How The Church Can Stop Hemorrhaging Members

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_schreech
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Re: How The Church Can Stop Hemorrhaging Members

Post by _schreech »

Everybody Wang Chung wrote:Nehor, not that it matters, but I've never left my "faith". Neither has my family. I have also never met another purported Church member that doesn't feel openness and honesty are the best policy for the Church.

You are certainly an anomaly.

Also, how does valuing honesty make someone not humble?


Just fyi...you are dealing with a person who has remained a virgin into his 30s (because of the LDS church), speaks to demons, suggests that he has spoken to elohim, admits to using seer stones and has an unhealthy infatuation with critics of the LDS church...it seems to be affecting his mental health (assuming he wasn't a bit of loon to begin with)....He is a bitter, LDS "yes" man that can't just admit to himself that he is a bit of a nutter that has latched onto a ridiculous social club...
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_Buffalo
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Re: How The Church Can Stop Hemorrhaging Members

Post by _Buffalo »

The Nehor wrote:
Nope.


So who lied to them about the translation process?
Parley P. Pratt wrote:We must lie to support brother Joseph, it is our duty to do so.

B.R. McConkie, © Intellectual Reserve wrote:There are those who say that revealed religion and organic evolution can be harmonized. This is both false and devilish.
_Everybody Wang Chung
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Re: How The Church Can Stop Hemorrhaging Members

Post by _Everybody Wang Chung »

schreech wrote:Just fyi...you are dealing with a person who has remained a virgin into his 30s (because of the LDS church), speaks to demons, suggests that he has spoken to elohim, admits to using seer stones and has an unhealthy infatuation with critics of the LDS church...it seems to be affecting his mental health (assuming he wasn't a bit of loon to begin with)....He is a bitter, LDS "yes" man that can't just admit to himself that he is a bit of a nutter that has latched onto a ridiculous social club...


That explains a lot. I’ve been befuddled by the responses of “The Nehor”, who seems in every way to be an angry, bitter, reactive, defensive apologist unwilling to yield even the possibility that there could be errors of men peppered throughout Church history and administration. The Nehor seems to think that prophets and apostles are above and beyond the buffetings of the flesh, prejudice, and that they are infallible. (Thirty minutes of reading President Brigham Young’s “Journal of Discourses” should tell anybody that a prophet does not cease to be human just because he’s been called to lead the Church.)

I have no problem anymore with the fact that a divinely led Church can suffer pitfalls and engage in bad behavior and alienation on account of human fallibility. Even the Church during Christ’s time – when it was led by the Messiah in the flesh – had many who peeled away after hearing a sermon or a lesson from the Master they just couldn’t accept or grasp.

I do have a problem if a divinely led Church is not completely open and honest about its history, finances and actions.
_The Nehor
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Re: How The Church Can Stop Hemorrhaging Members

Post by _The Nehor »

Everybody Wang Chung wrote:Nehor, not that it matters, but I've never left my "faith". Neither has my family. I have also never met another purported Church member that doesn't feel openness and honesty are the best policy for the Church.


I agree with them but your ideas of "openness and honesty" are odd.

You are certainly an anomaly.


Not really.

Also, how does valuing honesty make someone not humble?


I never said it did.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics
"I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
_The Nehor
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Re: How The Church Can Stop Hemorrhaging Members

Post by _The Nehor »

schreech wrote:Just fyi...you are dealing with a person who has remained a virgin into his 30s (because of the LDS church),


Guesswork.

speaks to demons,


Normal in the LDS faith.

suggests that he has spoken to elohim,


Yes, it's called prayer.

admits to using seer stones


Lie.

and has an unhealthy infatuation with critics of the LDS church


Wait....what?

...it seems to be affecting his mental health (assuming he wasn't a bit of loon to begin with)....He is a bitter, LDS "yes" man that can't just admit to himself that he is a bit of a nutter that has latched onto a ridiculous social club...


