Can someone explain Mormon to me?

[qwnu]

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They are kind, hard working and very faithful people.

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They are generous, hard working, and very kind.

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Bennett Marco: "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life."

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I agree with the above, but maybe that's just what they want us to think!! [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[ChoicestHops]

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If you are really interested in a religon's current beliefs then maybe try their website? Just a thought.


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I thought this was funny. So to learn about Scientology we go to their official website? Anyway, I dont see how anyone can still be a Mormon when they realize Smith started it all with his head in a hat reading off glowing plates. dumb, dumb dumb dumb, dumb!

[Follow]

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Where did all the current doctrines stuff come from? As a former Mormon I don't recognize the quoted aspects.

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You apparently weren't a Mormon in Utah judging by your post. And I think California, Idaho, Wyoming, and Arizona are probably out of your list of places that you might live (in descending order).


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* God was once a man like us.
* God has a tangible body of flesh and bone.
* God lives on a planet near the star Kolob.
* God ("Heavenly Father") has at least one wife, our "Mother in Heaven," but she is so holy that we are not to discuss her nor pray to her.
* We can become like God and rule over our own universe.
* There are many gods, ruling over their own worlds.
* Jesus Christ was conceived by God the Father by having sex with Mary, who was temporarily his wife.
* We should not pray to Jesus, nor try to feel a personal relationship with him.
* The "Lord" ("Jehovah") in the Old Testament is the being named Jesus in the New Testament, but different from "God the Father" ("Elohim").
* Not only will human beings be resurrected to eternal life, but also all animals - everything that has ever lived on earth - will be resurrected and dwell in heaven.
* Christ will not return to earth in any year that has seen a rainbow.
* Mormons should avoid traveling on water, since Satan rules the waters.
* The sun receives its light from the star Kolob.
* If a Gentile becomes Mormon, the Holy Ghost actually purges his Gentile blood and replaces it with Israelite blood.


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The rest I have at least heard of before.

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You haven't heard of these things? It's true that some of them aren't direct scripture, they're quotes or interpretations from the "prophets" [sic]. But some of the stuff like Kolob is scripture. Here is a link to a hymn called "If You Could Hie to Kolob." First a link from the BYU archives: http://tinyurl.com/yt8n9k
And second, the actual lyrics from another site (because the BYU site doesn't have the lyrics themselves: http://www.timesandseasons.org/archives/000530.html

Those beliefs up there are just the start of the kookiness. Ask a Mormon why we have dinosaur fossils on this planet, and they will tell you on no uncertain terms that when Elohim created this world (from the debris and detritus of other planets), other things came along. So dinosaurs never roamed our planet, but they are bones from the dirt from other planets. Elohim was of course a very devout worshipper on his planet and was therefore gifted with this planet to populate with his spirit children (that's why they need all the wives, the more wives, the more children, the larger your planet's starting population).



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I am not familiar at all with any of the past doctrines.

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The word "past" when it comes to them means less than 20 years in many cases. They have constant reforms. For example, about 10 years ago or less, they stopped with performing the pantomime of cutting their necks from "ear to ear" should they ever speak about temple activities.


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As for the Mormon life section, the following are not true(at least in the MD Mormon community):

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Oh, here you mention where you're from. I imagine things are different in an Eastern state like MD where the Mormons don't have much of a grip. Here in Utah, they run the government, Idaho too. They're working on the other states. The closer you are to SLC, the more hard core your local zealots will be.


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You will be expected to fulfill any work assignment given to you. Many Mormons find much of their spare time taken up with church work, trying to fulfill the numerous assignments that have been given them.

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They have more activities than their god could do on his "spare time." Not doing them casts you in a negative light.


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You will be expected to be unquestioningly obedient to church authorities in whatever they might tell you to do.

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This is true in most churches, so you can't really single the Mormons out here. But it's true.


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You will be advised not to read any material which is "not faith-promoting," that is, which may be critical or questioning of the church or its leaders

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Again, reading these things puts you in a negative light with the church. A friend and I (he is a current Mormon) went to an apologist website to ask some questions about scriptures. Granted, they were difficult questions and the answers might have put the church in a poor light, but rather than answer them, or even allow others to, they banned us within 2 posts. Dissent is not tolerated.


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You will be advised not to associate with "apostates," that is, former Mormons.

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Generally because "former" Mormons rightly label the faith as a cult.


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If you should ever decide that you made a mistake in joining the church and then leave it, you will probably find (judging from the experiences of others who have done so) that many of your Mormon friends will abandon and shun you.

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This one is pretty constant out here. When you're no longer in the ward, you're no longer part of the fold. They'll certainly try to bring you back "to the fold" by sending out teachers and missionaries to talk to you, but they aren't listening to you or your gripes, they just want you back in church. If you've chosen not to go to church, you're scum. The thing is that even in their scriptures, the Mormons believe that when a person knows the "true" faith, and abandons it, they are unsaveable. When you're ignorant of the "truth" they can just baptise you after death or something (which they do regularly). If you abandon the truth (especially if you were born into it), you're in deep doo-doo.


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Edit: Also the abstaining from coffee, tea, and alcohol parts of Mormon life are merely recommendations that were explained to me as being for health reasons(tanic acid and caffeine in coffee and tea. I believe the alcohol prohibitions stem back to problems with alcoholism among the original Mormons on the cross country journey to Utah.)

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They aren't "guidelines," they are scripture. They come from Doctrine and Covenant, section 89, found here:
http://scriptures.lds.org/dc/89

These aren't words that can be disobeyed as guidelines.


