Mormon Church Trying to Keep the Wheels On

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Perhaps I’m a bit naive, but I think that the majority of people in general are decent.
 
Well, the Hill Cumorah Pageant has been going on for over 80 years and suddenly it’s being shutdown at a time when many LDS are questioning the historical claims of the church (historical claims which are featured in the play BTW). The church has given other reasons for ending the pageants, but I think what you are saying is most likely the real reason. I don’t think it’s a coincidence either. Over time the church it going to have to gradually transition the BoM story from historical truth to religious allegory if it wants to survive the long haul. It’ already begun.
 
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Someone on a podcast said it’s going to have to morph into a church that’s “good” rather than a church that is true. I’m not even sure how that will work, given that the McConkie/Packer/McCallister wing puts so much emphasis on “truth”. There will always be TBMs out there. But there will be a lot fewer of them.
 
Mormons also have to grapple with the issue of the hundreds of thousands of people who died in that final battle at the Hill Cumorah. They have found a few arrowheads which is common to the area, but what about a few skeletons or other artifacts suggesting such a huge battle that their leaders claim took place there. Of course, the argument that there was more than one Cumorah, the argument about how a hundred thousand didn’t mean a hundred thousand, etc. Like I said, it’s a house of cards.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave …”
 
These are just a few of the numerous historical, archaeological, and philosophical problems associated with Mormonism. They can make any changes they want to-give women the priesthood, let you remove garments if you want to, open the temple to the LGBT community…and nothing will fix those problems. The church is in a tailspin.
 
Also another very recent change–the Mormon church is starting a new kind of mission for teens. In addition to the familiar proselytizing missions they have always had, teens will now be able to opt instead for service missions. They finally realized not every kid is cutout for knocking on doors to spread their gospel. Service missions will instead focus on just helping people out without the proselytizing part. I actually think this may be a good thing because there is a tremendous amount of pressure for all males to go on missions and if you don’t then you are looked upon as less than in the LDS community. Not as desirable as marriage material. But I think this probably also has to do with the decreasing numbers of teens willing to go on traditional missions being gone two years from home. One of the many practical problems with Mormonism is that if you don’t fit exactly into their specific mold it can become a miserable experience. There are A LOT of boxes to check.
 
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I’m very aware of it. Those missions also vary from 6 to 24 months.
 
I agree that the internet offers a lot of untruth, but when it comes to Mormonism, that was the only place members could learn the truth about Mormon history and doctrine because they certainly weren’t getting the truth from their leadership. And it’s only because of this information that the Mormon church has had to come clean about some of this stuff, although they still often make ridiculous attempts to spin it to lessen the blow.
 
You know where they could always learn the Truth? Knocking on the door of a Catholic who actually gave a darn about apologetics…
 
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The internet never changed the fact that 19 year old boys knocked on hundreds of doors a week asking people to talk about God. They are perfectly willing to continue to dialogue as long as they think they are communicating their side as well. I’ve had missionaries come to a baptism of one of my kids.
 
They’re mostly really good kids, but they’re just doing what they’ve been told to do. They don’t know any better. Once their local leadership finds out you’re not a promising convert prospect, that is usually the end of the relationship.
 
Right. But a lot of truth can be discussed before that happens. Ask a missionary when exactly the great apostasy was. Why birth control is ok? Ask a question about the book of mormon. Ask if they ever noticed the parallel of holocaust offered to God and then Jesus. What the word Logos in John 1 means in Greek philosophy etc. So many conversation starters. Seriously opportunities knocking at your door. The internet changed none of that. It only was brave enough to do what humans were told to do.
 
The missionaries are sweet kids who have no idea how the real world works or the massive problems that their church has. I feel sorry for 99% of them. I still talk to many I’ve met along the way. Some who have left the church, some still in it, some questioning, and some who I can’t tell what happened. lol.

What’s sad is that none of them who have left are interested in religion anymore. They mostly become non-theist/agnostic. One of the many crimes of the LDS church is that people who no longer believe in it usually no longer believe in religion at all. 😦
 
Isn’t “You’re going to be a god” appealing enough to keep them in line? hehe

It’s too bad most non-Catholic denominations have it out specifically for the Catholic Church, especially Mormons and Jehovah’s Witness. Mormons probably wouldn’t even think about the Catholic Church since they are so conditioned to hate it. They way these two groups function, where any separated member is “ex-communicated”, friends and family, converting one person doesn’t lead to another conversion necessarily.
 
It is very true that so many Mormons who leave the church become agnostic and/or atheist. I have witnessed it. They were so conditioned to believe that their church was the only true church and everyone else was in the dark, and that they couldn’t possibly be happy any other way. Then when they discover the church is false they feel so badly burned by religion that they can’t trust anything anymore. It’s a strong feeling of betrayal and they feel so alone. And their entire life was so wrapped up in the church, much more so than most Catholics ever experience. They gave so much of their time, energy, and money to it. After all of that and the utter devastation that comes with finding out their religion is a fraud, and the anguish of losing it and so many friends as well, and I can understand why they would stop believing in religion and even in God altogether. It’s a devastation that Catholics who leave Catholicism mostly never experience and cannot fathom.
 
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Hoosier-Daddy said:
Ask a missionary when exactly the great apostasy was.
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I’ve done that many times. I’ve never had a consistent answer yet. In fact, the Mormon church has a website where you can chat with the missionaries, both the youth and senior couples. I’ve been there four separate times to ask about the great apostasy and got four completely different stories. They just don’t get it. The great apostasy never happened.
 
Here’s what keeps them in line and I’m not kidding. This will be the truest thing I’ve ever posted about the LDS. You tell young men (the lds church is extremely Male dominated.) That they will go on a mission for two years, you take into account the ethnicity of the vast majority of mormons. And you set them up with extremely attractive women when they get back. Women go to byu not for a degree in physics but for a degree in husbandry as the old joke goes. Ever seen an oddly shaped balding man with a great job and a hot wife? He is either rich, or lds or both.
The deeper you get into Mormonism, the more about sex it becomes.
 
Hoosier-Daddy said:
The deeper you get into Mormonism, the more about sex it becomes.
Click to expand...
I remember a loose cannon high councilman in my stake. He always had to have a member of the stake presidency with him when he spoke. So, one time we were in a meeting and he was speaking. We were all on the edge of our seats waiting for him to say something outrageous. He did not disappoint. In the middle of his talk he got quite excited talking about the celestial kingdom. He said, “And not only will you and your wife be a god and goddess, but you will get to have GREAT sex.”
 
I left Mormonism before the internet existed. My first realization that what Mormonism taught, was false, was when I was in gradeschool. The Mormon church was teaching me in primary and Sunday school that non-white skin was a curse from God. At school I was taught about melanin and genetic diversity.

By the time I was in my teens I didn’t believe most of what Mormonism was teaching.

In the 80s, I bought a book, via mail order, about Joseph Smith. That was the first time I read of his arrest for glass looking. The book had a photo of the court documentation. It discussed his polygamy, his affairs, his numerous lies, etc. etc. I was out of Mormonism for good at that point.

Everything on the internet came from books that were written long before the internet was around. The internet has made what was in the books, more accessible.
 
I was the opposite. I was a big defender of the Mormon church. I sought out the critics and naysayers. I would go to the Mormon pageants and argue with the people spreading their anti-Mormon propaganda. I called talk shows. But I realized that I was the boy poking his finger into the hole of the dam. I knew I was living a lie.

I get where the Mormons are coming from. I was them. I was as steeped in it as anyone. My head was in the sand and other places.

Then God reached down and gently grabbed my hand …
 
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