yearning about deeper purpose. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6EBbqhyEQBKkkfbO7uQDSM9TownzcSSVLPC4c6DXYtk1IagUW2dcz2Kb0_VZpOHx_QXOQTL11qbrBivx8DfdZ8YatSuLq_vCPtj-m_FdHR6AwPDiJK5DHkjUZJ9wOlxWR7E0PHEfYvws/s1600/IMG_3380_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6EBbqhyEQBKkkfbO7uQDSM9TownzcSSVLPC4c6DXYtk1IagUW2dcz2Kb0_VZpOHx_QXOQTL11qbrBivx8DfdZ8YatSuLq_vCPtj-m_FdHR6AwPDiJK5DHkjUZJ9wOlxWR7E0PHEfYvws/s1600/IMG_3380_web.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And even some find peace in ignoring all meaning, and relaxing like my cat along the lazy river a quiet life provides. He doesn't need meaning; just a good scratch behind his ears. Carefree, </span>whimsical, <span style="font-family: inherit;"> happy, unburdened and able to just ignore the yearn that irritates the rest. These happy-go-lucky souls supply an embrace of solace on our journey to wherever this quest takes us.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiALOhyeKPiaRTimLHupZna7tKLRPnzFtC7b9ytCDm6OeERfoMsgSB1BsL_BcrwXSbFKCSBBj_DhHIqQOJeEoXsWSRbWVtmSJCZaUUCvOKb_8ezNR0341y-AFt-OJcAJkyz23C32VQOpVs/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiALOhyeKPiaRTimLHupZna7tKLRPnzFtC7b9ytCDm6OeERfoMsgSB1BsL_BcrwXSbFKCSBBj_DhHIqQOJeEoXsWSRbWVtmSJCZaUUCvOKb_8ezNR0341y-AFt-OJcAJkyz23C32VQOpVs/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web25.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Not one school of study, not a single philosophy, nor a particular creed actually has the full gamut of satisfying promises, fact and peace. Some have peace, but lack extraordinary promises of treasure beyond the earthly. Some have fact and study, but lack the peaceful answer to the hunger of meaning. Some have promise of splendor hereafter, but lack facts to support their claim. Many interesting narratives exist. Diversity of individuals find different narratives satisfying.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyyz-XP2lOVbTaXkJAS-DlDagTeb2Lqnz-adw-ZPG1953uuD8Lh5AYV3ol78zsPw_Nt12wXwTvfKw2aElSTFn29LCnjMBxnyUejLbuj6XEM8NiWkZn-esskX78kFV-oh4BkgZNPAxrA9U/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyyz-XP2lOVbTaXkJAS-DlDagTeb2Lqnz-adw-ZPG1953uuD8Lh5AYV3ol78zsPw_Nt12wXwTvfKw2aElSTFn29LCnjMBxnyUejLbuj6XEM8NiWkZn-esskX78kFV-oh4BkgZNPAxrA9U/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web12.jpg" width="265" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I ache for answers like you. Why must some claim they have the answer, when they lack some component of the full triangle of human yearning? Even my preferential bias toward science has left me incomplete. While I don’t subscribe to any religion, I still feel that science has its biases based on the foundation of incomplete, evolved human sensory organs. We may have expanded our detection well beyond biology through instrumentation, but we have not come close to the boundary on defining reality. Our ego tunnel—that narrow cone of what we perceive is real—is still primitive. </span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ErEt0roDUTkzG-KHu51j5-Da4R-o4HOjl6L5rYXOeKsY_A6Ej-hg5oJepQ1Xbr7uHGVig5Z6EeAFNEhlmHUjdX8dJ0VCp8MNCSDGrTTODH6KyLvOasKLfmlnB7PWElZ5JczULijL3D8/s1600/IMG_3316_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ErEt0roDUTkzG-KHu51j5-Da4R-o4HOjl6L5rYXOeKsY_A6Ej-hg5oJepQ1Xbr7uHGVig5Z6EeAFNEhlmHUjdX8dJ0VCp8MNCSDGrTTODH6KyLvOasKLfmlnB7PWElZ5JczULijL3D8/s1600/IMG_3316_web.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Religions have just as much bias and narrow-minded ego tunnels, when they claim to have a connection to "otherly plains" and "ethereal beings", but their predictions and factual answers are shown time and time again at odds with well-established measurements. While they have imagination, they lack grounded facts. Despite this, they call “hard-hearted” those of us who unpretentiously hold to the limited facts we do have.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTJU_CfQTi661YomdrN921ntqivJB-Ztw6b7Zvau_EXRgmrflMOmwHb3BesohaHhj-fsw08y0hWAnyaO-IIAtfbEUNiUVe95b30pUcy1Oucnn4IIJ4sf3mYZ4-YKliQBbVWXesknjDuiw/s1600/IMG_3413_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTJU_CfQTi661YomdrN921ntqivJB-Ztw6b7Zvau_EXRgmrflMOmwHb3BesohaHhj-fsw08y0hWAnyaO-IIAtfbEUNiUVe95b30pUcy1Oucnn4IIJ4sf3mYZ4-YKliQBbVWXesknjDuiw/s1600/IMG_3413_web.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">None of us has the answers. All of us yearn with questions. Most of us are a combination of all the above approaches. The terrain tread by humanity is vast. Each of us needs respect for the sole-wandering, awe-inspiring thirst of others. My journey of capturing unseen light represents to me the search for unanswered questions. In promoting this blog, and moving toward an art show (which I call, <i>"On Bended Knees"</i>) centered on these topics, I continue building the examples of surreal lit cypress knees that exemplify diversity of thought, uniqueness of individual experience and iconic human narration. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8kqoftsVyXN2QzjwepYM2EU8kxqhRn-pIvApYV2dt7vgE8ZpAQ4LRF7LokZaj7-kqE1iEPVqlp3tdciKlKtEI3oCr-v7yj4Qrb69g-DfFyvJp7Wlf0PH7mQbwdjhZLSDE4MlhTfOjMjg/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8kqoftsVyXN2QzjwepYM2EU8kxqhRn-pIvApYV2dt7vgE8ZpAQ4LRF7LokZaj7-kqE1iEPVqlp3tdciKlKtEI3oCr-v7yj4Qrb69g-DfFyvJp7Wlf0PH7mQbwdjhZLSDE4MlhTfOjMjg/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web13.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><div><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are times </span>in one's life <span style="font-family: inherit;">when we are enormously connected with the world, the universe or whatever higher power to which you ascribe, that the simplest thing reveals enormous detail. You find the weave of a sweater or the glistening light from a plastic water bottle just amazing. Something as simple and humble as a muddy root can teach us much about beauty, love and tolerance. We can touch the hand that reaches for us from deep within ourselves, even if just in form of Plato's shadow.</span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgndR9rQsh7JrM6Zx1_AD94U6Gg6PTRSyQR101wNLImwko3VZgrlJwrL-FDSM8LO0AvzlJcAxGXkTToi4BUH924K8WjhsMcC6eBd7N6HhfUXBhmnN4m9O5i_8TGSFeG8Kt4JTGjoeb5eM4/s1600/IMG_3264_crop_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgndR9rQsh7JrM6Zx1_AD94U6Gg6PTRSyQR101wNLImwko3VZgrlJwrL-FDSM8LO0AvzlJcAxGXkTToi4BUH924K8WjhsMcC6eBd7N6HhfUXBhmnN4m9O5i_8TGSFeG8Kt4JTGjoeb5eM4/s1600/IMG_3264_crop_web.jpg" width="426" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">-- my own hand's shadow across the "cypress hand" --</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use.)</span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-30780176519942271332015-05-03T13:00:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.530-07:00I Had a Spiritual Experience Today<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Perhaps I should call it a transcendent experience. </span><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Most of my readers know a few things about me personally--such as I consider myself an agnostic-atheist since leaving Mormonism. And that I engage in an artistic pursuit using full-spectrum photography. I post examples on almost every blog I write here. About 15 years ago I began taking apart digital cameras and modifying them to sense light that is not visible to our eyes. The camera receives colors in the ultraviolet and the near infrared that exist in abundance all around us unseen. Then the camera electronically translates the unseen light into a new message of visual interpretation that I have called my Surreal Color World. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDblrw079LCgIcmxb8EzV3qLiY4g7uu4eM4N4Gxf5WTb0pfZIikpsgzNLEoMQBGqqIDJtND4HW950dmQTa6w69qnpwCoH6Itw8UvamrrTXkV4NvS6iKaknbdstln1YmxzkUiEtv_dMlUY/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDblrw079LCgIcmxb8EzV3qLiY4g7uu4eM4N4Gxf5WTb0pfZIikpsgzNLEoMQBGqqIDJtND4HW950dmQTa6w69qnpwCoH6Itw8UvamrrTXkV4NvS6iKaknbdstln1YmxzkUiEtv_dMlUY/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web05.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">(click on the images to see any of them larger)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In the past few weeks, after a relationship breakup, I have been focusing my attention on a new subject of Cypress Knees surrounding where I live in Florida, with a new optical filter I recently developed to make more vivid the surreal colorism of my world view that I created well over a decade ago. Following are a few examples of the scenery, seen in a new light, I encountered in my meanderings along the Shingle Creek banks in Central Florida. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr91-br0PggBIRBQpT68k0CYSvQJSe91Tinp1bcbAksM-_ZyBj-xbAt8bC5XranWL_8sbhGJrsmo9nN2nsCH_pB5g1yqkeo03l0fAwbyaYScy8PFI8NlT36Gk1Wpo72M4d_hcTmo9BElQ/s1600/IMG_3378_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr91-br0PggBIRBQpT68k0CYSvQJSe91Tinp1bcbAksM-_ZyBj-xbAt8bC5XranWL_8sbhGJrsmo9nN2nsCH_pB5g1yqkeo03l0fAwbyaYScy8PFI8NlT36Gk1Wpo72M4d_hcTmo9BElQ/s1600/IMG_3378_web.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">While I was out today (Sunday, May 3, 2015) and listening to piano music on my headphones, the songs moved from serene piano baroque pieces to contemporary pieces. Songs like Canon in D, well known to me, played in the back as I snapped shot after shot of lovely scenics.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs6zTfG5354j1s7b6-u5cZAESEX_ipm1nu5RuDhx07ziAr1gR-lU9sqVehG8XGwaaVijesphsGsLCVvEgb_2ZFpmSEqdUji4gJcnaX8jF5vVwkSJYGs4SEevLapwhLNv4-JPU-5lOQ1M8/s1600/IMG_3279_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs6zTfG5354j1s7b6-u5cZAESEX_ipm1nu5RuDhx07ziAr1gR-lU9sqVehG8XGwaaVijesphsGsLCVvEgb_2ZFpmSEqdUji4gJcnaX8jF5vVwkSJYGs4SEevLapwhLNv4-JPU-5lOQ1M8/s1600/IMG_3279_web.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">A popish version of the instrumental song “Hallelujah” played by Brian Crain ("Piano and Light" album)--it's one my ex GF loved--and my thoughts reminisced that about a decade ago the song would have meant more to me. As the song transitioned to another, I came across a cypress knee that took the form of a hand. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNypX-A25aGm5LNToYwrL2r0ujdfYSaqp1kC45cAgxdmyoGhsTV59lAAkNfagKjDwqgjXmdVsyJQUq3oqpk3Q-pHJiCRVgUF-8EcoxWFufeV3qwB6HX2P6c75V2mKbMhnk0AsFIRr4gl8/s1600/IMG_3268_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNypX-A25aGm5LNToYwrL2r0ujdfYSaqp1kC45cAgxdmyoGhsTV59lAAkNfagKjDwqgjXmdVsyJQUq3oqpk3Q-pHJiCRVgUF-8EcoxWFufeV3qwB6HX2P6c75V2mKbMhnk0AsFIRr4gl8/s1600/IMG_3268_web.jpg" height="353" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The song became the theme piece from the movie <i>American Beauty</i>, which when I saw not long after I had left religion and become agnostic-atheist, had a profound impact upon me. There I listened and took in the surreal beauty around me. The symbolism of the very present subject took on a direct connection to emotions that were bubbling up inside me. An unseen hand of a sort touched a chord deep inside me. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15vA4XGdoPOuFmLg-dVomsDDS8PedY9YQsCmFtDRBjv8gfQoIhLRjx8gGaMnerloqugB3MwVouWBya0eg_MdCfTsJrGhwxeFkRLO09CAEkQpFQDxW0cQjOLWhO3PF5R2wD4R1JQhgicU/s1600/IMG_3298_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15vA4XGdoPOuFmLg-dVomsDDS8PedY9YQsCmFtDRBjv8gfQoIhLRjx8gGaMnerloqugB3MwVouWBya0eg_MdCfTsJrGhwxeFkRLO09CAEkQpFQDxW0cQjOLWhO3PF5R2wD4R1JQhgicU/s1600/IMG_3298_web.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I felt overpowered by the beauty of nature that we can’t even perceive with our natural eyes. There is so much hidden under our limited experiential abilities, our narrow ego tunnel of squat human sensory bandwidth. Seeing the colors, shadows, illuminations, dimensions in the viewfinder of my altered camera opened me to the idea that the world is so beautiful and we barely realize it. I started to analyze it, but felt the emotive sensation evaporating as I did, so I stopped and let it flow. It filled me up, passing through me, and I bodily-felt vision and visually-saw beyond where my eyes could see. No, I didn’t see anything actually real, but I felt it out there. I felt that I was with it on all sides of myself. I wished I could absorb it all, and grow with it. I yearned to slow down all the feelings that rushed by me. I heard words in my mind call out, <i>“There has to be more. This can't be all there is to it.”