Stormy Waters wrote:I still get angry sometimes, but often that anger is directed at myself.
It should be, because it is yourself your own false and unrighteous judgments that are the problem.
I think of a family with a dirt floor that I helped convince to pay tithes to a church that has no financial accountability. I helped convinced them to give the little they had to a church that has billions.
People like you clearly have a mental disorder, unable to understand basic economics as well as the facts of an issue. That Church has those "billions" because there are plenty of people that Church has created to make successful in all aspects of life.
The Church blesses lives.... Those people giving that money not only blessed them spiritually, but temporaly, and more importantly, goes to blessing others temporally and spiritually. Tithing money only goes to support the Churches "spiritual" functions, activities, buildings, materials, etc. The "Billions" you speak of is the Churches for profit business side which goes to improving the world in other ways, and in other ways that aren't so well known and are that go towards it's mission.
You want the Church to give more, yet you have no comprehension that if the Church gave more, then there would not be any investment, growth, jobs, and on and on. You want us to be like other Churches that have nothing and go no where accomplishing almost nothing.
You liberals don't understand that you take all the money, then there is no money to create. There are no investors, there are no businesses, on and on. You apply to the Church the same flawed ideology's you try to apply to government and society.
I get angry with myself that when they told me not to look at "anti-Mormon" sources that I was naïve enough to be obey that counsel for years. Could anything be more obvious? When someone tells you not to look at critical information it's because they have something to hide!!!
Man, you people just don't get it..... They told you not to look at them because they knew you would end up exactly where you are, that you don't have the intellectual and moral capacity to look beyond the obvious, and get at the actual truth and facts, which ultimately support the Churches position. I know what I'm saying because I've been there. You can mock me, think you know better, but I've been where you are, and you falsely judge the Church on cherry picked information, rather than the full truth and facts.
They told you to avoid it, the same way a parent tells a child not to look at
Porn.
It's NOT because they have something to "hide" as you falsely claim, it's to protect you, until you can gradually know and understand information when you are ready to, and understand for yourself why porn is bad and not good for you to look at. It's really that simple....
It applies to everything in life, not to touch the stove, don't cross the street by yourself, on and on....
We have nothing to "hide"..... Everything you know about us, comes from us. Problem is, is you only focus on the negative cherry pick, instead of studying out things for yourself understanding the context.
A lot of people get angry at the church because they feel they were lied to. I got angry because I realized that for years I knew deep down that something wasn’t right, and still I rationalized and justified things I shouldn’t have. I sold my conscience for the LDS Church, and it still bothers me a lot when I think about it.
I'm sorry you feel that way, but it is a feeling based on false and ignorant judgments of the Church. It's not based on actual honesty and truthfulness. You're not the first to think something wasn't right. Problem is, you're unwilling to recognize that maybe it's your own judgments based on incomplete information that isn't right. You see an obvious seeming wrong, yet make no effort to understand the details and the deeper implications, causality, etc. Just like your judgment of the Church with the Mall. The Church owns "businesses"..... Those businesses then operate like businesses, they make investments, build, on and on. The only difference from a standard business is that the Church itself takes a significant portion of those proceeds, to fulfill other things for the Church, be it the poor, needy, future plans, etc. The irony is that even this isn't that much different from good people that run businesses. They take a portion of their proceeds and try to do good in the world.
The problem here, is not the Church, but you.... You suffer from Envy, Coveting.... which are sins.
You falsely think that if all the rich just gave there money away to the poor, then there would be few poor. Problem is, that's never worked. All you end up doing is making everyone poor. Because the business or the rich man then has no money to invest and create, and thus he himself becomes poor, and then you end up with Fascism where there are only a few rich controlling all, and everyone else suffers. You say, the rich shouldn't live rich. Problem with that is people have jobs, because of the large home, because of the expensive car, they are able to help more people in other ways, on and on.
Fact is, as with anyone, any business, the Church gives and does what it can with what it has. Yes, the Church might have a little higher standard and higher expectation, but that's simply the price of being the best and becoming the best. It takes greatness to create greatness. The simple fact is, no poor person ever gave anyone a job..... The rich do not "sit" on their money, it goes to something, and that includes the Church. Thus, it's benefiting people on the entire chain.
You people really need to get off your computers, stop judging, and get involved and start understanding how the world turns, how life and society is created and maintained.