Present day Mormon techniques?

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I was surprised that the author was so open about the LDS church doing focus groups over a long period of time. Can they be any more obviously corporate than that? The article also highlights utter cluelessness. “But they seem so nice for nonmembers”. Ugh. Engaging in conversations with strangers to make them comfortable and then bring the conversation around to Mormonism in a round about way? And you wonder why you get the responses you get in the focus groups?
Focus groups. Wonderful.

What a great way to invite the Spirit in. 🤷
 
Focus groups. Wonderful.

What a great way to invite the Spirit in. 🤷
I find as much spirituality in LDS functions as I do in corporate functions. Perhaps that is because minus the setting and topic the operate and are treated the same way. 🤷
 
From that article:

Maybe someone who is LDS could explain this statement.
I don’t know if they can explain it [how God could cease to be God], but that idea has been around for a long time:
W. Cleon Skousen, a former BYU professor, wrote:
Through modern revelation we learn that the universe is filled with vast numbers of intelligences, and we further learn that Elohim is God simply because all of these intelligences honor and sustain Him as such… But since God ‘acquired’ the honor and sustaining influence of ‘all things’ it follows as a corollary that if He should ever do anything to violate the confidence or sense of justice’ of these intelligences, they would promptly withdraw their support, and the ‘power’ of God would disintegrate… ‘He would cease to be God.’ Our Heavenly Father can do only those things which the intelligences under Him are voluntarily willing to support Him in accomplishing (The First 2000 Years, pp. 355-356).
This was also taught in the D&C class I took at BYU (though nothing like this appears in the D&C). It just goes to show that when a Mormon says “God” he means something completely different than when a Christian says “God”.

I am frankly surprised to see this in a contemporary LDS publication. I thought they were frantically back-peddling away from all this weird stuff.

Paul (formerly LDS, now happily Catholic)
 
I don’t know if they can explain it [how God could cease to be God], but that idea has been around for a long time:

This was also taught in the D&C class I took at BYU (though nothing like this appears in the D&C). It just goes to show that when a Mormon says “God” he means something completely different than when a Christian says “God”.

I am frankly surprised to see this in a contemporary LDS publication. I thought they were frantically back-peddling away from all this weird stuff.

Paul (formerly LDS, now happily Catholic)
Whoa, Skousen was popular when I was a teenager. That guy had an imagination. Thanks Paul.

So, Scott H. Swofford is saying in his BYU article, that if his God took away agency, the intelligences that sustain, would no longer, and his God would then cease to be a God.
 
So, Scott H. Swofford is saying in his BYU article, that if his God took away agency, the intelligences that sustain, would no longer, and his God would then cease to be a God.
That’s exactly how I read it and just assumed that I must be missing some nuance… or something, since as it appears this conclusion is self-refuting. If God revokes free agency then the intelligences of the universe would use their free agency to cease honoring God as a god, who in turn no longer being a god would have no power to sustain his earlier revocation of free agency? :confused::whacky::hypno:
 
That’s exactly how I read it and just assumed that I must be missing some nuance… or something, since as it appears this conclusion is self-refuting. If God revokes free agency then the intelligences of the universe would use their free agency to cease honoring God as a god, who in turn no longer being a god would have no power to sustain his earlier revocation of free agency? :confused::whacky::hypno:
Maybe free agency is like energy, it can be neither created or destroyed.
 
Maybe free agency is like energy, it can be neither created or destroyed.
If that’s the case then the eternality of agency is an innate property thereof, which God couldn’t ever revoke! It’s as much a logical impossibility as God creating a circle with corners, or a boulder so heavy that even He couldn’t lift it.
 
If that’s the case then the eternality of agency is an innate property thereof, which God couldn’t ever revoke! It’s as much a logical impossibility as God creating a circle with corners, or a boulder so heavy that even He couldn’t lift it.
Those ephemeral eternal laws!
 
