Ask questions all you want ................ or not.

My response and review (in italics) of the church’s statement regarding recent excommunications, discipline and dissent. It can be found here: https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/june-first-presidency-statement?lang=eng

June 28, 2014

In God's plan for the happiness and eternal progression of His children, the blessings of His priesthood are equally available to men and women. Only men are ordained to serve in priesthood offices. These two sentences contradict each other. Especially when you consider how much men are taught that the largest portion of the blessings received from the priesthood are from calling fulfillment. Women have no way to benefit from this.

All service in the Church has equal merit in the eyes of God. No it really doesn’t. To 15 geriatric, heavily indoctrinated, egocentric and out of touch men it may have equal merit. If god was real I doubt he’d be as douchey as these 15 men (yes, most likely unintentionally and ignorantly) are.

We understand that from time to time Church members will have questions about Church doctrine, history, or practice. Members are always free to ask such questions and earnestly seek greater understanding. This may be true but you have to ask in a certain way, to certain people and if you don’t do it THEIR way you are threatened (I know this form personal experience).

We feel special concern, however, for members who distance themselves from Church doctrine or practice and, by advocacy, encourage others to follow them. Of course you do. It threatens your precious worldview that you believe to be infallible.

Simply asking questions has never constituted apostasy. Many have been excommunicated for this despite this claim.

Apostasy is repeatedly acting in clear, open, and deliberate public opposition to the Church or its faithful leaders, or persisting, after receiving counsel, in teaching false doctrine. So by this logic, most of the previous prophets should have been ex’d because of the false doctrine they taught such as blood atonement, Adam-God doctrine and the like.

The Council of The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

C’mon brethren, sign your actual freakin’ names. This looks like another generic release from President Newsroom.

In summary, this statement is simply just more PR spin. Man up brethren and confront the issues head on!

Day of Reckoning…… maybe…… hopefully

As mentioned in my post The LDS Church has lied and deliberately concealed historical facts to maintain a clean image I talk about Lying for the Lord. Well what appears to be the first hopefully substantial attempt at making someone responsible for their fraudulent ways has begun. Thomas Monson has officially been legally summoned to the UK court on 3/14/2014 to appear and respond to allegations of fraud. Most media outlets that even reported this legal action have been quick to dismiss these allegations as frivolous.  I mostly agreed with these opinions until I was able to find out more about the 2006 ruling in the UK against scientology. Thankfully the UK is not giving the religious free pass that is demanded in the US for these corporate religious such as the LDS Church. Although I have no delusions that Tommy will be extradited and arrested, I think this may set a great precedent for a few things:

- Religions can in fact commit fraud by making demonstrably false claims

- The LDS Church will have to reconsider what it means to be in full fellowship through tithes

- The LDS Church will have to actually admit to these whitewashed doctrinal and historical issues

I know it is wishful thinking but my fingers crossed that the church will have to fess up to the lies they have perpetuated for years that causes such financial and emotional damage.

For some more information, please see these great links:

Mormonthink profile on the man behind the charges- Tom Phillips

http://goo.gl/oMjbTQ

Infants on Thrones Podcast interview with Tom Phillips

http://goo.gl/8A9hph

Mormon Stories Podcast (unpublished) with Tom Phillips on his second anointing

http://goo.gl/XScnf5

The Mormonthink info page dedicated to the court summons

http://goo.gl/cGQgLP

Two radio interviews Tom Phillips and Tal Bachman did about these issues:

http://drewmarshall.ca/audio/121103tomphilipstalbachman.mp3

http://drewmarshall.ca/audio/140208talandtom.mp3

If the LDS Church wasn’t "true", wouldn’t you want to know?

I thought I would share two of my favorite “concise” resources when dealing with issues relating to the church. My favorite thing about both of these letters are that they are coming from people who have seen both sides of the argument and have come to what I believe to be logical conclusions despite the negative social consequences that resulted from their decisions. I believe these are both great resources for any member of the church who answers “Yes” to the question “If the Church wasn’t true, wouldn’t you want to know?”

