Tuesday at about 11:00 (Mountain standard time) Mormon Voices sent out one of their 'Call to Action' e-mails.
Dear MormonVoices volunteer,
Two recently published articles definitely need comments from faithful church members to set the record straight!
First, the Daily Mail in Britain published an account of an LDS couple who left the church. The article includes a photo of temple garments, and the comments are very mocking and uncomplimentary toward garments and LDS beliefs in general. The article is here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... heist.html
Second, an American political blog is touting a website that purports to sell temple garments as a means of mocking LDS beliefs. The blog contains no sensitivity toward our actual beliefs, and some well-informed, polite comments could make a big difference to some readers. The article is here: http://lafiga.firedoglake.com/2012/06/1 ... ns-secret/
Please leave a comment on each article, and as always, be kind and Christlike in your tone and topic. Avoid debates and political stances. If you need any additional information or perspective on the issues raised in the articles, please email us at email@mormonvoices.org, or visit http://en.fairmormon.org/Main_Page.
Thank you for your help! Please recruit your friends, family and ward members to join MormonVoices!
In the first article, they have a comment section that allows you to both up and down vote comments and I think the results have been interesting. Many of the comments that were made by the Mormon Voices volunteers have negative votes. Especially the comments who use the old 'they leave it but they can't leave it alone.'
That is a strange scene, Stormy. It looks to me as if the Mormon Voices people generally stick to their mild request for respect, but they are met with a bunch of negative votes. I don't quite get why that is. It isn't like the TIME Lightbox incident, in which you had the leavings of Will Schryver and others, which were inexplicable in their gratuitous mind reading and hyper-defensiveness. These are just, by and large, average LDS folk requesting that others have a modicum of respect for something they hold sacred.
It looks like there is more hostility to Mormonism in the UK than I would have imagined.
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist
Kishkumen wrote:That is a strange scene, Stormy. It looks to me as if the Mormon Voices people generally stick to their mild request for respect, but they are met with a bunch of negative votes. I don't quite get why that is. It isn't like the TIME Lightbox incident, in which you had the leavings of Will Schryver and others, which were inexplicable in their gratuitous mind reading and hyper-defensiveness. These are just, by and large, average LDS folk requesting that others have a modicum of respect for something they hold sacred.
It looks like there is more hostility to Mormonism in the UK than I would have imagined.
Stormy Waters wrote:Part of it might be that on reddit.com/r/exmormonthe article was linked shortly after the e-mail was sent out with instructions to downvote their comments.
LOL!!!
Good grief! Unbelievable.
The war between Mormons and ex-Mormons littering cyberspace. It is not a pretty picture. The LDS Church should take note of the cost of embittered ex-members and wise up to the value of being a little less defensive, a little less aggressive to people like John Dehlin.
I know that some of these LDS folk like to credit this to "Satan," and, hey, they are welcome to do so, but it is time for them to start thinking of practical measures they can take to lessen the blow-back from unhappy members who then leave. As it stands, they have created a highly motivated subculture of combative ex-Mormons who will mobilize, much like the active LDS folk, to go around and take the fight to wherever the apologists and their minions show up.
Obviously, whatever they are doing now is backfiring horribly.
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist
If you want respect for your message, then you have to have a message that people want to respect.
(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.
Mormon Voices is so obnoxious. Ugh. I can't read a single "call to action" without hearing a nerdy, complainy voice sneer "I don't like this, I don't like that, wah wah wah."
When their annoying tactics spread to places like Wikipedia, where MAD posters like Storm Rider squat on LDS articles and edit content to censor any criticism of the Church, that's when they've earned this kind of contempt, in my opinion.
Eric wrote:Mormon Voices is so obnoxious. Ugh. I can't read a single "call to action" without hearing a nerdy, complainy voice sneer "I don't like this, I don't like that, wah wah wah."
Yes, I agree with what you are saying regarding the tone. It is whiny and nasal.
Eric wrote:When their annoying tactics spread to places like Wikipedia, where MAD posters like Storm Rider squat on LDS articles and edit content to censor any criticism of the Church, that's when they've earned this kind of contempt, in my opinion.
Wow! Seriously?
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist
I'm told he was quite active on the Utah Boys Ranch article and basically managed to get several editors banned from Wikipedia for trying to edit it. lol. He's even referenced this mormondiscussions.com in a debate over an article. lolagain.
Besides the obvious questions I have about Storm Rider (like how much does a man with that many Wiki hours logged weigh? and which business is getting bamboozled by employing him thinking he's working while on the computer?, etc.) I wonder how many other MAD posters also volunteer as Mormon Voices hall monitors.
I'm told he was quite active on the Utah Boys Ranch article and basically managed to get several editors banned from Wikipedia for trying to edit it. lol. He's even referenced this mormondiscussions.com in a debate over an article. lolagain.
Besides the obvious questions I have about Storm Rider (like how much does a man with that many Wiki hours logged weigh? and which business is getting bamboozled by employing him thinking he's working while on the computer?, etc.) I wonder how many other MAD posters also volunteer as Mormon Voices hall monitors.
Amazing. You would do well to write this up and post something more in-depth in its own thread. There is quite a story to be told in all of this.
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist
I'm told he was quite active on the Utah Boys Ranch article and basically managed to get several editors banned from Wikipedia for trying to edit it. lol. He's even referenced this mormondiscussions.com in a debate over an article. lolagain.
Besides the obvious questions I have about Storm Rider (like how much does a man with that many Wiki hours logged weigh? and which business is getting bamboozled by employing him thinking he's working while on the computer?, etc.) I wonder how many other MAD posters also volunteer as Mormon Voices hall monitors.
Eric has given a great reason why I oppose Wikipedia.