</i> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja3Le8QiYTnYY02jxmApvCOKZqSgCVvqjUYLh99xn_NW8ivoX2TPmf767W9PbqqYtC5R8bMOcCAB68fdkBoXdQ47vCysOfcVmoFwnsrn63tyUPN_aenmWJwU19ntFIKimbd87IN-tibpY/s1600/IMG_3305_web.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja3Le8QiYTnYY02jxmApvCOKZqSgCVvqjUYLh99xn_NW8ivoX2TPmf767W9PbqqYtC5R8bMOcCAB68fdkBoXdQ47vCysOfcVmoFwnsrn63tyUPN_aenmWJwU19ntFIKimbd87IN-tibpY/s1600/IMG_3305_web.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />Meaning took hold without being defined. I knew there was a meaning to all of this and while I couldn’t verbalize any of that meaning, it felt logical and real for a transient breath of thought. Maybe, I questioned for the first time in almost a decade, just maybe there is purpose and something beyond, or perhaps higher, than us. Instinct from many years ago almost took me over—to fall to my knees and call upon something—as I was overcome by this lost or perhaps tossed-away feeling, now returned as an older friend with new wisdoms and insights learned during our separation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT1fdjpIPUCHkj1y5k6odRa7nO3szpiciDoRwO6AqFa7101qiiWV9d132miblZ7efpb04mKfzHQSZckeetBdDkcR5aAztTRuAuDelXn0PrPO8-6OW3c99jonv3i0GthJ02ocSLgRKWkd4/s1600/IMG_3331_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT1fdjpIPUCHkj1y5k6odRa7nO3szpiciDoRwO6AqFa7101qiiWV9d132miblZ7efpb04mKfzHQSZckeetBdDkcR5aAztTRuAuDelXn0PrPO8-6OW3c99jonv3i0GthJ02ocSLgRKWkd4/s1600/IMG_3331_web.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Years ago I would have interpreted this strictly in the religious context in which I was raised. When I had developed surreal color photography over a decade ago, I had felt these connections and near mystical insights—seeing the dreamlike world I captured in my camera—back then in Michigan and Colorado. I knew now, however that it was something else. Perhaps not mystical or even metaphysical--after all I was feeling it inside my physical body and brain. These experiences aren't exclusive to the followers of one religion or another. Unbelievers have them often too, but don't usually declare it from the doorstep or rooftop. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">At that moment I felt this grandeur and expansive connection to the world, gathering even a hope of something larger out there, I also felt saddened by so many losses: My former life in a black and white delusion that gave comfort without actual fact and truth; the loss of relationship with my children’s mother; the time lost with them as they grew. I felt the loss of other relationships since then, and the burden of knowing that my youthful dreams hadn’t quite fulfilled the way I wanted. Then I realized what an amazing journey it was. I couldn’t have planned any of it, but it has brought me to so many places in life that I wouldn’t trade away. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVelsQlw2QPAhS4SEgRiRa6wdi3-IcyPmTaboELsQJqTSg1Y6eEyg94LzV_3XjPLk9iG51h9JeaQj8Uz5p3kwYyQx23jaRcBbLYdbNN52iqYkkeXEWOBJb1ri0p9Duxc2JeLfpx66TqOk/s1600/IMG_3340_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVelsQlw2QPAhS4SEgRiRa6wdi3-IcyPmTaboELsQJqTSg1Y6eEyg94LzV_3XjPLk9iG51h9JeaQj8Uz5p3kwYyQx23jaRcBbLYdbNN52iqYkkeXEWOBJb1ri0p9Duxc2JeLfpx66TqOk/s1600/IMG_3340_web.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I recalled something I had written almost a year ago <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/06/new-and-everlasting-curiosity.html" target="_blank">in a blog</a>. </span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“You know that moment when you learn something profound for the first time? Reading a well written blog or novel that fires off all kinds of new thoughts? ... The <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/06/new-and-everlasting-curiosity.html" target="_blank">Newness of the Everlasting Curiosity</a> is exciting... Tired of your boring friends at church? Find new ones. Seeing the limitation of your inherited, family philosophy? Search for a new one.</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Leaving the LDS [church] is like becoming a child who is merging into adulthood again. All the fascination of a whole world opens to your exploration, of choosing new directions, of seeking new friends, learning new insights—it’s the candy store that continues to give when you remove the abundant limits placed on you by [religion].”</span><br /><o:p style="font-family: inherit;"> </o:p></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Yx1UkMeQU_v94c4Fs7h_xOS8WdlDMB_qmnHZe0bRcH0G9o7ElLrf_xoWQ_J_bUdSj_qFRpYfu1ZlAQDX2nPU1Ptabm_F26QQZcNs4K6gJ8iIPBrfHogAA99QNVlYqENbgEOyLXzv-p4/s1600/IMG_3364_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Yx1UkMeQU_v94c4Fs7h_xOS8WdlDMB_qmnHZe0bRcH0G9o7ElLrf_xoWQ_J_bUdSj_qFRpYfu1ZlAQDX2nPU1Ptabm_F26QQZcNs4K6gJ8iIPBrfHogAA99QNVlYqENbgEOyLXzv-p4/s1600/IMG_3364_web.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></span></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The words at the end of the movie<i> American Beauty</i> also resonated into my mind. </span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time... I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday.”</span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">That was how I felt at the moment I watched myself connect with the world through light that is unseen. It was as if I could see everything literally and metaphorically in a new light through the vision glowing on the LCD of my full-spectrum converted camera. In a short moment, ages passed and I felt as if I had gain the experience of years, all in a few dozen heart beats. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh25d6IFcyoslIo-PyRohi0wuETHImp8NWKIfieNGzacAPbSwiXM4-wa9il2oa_CDzxS1sGJ4G-e6EqnwPxpO3mQGgdmtBZX3ZkGSFNJFcXtxdhyphenhyphenToWN2KTTcg4fewmvWAIsrCOuJR8NDw/s1600/IMG_3420_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh25d6IFcyoslIo-PyRohi0wuETHImp8NWKIfieNGzacAPbSwiXM4-wa9il2oa_CDzxS1sGJ4G-e6EqnwPxpO3mQGgdmtBZX3ZkGSFNJFcXtxdhyphenhyphenToWN2KTTcg4fewmvWAIsrCOuJR8NDw/s1600/IMG_3420_web.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As the feeling ebbed, I figured I had primed my emotions with the music and scenery; this concoction of emotions, beauty, peaceful surroundings and seeing in a new light opened me up to experience myself in a way that doesn't happen often enough. We crave this because it feels so alive. We feel big and tightly loved. We feel small and </span>ineffably<span style="font-family: inherit;"> important. Contradictory elation and sadness all in the same bottle-opening moment, which overcome and fill us with so much wonder. The New and Everlasting Curiosity is a kind of spiritual experience even if there is no such thing as a spirit, in the dualism sense. It is transcendent. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqiYB50NG8AZJ46RO2WLiON1k2YFnw5XwoxyoEIcgjbOEq-GF9TefGWI3eAZAVYsxyIa9g8gtBvlnZEiDptOij37nDAhjoluvF-gIo-LQoLXDMG3bEjlqZO0KRHcpNratQFzq-RNiDT6g/s1600/IMG_3429_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqiYB50NG8AZJ46RO2WLiON1k2YFnw5XwoxyoEIcgjbOEq-GF9TefGWI3eAZAVYsxyIa9g8gtBvlnZEiDptOij37nDAhjoluvF-gIo-LQoLXDMG3bEjlqZO0KRHcpNratQFzq-RNiDT6g/s1600/IMG_3429_web.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">(All photos are copyrighted 2015 by David Twede. Permission must be granted for any use)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Cypress knees grow around the tree, from the roots. While their function is not fully understood, s</span><span style="font-size: large;">ome scientists have thought they may help in oxygenation in the low dissolved oxygen mud swamp through the knee's bald head. I have also read the knees assist in anchoring the tree in the soft, muddy soil. Each knee is very unique, and they take on iconic forms which I am investigating through my art style. Like them, we find our anchors in the mud of the world through our own unique experiences. We rise above the mire and breathe new life into ourselves through very personal transcendent events.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">While I do not know what the future will bring--death dark as empty space, or an afterlife of surreal unseen light--I am glad to be alive and having the experiences I have. May you have new and everlasting curiosity.</span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhidMsZt21yW2RiUTZ4pK7-_xEJR7YyV58GVmwC8wJgexo_XQcjxcSKJrdWeBBauYwaEB1LoWfRMW8WVJZleCrfvMHgF6gEQy2Zu_OaD6PTDEQi_mVOPqzT1_UI6G8IGQ5m_gaFJw3T63k/s1600/Shingle_creek_knees_web48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhidMsZt21yW2RiUTZ4pK7-_xEJR7YyV58GVmwC8wJgexo_XQcjxcSKJrdWeBBauYwaEB1LoWfRMW8WVJZleCrfvMHgF6gEQy2Zu_OaD6PTDEQi_mVOPqzT1_UI6G8IGQ5m_gaFJw3T63k/s640/Shingle_creek_knees_web48.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2015/05/on-bended-knees.html" target="_blank">See my follow-on photo journey/blog here.</a></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-78081422889217481122015-04-03T08:00:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.544-07:00Mormons will throw God under the bus to protect Joseph Smith. Why not you?<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I recently had interaction with a close familiarity (family/friend) and was reminded of how the Mormon priority order is Church, career, God, family. Yes, for an organization that proclaims family comes first, it actually comes last, right after God.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Let me take the long road to explain.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />In the "Mad Hatter's" LDS Topic <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-mad-hatter-translation.html" target="_blank">essay on the Book of Mormon Translation</a>, LDS historians write: </span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> "Joseph placed the seer stone in a hat, pressed his face into the hat to block out extraneous light, and read aloud the English words that appeared on the instrument."</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Get that? God sent actual English words inside a darkened hat, on a rock Joe Smith dug up inside a well. Words from God, which appeared and written down onto paper directly are the text of the fundamental foundation scripture of Mormonism. Words which have been shown by science and sociologists to be horribly wrong. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />This is equivalent to throwing God under the bus, all in order to protect Joseph Smith's silly, early 19th century, unschooled notions that he could translate gold plates, Egyptian papyri and more. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />English words appeared on the stone within the hat. Joseph didn't need to know any languages. And the racist, anachronistic, archaeologically incorrect statements of the Book of Mormon (and book of Abraham) came directly from Elohim. God is the author of some very disturbing words. Even the spelling, according to <a href="http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Book_of_Mormon_Translation_By_Joseph_Smith" target="_blank">some BYU Scholarly sources</a>. "Oliver Cowdery is reported to have testified in court that these tools enabled Joseph <i>'to read in English, the reformed Egyptian characters, which were engraved on the plates'</i> ". </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />In the Ensign, Russel M. Nelson <a href="https://www.lds.org/ensign/1993/07/a-treasured-testament?lang=eng" target="_blank">confirmed that Joseph saw English words</a> --nay, English <b><i>letters</i></b>-- off the seer stone inside a hat, "Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat...when he came to proper names he could not pronounce, or long words, <i>he spelled them out</i>, and while I was writing them, if I made any mistake in spelling, he would stop me and <i>correct my spelling</i> although it was impossible for him to see how I was writing them down at the time." (said David Whitmer and Emma Smith on Joseph's translating).