 The first is a letter is written by a member named Tyler Young. One thing I can empathize with Tyler is that he genuinely wanted the church to be true. This is certainly how I felt at the time. Nobody wants their worldview destroyed but the truth has no limits.

http://bit.ly/whytylerleft

The second and perhaps my favorite is from a current lifelong member who was asked by a CES Director in 2013 to share with him questions and concerns regarding the LDS Church and its truth claims. The following letter is Jeremy's response. As far as I know to this point, no response has been given.

http://www.cesletter.com/

Both of these authors have mentioned that their documents will be updated regularly as they make edits or additions so I would always refer to the links above. Many thanks to these guys for their hard work! Happy reading!

Religion as a Crutch

I distinctly remember on my mission trying to convince the people to listen to the message of the glorious gospel. One of the biggest defenses given was “I don’t need your crutch!” I remember being offended by this insinuation that my religion is a crutch. I also remember saying that it isn’t a crutch but it is something that will help you in your life.  Well now guess what? I can’t think of a better description for religion than a crutch. Does this mean that religion is bad? Not necessarily. The thing with a crutch is that it should only be used when there is a disability.  What religion does is it convinces you that there is something wrong with you. The idea that man is inherently evil is taught by many religions, including Mormonism. 

Religion is no different than these guys that sell water purification systems. They do some bogus test that makes you believe that the perfectly good water you have been drinking your whole life is somehow suddenly contaminated. “Well guess what? Since your water is so badly contaminated, it just so happens that I sell this amazing water purification system. It will only cost you $2,000!” he says.  Similarly, as Mosiah 3:19 says, For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.  In other words, as any good missionary  will say, “Since man is an enemy to God, it just so happens all I need is for you to dedicate your entire life to my church and pay 10% of your income and you too can be saved from your evil self!”

Mormonism along with most religions has some very good attributes and does many good things. Mormonism along with most religions also has a lot of bad things. I have come to realize that unfortunately it really is too late for some people to ever believe that they can survive without religion. They are so convinced at this point that their “leg” has atrophied to the point that it cannot be rehabilitated. However, I do believe that for most, it isn’t too late. They can drop the crutch and rehabilitate themselves. They will find that what they thought was walking at a normal pace was really a hobble and they can now run freely. Will it be painful to get to that point? Most definitely! Any rehabilitation is very painful but it can be very worth it. I have come to realize that I am no longer broken like I thought I was. As a result, I no longer need that crutch to get by. It is hard but I believe one day I will run faster than I ever did with that crutch supporting me. I haven’t left religion but rather I believe I have graduated from religion by realizing that there is nothing wrong with me. Trust me; you can walk on your own!

Indoctrination, Brainwashing and Teaching

Recently I was watching the documentary by Richard Dawkins that is based on his book The God Delusion.  He referenced a quote from the Jesuit that says “Give me the child for his first seven years, and I’ll give you the man.” I can’t agree with this more. Dawkins talks about that our genetic makeup causes us to believe what we are taught by our elders for our own survival.  We need to be taught to not walk to close to the edge of a cliff or to no go in water infested with alligators.  I love these examples because they are true. No child would ever survive to adulthood without some guidance and direction. 

Now I contrast this to part of “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” that says “Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.” I do not completely disagree with this statement other than the “observe the commandments of God” portion.  The problem is that no matter what your religion, there are varying degrees of what the commandments of god are. Frankly there are varying degrees within Mormonism i.e. consumption of caffeine, net or gross tithing, keeping the Sabbath day holy etc. Every parent interprets these things differently just as every religion interprets these things differently and these discrepancies are passed on to the kids as facts in their mind. It is sad to think of all the hatred that is passed on from parent to child that is based on religion. To me this is indoctrination and I believe could just as easily be called brainwashing.

