List of things that make Mormonism a cult

[_Coggins7]

If coggins' responses weren't funny enough on their own before, try reading them while picturing the dude in his avatar speaking in chinese but voiced over in english (like those old kung-fu movies). Twice as funny.

As I've never seen you, not once, ever, add something intellectually substantive, insightful, or relevant to single thread that's ever graced this illustrious forum, don't you have chemical substance to abuse that might focus your attention away from this discussion?

[_Coggins7]

In any case, I'm curious to hear what he thinks about Wade's argument, which is that only credentialed scholars ought to be able to comment on certain things, such as what a "cult" actually is.

The point is that credentialed scholars are the one's who have created the scientific or scholarly definitions-the one's that appear in the dictionary. One can make any alternative or idiosyncratic definitions one likes, but what one cannot do is impose them on other speakers of the language as legitimate terms accepted to any extent beyond oneself or a specific in-group (like Protestant Fundamentalists) who aren't interested in intellectual precision or rigor but only in its polemical potential.

[Dr. Sunstoned]

Let's recap:

---Prof. Flake defines a cult thusly, "The greater the mismatch of the customs between believers and their host culture, the more likely the believers are deemed somewhere on the spectrum between sectarian to cultish."
---Coggins says he has "no problem with this definition."
---When asked, "How much difference is there between mainstream U.S. culture and the LDS Church?", Coggins replies, "Mucho."

In summary: Coggins believes that the LDS Church is "mucho sectarian" or is "mucho a cult." QED!

It is a cult because it is a system of religious belief and worship, and also, in another context, it is a minority religion with a number of beliefs well outside the majority sectarian mainstream (in essence, Protestantism in its various forms). Mormons, of course, share a substantial number of traditional, historic beliefs with the surrounding mainstream culture (outside of religion per se) both as to attitudes, values, and general outlook on life. When you ask about the popular culture, however, and the adversary culture, in particular, you at that point run into a very solid and immovable edifice of resistance.

What is, in all seriousness, wrong with you Scratch?

[_Coggins7]

You may have noticed that Scratch can't even keep his blatant intellectual dishonesty and reimagining of other people's words within a modicum of control anymore. Here, Scratch turns an answer to a question, in which I said that the difference between mainstream US culture (depending upon what that means), is "mucho", to:

In summary: Coggins believes that the LDS Church is "mucho sectarian" or is "mucho a cult." QED!

Of course, I made no such claim, using that Spanish term, regarding the term "sectarian" or "cult" relative to the Church, only to the Church's relation to some broad based aspects of the mainstream culture.

I've got a rubber Iguana sitting here that could make a better showing than this.

[_Who Knows]

If coggins' responses weren't funny enough on their own before, try reading them while picturing the dude in his avatar speaking in chinese but voiced over in english (like those old kung-fu movies). Twice as funny.

As I've never seen you, not once, ever, add something intellectually substantive, insightful, or relevant to single thread that's ever graced this illustrious forum, don't you have chemical substance to abuse that might focus your attention away from this discussion?

Heh, i guess the same goes for you too, now that i think about it.

Don't you have some sean hannity anti-global warming party you should be at?

[_Coggins7]

Heh, I guess the same goes for you too, now that I think about it.

Others do not see things that way.

Don't you have some sean hannity anti-global warming party you should be at?

No. Anyone who still accepts that pathetic ideological dog and pony show deserves only a duel funeral--for both brain hemispheres.

[_Who Knows]

Others do not see things that way.

I'll give you Nehor. But Belial doesn't count. So substituting "other" for "others" might be more appropriate.

Neener neener.

[_Yoda]

And, as far as the difference between The Pope and The Prophet, yes, they are very similar in title and function. I'm not sure, does The Pope claim to have direct contact with God as His only mouthpiece on the Earth?

Yes, they do believe this. I suppose I'm coming at this from a slightly different perspective, because although I have always been a member of the Church, I grew up in a predominantly Catholic neighborhood. Many of my close friends were Catholic. I attended mass with them on occasion. They attended Sacrament Meeting and other youth functions with me. There are many similarities between the two faiths. There are also stark differences. However, this is a topic for another thread. ;)

[_Yoda]

Hmm...this is a tough one. Because, you are right, it isn't doctrine, but it is so widely observed and believed by the members, that it almost has a life of it's own. I don't see the brethren discouraging this thinking either. There are some member myths that are VERY strong, but the brethren try to dissuade the membership from believing it, because it isn't based in any kind of doctrine. The protective garments isn't one of these.

I found that this was more of an issue in Utah than other states.

[_Jason Bourne]

2. Forcing members to pay money to participate in the secret temple rituals.

Members are not required to pay money to participate in the rituals of the Temple.

So members don't have to pay tithing to get TR now? How DID I miss this announcement.

This is very close to the kind of intellectual slovenliness and bad faith I have little toleration for.

You have no toleration for anything that you do not agree with.

ithing is a biblical principle and a perennial one for the LDS. It is required as a matter of faithfulness and sacrifice required of a disciple of Christ.

I do not recall the New Testament stating anything about tithing being a mandate for being a disciple.

I'm afraid I don't understand either why someone who is not willing to support the Church temporally should be allowed entrance into its most sacred forms of worship, nor am I at all convinced that most people who resist the payment of tithing as a matter of principle would want anything to do with the Temple in any case. This is something, again, the faithful Saints agree to and sustain. The unfaithful have to walk, but that, of course, is their own decision.

So in other word.......paying money is still a requirement for temple attendance.

5. Undisclosed financials.

Neener, neener, neener...

In other words Coggins cannot refute the fact that this is bad practice.

6. Excessive time investment highly encouraged. In fact, it is considered a sin to refuse a calling.

Yes, the Church actually asks us to do something as a condition of our salvation.

I did not think serving was a condition of salvation. Did I miss something? It thought one served because they want to serve.