</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />Thus, the Book of Mormon words AND letters came directly from God. When the Book of Mormon talks about horses and dark-skin curses, that is directly from God. This is not a Joseph Smith problem. God will someday (conveniently in the afterlife) correct the archaeology, the anachronisms, the off-kilter linguistics, and all other language problems of that most corrected book.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2013/12/prophetic-segregation-throwing-past.html" target="_blank">They disavowed racism </a>and acknowledge <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/02/dna-part-2-defense-now-amorphous-two.html" target="_blank">science is correct</a> on the horses, wheel, wheat, steel and DNA lacking evidence to the claims of the Book of Mormon. Did God feed the wrong information to Joseph?</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />So it was God's fault. If he would deign to correct something like spelling but not horses or simple astronomy, then what exactly is going on?</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />The LDS church claims the Book of Mormon is the "most correct book on earth" (see <a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/introduction" target="_blank">BoM introduction</a>). Where does this place God?</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />Under the bus. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://crcmin.org/article_pages/racism_in_mormon_scriptures.html" target="_blank">The Mormon God is a racist</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism_and_women#20th_and_21st_century" target="_blank">The Mormon God is a sexist</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charlotte-robinson/straight-authors-address-homophobia-in-the-mormon-church-in-new-novel-audio_b_3146158.html" target="_blank">The Mormon God is a homophobe</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://mormonthink.com/book-of-abraham-issues.htm#strangeastronomy" target="_blank">The Mormon God is a horrible astronomer</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">and more.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Look at it this way, LDS--either Joseph and scribes and descriptions of translation are wrong, or God is wrong. Either way, the Book of Mormon is full of errors from God or from Joseph Smith. You pick, and with that choice, you have to decide whether this is just a silly fraud or some miraculous err-proned work of God.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />It's not me. It's your work. But then, I have been criticized by those close to me that I am offensive when I point out these facts. I guess, if they will throw god under the bus to protect Joseph Smith, then I'm just god's backup going under that same bus. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />Everything will go under the bus to protect Joe. Especially family.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />It will take a Big-ass bus to run over me. A big ole orange school bus full of spit-wads, fat-kid farts and four-eyed geeky boogers.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(the 4-eyed kids are us exmos)</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7GIslxAh2-vOORzFI4hSgcXsyL5PIG3szoK4Qp0NTdcx6I7kx0bqHQBTvIdl5QEVQk6-FDt3wepPwpJRKLGBJ_JKmEBERWD2mf8fr7VW3DTECX0cBrbHCjHC1Gk78Gws3QhJBAaYrHk/s1600/eola_background_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="403" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7GIslxAh2-vOORzFI4hSgcXsyL5PIG3szoK4Qp0NTdcx6I7kx0bqHQBTvIdl5QEVQk6-FDt3wepPwpJRKLGBJ_JKmEBERWD2mf8fr7VW3DTECX0cBrbHCjHC1Gk78Gws3QhJBAaYrHk/s1600/eola_background_small.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">My new life in Florida. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lake Eola, Orlando, 2015</div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJsxNGimrVDqFEaubbta2Z06lqNXzgqI0-fj0B_eY5huKW_fC5jjw6W1lg-uLBDsdrGWbPri1ctDcwW8OPRTo7CiNvTF_iorDsdQusu9DpgEnXsXc4mngVrp6MbqqejXbAgG_HNXsOWzc/s1600/Colorado_extra19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJsxNGimrVDqFEaubbta2Z06lqNXzgqI0-fj0B_eY5huKW_fC5jjw6W1lg-uLBDsdrGWbPri1ctDcwW8OPRTo7CiNvTF_iorDsdQusu9DpgEnXsXc4mngVrp6MbqqejXbAgG_HNXsOWzc/s1600/Colorado_extra19.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">My old Mountain West life, while beautiful, was Black n White.</div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-57833254919116096972015-04-01T07:00:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.557-07:00Re-taking the missionary discussions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;">Earlier this week, the Mormon missionaries knocked doors in my cul-de-sac. I was going to hide from them. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ul-zONNLvDahLYlENXi2qcdGlg0ut0ZkAt4AUka3vm8Hy2P_oh1IBIEsvvcStHNyu3ddpDV2UX4W8XLRU_AFp3mSvQeCC4JrsShOAovgzF5A7_7Geguuuj59nkxyPb7clZndluKL_-o/s1600/DSC00131_web.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ul-zONNLvDahLYlENXi2qcdGlg0ut0ZkAt4AUka3vm8Hy2P_oh1IBIEsvvcStHNyu3ddpDV2UX4W8XLRU_AFp3mSvQeCC4JrsShOAovgzF5A7_7Geguuuj59nkxyPb7clZndluKL_-o/s640/DSC00131_web.JPG" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">But as they went through the neighborhood, the entire coincidence with my recent <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2015/05/i-had-spiritual-experience.html" target="_blank">spiritual experience </a>left me open to the idea of listening once again to their message.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhowPcpzsuR9VF1ae0ekVX-aS9iNCy5F6Yi4KXkmmE8QUjZd7ItQ_nLP5BK7aw950VsNMbGBe1Vd_ZOdoRdVZeD6GXLnf2XoD_jvZ9fi10840TOp3YT1vAYhAIX-28rRZt2Xa6Ia5z72c/s1600/DSC00133_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhowPcpzsuR9VF1ae0ekVX-aS9iNCy5F6Yi4KXkmmE8QUjZd7ItQ_nLP5BK7aw950VsNMbGBe1Vd_ZOdoRdVZeD6GXLnf2XoD_jvZ9fi10840TOp3YT1vAYhAIX-28rRZt2Xa6Ia5z72c/s640/DSC00133_web.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">At one point, I was touched as we circled together in prayer.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVN9nyWVwMhOqPDx9pVFzp0il_SCH2IbbUZaQ_lCh4NtQ03j45bA3byjEbCHbmPAN6FXNwn2USI8w3krenFezFPVnIrHIiO1QyXh1sLXBVy1bJvoS72RafbRNBU58IGtJo0vaRqO2UfRI/s1600/DSC00125_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVN9nyWVwMhOqPDx9pVFzp0il_SCH2IbbUZaQ_lCh4NtQ03j45bA3byjEbCHbmPAN6FXNwn2USI8w3krenFezFPVnIrHIiO1QyXh1sLXBVy1bJvoS72RafbRNBU58IGtJo0vaRqO2UfRI/s640/DSC00125_web.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The gospel is as simple as I had once perceived. Things feel very clear, almost black and white obvious. My <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2015/05/on-bended-knees.html" target="_blank">engagement lately with photographing cypress knees </a>feels like a revelation in coincidence with these events. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvXpvsgfZINAJyt5aahf0KAnzoaZHusuQQ5eVDYg5All1UKFptvnhYPMlGY47akZQhA_ZC65jdQiCbckcfLOu3vn6diWG8-HNEaFLbuPbOSbDWCXthaAjovq1XWuymcrB_J_DIzatajto/s1600/DSC00145_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvXpvsgfZINAJyt5aahf0KAnzoaZHusuQQ5eVDYg5All1UKFptvnhYPMlGY47akZQhA_ZC65jdQiCbckcfLOu3vn6diWG8-HNEaFLbuPbOSbDWCXthaAjovq1XWuymcrB_J_DIzatajto/s640/DSC00145_web.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I have felt emotionally touched and I am rethinking my former position.</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ4627GnsP1m0TTsit6H2cLl4REWjWuQYRvdsCiX2IDgHfQIlalkfnVUIKrt3qfG3YJh4G5t4Pb-ryI1bSSR2cO8l9C2cjmYGs2xBtZNgCJKUpHwhOXDoNOzCe3gSHf7_ztRWg8Mntsys/s1600/DSC00114_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ4627GnsP1m0TTsit6H2cLl4REWjWuQYRvdsCiX2IDgHfQIlalkfnVUIKrt3qfG3YJh4G5t4Pb-ryI1bSSR2cO8l9C2cjmYGs2xBtZNgCJKUpHwhOXDoNOzCe3gSHf7_ztRWg8Mntsys/s640/DSC00114_web.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">More to come...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">(Ok, now that I have played this out for an hour, I admit, it was a cheap trick. A short lived one. So are the emotional tricks of Mormonism that fool people everyday. Such is the parallel here to what I have done.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">See <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2015/05/through-fasting-and-praying-comes.html" target="_blank">this post for more explanation</a> about how emotional brainwashing happens with my MTC experience as a young missionary.)</span><br /><br /><br />David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-38403871891916600612015-03-24T16:00:00.000-07:002016-10-23T19:42:33.572-07:00Guilt<span style="font-size: large;">It's said that Mormons share a table at the International Guilt Board of Directors with the Catholics and Muslims. But I say, the Mormons have an advantage over the other two. They create an imbalanced precipice of near narcissist self-view and abasement of ever-present guilt, and secure each member on the pointy pinnacle of this narrow ledge through psychological manipulation. </span><br /><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">God is omniscient and all seeing, "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." (1 Peter 3:12). The idea that you are ever being watched is fundamental to keeping you obedient in almost all punishment-based religions. All of your life is known. Eventually, it will be accounted in a final judgment.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Final judgment is a part of all Abrahamic faiths. God will review all your life's actions, words and perhaps even thoughts. Catholics believe some combination of God/Jesus and even Mary and Peter will perhaps wait for you at the pearly gates and then judge your soul for eternal reward and damnation. Muslims have Mohammed and God judge you.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">In Christianity, the idea that the 12 apostles judge with Jesus is founded in the New Testament. </span></div><div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">"Ye [the apostles] are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Luke 22:28-30; see also Matthew 19:28.)</span></blockquote><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And reiterated in the Book of Mormon, to include the Amerindian 12 as judges over the Nephites and Lamanites: </span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">"Thou rememberest the twelve apostles of the Lamb? Behold they are they who shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel; wherefore, the twelve ministers of thy seed shall be judged of them; for ye are of the house of Israel. And these twelve ministers whom thou beholdest shall judge thy seed." (1 Ne 12:9-10; See also Morm. 3:18 (18–19))</span></blockquote><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And yet again in the Doctrine and Covenenats:</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">"...it hath gone forth in a firm decree, by the will of the Father, that mine apostles, the Twelve which were with me in my ministry at Jerusalem, shall stand at my right hand at the day of my coming in a pillar of fire, being clothed with robes of righteousness, with crowns upon their heads, in glory even as I am, to judge the whole house of Israel, even as many as have loved me and kept my commandments, and none else." (D&C 29:12)</span></blockquote><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Each dispensation, it has been taught in LDS lessons, will have those that preside over the children of God. Joseph Smith is the prophet of our dispensation, according to their canon:</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">"Behold, there shall be a record kept among you; and in it thou (Joseph Smith) shalt be called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of Jesus Christ, an elder of the church through the will of God the Father, and the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ." (D&C 21:1)</span></blockquote><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">About Joseph Smith LDS prophets declared, in the 135th section of the D&C: <i>"Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it."