I will not indoctrinate or brainwash my kids but rather teach them. So how to balance what I teach my own kids? I now look forward to teaching my kids the basics of life. That is my responsibility as a parent. It is my job to help them be a contributing person in society as well as to not fall off of the cliffs of life. I can teach them to treat others how they would want to be treated. I can teach them the consequences of their actions. I can teach them that there is a whole world out there for them to explore and try to figure out.  I can teach them to try to find their own personal happiness. Sure, I can use my experiences or the experiences of others to help them understand possible outcomes of their decisions.  I can try to explain why I might believe what I believe without forcing or coercing them.  I don’t have to teach them the made up dogma of others that came before them.

Dawkins also has stated “Religious leaders are well aware of the vulnerability of the child brain, and the importance of getting the indoctrination in early.” I believe this is the exact mindset of the church leaders who recently lowered the missionary age. Yes, the same guys that brought you the lyrical gem “Follow the Prophet, Follow the Prophet, Follow the Prophet he knows the way!” (Seriously, how did I not see this as brainwashing?)

It is sad to see what indoctrination does to the brain. It can force the most innocent child to want to kill their neighbor. It can force people to die for a cause they believe in even if it is baseless. It can cause young adults to leave their world during such an important time in their own life just to say to strangers that my god is better than your god. I sincerely believe that most of the world’s social problems are caused by indoctrination. To combat this we can encourage free thought and tolerance for others. We can remove the arrogance that religion brings to the table.  We can open our minds and the minds of those around us to the idea that there is more than one way.  I acknowledge that my views about this matter could also be seen as arrogant but considering the diversity of this world we live in, I certainly would rather err on the side that allows more than one way to live and believe.

On second thought, the only brainwashing I will do with my kids is to ensure they root for the appropriate sports teams.

Apologetics

I must say, the world of apologetics is really unknown to the Mormon world. I know I had no idea that it even existed.  I will say that this fact is in and of itself is a bit of evidence that there is so much that is intentionally concealed from church members.  The Mormon definition of apologetics would be “a branch of theology devoted to the defense of the divine origin and authority of Mormonism.”  I’m the first to admit that you can’t prove that the church is true. You also can’t prove that it is false, even if the evidence is stacked against the church in my opinion.

There are three main apologetics sites that I am familiar with.  The Maxwell Institute which is the official LDS site, Fair LDS, and Stay LDS.  All three are linked on the sidebar for your reference. 

The way I see it, if you want to be convinced that the church is still true, apologetics will do that.  I believe this is due to confirmation bias as opposed to real viable defenses put forth by apologists. To be fair, the same biases can be shown by “anti-Mormons” when they try to prove their evidences against the church.  I believe most apologetic responses are very weak.  I have yet to see an apologetic response that really satisfies my concerns. The link here at the bottom is a great representation of how ridiculous these apologetic defenses can be.  In fact, this proves that their so called evidences are often misleading and flat out lies. 
  
http://youtu.be/EReUoXIesMI

As a side note, that person that did that video has some other great videos I’d highly recommend so check out his YouTube channel after you watch this video.  He has done some great stuff for the doubting/disaffected/ExMo community.

Anachronisms in the Book of Mormon

My lexicon had never before contained the word anachronism but I have come to learn that this is a very important word in regards to confirming or disproving the historicity of the Book of Mormon.  The simple definition of anachronism is something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, especially a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time: The sword is an anachronism in modern warfare.

The anachronisms in the BofM are very obvious when you read them if you take off your spiritual blinders that the church has you wear.  I have compiled a list of my favorites here. Please bear in mind, these are summaries and by no means comprehensive. There are links to some of the most common sources I’ve explored so please look to those for good science and research.

Quoting Isaiah- the book of Isaiah was not written by Isaiah but rather one or more other people sometime between 586 B.C. and 538 B.C., after it could have even been known to Lehi.

Horses- they did not exist on the continent until 1493 when Columbus brought them from Europe. There is no fossil evidence for pre-Columbus horses.

Elephants- they did not exist on the continent during the time of any of the inhabitants of the BofM lived on the continent

Barley and wheat- the introduction of domesticated modern barley and wheat to the New World was made by Europeans sometime after 1492, many centuries after the time in which the Book of Mormon is set.

Chariots or wheeled vehicles- there is no archaeological evidence to support the use of wheeled vehicles in Mesoamerica. Many parts of ancient Mesoamerica were not suitable for wheeled transport.

