More proof that God is female

[_bcspace]

Neither have been any of the presidents of COJCOLDS. Posers, yes. Pretenders, yes. Oracles of god, no.

Sez who?

[_zeezrom]

Why isn't Warren's new prophecy evidence?

Because he's not a prophet.

Sez who?

[_bcspace]

Because he's not a prophet.

Sez who?

Me. An actual Mormon.

[_Blixa]

runtu is referring to our own Aristotle Smith down forum...

Interesting. That is quite a plea!

It is unfortunate that we don't have more defenders around here... that are appreciated, that is.

Can we do some recruiting? Where should we recruit from? MDD? Where are you, defenders that are fun to talk to?

Do we create an environment (accidentally) that makes it hard for defenders to be fun to talk to?

I wish Alter Idem posted here more. I really like her. She was smart, witty and gracious in disagreements. She also corresponded with me for a while off board and I still see her as someone I could bounce ideas off of when I want the perspective a sincere believer.

I also don't think I'm alone in holding MDD'er Katherine the Great in high esteem. I lurk at MDD off and on and when I do I always read her posts and ALWAYS come away impressed. She would be very fun and rewarding to talk to.

But, to answer your last question, yes I do think the environment here is hard for "defenders" (I wouldn't use that word---maybe sincere believers?). That is a by product of the way Shades has set things up. Don't get me wrong, I'm not entirely critical of his vision, but it does create a high signal-to-noise ratio. And this cuts both ways: there are idiots on both sides (NB: I know there are more than two sides, but I'm using this phrase for rhetorical purposes only). However, using the ignore button judiciously and giving people a chance yields unforeseen riches IMHO. I don't blame people for not wanting to make the effort--lord knows we all have plenty of other claims on our time. But, as someone once blithely announced, "it works for me," so I'm willing to put the time and effort in.

Anyway, let me use this post to welcome Radex to this board! I don't know much about him yet, but he seems polite, knowledgeable and friendly, so HELLO THERE NEW GUY! PLEASE POST MORE!

[_Yoda]

I've found that appreciation here typically comes only with agreement;

Not necessarily. There is a way to acknowledge that you respect a person, but simply disagree with his/her ideas.

As Blixa pointed out, Alter Idem and Katherine the Great both do this well.

Alter Idem, unfortunately, received some pretty heavy personal attacks by Porter and several others. Rather than putting them on ignore, which is what I, and I believe Blixa encouraged her to do, she simply grew tired of the signal to noise ratio and left. This is unfortunate.

This is exactly the kind of thing that Jersey Girl and Marg were trying to address in their thread in Telestial.

While I agree that Moderators need to do their part, I think that it is the responsibility of everyone here to own their posting style.

If we honestly want to see more defenders of the faith posting here, then we need to make an honest effort to be more diplomatic in our responses. This doesn't mean that we need to "let them win" an argument, as Sock Puppet suggested. This simply means that we need to treat them with the same type of respect that we treat posters who agree with our position. This really is possible to do.

Someone who does this quite well is Runtu. Consig and Jason Bourne are also good examples of respectable behavior.

[_sock puppet]

Neither have been any of the presidents of COJCOLDS. Posers, yes. Pretenders, yes. Oracles of god, no.

Sez who?

Me. An actual enlightened, ex-Mo.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I think Warren Jeffs got butthurt (pun intended) in prison, and because he can't have sex with his women he wants his congregation to know his pain.

It's pretty obvious he's acting out, and he's crazy.

[_bcspace]

Me. An actual enlightened, ex-Mo.

You're pretty dim for such a claim.

[_Buffalo]

Me. An actual Mormon.

They're actual Mormons too. Operating under the same fallacious "Moroni's promise" methodology. :)

[_zeezrom]

Why is everyone dismissing Warren Jeffs? He is a prophet that is in jail. He made a very bold statement from prison just like any prophet would.

Everything about Warren Jeffs just screams "prophet"! Don't you see? He IS a prophet. Sure, he made mistakes along the way but he is just a man, prone to make the mistakes of men. Why is this so hard for people to understand?