Does Boasting Inflated Member Growth Numbers Abroad...

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_sock puppet
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Does Boasting Inflated Member Growth Numbers Abroad...

Post by _sock puppet »

help cause Mormons in Utah and vicinity to keep paying tithing?
_son of Ishmael
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Re: Does Boasting Inflated Member Growth Numbers Abroad...

Post by _son of Ishmael »

sock puppet wrote:help cause Mormons in Utah and vicinity to keep paying tithing?


Yes I think so. The church needs to present an image that it is growing outside of the US, filling the four corners of the world and such. Mormons in the corridor who see and hear reports about church growth will feel good about it and be more movtivated to not only pay their tithing but offerings too.

The church is suppose to cover the whole earth. If it is not, then something is wrong.
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo

Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man. - The Dude

Don't you know there ain't no devil, there's just god when he's drunk - Tom Waits
_Stormy Waters

Re: Does Boasting Inflated Member Growth Numbers Abroad...

Post by _Stormy Waters »

I would certainly say it does. I think for many members it is faith promoting and comforting to hear that you're a member of the "fasting growing church." Being a member of a church where membership is stagnant isn't inspiring. The stone cut without hands isn't supposed to stall in its tracks.
I'm not sure where the church goes from here though. They can't really start reporting real numbers. Imagine what would happen if in the next conference they decreased membership from 14 million to 9 million.
_Fence Sitter
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Re: Does Boasting Inflated Member Growth Numbers Abroad...

Post by _Fence Sitter »

son of Ishmael wrote:
The church is suppose to cover the whole earth. If it is not, then something is wrong.


Many LDS say it already does "cover" the whole earth. "Cover" seems to be another one of those words that has its own unique Mormon definition.
"Any over-ritualized religion since the dawn of time can make its priests say yes, we know, it is rotten, and hard luck, but just do as we say, keep at the ritual, stick it out, give us your money and you'll end up with the angels in heaven for evermore."
_Drifting
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Re: Does Boasting Inflated Member Growth Numbers Abroad...

Post by _Drifting »

sock puppet wrote:help cause Mormons in Utah and vicinity to keep paying tithing?


I certainly think that propagating the myth that Church is growing helps keep the General Authorities in a job.
“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.”
Keith McMullin - Counsellor in Presiding Bishopric

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_son of Ishmael
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Re: Does Boasting Inflated Member Growth Numbers Abroad...

Post by _son of Ishmael »

Fence Sitter wrote:
son of Ishmael wrote:
The church is suppose to cover the whole earth. If it is not, then something is wrong.


Many LDS say it already does "cover" the whole earth. "Cover" seems to be another one of those words that has its own unique Mormon definition.



Good point. I do think I remember talks that put forth the idea that the church has members through out the entire globe. So if you have members here and there that is coverage. Sort of like cell phone towers
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo

Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man. - The Dude

Don't you know there ain't no devil, there's just god when he's drunk - Tom Waits
_Racer
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Re: Does Boasting Inflated Member Growth Numbers Abroad...

Post by _Racer »

I think exaggerating these numbers definately helps keep the core UT corridor engaged. There is no problem that can't be solved by engaging in a little "Lying for the Lord".

Lying for the Lord helps keep the members from knowing the truth like exaggerated membership numbers, or that past church sanctioned racism was just "folklore". These things are so demonstrably wrong on many levels that church knows only their members will buy their explanations. These are things that can easily be proven false with a little research, and most outsiders can see through the BS. The church doesn't care about what outsiders think in these scenerios as long as they keep the current faithful believing and paying.
Tapirs... Yeah... That's the ticket!
_lulu
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Re: Does Boasting Inflated Member Growth Numbers Abroad...

Post by _lulu »

son of Ishmael wrote:Sort of like cell phone towers

My calls keep getting dropped.
"And the human knew the source of life, the woman of him, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, 'I have procreated a man with Yahweh.'" Gen. 4:1, interior quote translated by D. Bokovoy.
_sock puppet
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Re: Does Boasting Inflated Member Growth Numbers Abroad...

Post by _sock puppet »

lulu wrote:
son of Ishmael wrote:Sort of like cell phone towers

My calls keep getting dropped.

Just envision TSM (a few years ago, before Alzheimers set in) walking around his apartment, stopping every few feet, looking upward at the ceiling and repeatedly asking, "Can Ye hear me know?"
_zeezrom
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Re: Does Boasting Inflated Member Growth Numbers Abroad...

Post by _zeezrom »

sock puppet wrote:help cause Mormons in Utah and vicinity to keep paying tithing?

Yes.
Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame on us gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given... Zeus (1178 BC)

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