Silk- silk is a material that is created from the cocoon of the Asian moth Bombyx mori, and was unknown to the pre-Columbian Americas.

Windows-  the Jaredite people were familiar with the concept of "windows" near the time of the Biblical Tower of and that they specifically avoided crafting windows for lighting in their covered seagoing vessels, because the windows would be "dashed in pieces" during the ocean voyage.  The earliest known production of glass dates to 3500 BC in Egypt.

Steel and iron- There is no evidence of steel (hardened iron) production in North, Central, or South America during these periods. The process of smelting these metals leaves significant archeological evidences.

Christ and Messiah- "Christ" is the English transliteration of the Greek word Χριστός (transliterated precisely as Christós). Joseph Smith clearly stated “There was no Greek or Latin upon the plates from which I, through the grace of the Lord, translated the Book of Mormon.”  The Book of Mormon contains some names which appear to be Greek (e.g. Antipas, Archeantus, Esrom, Ezias, Jonas, Judea, Lachoneus and Zenos).

KJV anachronisms- a significant portion of the Book of Mormon quotes from the brass plates, which purport to be another source of Old Testament writings mirroring those of the Bible. In many cases, the Biblical quotations in the English-language Book of Mormon are close, or identical to the equivalent sections of the King James Version. This shows that Joseph copied errors out of the KJV and placed them in the BofM rather than translate them directly from the plates.

I do not claim that any of these things are “smoking guns” but it certainly stacks the evidence against believers.  Red flags do add up don't they?

Links:

Wikipedia

Mormon Expression

Mormon Handbook

Institute for Religious Research

FAIRMormon (if you want unreasonable excuses)

My favorite new word: Culty

Why do I like the word culty so much? I know firsthand how defensive I was whenever people would say that I was a member of a cult. How couldn't I be offended? Being associated with that word implies that I am a thoughtless zombie just following the leader.  Well I don't believe that Mormons are thoughtless zombies but come on, have you ever heard the primary song "Follow the Prophet"?  If that isn't the type of brainwashing that takes place in a cult, it is certainly culty behavior.

I really hate the fact that Mormons immediately dismiss the entire conversation once the "c-word" is brought to the table. So to avoid that type of conversation discrimination I will not refer to Mormonism as a cult but rather it is very culty. There, is that better? It doesn't change the fact that the church uses mind control from a very early age to control the behavior of its members.  It starts with Primary with the songs.  It gets worse when an eight year old gets baptized (come on, is that really different than baby baptisms?).  It continues with the oppressive and mind controlling priesthood interviews.  It gets really deep with the endowment in the temple.  And what I consider the coupe de gras, the two year mission, seals the deal as far as what the commitment level is. This is why I believe the recent “revelation” to lower missionary ages is just a last ditch effort to stop 18 year-olds from discovering Google and actually using their brains (yes I am making fun of myself here as well since I served a mission). Of course celestial marriage and ongoing church callings continue the brainwashing and groupthink that persist in the church.

I can say that I now have personal experience with how duped one feels when they start to see the light. It is a frustrating and depressing realization that comes over you when you get to that point but the freedom that comes is simply priceless and worth the journey. I completely understand why true believers will always push back any contrary thoughts or teachings because that is how they have been groomed. One of my favorite quotes really embodies this predicament that Mormons can find themselves in:

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken."

-Carl Sagan

If you’d like to explore the issue I’d recommend listening the the Mormon Expression podcast #201 or the Mormon Expositor follow up podcasts #2A & #2b.  They discuss some of the indicators that can define any organization as a cult.  They are:

1. Their leader/s may claim a special, exclusive ministry, revelation or position of authority given by God.

2. They believe they are the only true church and take a critical stance regarding the Christian church while at the same time praising and exalting their own group, leader/s and work.

3. They use intimidation or psychological manipulation to keep members loyal to their ranks. This could be in the form of threats of dire calamity sent by God if they leave; certain death at Armageddon; being shunned by their family and friends etc. This is a vital part of the mind control process.