Ah, the fun of this. If I don't get one critic a week telling me my own life story incorrectly it just hasn't been a good week.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics
"I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
_The Nehor
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Re: How The Church Can Stop Hemorrhaging Members

Post by _The Nehor »

Everybody Wang Chung wrote:That explains a lot. I’ve been befuddled by the responses of “The Nehor”, who seems in every way to be an angry, bitter, reactive, defensive apologist unwilling to yield even the possibility that there could be errors of men peppered throughout Church history and administration.


What? I've admitted openly that there are such errors many times.

The Nehor seems to think that prophets and apostles are above and beyond the buffetings of the flesh, prejudice, and that they are infallible. (Thirty minutes of reading President Brigham Young’s “Journal of Discourses” should tell anybody that a prophet does not cease to be human just because he’s been called to lead the Church.)


I have admitted to many that I do think prophets are normal men with an extraordinary mandate. Other then that they are like us struggling with sin and difficulties.

I have no problem anymore with the fact that a divinely led Church can suffer pitfalls and engage in bad behavior and alienation on account of human fallibility. Even the Church during Christ’s time – when it was led by the Messiah in the flesh – had many who peeled away after hearing a sermon or a lesson from the Master they just couldn’t accept or grasp.


Nor do I have such a problem.

I do have a problem if a divinely led Church is not completely open and honest about its history, finances and actions.


Which is code for tells everyone what you want them to tell everyone.

Same old, same old.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics
"I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
_harmony
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Re: How The Church Can Stop Hemorrhaging Members

Post by _harmony »

schreech wrote:Just fyi...you are dealing with a person who has remained a virgin into his 30s (because of the LDS church), speaks to demons, suggests that he has spoken to elohim, admits to using seer stones and has an unhealthy infatuation with critics of the LDS church...it seems to be affecting his mental health (assuming he wasn't a bit of loon to begin with)....He is a bitter, LDS "yes" man that can't just admit to himself that he is a bit of a nutter that has latched onto a ridiculous social club...


I've been wondering if he's been "Wade Jr" all along, or if he's just recently made that transition?
(Nevo, Jan 23) And the Melchizedek Priesthood may not have been restored until the summer of 1830, several months after the organization of the Church.
_just me
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Re: How The Church Can Stop Hemorrhaging Members

Post by _just me »

Speaking to demons is normal for LDS members? I have never heard that in my whole 34 years in the church. Unless you mean raising your arm to the square and commanding them to leave in the name of Jesus Christ. If that is what you mean, then I would agree. Every good Mormon knows how to do that!
~Those who benefit from the status quo always attribute inequities to the choices of the underdog.~Ann Crittenden
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_Doctor Scratch
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Re: How The Church Can Stop Hemorrhaging Members

Post by _Doctor Scratch »

harmony wrote:
schreech wrote:Just fyi...you are dealing with a person who has remained a virgin into his 30s (because of the LDS church), speaks to demons, suggests that he has spoken to elohim, admits to using seer stones and has an unhealthy infatuation with critics of the LDS church...it seems to be affecting his mental health (assuming he wasn't a bit of loon to begin with)....He is a bitter, LDS "yes" man that can't just admit to himself that he is a bit of a nutter that has latched onto a ridiculous social club...


I've been wondering if he's been "Wade Jr" all along, or if he's just recently made that transition?


Oh, wow.... I am ROFLOL!!! "Wade Jr.".... How freaking perfect. This is a classic.... Lol....
"[I]f, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
_The Nehor
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Re: How The Church Can Stop Hemorrhaging Members

Post by _The Nehor »

just me wrote:Speaking to demons is normal for LDS members? I have never heard that in my whole 34 years in the church. Unless you mean raising your arm to the square and commanding them to leave in the name of Jesus Christ. If that is what you mean, then I would agree. Every good Mormon knows how to do that!


I don't mean in the sense of talking about your life. I mean in the sense of being tempted and the interactions involved.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics
"I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
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