Ray A is banned (soon)

[_beastie]

In Wade's defense, I really do think he's sincere in wanting to bridge the gap. The problem is that he believes that the church in no way shares any responsibility for the acrimony. So, it's just a matter of us exmos playing nice.

Yeah, I have ambivalent feelings about Wade. His last couple of threads on MAD (the ones I read) were very reasonable. Maybe he really has learned and modified his behavior. It does happen from time to time. It will be interesting to see how he acts on postmo.

Now, if he starts insinuating they're bigots, or fundamentalists, or his old shticks, then I'll conclude the lessons weren't learned at all.

[_Pokatator]

This is what the critics find the most annoying about me.

Maybe not the most annoying for me but yes annoying.

My positions. Yes, I do attend Mass. I like the Mass but avoid the wine but I do take communion. I also go to the priest for confession. I also work with the catholic sisters. Good people and very helpful in finding a spiritual balance. And the priests are great especially the Opus Dei priests.

Please explain how you avoid wine but take communion. Communion in the Catholic church is Bread and Wine.

Do you partake of the bread and water at Mormon services?

I am not sure that either church would condone the practice of partaking in both!

How do you reconcile that?

[_Pokatator]

why me wrote:

Of course I accepted it but did not choose it. On MAAD one can choose it from a list of avatars. It was easy. And yes, I chose it. But I would never have dreamed of transfering it to this site. But yes, I like it and I was grateful for shades for doing it without my permission.

Life is strange, isn't it??

Yes and so are you strange. Really one strange dude. Don't blame Dr. Shades for accommodating your choice. Defend why you can criticize the use of the Tommy, Bednar, and Boyd avatars by others and not see your hypocrisy in having an avatar that myself and others see as an abomination. Explain the difference.

Do you think that the Catholics you associate with would like to receive an avatar of Joseph Smith every time you communicated with them?

You need to make up your mind which side of the fence you want to belong. You have many sides of fences you are straddling, ex-mo/TBM (your trouble at PostMorg), Mormon/Catholic, how many other hypocritical situations are you in, male/female? I wonder that last one because if you straddle the fence too long your balls get really sore after a while and they may fall off if they haven't all ready.

[_why me]

why me wrote:

Of course I accepted it but did not choose it. On MAAD one can choose it from a list of avatars. It was easy. And yes, I chose it. But I would never have dreamed of transfering it to this site. But yes, I like it and I was grateful for shades for doing it without my permission.

Life is strange, isn't it??

Yes and so are you strange. Really one strange dude. Don't blame Dr. Shades for accommodating your choice. Defend why you can criticize the use of the Tommy, Bednar, and Boyd avatars by others and not see your hypocrisy in having an avatar that myself and others see as an abomination. Explain the difference.

Do you think that the Catholics you associate with would like to receive an avatar of Joseph Smith every time you communicated with them?

You need to make up your mind which side of the fence you want to belong. You have many sides of fences you are straddling, ex-mo/TBM (your trouble at PostMorg), Mormon/Catholic, how many other hypocritical situations are you in, male/female? I wonder that last one because if you straddle the fence too long your balls get really sore after a while and they may fall off if they haven't all ready.

I am one strange person. I think that I have a true postmo life as I defined it on MAAD. In many ways I am beyond Mormonism and yet, I have kept the good points inside me and I still cannot deny the Book of Mormon nor can I deny Joseph Smith's calling. I have no proof to think otherwise. I just know that on death all answers will be answered. And it will be interesting to see what happens.

I have never limited myself to a box. As a young adult, I joined the Presbyterian young adults and spent many happy events with them at the same time that I was involved with the LDS young adults. And in Utah, I was involved with the UU in the morning and with the ward in the afternoon. Not to mention my Marxist politics.

Of course, I was born catholic and so, I am perfectly at home in that church. I like to spend time with the nuns and do volunteer work for them. Recently I was in the Baltic helping in catholic charities. I don't speak evil of neither church. The catholic forum does find me a little trying at times.

The catholics that I hang with do know about my Mormonism. In the catholic church no one is forced to take the wine. It is voluntary. The host however can be taken without the wine. If you think about it this would make sense since the wine does contain alcohol. Alcoholics would be advised to stay away from it.

I don't think that the catholics would mind. I do remember that on MAAD, someone did show me an avatar of Joseph Smith as pope. Now that is one I could use. But I was ignorant on how to do it.