4. Members will be expected to give substantial financial support to the group. This could be compulsory tithing (which is checked); signing over all their property on entering the group; coercive methods of instilling guilt on those who have not contributed; selling magazines, flowers or other goods for the group as part of their “ministry”.

5. At the same time bible-based cults may ridicule churches that take up free-will offerings by passing collection plates and/or sell literature and tapes. They usually brag that they don’t do this. This gives outsiders the intimation that they are not interested in money.

6. There will be great emphasis on loyalty to the group and its teachings. The lives of members will be totally absorbed into the group’s activities. They will have little or no time to think for themselves because of physical and emotional exhaustion. This is also a vital part of the mind control process.

7. There will be total control over almost all aspects of the private lives of members. This control can be direct through communal living, or constant and repetitious teaching on “how to be a true Christian” or “being obedient to leadership”. Members will look to their leaders for guidance in everything they do.

Bible-based cults may proclaim they have no clergy/laity distinction and no paid ministry class – that they are all equal.

8. Any dissent or questioning of the group’s teachings is discouraged. Criticism in any form is seen as rebellion. There will be an emphasis on authority, unquestioning obedience and submission. This is vigilantly maintained.

9. Members are required to demonstrate their loyalty to the group in some way. This could be in the form of “dobbing” on fellow members (including family) under the guise of looking out for “spiritual welfare”.

10. They may be required to deliberately lie (heavenly deception/theocratic strategy) or give up their lives by refusing some form of medical treatment.

11. Attempts to leave or reveal embarrassing facts about the group may be met with threats. Some may have taken oaths of loyalty that involve their lives or have signed a “covenant” and feel threatened by this. Refugees of the group are usually faced with confrontations by other members with coercion to get them to return to the group.

If I were to rank the Mormon church on a scale of 1-10 of “cultyness” on these points, my average score of the 11 points would result in my opinion that the church is 84.5% culty. Bottom line, truth is truth no matter where it comes from no matter how much it cuts to the core. Even if it defines you as a member of a cult. I do know one thing, I am a firm believer that the truth really will set you free.

The Evil Tanners

Well before any period of disaffection took place in my mind I was well aware of Jerald and Sandra Tanner and their very “anti-Mormon” messages they preached. If you are unaware, they founded the Utah Lighthouse Ministry in Salt Lake which has a bookstore spreading “evil rumors” about the LDS church.  In my research I have always wanted to search for information form original historical sources and I have tried to avoid the likes of Ed Decker and the Tanners due to their perceived bias. Since my study from original source material has already kicked me well into my crisis of faith, I thought it might be interesting to dive into some of that biased material. What do I have to lose at this point?

I have recently been reading the Tanner’s book The Changing World of Mormonism (available free online) and I have been shocked to see that the bulk of what they present is fair and accurate.  I am the first to admit that they are very biased against the church and have their own Christian objectives.  They have been criticized for making some leaps and connections without historical references but the points that they are making leaps between are still accurate and historically factual.  One thing I have enjoyed about this book is the included copies of actual historical documents that they refer to. I believe that they are (and were in Jerald’s case) good people trying to help people find truth.  Although I am not too interested in their Christian views at this point, I think their information is still useful. I wouldn’t recommend their stuff if you are just starting to research the truth about the LDS church (remember milk before meat, right?) but they do present some good information that I found to be informative and useful.

Why do people leave the church?

This last Sunday in my Elders Quorum class, the discussion of why people leave the church came up. In my readings of people's personal experiences when leaving the church I had always heard members of the church always claiming the reasons for leaving the church are one of two things: the person sinned or they were offended.

How obtuse of an outlook can people have? That is the most uninformed and judgmental bias I could imagine in this circumstance. How hurtful is it to judge what the reasons why someone else left the church are without being willing to hear those very reasons.

Maybe they are right about being offended but in the wrong way. If I end up leaving the church I guess it will because I am offended. Not offended by another church member or by rules or by tough commandments. I will be offended that the church is a lie and although I will admit it has benefited me in multiple ways, it has stolen much of my life away from me.