Is your religious experience all torn up?

[_BartBurk]

Perhaps when our religious experience gets torn up it allows us to focus on the important part of what we believe instead of the distractions. I find myself returning to that simple Christianity Billy Graham preached on the local rock station. That was when I was a teenager before I belonged to any church.

[_sock puppet]

Now that you found the troubling history of Mormonism, does your worship/spirituality/religious experience/pondering sometimes reflect what this man experienced in the photo below?



It describes mine exactly.

Image: Pvt. Paul Oglesby, 30th Infantry, standing in reverence before an altar in a damaged Catholic Church. Note: pews at left appear undamaged, while bomb-shattered roof is strewn about the sanctuary. Acerno, Italy.

My religious landscape looks more like ground zero at Nagasaki after it was nuked, but instead of being rebuilt it has for 27 years now changed only to the extent of the natural elements: rain, wind, sun, etc.

[_zeezrom]

Thanks, good people, for the commentary.

Personally, I feel most inspired by the wreckage among what used to be so perfectly in place.

[_zeezrom]

Here is a (sort of) religious image from Norman Rockwell that I like a lot. Not one of his better known works, but meaningful nonetheless, and following along with the aftermath of war theme.



(Never was able to find out what the "Gay Short Story" noted on the cover was about.)
__________________

ETA:
Saw an original print of this piece in a museum once and spent some time looking for a bullet or shrapnel hole in the coat. Couldn't find one, so I assume that Rockwell let his missing US Army First Sergeant live, and that the coat was a gift or a loan. This was apparently painted in 1943, about two years before the war ended.

DrW, this is so nice to read and look at. Last night, I was reading about WWII and it was making me kind of sad because of all the trouble it caused. This Norman Rockwell is nice for me this morning.

[_DrW]

zeezrom,

Don't know if you have daughters. If so, this Norman Rockwell (another favorite) may also be of some interest.

(Hope you don't mind one more Rockwell on your thread.)

[Guest]

-

[_why me]

Eleven witnesses? 11?

Thousands upon thousands witnesses every year can bear testimony to seeing David Copperfield fly through the air (and to seeing his blood fly when he gets himself cut in half with a gigantic buzz-saw).

.

I think that it is very powerful that 11 people kept their testimony about what they experienced with joseph smith. And david requested his testimony of the Book of Mormon put on his tombstone. What these men experienced was very powerful and life changing. And oliver before he died bore his testimony to his friends, wife and daughter. Now that is also powerful.

But you can rationalize it if it makes you feel better.

[_Stormy Waters]

But you can rationalize it if it makes you feel better.

You can rationalize Joseph Smith lying to his own wife about polygamy if it makes you feel better.

[_Darth J]

I think that it is very powerful that 11 people kept their testimony about what they experienced with joseph smith. And david requested his testimony of the Book of Mormon put on his tombstone. What these men experienced was very powerful and life changing. And oliver before he died bore his testimony to his friends, wife and daughter. Now that is also powerful.

I think it is very powerful that the following people kept their testimony about what they experienced with the Loch Ness Monster They knew they would be ridiculed, but they kept their testimonies. What these people experienced was very powerful and life changing: http://www.loch-ness.com/eyewitnesses.html

I think it's also very powerful that there is neither any foundation nor relevance to the testimony of the 11 witnesses, and Why Me has failed to show other wise. http://www.mormondiscussions.com/phpBB3 ... =1&t=23924

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24536

But you can rationalize it if it makes you feel better.

Or you can choose not to be rational, if it makes you feel better.

[_DarkHelmet]

Eleven witnesses? 11?

Thousands upon thousands witnesses every year can bear testimony to seeing David Copperfield fly through the air (and to seeing his blood fly when he gets himself cut in half with a gigantic buzz-saw).

.

I think that it is very powerful that 11 people kept their testimony about what they experienced with joseph smith. And david requested his testimony of the Book of Mormon put on his tombstone. What these men experienced was very powerful and life changing. And oliver before he died bore his testimony to his friends, wife and daughter. Now that is also powerful.

You've been duped. Don't feel bad. Lots of people get duped every day.