</i> (verse 3)</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Greater even than the 12 disciples Jesus called in Jerusalem? Will Joseph Smith judge the latter-day saints like the apostles of previous dispensations?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Brigham Young stated: </span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">"Joseph Smith holds the keys of this last dispensation, and is now engaged behind the veil in the great work of the last days...no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith." (Brigham Young, "Intelligence, etc.," (9 October 1859) Journal of Discourses 7:289-289.)</span></blockquote><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">If that's not enough, Mormons have the sentiment in their cultural memes that their bishops, stake presidents and other ecclesiastic leaders will be called up to witness at the judgment bar. Through them your secrets will be revealed, and "...whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops." (Luke 12:3).</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Most Mormons believe God is merciful and will forgive their sins. They might worry what mortals like Joseph Smith, their bishops or other will think of them, but they usually don't feel as beholden to these men as to those closest to them.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Mormon scripture takes the judgment and guilt to the next level. In Alma 11:43, it says:</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">"we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of all our guilt."</span></blockquote><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">The <i>Bright Recollection </i>of all our guilt has been interpreted by many seminary, Sunday school and gospel teachers, by bishops and quorum presidents as something akin to a video playback. A bright-lit movie, where we review our entire life before the judgment counsel and witnesses of our life. That implies our family too.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">How many Mormons have felt that someday, in the hereafter, their life's deeds will be on DVD (or YouTube) for all their friends and family to see?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">The all-seeing, but merciful eye of God has nothing on the feeling your mom, sister, dad or spouse will eventually see your secrets. God may forgive, but everyone of us have a tsk-tsking family member that will not approve and frown their resurrected face at our morally repugnant behavior during the world-audience life review.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">The idea of a bright recollection of all your guilt is probably the one thing that upset your stomach and tensed your jaw in the former Mormon life than any other teaching. This is guilt on latter-day steroids.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">What a great ploy to get you to feel that your whole judgmental family will eventually see everything you have done. God forgives, but family gossips.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">When you begin doubting the LDS church teachings, the idea of your doubts being on display to family and their rejection of your thinking; their ostracization of your life steels you to the ulceration and lock-jaw of internal tension you feel. You won't do it. You won't leave. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">In the novel <i>Second Anointing</i>, a psychiatrist works with the protagonist, Porter, to understand a dynamic that is not easily seen from the entirety of one's life. He said:</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">“On the one hand, as a life-long believing Mormon, you’re told from your earliest years that you are the most special spirit saved for the latter days. That you’re part of a strange, peculiar and wonderfully distinct group of people. That your world view is the only true one and that it will save the world in the end. You receive special patriarchal blessings telling you how wonderful you are, and how uniquely blessed your life will be. That Mormons have a special position in the world, to go out and find everyone else special. Mormons feel empowered, even narcissistic at times, by these kind of repeated extoling.<br />“On the other hand, you are given guilt over the smallest things. Alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea. No nudity, no masturbation, no petting or unmarried sex. Avoid tattoos, body piercing, dancing too close. Don’t question your leaders. Don’t talk about sex, even within your marriage. Shun doubters, shun gays, keep secrets.<br />“Many truly believing Mormons teeter between these two extremes—the special feelings and the intense guilt—on edge of anxieties and depression. Their scrupulosity creates dysfunction, but their superiority allows them to avoid complete breakdown.”</span></blockquote></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">This pinnacle, along with ever present awareness of the bright recollection video-like review of our life before the less than merciful family can create generalized anxieties that salivates and wets the mouth of almost any career therapist.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwZe2QjxCudUOdmedxuiS7JqY58_JBbX8FwSrQNtmtEG5Lb5ptM5ihULPy5g7G9NrD2s6H1fKm_mS0aTeg5VM-dHqSWNSHH2NYXf4H23IMPSRTyGxVoLIcO4IeSdyxxz6rLoeMmUVAqU4/s1600/Leu_Gardens_web16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwZe2QjxCudUOdmedxuiS7JqY58_JBbX8FwSrQNtmtEG5Lb5ptM5ihULPy5g7G9NrD2s6H1fKm_mS0aTeg5VM-dHqSWNSHH2NYXf4H23IMPSRTyGxVoLIcO4IeSdyxxz6rLoeMmUVAqU4/s1600/Leu_Gardens_web16.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Being guilted will leave you sitting all alone.</div></div>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-27333541785389808592015-02-17T12:00:00.000-08:002016-10-23T19:42:33.586-07:00Mr. Holland's Opus: first level truths dismantled<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It's been widely reported and now linked that on Feb 6, 2015, Mr. Jeff Holland, an apostle of the LDS church, spoke and became as emotional as a TV preacher. His anger pointed at skeptics (and perhaps timed with the Dehlin excommunication) and their questions.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Here's a quote, <a href="https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/evening-with-a-general-authority/2015/02?lang=eng" target="_blank">from the video (at LDS.org)</a> starting at around 51 minutes in.</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">" You’ve heard these questions, <i>they are not new</i>. They first arose in the neighborhood of Palmyra, when the 14-year old Joseph first reported his heavenly vision, and they continue in one form or another to the present day. We have <i>recently addressed a dozen or so of these issues in a series of essays</i> desiring to be both accurate and transparent – within the framework of faith. Not all gospel questions have answers yet, but they will. And they’ll come.<br />"In the mean time, I have a question! (Holland speaks loudly and emotionally) What conceivable historical, or doctrinal or procedural issue that may arise among any group could ever overshadow or negate ones consuming spiritual conviction regarding the <i>father’s merciful plan of salvation</i>; his only begotten son’s birth, mission, <i>atonement</i> and resurrection; the reality of the <i>first vision</i>, the <i>restoration of the priesthood</i>, the receipt of <i>divine revelation</i> both personally and institutionally, the soul-shaping spirit and moving power of the <i>Book of Mormon</i>, the awe and majesty of the temple endowment, one’s own personal experience with true miracles and on and on and on. It is a mystery to me, talk about a question, it is a mystery to me how those majestic eternal <i>first level truths</i> so central to the grandeur of the whole gospel message can be set aside or completely dismissed by some in favor of obsessing over <i>second or third or fourth level pieces</i> of that whole. To me, this is, in the words attributed to Edith Wharton, truly being trapped in the thick of thin things. "</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I italicized a few parts that I want to dissect here. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I'm glad Mr. Holland raised the <a href="https://www.lds.org/topics?lang=eng&letter=a" target="_blank">LDS Topic Essays</a>. This is the first time I have heard an apostle discuss them. The only other GA I know of that has raised them is <a href="https://www.lds.org/church/news/church-posts-two-academic-essays-on-history-of-plural-marriage?lang=eng" target="_blank">church historian (Q-70) Steven Snow</a>. The questions members (and skeptics) have are sometimes new, relative to the era of Palmyra. For example, race and the priesthood, DNA and the Book of Mormon, polygamy and more. None of these existed in the era of Palmyra. Perhaps polygamy is closest, but it wasn't acknowledged hardly at all during Joseph Smith's entire life. Race and the priesthood became an issue much after his death, and DNA, well that's obvious. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The essays the church put out did perhaps address some "second or third level pieces" (questions), but the answers dismantled Holland's opus of "majestic eternal first level truths". </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Here's an example, direct from the LDS essays themselves, with comparison to the list of first level truths given by Holland above.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><i><a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/first-vision-accounts?lang=eng" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">First Vision</span></a></i><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">President Gordon B. Hinckley taught the First Vision of Joseph Smith is “the hinge pin on which this whole cause turns. If the First Vision was true, if it actually happened, then the Book of Mormon is true. Then we have the priesthood. Then we have the Church organization and all of the other keys and blessings of authority which we say we have. If the First Vision did not occur, then we are involved in a great sham. It is just that simple.” </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">(Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, p. 227.)</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In other words by Hinckley: “Our whole strength rests on the validity of that vision. It either occurred or it did not occur. If it did not, then this work is a fraud… upon that unique and wonderful experience stands the validity of this church.” (General Conference, Oct 2002)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">First Vision essay claim 1 -- “The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story, though naturally they differ in emphasis and detail.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- Consistency? The number of personages, the angels and events surrounding his first vision change (see the table below). A more consistent thread through the versions is that he never actually names the personage(s) appearing. The claim that Joseph Smith testified specifically that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him is not founded in his own words. He repeatedly said “personages”.