The Mindset of a Mormon Jihadist

[_Mormonicious]

We have an older Engineer working at our firm. We were working late on a project when the subject of the Essays came up. His comment, “THEY ARE NOT TRUE!”

When asked about the source being the Mormon church he stated that he was unaware of the “Church” posting anything about the Rock in the Hat, Horny Holy Joe damned other men’s wives or a fourteen year old girl, the Blacks in the Priesthood being a social norm of the time or the Book of Abraham not being a translation of the papyri. He had heard of individuals in his Ward discussing them but not from the Bishop so he just dismisses them as idle gossip by unworthy members who are weak in the gospel. He also blamed the media for carrying such stories to sell newspapers.

When shown https://www.lds.org/topics his sole comment was “the leaders of the Church have told us not to trust the internet when it comes to gospel teachings” and that the only source he believes is the “scriptures and the Church published teaching manuals.”

We pressed but to no avail. All Church discussion ended when he bore his firm and unretractable “testimony” that Horny Holy Joe never screwed other men’s wives or a fourteen year old, he translated the Book of Mormon using the Urim and Thummim by the gift and power of god, that the Book of Abraham is a direct translation of the words of Abraham as “written by his own hands” and that if it is not published by the Mormon church it IS NOT TRUE!

10 Engineers stood stunned. This individual with an Electrical Engineering degree from the U of U was so entrenched in the myths of the Mormon church that even when that selfsame church stated that “maybe” they had misled others about their history, this person knew it to be false.

Strap the Vest on me, I’m going to correct the non-believer’s version of reality was all I could see of this Engineer.

[_sunstoned]

Classic example of brainwashing. Repeat after me, No, we are not a cult.

[_robuchan]

He's a got a point. I have no problem at all foreseeing some sort of announcement or publication in the future "the essays published in 2014 by lds.org, while approved by the First Presidency, were not official declarations of the church, and consist of speculative writing using an academic approach which should not be considered binding." Of course this would also be done through a press release over the internet that could easily be denied again in the future. The time when a prophet on Earth boldly stated "thus saith the Lord" is over. This leaves members to interpret things anyway they want. And this guy's interpretation is as good as any.

[_Bazooka]

He's a got a point. I have no problem at all foreseeing some sort of announcement or publication in the future "the essays published in 2014 by lds.org, while approved by the First Presidency, were not official declarations of the church, and consist of speculative writing using an academic approach which should not be considered binding." Of course this would also be done through a press release over the internet that could easily be denied again in the future. The time when a prophet on Earth boldly stated "thus saith the Lord" is over. This leaves members to interpret things anyway they want. And this guy's interpretation is as good as any.

Makes me want to ask:
What's the point in having a Prophet?
What does "Follow the Prophet" now mean?
If members are free to interpret things anyway they want how come members get excommunicated for interpreting things anyway they want?

[_robuchan]

He's a got a point. I have no problem at all foreseeing some sort of announcement or publication in the future "the essays published in 2014 by lds.org, while approved by the First Presidency, were not official declarations of the church, and consist of speculative writing using an academic approach which should not be considered binding." Of course this would also be done through a press release over the internet that could easily be denied again in the future. The time when a prophet on Earth boldly stated "thus saith the Lord" is over. This leaves members to interpret things anyway they want. And this guy's interpretation is as good as any.

Makes me want to ask:
What's the point in having a Prophet?
What does "Follow the Prophet" now mean?
If members are free to interpret things anyway they want how come members get excommunicated for interpreting things anyway they want?

That's when you know you interpreted it the wrong way.

[_Bazooka]

That's when you know you interpreted it the wrong way.

As you pointed out, there's now no such thing as "the wrong interpretation".

[_madeleine]

From what I can discern, a personal interpretation is acceptable as long as that interpretation isn't presented to the public as superior or superseding over the official Church du jour interpretation.

Or, as Martha Beck put it, the LDS Church has an 11th commandment, "Thou shalt not commit publicity". It is the disobedience to this commandment will start the excommunication ball rolling, rather than personal interpretation.