TBM - does this term offend you?

[_Buffalo]

Since you've asked . . .

"TBM" has always seemed to me to connote some greater or lesser degree of condescension or even disrespect.

I don't like the term.

that is very very interesting dan. i have been called anti-mormon by you many times. and my friends have as well. it is interesting that a reference to being a true believing Mormon is considered a pejorative, but, the term anti-mormon or so-calleded-whatever is thrown around like mardi gras beads in your circle.

i don't use the term tbm much, because i don't even know how a true believer would be described. is it someone that believes that women should only have one, and i repeat one, pair of holes in her ear? or is it someone that believes that masturbation causes homosexuality which causes bestiality which causes the constitution to hang by a thread?

really. if someone was a TRUE and BELIEVING follower of the LDS faith, they would be probably be certifiably unwell. if someone really believed in everything that was in the journal of discourses, for example, they would probably be experiencing a tough life in 2011. if someone really believed in the pre-1991 temple kookiness, where we were slashing our throats and bellies, they might have a problem today.

so, while i think dan is out of place to take offense, i think the term itself is not very accurate of anyone. there are no true believers. it is impossible to truly believe it all. there are too many conflicts and compromises to be a true believer. even if someone is parking themselves on the wooden benches for 70 minutes every sunday, and then a folding chair for 50 minutes, and then a padded folding chair for 50 minutes, and then doing their hometeaching on the 30th or 31st, they are still not believing it all. there are no TRUE believers because it is unbelievable.

Well, I'd agree that in absolute terms, ALL Mormons are cafeteria Mormons. No one can accept all of that stuff.

You make a good point about "anti-Mormon," too.

How about it Dan? I don't mean TBM pejoratively, but because some find it pejorative I'm going to stop using it. Are you willing to do the same with the term anti-Mormon?

I guess the answer is no - Dan isn't willing to stop using the term "anti-Mormon." Interesting.

[_Rambo]

A "True Blue Mormon" is someone beyond just a chapel Mormon.

Their conversations are riddled with callings, tithing, temples and church gossip. These kinds of people generally stay in close groups because they become disoriented outside of group think. They have their Internet home page set to LDS.org, carry their scriptures with them constantly and pray over their food at restaurants. Their lives are soaked up in callings and church service. They obey intensely - dedicating their lives to the cult. They hang on the words at conference and read the Ensign as if it were scripture. They view anything not associated with the church as spiritual pornography.

Hey how do you know my family and friends so well. Except there is more on the list of things that are very Mormon.

Kids named after Book of Mormon names.
Staying away from caffeine.
Replacing swear words with other words.
Waiting until some movies come out on TV that are edited.
Always talking bad about the gay movement.
Always mentioning how sluty some girls dress.