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-collapse: collapse; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"><tbody><tr><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.75pt;" valign="top" width="70"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Version<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.95pt;" valign="top" width="71"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Sins Forgiven<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 62.9pt;" valign="top" width="84"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Personages<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 57.3pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Pillar of Fire<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.85pt;" valign="top" width="70"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Angel(s)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 65.95pt;" valign="top" width="88"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Beings named<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 89.95pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Told "No True Church"<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.75pt;" valign="top" width="70"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">1832<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.95pt;" valign="top" width="71"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Yes<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 62.9pt;" valign="top" width="84"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 57.3pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">No<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.85pt;" valign="top" width="70"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">0<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 65.95pt;" valign="top" width="88"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">“the Lord”<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 89.95pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999;">Vague*</span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.75pt;" valign="top" width="70"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">1835<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.95pt;" valign="top" width="71"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Yes<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 62.9pt;" valign="top" width="84"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 57.3pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Yes<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.85pt;" valign="top" width="70"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Hosts<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 65.95pt;" valign="top" width="88"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">No<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 89.95pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">No<o:p></o:p></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.75pt;" valign="top" width="70"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">1838<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.95pt;" valign="top" width="71"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Yes<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 62.9pt;" valign="top" width="84"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 57.3pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">No<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.85pt;" valign="top" width="70"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">0<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 65.95pt;" valign="top" width="88"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">“Son”<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 89.95pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Yes<o:p></o:p></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.75pt;" valign="top" width="70"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">1842<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.95pt;" valign="top" width="71"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">No<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 62.9pt;" valign="top" width="84"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 57.3pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Light only<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.85pt;" valign="top" width="70"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">0<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 65.95pt;" valign="top" width="88"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">No<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 89.95pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Yes<o:p></o:p></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: windowtext 1pt solid; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: windowtext 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.75pt;" valign="top" width="70"><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">1835**<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.95pt;" valign="top" width="71"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">No<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 62.9pt;" valign="top" width="84"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">0<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 57.3pt;" valign="top" width="76"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">No<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 52.85pt;" valign="top" width="70"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Angels<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 65.95pt;" valign="top" width="88"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">No<o:p></o:p></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; border-left: medium none; border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; border-top: medium none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-top: 0in; width: 89.95pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">No<o:p></o:p></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">*The "No true church" statement is shadowed in the 1832 account. "...</span>the world lieth in sin and at this time and none doeth good no not one they have turned asside from the gospel and keep not <my> commandments..."<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a href="http://josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/history-circa-summer-1832?p=1#!/paperSummary/history-circa-summer-1832&p=3">http://josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/history-circa-summer-1832?p=1#!/paperSummary/history-circa-summer-1832&p=3</a><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">**The Topic article fails to mention that Joseph Smith wrote about his First Vision a second time in 1835, found at <a href="http://josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/journal-1835-1836?p=38">http://josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/journal-1835-1836?p=38</a> . <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">First Vision essay claim 2 -- “Historians expect that when an individual retells an experience in multiple settings to different audiences over many years, each account will emphasize various aspects of the experience and contain unique details.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- Emphasizing different aspects is one thing. Contradicting statements between versions are another. Besides the changing number of beings and angels, besides the changing conditions of pillars or light, of being forgiven or not, there are a few contradictory points found in the various accounts. For more details on these, see <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-first-re-vision-of-joseph-smith.html" target="_blank">this blogpost</a> and <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-first-inoculation-of-joseph-smith.html" target="_blank">this blogpost</a>. </span></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>First Vision Essay Dismantle:</b></span><br /><span style="color: #d9ead3; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The credibility of the first vision is at risk. All we have is Joseph Smith's words. Hinckley based the foundation of the LDS Church on the words of Smith who was inconsistent, unreliable, history-revisionist and worse, exploitative.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">What do I mean by exploitative? The general progression of Smith's accounts is from lower claims of divinity to more and more grandeur claims of direct connection to God as time went on. As his followers believed in his claims, he strengthened the divine nature and increased the embellishment in his accounts. Why is this progression exploitative? Because it gave him more power over more people. Ultimately, the "Father and Son" claims happened after Smith had died, and that gave power to the prophets that succeeded him.</span><br /><br /><br /><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Divine Revelation</span></i><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">One of Holland's first level truths, divine revelation, has at its foundation the restoration given to them by Joseph Smith. Three elements of the restoration discussed in the essays are eternal covenants (polygamy), revelation of scripture, and priesthood authority. I'll get to the priesthood in the next "dismantle" section.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/plural-marriage-and-families-in-early-utah?lang=eng" target="_blank">On Polygamy</a>:</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Polygamy Essay claim 1 -- " plural marriage...was instituted among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early 1840s."</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- Not until they discuss Jospeh Smith's polygamy many months later in another essay do they acknowledge that in fact, it happened in the 1830s,</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> as well documented by Compton, and http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/ Why did they lie and then contradict themselves in another essay? Because they can't keep their own story straight.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Polygamy Essay claim 2 -- "On an exceptional basis, some new plural marriages were performed between 1890 and 1904, especially in Mexico and Canada, outside the jurisdiction of U.S. law; a small number of plural marriages were performed within the United States during those years.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- In Official Declaration 1 of the D&C, Woodruff said (in 1890), "We are not teaching polygamy or plural marriage, nor permitting any person to enter into its practice." </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- In <a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/the-manifesto-and-the-end-of-plural-marriage?lang=eng" target="_blank">another essay</a>, they do admit, "S</span><span style="font-size: large;">ome couples who entered into plural marriage between 1890 and 1904 separated after the Second Manifesto, but many others quietly cohabited into the 1930s and beyond." But they do not ever address why President Woodruff would lie in public, as God's spokesman and truth-teller. How can we be sure other prophets, namely Monson today, or his successor aren't also liars?</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Polygamy Essay claim 3 -- "Women were free to choose their spouses, whether to enter into a polygamous or monogamous union, or whether to marry at all."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- Joseph Smith at 37 "convinced" Helen Mar Kimball (at 14) to marry him after he'd already married several other women </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“… it will ensure your eternal salvation & exaltation and that of your father’s household & all of your kindred," he manipulated little Helen.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/plural-marriage-in-kirtland-and-nauvoo?lang=eng" target="_blank">Polygamy of Joseph Smith</a> essay claim -- </span><span style="font-size: large;">“Although the Lord commanded the adoption—and later the cessation—of plural marriage in the latter days, He did not give exact instructions on how to obey the commandment.”