Why are Mormons so happy?

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My apologies. I got confused and thought you were Catholic and were trying to explain Catholic doctrine. I see now you were explaining the Mormon view of God.

Mea culpa. I hope it doesn’t confuse anyone else.
 
ShowersofRoses said:
My apologies. I got confused and thought you were Catholic and were trying to explain Catholic doctrine. I see now you were explaining the Mormon view of God.

Mea culpa. I hope it doesn’t confuse anyone else.
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No problem. God bless you!
 
The physical offspring of the Father and Mary so having o beginning in time?
 
I believe you’ve been getting a lot of misinformation.

The husband doesn’t determine the wife’s salvation. There used to be a thing in the temple where the wife had to submit to the husband, but that was later edited. Now, she only has to submit to her husband as he submits to God. A wife can be saved without her husband, just as a husband can be saved without his wife.

Now, the Mormons believe that Joseph Smith is the gatekeeper to the Celestial Kingdom and hands out tickets to whoever he decides should be there. I’m sure he hands out a disproportionate number of golden tickets to the pretty girls, the younger the better.

I have never heard of or experienced the Church checking on your income vs. tithing to see if you’re being honest about it. I have known people who barely survive the family income and yet, they pay 10 percent of the gross income, while others I know had their own businesses and were quite affluent and paid a paltry tithing due to all the business deductions and expenses. In both cases, these people are found worthy to enter the temple. I have never heard of anyone being tossed for not paying tithing. You can contribute zero to the church and still be welcome there, but you won’t be considered a member in good standing.

Your position in the next life doesn’t depend on earthly accomplishments, but your status in the Church while in this life largely does. There is a definite hierarchy in the Mormon Church based on worldly accomplishments, how many children you have, how many went on missions, married in temple, went to BYU, achieved Eagle Scout, etc. Kids to their Mormon parents are trophies.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Not interested in any clever arguments Mormons might make trying to lure Christians, I see that all day in Mormon marketing materials and it’s the fakest thing ever. Go peddle your sunshine elsewhere.
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He and his Mormon friends enjoy trolling the CAF way too much to leave.
 
I probably shouldn’t poke at their marketing materials when I see Catholic programs like Great Adventure Bible Study “borrowing” shamelessly from their techniques. Ah well
 
Mi_Rose said:
The physical offspring of the Father and Mary so having o beginning in time?
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There’s seems to be a lot theologically in this question. I’m assuming you’re referring to Christ being “eternally begotten of the Father before time was created”. Please clarify if I’m mistaken. In a nutshell, LDS believe that we all existed spiritually before we were born physically and that Jesus was the first born in the spirit. (Mormons do not believe in creation ex-nihilo and that we all and lived eternal in some form.) At some point in time Christ was given/appointed/established as Savior and Redeemer by God the Father (See Romans 1:4) As part of His assigned role he needed to come to Earth born of a divine Father and mortal mother. Volumes have been written about this. I hope this helps…
 
Lemuel said:
One of the reasons that depression rates are so high among Mormons is because their standards of perfection are basically unattainable. You can’t go to the Mormon Celestial Kingdom unless you are perfect. Their scriptures say, “Keep my commandments continually, and a crown of righteousness thou shalt receive. And except thou do this, where I am you cannot come.” So, unless you keep God’s commandments “continually”, you’ll NEVER go to where God is. Continually does not allow for occasional sin.

They also teach that God’s grace does not apply until after you have perfected yourself, “ . . .and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you . . .”.

They also teach that, “ . . . it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” Ask a Mormon, any Mormon, if they have done ALL that they can do. Is there any commandment that they can’t keep? Not according to their fictitious prophet Nephi. Only perfection is doing all that you can do.

Anyway, the Mormon gospel is impossible to live by, which is why so many Mormons are, indeed, miserable. I know. I’ve interviewed enough of them.
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This post ignores some key LDS beliefs regarding grace. For one, keeping the commandments continually includes the commandment to repent. And also, God specifically grants to man time to repent.

Alma 42:4 And thus we see, that there was a time granted unto man to repent, yea, a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God.

The snippet from Moroni 10:32 was incomplete and ignores the invitation to come unto Christ and work with him to remove ungodliness in your life. The entire verse is as follows:

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

The late Catholic scholar Stephen Webb sums up the similarities between LDS and Catholic views regarding grace.

Two corrections of common misrepresentations of Smith’s theology need to be made at this point. First, Mormons are often charged with denying the efficacy of grace and thus making salvation dependent upon the exercise of the individual’s free will. All theologians use the language of effort, reform, and growth, so this is not a fair charge… In any case, Smith describes the process of sanctification as being “from grace to grace.” Rather than replicating Pelagianism, Smith is siding with that aspect of the Christian tradition best represented by Thomas Aquinas, which says we can and must cooperate with divine grace in order to permit it to actualize our potential for divinization. (Stephen H. Webb, Christ, Eternal God: Heavenly Flesh and the Metaphysics of Matter (Oxford University Press, 2012))
 
Trust me, we’re not. It’s the Prozac and the ability to put on a plastic waitress smile!
 
Mormons, I realized, are great at putting on a happy appearance. In Mormon culture many members work really hard to keep up appearance. Utah has the higgest rate of antidepressant use and a very high rate of suicide. Recently the Mormon/Lds church launched a website to help sucidal members and survivors.

As for Catholics in my parish, many don’t seem happy nor do they even fake it lol
 
CatholicDetroit said:
Mormons, I realized, are great at putting on a happy appearance.
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If you live in Michigan, only a tiny percentage of Michiganders are LDS, most of the Mormons you are seeing are likely to be missionaries, well dressed young people on their best behavior who are trained to be cheerful.

If you lived in Utah or Idaho or Washington State, you’d have a larger and more diverse population to compare them to.
 
There are very few in michigan. Sorry I wasn’t clear I was speaking on mormon corridor: Arizona, Utah, Idaho etc.
 
I agree with this; there are grumpy and happy people in both religions. The one Mormon I knew was very happy as a mother of 4 until her husband a radiologist resident got addicted to pain meds while dealing with knee surgery, became addicted to pain meds and stole them from patients twice and was kicked out of medical school and THEN she became shunned at their Church because of this, they moved out of State.

I do not know if shunning is still done in Mormon Churches but this woman was my good friend. She was a happy Mormon until everything “went South” as the ole’ saying goes.

Shunning seems so cruel, but she was a great friend and I miss her and pray for her family as I am sure she does mine.

JMO
 
Few here in Pennsylvania as well. Vern Law- Pittsburgh Pirates legend- lived not far from me when I was a kid. They were the only mormons in the neighborhood, and they only lived there for a few months a year.

Of course, that was before all baseball players made beaucoup bucks- I didn’t live in a snooty area as a kid. I’m sure Mr. Law did ok, he was an all-star, but nothing compared to 2018 salaries.
 
TOmNossor said:
First, all LDS are not happy and LDS do have problems. To suggest otherwise would be dishonest.
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All LDS are not happy? Really? All of them? Every single one? You can’t find one LDS person who is happy.

I think you are the one being dishonest.
 
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