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If you prove yourself to be faithful, hard working and obedient, you will eventually be considered worthy to "receive your endowment" in a Mormon temple. You will not be told in advance exactly what to expect in this lengthy ceremony, except that the details of the ritual are secret. As part of that ceremony you will be required to swear a number of oaths, the penalty for violation of which is no longer stated but until 1990 was death by various bloody methods, such as having your throat slit from ear to ear. You will be given the secret signs and passwords which are required to enter heaven. After receiving the endowment you will be required to wear a special undergarment at all times.

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There are temple rituals giving various levels of priesthood with ceremonies I am not familiar with. My understanding of the special undergarments is that they are worn in the temple only.

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You definitely lived in a "Mormon Lite" type environment. The "Jesus Jammies" (loving title made by a friend) are to be worn at all times for a number of reasons. First, that the cloth is pure and other cloth should not be in contact with your skin. Not only should they be worn at all times, but the church has a special "church approved" method of sexual contact (between a man and a wife only of course) where you don't have to remove your "Jesus Jammies." The other reason is that the fabric is protected by Jesus himself and will keep you safe from harm. The church is abound with "testimonies" (Inigio Montoya moment) about people being "saved" because they were wearing their "Jesus Jammies." Anything from car fires (where all of their body NOT covered was burned) to gunshots. If only the DoD had these things...

The list goes on and on, they really are complete kooks. For disclosure purposes, I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of this wacky church. But I do happen to know more about the religion than even their most devout members do, reading does wonders.

Anyone who doesn't think these guys are completely off-the-wall should really take a read of their scriptures, they're fun (and hillarious).

Another thing left unmentioned is that their boys, at age 18 when they graduate high school are expected to go on a mission for 2 years. If they fail to, they won't get a good Mo wife, and will have little chance to advance in the church.

Any other questions, I'll gladly answer.




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[TS Clark]

Good grief, there is some horrendous information in this thread.

I'm a Mormon and a returned missionary. While I have NO interest in debating doctrine with anyone (it never does any good in these kinds of forums), I am happy to answer cultural or lifestyle questions. Again, don't bother trying to get me to debate you on historical and doctrinal issues. I don't have the time and I'm never going to intellectually convince you of anything. Stuff is weird in religion, guys -- ask any Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jew, etc.. We all have our "reeaaallllyy?" doctrines.

(By the way, the comments posted about temple garments in this thread are absolutely a hoot. Maybe 10% factual information and 90% complete horsecrap. But, hey, like one of the posters said -- every religion sounds kooky to outsiders.)

[Matt R.]

TS,
Run away. Run away as fast as you can. Trust me, they don't want information.

[jono]

What is the story of Joseph Smith? Please go into detail.

[GoodCallYouWin]

How many wives do you get exactly? I know you tell outsiders 1, but this is the internet, you can level with us.

[Duke]

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Good grief, there is some horrendous information in this thread.

I'm a Mormon and a returned missionary. While I have NO interest in debating doctrine with anyone (it never does any good in these kinds of forums), I am happy to answer cultural or lifestyle questions. Again, don't bother trying to get me to debate you on historical and doctrinal issues. I don't have the time and I'm never going to intellectually convince you of anything. Stuff is weird in religion, guys -- ask any Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jew, etc.. We all have our "reeaaallllyy?" doctrines.

(By the way, the comments posted about temple garments in this thread are absolutely a hoot. Maybe 10% factual information and 90% complete horsecrap. But, hey, like one of the posters said -- every religion sounds kooky to outsiders.)

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This is a good post.

The people who think it's the silliest think the exact same thing of every other religion, so it's not like they're singling you out.

[TS Clark]

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How many wives do you get exactly? I know you tell outsiders 1, but this is the internet, you can level with us.

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That depends. If you want to REMAIN a member of the Church itself, then the line is one. If not, take the over.

Personally, I can't imagine having to live with more than one woman. Aside from the obvious upside that all guys would be happy about, is any guy in favor of having more than one woman to deal with? God must have ordered Joseph Smith to actually start the plural marriage thing, because no reasonably self-interested guy would ever think -- "Hey, here's a good idea! Let me get two or more people to snark at me, tell me my faults, and ask me to change diapers!"

I couldn't love my wife anymore than I do (we've been together over 17 years), but she's plenty. One more woman in my life would mean a psych ward visit.

[Follow]

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Good grief, there is some horrendous information in this thread.

I'm a Mormon and a returned missionary. While I have NO interest in debating doctrine with anyone (it never does any good in these kinds of forums), I am happy to answer cultural or lifestyle questions. Again, don't bother trying to get me to debate you on historical and doctrinal issues. I don't have the time and I'm never going to intellectually convince you of anything. Stuff is weird in religion, guys -- ask any Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jew, etc.. We all have our "reeaaallllyy?" doctrines.

(By the way, the comments posted about temple garments in this thread are absolutely a hoot. Maybe 10% factual information and 90% complete horsecrap. But, hey, like one of the posters said -- every religion sounds kooky to outsiders.)

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Since you're so interested in answering questions, can you please tell me which 10% of what I said above was true, and which 90% was "horsecrap?" I don't have any interest in your attempts at conversion either, nor do I have any intention of changing your mind about anything. I just don't take it well when someone says most of what I said is a lie without even differentiating which is which. That's a cop out...

Also, please include your state of residence if you would. I want to know if you're "Mormon" or "Mormon-Lite."




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