I don't consider myself a hypocrite. I fully acknowledge what I am. I live with it. A hypocrite says one thing and acts another way. I don't do that. I like to be with people who share some of my values. On the catholic forum, they are so dogmatic that this tends to get in the way of their christianity. They can be quite harsh toward the LDS church.

I have never spoken a harsh word to anyone on a forum. I have never called anyone a name. Nor have I attempted to poo on their beliefs as Jeff has done on Wade's thread. I just don't want people to poo on mine.

I have children who are TBMs. The church has been good for them and they are happy and good kids. I am proud of them. And my children know about my catholicism. No problem.

I am very fortunate.

[_why me]

Alright I just got finished reading part of Ray A's thread. Isn't this opening post kinda confrontational?

Hello angry exmos, how are you today? I'm fine, thank you.
I've been watching this BB for a while now and I thought some of you would like some insights into the angry exmo phenomenon.
You can find these thoughts at: http://answeringtheanti-mormons.blogspot.com/
Hi Jeff (Ricks), feel free to engage in censorship (just like MADB does), and delete this thread, and the link. I fully understand. The truth hurts. Get rid of truth: Press "delete". You might particularly like this post: http://answeringtheanti-mormons.blogspo ... onorg.html Yea, verily, it's all about you and this BB.
To those of you who are new to this ex-Mormon phenomenon, here's my advice: IF you really want "dialogue" with Mormons (and I suppose many of you don't), treat your former religion like you would treat an ex-spouse. Do you go on boards and tell the world that your ex-spouse "slurps soup", or that his/her farts stink? Or that she has "Nazi tendencies"? Or that she believes enough crap to fill every sewer on earth? Yeah, way to go.
As you will note, if you care to read the link, I posted on RFM in 2002, but was banished from that board partly because I criticised King Steve Benson for ratting on his family in public. I hope none of you ever go so low. This man published personal, private correspondence between himself and his grandfather, Ezra Taft Benson, to make him an object of public ridicule. Now what, on earth, would motivate something like that? Anger? Is this how low exmos go?
If you are hurting from your Mormon experience, I have no problem with that. I don't even have a problem if you think it's a blatant fraud. What I have a problem with is the way angry exmos want to demonise Mormons as "braindead fundamentalists" and "deluded goons". Understandy?
I do have a serious question for Jeff Ricks: What do you REALLY want to accomplish with this forum, and community?
Do you want the Church to accept you, or CHANGE so that you can feel more comfortable about yourselves? ("It's nice to know that my ex-wife was such a bitch, and I'm such an honourable person. I found 'the truth', she is still deluded".)
(PS: I'm also testing to see if you can tolerate more truth than RFM.)

If ray would now read Wade's thread he would find Jeff Ricks comparing the LDS church to a molester. I think that Ray would not like this. Ray got the royal treatment. It was out of character to the real intent of the site. I feel that Ray was duped. Oh well, that's life.

Hopefully he will lurk and see that he was right in his first blog about the site.

[_why me]

I have to admit that the MAAD board does have strange banning ideas. As I told Runtu, I did feel sorry for him. I thought him a victim but then again I can't remember all of his posts. MAAD is in percarious situation. As I said before, critics are a dime a dozen and the more high profile the critic the better will be her or his success. Bob Betts is a good example of this. He is still posting at MAAD. And certainly he is a critic.

The lower rung critics do face a banning threat especially if they begin to mock the LDS church with superficial sentences. And some may get axed in a sweep at times. This may not be fair but it may be needed.

Is it fair? Perhaps not. I am sure that the moderators do get tired at times reading the same criticisms of the LDS church. And it is never easy to read how the LDS church is spreading 'poo' around the world as Jeff implied on his own board. The moderators are faithful members of the church. And this must be taken into account when a critic posts on MAAD.

After my experience on postmo, my first board, after reading the negatives about the LDS on the internet, I am grateful for FAIR. That first board experience was a difficult one. Much was said about me on that board in PMs. But at FAIR I was accepted and it has been helpful for me. Now at MAAD I feel the same.

[_beastie]

whyme,

You're just going to ignore my evidence about MAD's hypocrisy, aren't you?

And weren't you just claiming on this thread that you really, really, really, really do listen?

[_Blixa]

beastie, beastie, beastie....you'll get nowhere.

[_beastie]

beastie, beastie, beastie....you'll get nowhere.

Obviously!

[_Chap]

Whyme:

I still cannot deny the Book of Mormon

Do you mean that it is actually TRUE? That those things happened, somewhere in America?

Or do you just mean that it has some good ideas in it, even if Joseph Smith probably made it up?


Or what?

(Briefly, please ...)