</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">Truth 1 -- The commandment specifically states “if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified … But if one or either of the ten virgins, after she is espoused, shall be with another man, she has committed adultery” (D&C 132:61-63) </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Truth 2 -- The commandment also states: “I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory.” (D&C 132: 4). And that “if a man receiveth a wife in the new and everlasting covenant, and if she be with another man, and I have not appointed unto her by the holy anointing, she hath committed adultery and shall be destroyed. …And if her husband be with another woman, and he was under a vow, he hath broken his vow and hath committed adultery.” (D&C 132: 41-43). Further, that to a man, virgins in plural marriage “are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth” (D&C 132:63)</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">What are the rules? The exact instructions (quote above) in Section 132 are:</span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-size: large;">marry only virgins</span></li><li><span style="font-size: large;">the first wife (virgin) has to give consent</span></li><li><span style="font-size: large;">women are not to be with other men</span></li><li><span style="font-size: large;">multiple wives are given to a man to multiply and replenish the earth (by sex)</span></li></ul><br /><div><span style="font-size: large;">Why did the LDS church obviously lie about the "exact instructions" in their essay? Because they know Joseph Smith disregarded the rules he apparently revealed and followed his lusts to whatever bed they led him. <i><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Polygamy was not a revelation about eternal life. It was a revelation on getting multiple "wives" in bed.</span></i></span></div><div><br /></div></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Polygamy Essay Dismantle:</b></span></div><span style="color: #ead1dc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">There's much more I can show on the polygamy essays, but in essence, this essay trashes the LDS church credibility in reporting the actual truth. It shows that revelation and official declarations are lies. And it shows that Joseph Smith abandoned his own revelation's rules so he could get more action. "Divine" revelator or da-swine operator?</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">On the <a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/translation-and-historicity-of-the-book-of-abraham?lang=eng" target="_blank">historicity and truth of scripture</a>:</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Book of Abraham essay claim 1 -- “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints embraces the book of Abraham as scripture.”</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- Well, this is still true--they haven't abandoned the book of Abraham, actually. That will haunt them in the future. One can note they almost never use the book in conference talks or much in manuals anymore.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">B. of Abr. essay claim 2 -- “It is likely futile to assess Joseph’s ability to translate papyri when we now have only a fraction of the papyri he had in his possession.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-book-of-fabricam.html" target="_blank">Credible Egyptologists and mathematical measurements</a> all confirm we have most of the papyri. The residual leaves “simply no room on the papyrus for anything besides the Breathing text.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">B.of Abr. essay claim 3 -- “None of the characters on the papyrus fragments mentioned Abraham’s name or any of the events recorded in the book of Abraham. Mormon and non-Mormon Egyptologists agree that the characters on the fragments do not match the translation given in the book of Abraham.”</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- How does LDS inc explain the book then? They can’t. Did you catch that essay self-contradiction? In one breath they say it is "</span><span style="font-size: large;">futile to assess Joseph’s ability to translate papyri" and in the other breath they say "</span><span style="font-size: large;">the characters on the fragments do not match the translation given in the book of Abraham." They can't keep their own story straight.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> In the end, they can only say, “The veracity and value of the book of Abraham cannot be settled by scholarly debate…The book’s status as scripture lies in the eternal truths it teaches and the powerful spirit it conveys.” In other words, it’s all bullshit.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Book of Abraham Essay Dismantle: </b></span></div><div><div><span style="color: #fff2cc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Trashes Joseph Smith Credibility. If he couldn’t translate regular Egyptian, how could he translate “Reformed Egyptian” (in the Book of Mormon)?</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Score so far? Holland's "first level truths" - 0, Skeptics - 2 or 3. Divine revelation of new (and everlasting) saving covenants/ordinations is trashed, and revelation of new scripture (not truly translated) is trashed. We have blow after blow for Howling Holland.</span></div><div><br /></div><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng" target="_blank">Restoration of priesthood</a></span></i><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The Race and the Priesthood essay discusses the idea of how the priesthood was used for about 150 years. That's most of the LDS history, so far. If they misused their authority for the majority of their time, how should we score this first level truth?</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Race and Priesthood essay claim 1 -- “During the first two decades…a few black men were ordained to the priesthood… There is no evidence that any black men were denied the priesthood during Joseph Smith’s lifetime.”</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- An attempt to buoy up Joseph Smith as not a racist. However, the Book of Abraham, Moses and Book of Mormon, which he produced, teach very racist doctrines, with their white and delightsome doctrines, skin marks on whole Indian nations, and withholding of priesthood during the days of Abraham according to racial curses.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">R and P essay claim 2 -- “[LDS] embraces the universal human family. [LDS] scripture and teachings affirm that God loves all of His children and makes salvation available to all.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- “makes salvation available to all”? Tell that to gays… Explain to women why they still can’t hold the priesthood. Tell us again why we must be adopted into the clan of Israel--a race, and the family of Abraham, a white man?</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">R and P essay claim 3 -- “Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse…or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way … [LDS] unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- They just performed prophetic segregation by throwing past leaders under the back of the bus. They also deny the teachings in their canonized LDS scripture.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Race and Priesthood Dismantle:</b></span></div><div><div><span style="color: #d0e0e3; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Trashes prophets from Young to Kimball. If they could be wrong on Race for 130 years they’re certainly wrong on gay marriage and more. Why trust these men for any authority claim?</span></div></div><div><br /><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Plan of salvation/Atonement:</span></i></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I'm going to group this first level truth with the <i>Book of Mormon.</i></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The Book of Mormon is supposed to have restored the plain and precious truths that were lost during the apostasy, and restore the gospel to its pure form. Can we trust the Book of Mormon to really be from God, translated by Joseph Smith? This is important. If he made it up, then the plan of salvation it supposedly restores is made up.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng" target="_blank">Book of Mormon Translation</a>:</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Book of Mormon translation essay claim 1 -- “Joseph placed either the interpreters or the seer stone in a hat, pressed his face into the hat to block out extraneous light…”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- If plates were unneeded why the need for all the years waiting, digging treasure out of Hill Cumorah and the witnesses? If plates were not needed, why did Nephi have to murder a docile Laban to steal the brass plates? If a hat is all that's needed, does this mean <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djSp1NVsTrI" target="_blank">God wants you to wear a (temple) hat</a>? (You must watch that video, or you've missed the best part of this blog.)</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">BoM translation essay claim 2 -- “Joseph … pressed his face into the hat … and read aloud the English words that appeared on the instrument.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- </span><span style="font-size: large;">(Snug face= muffled!) </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Joseph Smith didn’t interpret “Reformed Egyptian”. He just read English words that appeared. God was the source of all words, including racism, anachronistic errors, the duetero/trito Isaiah additions, the KJV bible error inclusions…</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">BoM translation essay claim 3 -- “Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon was ‘the most correct of any Book on earth & the keystone of our religion & a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than any other Book.’ “</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- The most correct(ed) book that needed over 4000 edits and still contains racism, anachronistic errors and a story that is “chloroform in print”. Apparently God is a horrible writer.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Book of Mormon Essay Dismantle:</b></span></div><div><span style="color: #d0e0e3; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Trashes God, as a racist and horrible historian. Joseph didn’t make the errors. God sent him the wrong words and the need for over 4000 edits. The plan of salvation in the Book of Mormon is as suspect as the words, translation errors and lies about its origin.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Atonement:</span></i></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The Atonement relies on sin entering the world through Adam, who is counted as the "First Man" in LDS scripture and counted as a literal person. If by Adam all die, and by Christ all are made alive again, let's examine how the essays dismantle this chain between creation and atonement.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/book-of-mormon-and-dna-studies?lang=eng" target="_blank">DNA Book of Mormon essay</a> claim 1: “the majority of Native Americans carry largely Asian DNA…the DNA of Book of Mormon peoples likely represented only a fraction of all DNA in ancient America… Book of Mormon peoples were ‘among the ancestors of the American Indians.’ “</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- Affirmed that Americas were heavily populated (in about 10,000-30,000 years ago) before the alleged migration of the Book of Mormon clans. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">DNA BoM essay claim 2 -- “nothing is known about the DNA that Lehi, Sariah, Ishmael... it would be impossible to know exactly what to search for.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- True. Nonexistent DNA is hard to match. However, Mulek founded Zarahemla—the largest BoM city, and he was Jewish Royalty (son of king Zedekiah). That match is obvious.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">DNA BoM essay claim 3 -- “It is our position that secular evidence can neither prove nor disprove the authenticity of the Book of Mormon... the Book of Mormon stands as a volume of sacred scripture with the power to bring them closer to Jesus Christ.