Anecdotally, it’s the introverts that hang out in online forums. All religions, or none.
I’ve been thinking about this and believe it’s generally true that introverts are more likely to frequent online forums more than extroverts. But in the case of Mormonism I’m not sure it would match the general group. For disaffected/disbelieving LDS members who don’t want to rock the family, online boards may be the only safe place they can discuss things that trouble them. The LDS church expects you to speak the party line and not just on the occasion that it comes up but through F&T meetings, temple recommend and PPI interviews, it’s not a church that let’s you get away with minimal involvement or avoiding stated adherence to the beliefs. Should you give any hint of doubt you will be expected to explain yourself to your bishop.

Quite a few people who have left the church lament the lack of a social group, fewer have expressed relief that they’ve been freed from forced social interaction.
 
WOW! The weirdness just gets weirder & weirder.
Even more weirdness over on the Mormon Dialogue and Discussion board, in a discussion about justice as opposed to mercy, is the idea that “the law” exists eternally outside of God and He just follows it, that’s why He’s God.
Why? Perhaps we should look at the definition of God.
And NO power creates law. It is eternally self existent. Gods become Gods by following it. Just as to become an Elder you are required to follow the laws pertaining to worthiness and ordination.
 
Even more weirdness over on the Mormon Dialogue and Discussion board, in a discussion about justice as opposed to mercy, is the idea that “the law” exists eternally outside of God and He just follows it, that’s why He’s God.
But remember that the LDS god is only one of an infinite number of gods and he worships his god, who worships his god, etc… Also remember that the LDS gods do not have the power to create matter - Joseph Smith taught that matter has always existed and is the only truly eternal thing, the gods only organize matter.

Since matter has always existed and the gods have not, that means that the first gods somehow arose or evolved from a primitive state of primordial matter and progressed to what they are now.

Mormonism, taken to its logical conclusions, is bizarre.
 
I understand in Christianity, there are things we take on faith. But the big difference for me is that my faith, our faith, is based on over 2000 years of history, tradition, Tradition, as well as writings & teachings of the ECF. Our faith is based on a reasoning.

What I don’t understand is how JS & BY and so on could get people to believe this stuff…It makes less sense than Scientology. 🤷
 
Reading these posts and how Catholic children are especially ostracized, really hurt me. I find it so sad how religion can be used as such.

About introverts vs extroverts…the vast majority of Catholic priests are introverts.

And when it comes to bearing witness, I think from my experience, as I am on the ambivert to introvert side…people who are extrovert have more credibility in Catholic parishes. It is like the leaders are introverts and the followers are extroverts.
 
Reading these posts and how Catholic children are especially ostracized, really hurt me. I find it so sad how religion can be used as such.
I don’t believe that it is targeted towards Catholics. It is how they treat people (and the children of those people) who don’t want to convert. These people and their children could just as easily be Baptists or any other denomination, but since we are on a Catholic forum, it is represented by more Catholics.

While not all LDS are like this, you’ll find that if you are in the Morridor, those who are not, are the exception. Outside of the Morridor, the attitude seems to fluctuate based on member density. You’ll find parts of Southern California to be very much like the Morridor in how LDS treat non-members who resist conversion.
 
I don’t believe that it is targeted towards Catholics. It is how they treat people (and the children of those people) who don’t want to convert. These people and their children could just as easily be Baptists or any other denomination, but since we are on a Catholic forum, it is represented by more Catholics.

While not all LDS are like this, you’ll find that if you are in the Morridor, those who are not, are the exception. Outside of the Morridor, the attitude seems to fluctuate based on member density. You’ll find parts of Southern California to be very much like the Morridor in how LDS treat non-members who resist conversion.
I don’t mean to de-rail the thread, but what is the Morridor? I keep picturing something from Lord of the Rings…
 
I don’t mean to de-rail the thread, but what is the Morridor? I keep picturing something from Lord of the Rings…
Morridor is short for Mormon Corridor, which is Utah along with parts of Idaho and Arizona. Picturing something from Lord of the Rings is also appropriate. 😃
 
I don’t mean to de-rail the thread, but what is the Morridor? I keep picturing something from Lord of the Rings…
Morridor is short for Mormon Corridor, which is Utah along with parts of Idaho and Arizona. Picturing something from Lord of the Rings is also appropriate. 😃
👍
Like ipuras said it is an term for the geographical area where the per capita Mormon population is extremely high. To keep the LOTR analogy going I picture SLC as Barad-dûr. 😉
 
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