This guy is Mormon?

[Beantown]

Then you'd be an apostate.

I'm curious, do you consider the Doctrine and Covenants "scripture"?
.

Every policy the church has is backed up very strongly by scripture. Nothing they do or say is a stray from that. So yes if the church came out and said we are becoming a terrorist organization I wouldn't be Mormon. I don't follow blindly, and the church doesn't want its members to either.

Is D&C scripture?....hold on let me check my scriptures..........yep their in there....

You can cross reference the BOM, Bible, D & C .....etc.....nothing said in each individual book is not backed up by a statement in another.

 

[LogGrad98]

*they're

 

[Beantown]

I prefer non-theist, and no, I don't believe the bible to be anything more than tribal bull-****.

So do you just ignore all the historical evidence of the Bible?....Even if your not a believer you can't deny that a lot of the biblical events actually happened.

 

[cowhide]

The point is people can't seem to separate individuals from the church. The biggest reason people go inactive is individuals actions or words. Not the church. The same for people outside the church. When a Mormon does something indivually offensive they blame the church.

So are you saying the church is perfect and the people are not but who makes up the church? Isn't it the people?

 

[7StraightIsGreat]

Actually, the phenomena of the Jabari Parkers might be about set to become another Mormon athletic coup like all the Polynesian football players BYU gets from it's members in the Pacific. A lot of LDS families have adopted some black kids. It's quite a going phenomena that black baptist girls are choosing not to abort, but put the kid up for adoption, and every week some are flown into Salt Lake to be near the adoptive parents, who pay for the delivery.

I guess that's one way for BYU to finally get some athletes in that defensive backfield......

 

[Scat]

I would have guessed that to be the doctrine now, but that was not the doctrine pre-1978 FWIW.

That's not true. They have been doing temple work for decades which includes baptisms and endowments for the dead.

 

[GVC]

That's not true. They have been doing temple work for decades which includes baptisms and endowments for the dead.

I'm pretty sure the doctrine was that African-Americans were barred from the priesthood both during life and after death pre-1978. As such, they (male African-Americans) could not receive an endowment or be married eternally after death.

 

[colton]

I'm pretty sure the doctrine was that African-Americans were barred from the priesthood both during life and after death pre-1978. As such, they (male African-Americans) could not receive an endowment or be married eternally after death.

I researched this a number of years back. If I recall correctly, the pre-1978 policy was that temple work would not be done for blacks (can't say "African-Americans" because that rules out Africans themselves), as GVC said. However, church leaders also taught that the day would come when this would change, although most believed this would not happen until the Millennium.

 

[One Brow]

So do you just ignore all the historical evidence of the Bible?....Even if your not a believer you can't deny that a lot of the biblical events actually happened.

Steam locomotives existed, therefore John Henry was born with two hammers in his hand?

 

[Safetydan]

I don't post very often, but I have some thoughts on the matter.

#1: Beantown is quite possibly the worst spokesperson for the church I have ever seen(read). It's insulting and embarrassing and actually very entertaining.

#2: There is no way to reconcile the black priesthood ban with logic while at the same time going all in 100% on church doctrine. There is no sufficient explanation that we, as humans, could come up with.

#3: Due to #2 and other numerous doctrinal issues/follies/inconsistencies, many Mormons go inactive, many mormons just ignore, and trust that God for some inexplicable reason does these sorts of things as all part of an unknown plan for our benefit. However, many active and semi-active members have come to the conclusion that the church is not "perfect", it's leaders do not get direct and unmistakable revelation from a god, yet are, for the most part, good wise people trying to help it's members to live good lives. The church is a good organization where people can go to meet like-minded individuals trying to live a moral life and who also share a similar background. For them, the kooky, superstitious prophet-worship, can be ignored and passed over because the benefits of the good parts of church outweigh the (admittedly numerous) negatives.

I myself am Inactive currently but wouldn't mind going back to church under this sort of world view. As far as organized religion goes, the LDS church isn't a terribly bad organization.

The current stand of the LDS church on homosexuals is also hard for progressive mormons to reconcile. Many of them hope the church would change their stance on the issue, and become a more open, free thinking forum where many of the churches past issues could be discussed honestly by members at the lowest, and the highest levels.

 

[7StraightIsGreat]

Safetydan Wrote:

....it's leaders do not get direct and unmistakable revelation from a god, yet are, for the most part, good wise people trying to help it's members to live good lives.

I'm glad you're inactive because the above sentence doesn't usually come from somebody who is a devout believer in the LDS church. The problem with your sentence is that being a Prophet of god and speaking the word of god is pretty much an all or nothing sort of deal. While God may have made man imperfect, he also gives us express warning that he will not make a mistake in regards to who he chooses to bring forth his word.

I have some very close family members and many close friends who are LDS. I love them all very much, but I've never been able to become LDS in good conciensce because I cannot reconcile with what I believe are massive inconsistencies within LDS Doctrine. I don't even know if "my way" is the correct way, but it's where my conscience leads me, just like my friends and family go in the direction that feels best for them. Free will is a beatiful thing.

 

[Safetydan]

I'm glad you're inactive because the above sentence doesn't usually come from somebody who is a devout believer in the LDS church. The problem with your sentence is that being a Prophet of god and speaking the word of god is pretty much an all or nothing sort of deal. While God may have made man imperfect, he also gives us express warning that he will not make a mistake in regards to who he chooses to bring forth his word.

Absolutely. I wouldn't call myself completely inactive, I went on a mission, and still go to church occasionally. My belief is that God doesn't have a particular church that he calls his own. He uses many tools to accomplish his ends and the LDS church is just one of many. Of course the leaders of the church would claim that god would not make a mistake and that they are called by him to do his will. How else would they be able to make claim to the authority to lead a church whose majority of members would expect nothing less. I kind of wish they would just own up to the facts. And, to be honest it seems like they are sort of distancing themselves little by little from orthodoxy.