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Truth -- Secular data was used throughout the essay. What is agreed: Migrations before first man Adam, no DNA found, no archaeology found. Leaves doubt that Adam or Lamanites ever existed. Can truth or facts advanced from an allegory about so-called "Adam"? If there was no real Adam, then was there really an atonement?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>DNA Book of Mormon Essay Dismantle:</b></span></div><div><div><span style="color: #fff2cc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Trashes the need for Jesus Christ. If the Lamanites mixed with people older than Adam, there was no Adam, no Fall, and apparently no Atonement.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Mr. Holland's Opus of First Level Truths are dismantled by his "dozen or so ... series of essays". These claims and truth addressed above are not second, third or fourth level issues. They are the buttresses of his first level claims of divine revelation, salvation, atonement, authority and priesthood.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">If he can't see that, then Mr. Holland is trapped as a thick-headed Opie, with a thin argument. (Apologies to Ms. Wharton.) </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6AzvfsLMcMpBhr12JeUTzFd0UveSc1sNYacE5jAz19Z61X41ki6MlYmr9TsG_ljA9lD4u40Cfm7MqhVgtXgxSYIImgWstRTQdbTxu9yXbLr1KwS-ygj5u7_RI9Hkecr0EO2Ksh0mkuYw/s1600/SFC_GG_03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6AzvfsLMcMpBhr12JeUTzFd0UveSc1sNYacE5jAz19Z61X41ki6MlYmr9TsG_ljA9lD4u40Cfm7MqhVgtXgxSYIImgWstRTQdbTxu9yXbLr1KwS-ygj5u7_RI9Hkecr0EO2Ksh0mkuYw/s1600/SFC_GG_03.jpg" height="433" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The essays are not a bridge to anywhere. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">They're not even stepping stones. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">They're stumbling blocks.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><i><br /></i>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-24360222607803753382015-02-10T12:00:00.000-08:002016-10-23T19:42:33.606-07:00Excommunication For Teaching LDS Essay Doctrines?<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><br />A lot of news on John Dehlin. When <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-letter.html" target="_blank">I was called in for disciplinary court</a> in Sept 2012, John and I spoke on the phone for about an hour. He counseled me to play nice with the church. <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-compromise.html" target="_blank">I responded by having Mormonthink remove content containing the temple ceremonies and other allegedly controversial material.</a> It was to no avail. They told me that there was nothing I could do to avoid disciplinary court. When I went to the media, I received an email from my leaders postponing my court indefinitely.<br /><br />John didn't get that indefinite postponement. Despite the media attention, the LDS church took its action against Dehlin. I have to give them kudos for carrying it through. Perhaps they don't have a US presidential candidate ringing for them, so it's easier to excommunicate with media attention than when I was in the news about Romney.<br /><br />There is no doubt that with as much media attention as was given, and that the <a href="http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-responds-to-john-dehlins-public-comments" target="_blank">LDS Newsroom</a> posted, which issues most of the LDS Church policy these days, the Dehlin disciplinary court was managed from the top.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Kate Kelly, the Ordain Women excomminicated, said it humorously:</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"</span><span style="font-size: large;">Love how the Mormon PR machine somehow magically whipped up this simultaneously dishonest AND judgey press release in 30-seconds-flat after finding out the decision from John bc, of course as they consistently insisted, only his *LOCAL LEADERS* were involved."</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Indeed, they were ready the moment Dehlin went to the press with their counter statement, from the top, and it's telling that the top was guiding the show.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Yes, John Dehlin asks a lot of questions in his podcasts at Mormonstories. He himself rarely "preaches" or even advocates much of the issues, from what I can tell. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">John has, however, advocated for same sex couples and women's rights. But on the doctrinal and historical issues, Dehlin usually leaves most of his personally voiced content in questions. Are questions so offensive that they should be disciplined? The Church had been increasing its <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/08/attacking-questioner.html" target="_blank">"attack the questioner"</a> angle until Dehlin. But he is the most public questioner of all, and the media attention is making them squeamish. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><br /><b>The management was caught in a big problem.</b> If they opposed Dehlin on his views and support of same-sex couples, they would appear very bigoted in the news. If they disciplined him for questioning (even as publicly as he does in podcasts) would that create shock waves among the hundreds of thousands of members who currently have unanswered questions?<br /><br />They couldn't admit to either. So they ginned up charges, it would seem.<br /><br />Here are the official charges, <a href="http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-responds-to-john-dehlins-public-comments" target="_blank">per LDS Newsroom</a>.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><ol><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Disputing the nature of our Heavenly Father and the divinity of Jesus Christ.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Statements that the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham are fraudulent and works of fiction. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Statements and teachings that reject The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as being the true Church with power and authority from God.</span></li></ol><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span><br /><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">On (1), interestingly, Gordon B. Hinckley has disputed the nature of the Mormon God in national press interviews. When asked if Mormons believe humans can become gods and if god was once human, he replied famously, "I don't know that we teach it." (<a href="http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/publications/does_president_hinckley_understand_lds_doctrine" target="_blank">Time, August 4, 1997</a>) </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/becoming-like-god?lang=eng" target="_blank">The LDS essay on Becoming Like God</a> reiterates the very idea that Hinckley, then prophet, hemmed on teaching.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />Quote: </span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">" Human nature was at its core divine. God “was once as one of us” and “all the spirits that God ever sent into the world” were likewise “susceptible of enlargement.” Joseph Smith preached that long before the world was formed, God found “himself in the midst” of these beings and “saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself” and be “exalted” with Him. "</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I don't know what they claim Dehlin specifically taught that disputed the "nature of our Heavenly Father" but...</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b> <i>if a prophet can deny one of the most profound claims of the LDS faith about the nature of God, the one that separates it more from traditional Christianity than anything else in its quiver of Smithisms, then how come Dehlin got singled out for something of lesser nature?</i></b></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">On (2) again, I don't know specifically what they claim Dehlin taught that stated the Book of Mormon and Abraham are fiction. However, the LDS topic essay on <a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/book-of-mormon-and-dna-studies?lang=eng" target="_blank">The Book of Mormon and DNA</a> goes at length to show that the DNA studies showing early Amerindian migrations do not disprove the Book of Mormon. The essay admits that there were humans living in America before the time that <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/02/dna-part-1-putting-jesus-on-dis-mantle.html" target="_blank">LDS teachings claim Adam and Eve lived</a>, according to the prescribed timeline in their own bible and Doctrine and Covenants. The essay also admits:</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><ul><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">"The Book of Mormon provides little direct information about cultural contact between the peoples it describes and others who may have lived nearby."</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">"One reason it is difficult to use DNA evidence to draw definite conclusions about Book of Mormon peoples is that nothing is known about the DNA that Lehi, Sariah, Ishmael, and others brought to the Americas."</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Book of Mormon record keepers were primarily concerned with conveying religious truths and preserving the spiritual heritage of their people."</span></li></span></ul><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> That is: There is no evidence (DNA or otherwise) for the people of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon does not directly discuss (identify) other people. The Book of Mormon is primarily about religious/spiritual teachings and events. The multitude of wars elaborated in the Book of Mormon are, apparently, not the primary concern, even though the book is very full of their descriptions. Evidence of these wars is lacking in the actual archaeology record (and in the DNA of dead warriors, which counters the drift and dilution arguments the LDS essay makes).</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The B. of Mormon essay summarizes by quoting Apostle Oaks as saying, <i>“It is our position that secular evidence can neither prove nor disprove the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.”</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><br />The definition of fiction is "literature in the form of prose, especially short stories and novels, that describes imaginary events and people." </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This is their position: Secular evidence can never prove the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. There's nothing science can do to help them. Do you see this? If the people and events have and will always have zero evidence, then how does one differentiate the contents of the Book of Mormon from fiction?<br /><br />Oak says you can't. He may not have called it fiction, but his "position" statement is effectively admitting to it.<br /><br />How then do they discipline Dehlin for saying basically the same thing an Apostle says?</span><br /><br /><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">On (3) again, I don't know specifically what they claim Dehlin stated, but the LDS essays have admitted the LDS prophets have no authority in many matters.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">There is no more important authority to the LDS Church than its priesthood, and in an essay on the priesthood, regarding denying it to a whole race of humankind, the LDS church states:</span></div><div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">"[T]he Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects unrighteous actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form."