Kwaku on Mormonism Live!

[GiordanoBruno]

RFM with his usual humor and respectful manner.

Maybe it’s just that I’m a generation older and don’t understand young Kwaku, but after an hour of him I feel like I’ve just listened, like Macbeth, to “a tale . . . . full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. “

[Moksha]

River, does the idea of hearing Hagoth on the Radio Free Mormon podcast sound appealing to you? It sounds appealing to me. Unheralded scholars like Hagoth and Kerry Shirts would add a lot to our understanding.

I absolutely agree! This would be epic!

[Kishkumen]

RFM with his usual humor and respectful manner.

Maybe it’s just that I’m a generation older and don’t understand young Kwaku, but after an hour of him I feel like I’ve just listened, like Macbeth, to “a tale . . . . full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. “

Coming from a person who would choose the august name of Giordano Bruno for his DM handle, that does not surprise me. I doubt that, decent chap though he may be, Kwaku is as *deep* as a person who would choose this handle would prefer.

[Kishkumen]

So I enjoyed Kwaku's interview a lot more than I thought I would. I don't agree with his take on hitting back at the critics of the LDS Church just because the whole enterprise is asymmetrical from the outset. When you represent a behemoth of an organization that wields immense financial and political power, punching down at critics in the way Kwaku is is really a bad look. I get that he sees himself as the plucky independent actor, but he isn't. He is a representative of the LDS Church.

[dastardly stem]

I skimmed through the interview.

But I picked up a couple of things.

I'm not a fan of seeing the world in a us vs them mentality. The church has endorsed that thinking all because Jesus did. It's kind of what religion has been about over the course of human history. So, of course, its really hard to shake free from its grasps. On top of that we see and create groups and boundaries just because that practice started at the beginning of human history, so it's just very natural. And when we talk about ideas and positions, we start to naturally feel sides, opposition and often we take it as if we're on a battle field, as it seems Kwaku feels comfortable with. Even now I want to put the problem at religions' feet (which likely only continues the problem) but of course it's everywhere among us, and we're all easily swayed into that thinking. I can agree a huge contributor to the us vs them mentality is coming from the ex-LDS side. I've been trying to see myself as not much different then my LDS family and friends. And I realize I don't ever really want them to feel like they have to proceed with me cautiously. That's been a goal of mine for a long time. Of course, if I were able to anonymously poll those closest to me, particularly those who are LDS, I'd likely find I have failed to some degree or another on that.

I got the part where he mentioned (and maybe he did in a few spots) that we're idea sharing. On one hand he seems to be comfortable saying, it's just idea sharing so it's no big deal...then on another he's like, this is a battlefield and we need to treat it as such..then on another he's like "well the leaders are wrong like crazy and it doesn't matter...I don't want to defend the Church...its good to throw rocks at enemies" I couldn't sustain listening much...I had to skip around as I was doing other things....so it may not be so crazily inconsistent as it came off to me, but in the end it seems like he really misunderstands how the idea of throwing ideas into the market place of ideas should work. Religion puts too many bad actors into that realm acting as if things like magic can be taken seriously--as if Jesus' resurrection has good reason or evidence, type of stuff. The unfalsifiable claims of religion don't really belong as ideas to discuss because there is no reasoning to them. And its tough because if they don't belong then where do they belong? Why let bad ideas persist all because they are cloaked in the garments of religion?

[sock puppet]

I'm not a fan of seeing the world in a us vs them mentality. The church has endorsed that thinking all because Jesus did. ... And when we talk about ideas and positions, we start to naturally feel sides, opposition and often we take it as if we're on a battle field, as it seems Kwaku feels comfortable with. ...

I got the part where he mentioned (and maybe he did in a few spots) that we're idea sharing. On one hand he seems to be comfortable saying, it's just idea sharing so it's no big deal...then on another he's like, this is a battlefield and we need to treat it as such..then on another he's like "well the leaders are wrong like crazy and it doesn't matter...I don't want to defend the Church...its good to throw rocks at enemies" ... The unfalsifiable claims of religion don't really belong as ideas to discuss because there is no reasoning to them. And its tough because if they don't belong then where do they belong? Why let bad ideas persist all because they are cloaked in the garments of religion?

As ideas, unfalsifiable religious notions are poor ones that elude rational discussion. Kwaku tried to dismiss rationale thinking, giving the example of Jeffrey Epstein being the fruition (truth) of what was earlier way-out conspiracy theories (stock broker involved in sex trafficking from an island). Those unfalsifiable musings of Joseph Smith seem to be what tweaks and propels Kwaku's interest in Mormonism. He is attractive and charismatic, and has the gift of gab even if he really doesn't say that much. His mention of a war and battle field are unfortunately perhaps revealing more about himself than he had intended.