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Disgracing God to Save a Prophet

I enjoyed this post.

Posts like this are problematic for me. The problem is that I think I want to believe in a God, or creator. I think I may be a Deist, (but admit I don't know enough about it). When I read thoughtful posts like this, it makes me call into question the entire existence of a Supreme Being. The Mormon God is just so bat**** crazy that I can't believe in him at all, and from there, I wonder if there is any God I can worship and believe in?

Good article. It amazes me the lengths some go to defend Joseph Smith Jr's crimes. For me God is so bat**** crazy because we try to put human emotions, thoughts, and actions on God. This is especially true with Mormonism. The Mormon god lets his racist servants discriminate for over a hundred years before telling them to knock it off, and doesn't give his No. 1 man the proper details about how to live polygamy. In fact, he sends a death threat to him because he's not marrying enough women, but who cares if blacks are being denied temple blessings because Brigham was a little bit racist. For me, if there is a God, we cannot comprehend or describe Him/Her/It so it's useless to even try.

Sammy Jankins wrote:Disgracing God to Save a Prophet

I enjoyed this post.

This is a great post. Lori Burkman pulled no punches.

Brian Hales' predictable apologetic schtick in the comments sections fails to help Joseph Smith or the cause of Mormonism one little bit when going head to head with Ms. Burkman's straight talk on the subject.

DrW wrote:

Sammy Jankins wrote:Disgracing God to Save a Prophet

I enjoyed this post.

This is a great post. Lori Burkman pulled no punches.

Brian Hales' predictable apologetic schtick in the comments sections fails to help Joseph Smith or the cause of Mormonism one little bit when going head to head with Ms. Burkman's straight talk on the subject.

What befuddles me is that Lori is still a tithe paying member.

DrW wrote:

Sammy Jankins wrote:Disgracing God to Save a Prophet

I enjoyed this post.

This is a great post. Lori Burkman pulled no punches.

Brian Hales' predictable apologetic schtick in the comments sections fails to help Joseph Smith or the cause of Mormonism one little bit when going head to head with Ms. Burkman's straight talk on the subject.

Thanks for pointing out his participation in the comments. In the comments Brian Hales says this:

I don’t blame anyone for being disappointed that we didn’t talk of polygamy, but look at what is happening now. The essay on Nauvoo polygamy (and similar Gospel Topic essays) have caused many to “perish” spiritually. I guess we could look at D&C 19:22 and conclude that it was as much a prophecy of our day as a general warning issued in 1830.

See? The reason the church didn't tell people everything is because it would cause people to disbelieve! The fact that this information makes people change their minds means it was okay not to tell them originally.

Brian Hales wrote:I don’t blame anyone for being disappointed that we didn’t talk of polygamy, but look at what is happening now. The essay on Nauvoo polygamy (and similar Gospel Topic essays) have caused many to “perish” spiritually. I guess we could look at D&C 19:22 and conclude that it was as much a prophecy of our day as a general warning issued in 1830.

It speaks volumes to me that he would say in effect, 'learning the truth, causes people to 'perish' spiritually'. While at the same time... "The truth shall set you free..."

Double standard?

Zadok wrote:

Brian Hales wrote:I don’t blame anyone for being disappointed that we didn’t talk of polygamy, but look at what is happening now. The essay on Nauvoo polygamy (and similar Gospel Topic essays) have caused many to “perish” spiritually. I guess we could look at D&C 19:22 and conclude that it was as much a prophecy of our day as a general warning issued in 1830.

It speaks volumes to me that he would say in effect, 'learning the truth, causes people to 'perish' spiritually'. While at the same time... "The truth shall set you free..."

Double standard?

Nope. The truth sets you free from "spiritual" mumbo-jumbo. There is physicality and mentality; mentality subdivides into rational thought and emotions. 'Spiritual' is just an excuse to throw rational thought out the window, and follow emotions. It's the same as men letting the little head do the thinking for the bigger one atop their shoulders. Whether chalked up to "god" and "spirituality" or not, the Nauvoo Wife Swap (euphemistically, "the principle of plural marriage restored") is simply JSJr's libido.

The bookend piece to this was suggesting that God was the author of the former Racial Purity Policy of the Priesthood. The blasphemy continued with the "We have no idea why God instituted or discontinued the policy" until it was finally deep-sixed in favor of the truthful explanation of racism on the part of past Church leaders.

This situation could be corrected with the simple statement, "Yeah, Joseph had some problems keeping it in his pants, but he was still our Prophet".

souldier wrote:...if there is a God, we cannot comprehend or describe Him/Her/It so it's useless to even try.

The thing is, if there is a God, Him/Her/It has been active in the world for a long time. Unless you believe that God would create everything and then just not care about or interact with His creations. So for a moment, let's imagine that God is active in the world. What would that LOOK like? If you don't see any evidence of God working in the world...what do you do with that? Simply choose to not believe? Or accept the possibility that the world, as it is, demonstrates, or is the result, of HOW God works in the world...and try and decipher it. One thing right off the bat...if you're open to there being a creator God...is that the world is a very messy place in many respects.

And for what reason? Would God want us to find it "useless to even try" to figure some things out?

I don't think so. And I'd hazard a guess that God would even drop some easter eggs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_(media)

along the way to keep us guessing/hopeful.

Regards,
MG