The wrong way to be Mormon

[drumdude]

By Common Consent Press is a non-profit publisher dedicated to producing affordable, high-quality books that help define and shape the Latter-day Saint experience.

Capture.JPG (170.62 KiB) Viewed 770 times

Capture2.JPG (157.6 KiB) Viewed 770 times

I am confident that BCC Press goes out of its way to embrace rubbish rather than the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Blair's book sounds like what Neal A. Maxwell might've termed "Nicolaitan nonsense."

The Nicolaitans are probably most remembered by most LDS, if at all, as the bunch of hedonists who rejected the law of chastity and were rebuked by John the Revelator. That's not wrong, but the better way to view them, in my opinion, is as a group that let their social views inform their understanding of the Gospel ("we like sleeping around! If the law is dead, as Paul taught, that means it's okay!") rather than the other way round.

Roughly twenty percent of the population of the United States are considered to have some diagnosable form of mental illness. It amuses me when people claim that certain rare behaviors can't possibly be a mental illness. They might not be a mental illness, but such things should be seriously considered, not dismissed out of hand. Russell M. Nelson "Real love does not support self-destructing behavior".

Ironically, when Blair Ostler suggests that we--the orthodox types--have blood on our hands because of how our beliefs have led many from the LGBTQ community to commit suicide, she fails to acknowledge that it is white male cisgender types who are killing themselves by the tens of thousands--more than any other group. And why? Well, one reason may be because their world is fading away. So who has more blood on their hands? Those who seek to make the world unrecognizable from what it's been for the last several millennia--in terms of marriage and family? Or those who seek to conserve traditional norms?

Won't someone please, please consider the plight of the cisgender white man on vacation in Europe? Posting on his blog from the cruise ship buffet dining room? Please think of the stress placed on him of his world fading away, a world where black people were prohibited from celestial marriage, gays were tortured beneath BYU, and women weren't allowed to even say a prayer during General Conference?

We need to protect the old Mormon culture, as backwards as it is. Perhaps we could put orthodox Mormons into some sort of reservation to preserve their way of life?

[Rivendale]

I think you are under his skin Dumb-Dud.

[drumdude]

I wish he would use my original name from when I posted on SeN- "Butthead"

[huckelberry]

The suffering of cisgender white males resulting in suicides because gay folks are changing cultural norms...

This is not only a pathetic complaint it is exceptionally and surprisingly pathetic

[drumdude]

because gay folks are changing cultural norms

They see it as gay folks changing cultural norms, in reality I think it's straight people being raised without bigotry and hatred acting the way normal human beings would act to each other in the absence of homophobic religious indoctrination.

[Physics Guy]

There are a lot of straight cis white older males suffering enough somehow to kill themselves. They deserve as much sympathy and help as anyone. I can’t believe, though, that these middle-aged white guys are driven to suicide by the increasing acceptance of diversity. It might surprise and confuse them, but I can’t see how it could be making them desperate enough to kill themselves.

The feeling that you yourself have no value, yeah, that might make you desperate. Getting older and uglier is hard on everyone. Dreams recede out of reach, purpose fades, sweet turns sour. Death draws nearer. Seeing other people rising from where they were might remind you that you have been sinking. But it’s your own perceived sinking that depresses you, I think, not really the rising of others. A happy and hopeful older white cis straight male has no reason to feel anything but joy when other people also gain hope and happiness.

[Kishkumen]

I am really tired of the identity wars. The Nicolaitan band? Seriously? Cishet-supremacy? Ugh.

[Dr Exiled]

That's not wrong, but the better way to view them, in my opinion, is as a group that let their social views inform their understanding of the Gospel ("we like sleeping around! If the law is dead, as Paul taught, that means it's okay!") rather than the other way round.

They should have called it polygamy and voila it's ok now

Roughly twenty percent of the population of the United States are considered to have some diagnosable form of mental illness. It amuses me when people claim that certain rare behaviors can't possibly be a mental illness. They might not be a mental illness, but such things should be seriously considered, not dismissed out of hand.

I wonder if the inability to show empathy for minority groups or inventing social problems to cover for this inability is some sort of mental illness?

These supposed culture wars are nonsense really, designed to take our focus away from what's been happening in the economy over the last 50 years.

[dastardly stem]

I am really tired of the identity wars. The Nicolaitan band? Seriously? Cishet-supremacy? Ugh.

+ a million.

[Res Ipsa]

Roughly twenty percent of the population of the United States are considered to have some diagnosable form of mental illness. It amuses me when people claim that certain rare behaviors can't possibly be a mental illness. They might not be a mental illness, but such things should be seriously considered, not dismissed out of hand. Russell M. Nelson "Real love does not support self-destructing behavior".

Ironically, when Blair Ostler suggests that we--the orthodox types--have blood on our hands because of how our beliefs have led many from the LGBTQ community to commit suicide, she fails to acknowledge that it is white male cisgender types who are killing themselves by the tens of thousands--more than any other group. And why? Well, one reason may be because their world is fading away. So who has more blood on their hands? Those who seek to make the world unrecognizable from what it's been for the last several millennia--in terms of marriage and family? Or those who seek to conserve traditional norms?

Is this supposed to be an example of that "moral compass" that is supposed to be inaccessible to me as an atheist? If it is, I'd rather do without.

Here's something that's rare behavior: the LDS endowment ceremony. Even using the church's own membership numbers, LDS members constitute about .02% of the worlds population. Discounting for inactivity and members ineligible to attend, .01% is probably closer. How does that stack up with transgender folks? In the U.S. estimates have ranged from .3% to .7%. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/ ... ed-states/ So, participating in the secret and strange endowment ceremony is more rare -- maybe 10X more rare -- than identifying as transgender.

If I may momentarily borrow the author's moral compass: "It amuses me when people claim that certain rare behaviors [like participating in the LDS endowment ceremony] can't possibly be a mental illness. They might not be a mental illness, but such things should be seriously considered, not dismissed out of hand." Not only that, but apparently to the author, "mental illness" equates to "self-destructive behavior." And, using the author's compass, I just get to declare rare behavior as worthy of serious consideration as "mental illness" and brand it as self-destructive.

Now the compass is telling me to ignore all the research that's been done on suicide and transgender teens and simply make up a causal connection between suicide trends in white men (ignoring, of course, that the trends have been more severe in Native men) and being compassionate and supportive of transgender teens as some kind of "gotcha." And instead of treating the increasing rate of suicide for over 65-year old white men in rural areas (which is the source of the increase) as a serious problem worthy of both studying and addressing, this compass is telling me I should use it to try and score a cheap point.

Naw, I'm giving this compass back. It's badly broken. It seems to base where it points on the petty biases and bigotry of the person who owns it.