</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />They had 11 prophets that continued racism policies. The LDS Church tacitly admits that their statements in the official scripture of <a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/od/1?lang=eng" target="_blank">OD-1 (D&C)</a>, that the Lord won’t allow a prophet to lead the members astray, is false. For nearly 150 years the prophets have led the people astray with racist policies and the current prophet administration does not know why this happened, they just know firmly, racism is wrong. That repudiation of the former policy, of hundreds of statements made by Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor, Bruce McConkie, and many more effectively opens the gate to an understanding that the current administrating prophets could be absolutely dead wrong on policies they have in place currently.<br /><br />If the LDS church essay can teach their prophets were horribly wrong on such a serious issues as their own authority and priesthood, then why are they singling out Dehlin?<br /><br />They must do this. They can't have Dehlin thumb his nose at the LDS church leaders and continue to dare ask his many questions in public. They had to excommunicate him because he destabilizes their political economy--which depends on hoodwinking temple going full tithers.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">LDS doctrine is Jello. And Dehlin tried to use nails to solidfy it, so they nailed him.<br /><br />Their own essays and statements condemn them for the same reasons they condemn Dehlin. But they are above their own laws.</span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfH9N_MDm_GLK6iwliQAfiu4mNBbN3uVFrr3FcIrdDFzmcOz9FMUk-1yMgLYy1XdqoOlvUaiEH8kUDDzfjE7NxQkUAvYUBARqSrE26nSXADfoux9xDoOZVQSnH5tJHdfkKJ7l2TjlwjpQ/s1600/LDS_summary.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfH9N_MDm_GLK6iwliQAfiu4mNBbN3uVFrr3FcIrdDFzmcOz9FMUk-1yMgLYy1XdqoOlvUaiEH8kUDDzfjE7NxQkUAvYUBARqSrE26nSXADfoux9xDoOZVQSnH5tJHdfkKJ7l2TjlwjpQ/s1600/LDS_summary.png" height="640" width="586" /></a></div><div><br /></div>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-78520385840287140282015-02-07T06:00:00.000-08:002018-02-10T12:36:33.282-08:00The Trigamy<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The number three is special to Mormons. Three in the godhead. Three in the first presidency. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">And temple marriages are a threesome.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The temple has three spires. In the endowment, the man covenants with God, and the woman covenants with the man. The sealing is a covenant of both man and woman with each other and with God.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">I'm in my eighth year of being divorced. It happened long before I completely left the LDS Church in 2012. I rarely talk about my personal situation on the blog because I don't like approaching the line where I involve family in my public activities. But I've learned a few things about relationships since leaving both my marriage and then the LDS Church that warrant discussion and some of it involves me personally.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">My ex-wife went on a public panel at a <a href="http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2014-fairmormon-conference/panel-discussion-family-members-left" target="_blank">FAIR conference in August 2014</a> (link no longer works, ex's name and contributions have been erased online) where she talked quite a bit about me and our former marriage in a very public way. She implied or characterized that our marriage ended because I became an unbeliever, saying, <i>"he filed for divorce and moved out, and shortly after that, went inactive. Now it was clear to me, because he was not as enthusiastic about attending church..." </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Despite reversing the cause and effect (divorcing catalyzed my inactivity, and not the reverse), her attempt was to blame our failed marriage, and me filing and leaving, on my lack of testimony. I think a lot of past and future broken LDS marriages may appear to be smashed on the doubts of one faithless spouse. It would also appear that the church-faithful one becomes shipwrecked on a desert island, to wander the wilderness with the Lord. My ex-wife explained it to the FAIR panel this way: <i>"Now, what I did not understand at the time, was what was coming down the road. My Heavenly Father knew what challenges I would face and He knew that I would be ok through those years of self-doubt, until the time was right for me to receive that answer."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">You see, the Lord sustains the deserted spouse. Perhaps even carries them across the sand, where there are only one set of footprints. Yes, you've probably heard these anecdotes</span><span style="font-size: large;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">There's a general assumption in LDS Marriages that it is not a couple, but a threesome: The husband, the wife and Jesus. Like the Trinity, this Trigamy--the LDS modern spiritual polygamy--has an invisible ghostly character pulling the strings. The Trigamy puts Jesus on top of the man and the woman, to rope a couple to the bedposts of the LDS Church.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Now you may wonder why I didn't place the man on top of the woman, with Jesus on top of him. The idea of this ordering comes officially from </span><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation" target="_blank">The Proclamation on the Family</a> which attemptes to spell out the roles of men and women. To wit, men lead in church responsibilities and women nurture at home. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">It's not that clear in practice, though. While men may be given leadership roles, yet they are dressed down by a relentless spray of faults in lessons and meetings. And it works—give men praise and they’ll rest Sundays on their laurels; show who’s boss and they rush and stand at attention to take the abuse. Women are persistently honored and placed on high pedestals such that the determined perfectionism keeps them ever reaching for the stars. Take to faulting women as is done with men, and the chapel doors will bust at the hinges with sisters fleeing from such abuse. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">In practice, women are praised yet subjegated as 2nd class citizens. Men are empowered leaders but always told they better get in line and follow. The constant power in the Trigamy is Jesus. He's in charge at church, at home, and in the personal lives of both men and women--as an ever present partner spying and tallying up offenses on each. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">I have seen personal experiences on how this works. Back in <a href="http://mormondisclosures.blogspot.com/2014/08/family-who-self-empower.html" target="_blank">August 2014</a>, I wrote the following:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There once was a couple whose marriage was threatened in part by testimony differences. Their bishop counseled with them and told the doubting husband, </span><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“In the temple you covenant to obey God, while your wife covenants to obey you, her husband, as long as you obey God. How can I counsel her to stay with you if your relationship with Christ is jeopardized by your doubts of the church?” </span> </i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That bishop chained the entire future of the marriage around the ankles of the man’s doubts. The bishop justified the wife to feel victimized by her husband's concerns, rather than develop healthy willingness to consider the validity of her love’s thoughts. The woman, who believed the sexist doctrines that her covenant was to a man and not with her God, was also caught in the snare that LDS teachings lay for them both—that it is the Mormon church who controls your marriage, not the partners.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">When one spouse (or ex spouse) says they are faithfully walking with Jesus and the other is not, this is their way of saying that they are still in the Trigamy on the good side of Jesus. It's now two-against-one and as such, they are in the right. Once the partnership dissolves from a threesome to a 1 and 2-some, it's made clear who are the winners and who is the loser. Actually, it is just the church (as Jesus' representative) who seems to believe it always wins. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Controlling the marriage and the family is the "political economy" of invisible power in the Mormon kingdom. Keeping the family together on their terms brings tithing. After all, who benefits from dividing the roles in the family, strictly maintained by factors like temple worthiness? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The Trigamy is one of the most powerful inventions of the modern church. The Trigamy glues more members to the church than its doctrine, its sealing power or its opposition to same sex attraction.</span><br />
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<br />David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-61147267533023795702014-11-28T11:30:00.000-08:002016-10-23T19:42:33.632-07:00Corrupt Then, Corrupt Now (part 3)<span style="font-size: large;">FAIR justifies <a href="http://en.fairmormon.org/Word_of_Wisdom/Brigham_Young%27s_whiskey_distillery" target="_blank">Brigham Young's Whiskey Distillery</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">"Brigham Young built a whiskey distillery in Utah...The Word of Wisdom was not enforced as rigorously, or with the same requirements, in Brigham Young's day. Many speakers emphasized the Lord's patience in this matter, as applied to both leaders and members."</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Bang a glass for Brigham. And enjoy your holiday parties! (But "not to excess" --Brigham)</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdoD8oSx8FrG9E975fQ-4KWi-allRpAR5_feiXG7G9k-w9AAFfsjn9sSD-UDFIQBhaRCIUX6IafTt6r85DpOXnqVNRNHhxvztbJr3iWBxoUj2N9OcdxzMEy5iV-c87HrCG4DiIbsBC9QM/s1600/BY_whiskey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1o7jloK-hcSAtaF2R-N_K8m-zImq_G3ySC00HJpenDrAX4B7pSPpQBgqSRTcLnlDm756ajeA-OWx1YvoIDkvEswbjHLbwLvuP8dOkshte1-RnmIMS6-6fmmECzwP3umA87ooMvWlUrh0/s1600/BY_whiskey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1o7jloK-hcSAtaF2R-N_K8m-zImq_G3ySC00HJpenDrAX4B7pSPpQBgqSRTcLnlDm756ajeA-OWx1YvoIDkvEswbjHLbwLvuP8dOkshte1-RnmIMS6-6fmmECzwP3umA87ooMvWlUrh0/s1600/BY_whiskey.jpg" height="482" width="640" /></a></div><br />David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8223497504999189608.post-46508864110210253252014-11-28T11:00:00.000-08:002016-10-23T19:42:33.644-07:00Corrupt Then, Corrupt Now (part 2)<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://en.fairmormon.org/Word_of_Wisdom/Brigham_Young_and_tobacco/Growing_tobacco_in_Utah" target="_blank">FAIR mormon has an article</a> that speaks for itself.</span><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">"Since Brigham realized that a considerable sum ($60-80,000 in 1861 dollars) was being spent annually on tobacco (at least a small part of which was used for <a href="http://en.fairmormon.org/Word_of_Wisdom/Joseph_Smith_used_tea#Medical_thinking" title="Word of Wisdom/Joseph Smith used tea">medicinal purposes</a> in the 19th century) he preferred that these funds remain within the territory to foster further economic growth and self-sufficiency, rather than disappearing into eastern markets."</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The $2M inflated value "fair" conclusion for our times is:</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr9PLKt77OZL7wan4VwKbrKTyBpkvFJIL3MWmTnvDTvmxfDqZLS5k81NCsCLjuCtRP6-LFHsFA9MzzkA41howOZt_vfxIjr98ABDk-8w9TjOgr6AJesX1sYkOakfn5x9qDkFglTzLVNug/s1600/hide_profits2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr9PLKt77OZL7wan4VwKbrKTyBpkvFJIL3MWmTnvDTvmxfDqZLS5k81NCsCLjuCtRP6-LFHsFA9MzzkA41howOZt_vfxIjr98ABDk-8w9TjOgr6AJesX1sYkOakfn5x9qDkFglTzLVNug/s1600/hide_profits2.png" height="480" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>David Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357179418131851128noreply@blogger.com1