candygal wrote:I could join a church that says...we make no promises. When someone is sick and asks for healing help...there are no promises..but we are here to help with love and support. It is what it is..
I could join a church that simply asks.."what do YOU think"???
Fence Sitter wrote:My Fantasy Mormon Church would bring back things like Road Shows and intra-stake sports competitions. It would encourage the individuality of wards.
I would do away with the horrible carbon copy ward and stake house architecture we have and encourage different areas to build churches that reflected both Mormonism and the local culture. No carpeting would be allowed on any wall.
White shirts and ties would be the only forbidden clothing.
Only one meeting on Sunday, which would start with a variety of different Sunday School classes one could attend and end with a quick general meeting for announcements and sacrament.
This is very appealing to me.
The culture would be so accepting of diversity that one could get up and say "I don't really agree with most of what we believe but I like hanging out with you people" and he/she would get a standing ovation for the comment.
All missions would be service oriented.
Women would be eligible to any office that men held.
Craig Paxton wrote:One of the greatest surprises to me as I look back over the years of my non-participation in the church, going on 15 years now, is just how much I DON'T miss the Mormon Church, not even a little, nothing, nada, zero. I don't need some made up Fantasy Mormon Church that will never exist...(kind of like a fantasy football team that on paper is perfect but is just fantasy in reality) because I am a member of my very own perfect "real" non-church. One of my own making. And the best part is that this non church bends and moves to my own personal wishes, desires and whims. It allows me to golf on Sundays if that is my desire, it has no boring meetings that I have to attend, I don't have to interact with anyone that I don't want to interact with, it has no dietary limitations built on the false premises of an 1830's abstinence movement and the best part I don't have to answer to anyone but the dictates of my own conscience, no temple recommend questions, not even one.
If Mormon's actually knew how amazing life could be without their church dictating and exercising control over every aspect of their lives...they would leave in droves.
Kishkumen wrote:I am imagining my Fantasy Mormon Church because I don't want to replace a divine Joseph Smith with charismatic leadership a la Smith in Denver Snuffer. In my Fantasy Mormon Church there would be no charismatic leaders of such a kind.
lemuel wrote:Denver Snuffer wishes there were no charismatic leaders too.
lemuel wrote:So my fellowship group has some aspects of my Fantasy Mormonism. We are a group of about 50 people, mostly in our 30s and 40s, from a wide variety of professions and income levels.
No one is in charge. There are no leaders. No buildings. How do we get things done without leaders? We don't. We try to bear each other's burdens, and help the poor in the group. No money is collected centrally. People post needs, and those who want to fill those needs, send $$ to those in need.
Group meetings take place over continuous live group messaging and occasional video chats, with a group that is scattered across the US. The part of the group that lives in Utah gets together every month or so to hang out. We spend our time talking about the gospel and the scriptures, and making crude jokes.
We tolerate a wide variety of viewpoints. Not all of us are impressed with Snuffer as a prophet, we have a triad of polygamists in our group.
D&C 89 is a greeting and not a commandment. We have no creed that anyone must ascribe to, but most of us believe in the doctrine of Christ as in 3 Nephi 11.
We're not Zion, but we get along really well and have built some really close friendships over the years.
Kishkumen wrote:Authority and Families
In my Fantasy Mormon Church, there are no worthiness interviews, i.e. chances for people to lie about wanking or how much tithing they pay in order to get into the temple. And, there certainly won't be private interviews of children by adult males. My Fantasy Mormon Church is truly family based in that religious activities up to and including baptism and confirmation take place according to the decision of the family. Children are neither interviewed nor given the priesthood until they reach the age of 18.
In my Fantasy Mormon Church there are two important priesthoods: one belongs to the family, and one belongs to the community. In the family, the parents co-preside and do whatever they feel they need to do for the family within the family. They can bless as they like, dedicate as they like, bless and pass the sacrament as they like, etc. The congregational priesthood involves rituals that impact or occur within the community as a whole. Parents prepare their children to be baptized, and then baptism and confirmation are witnessed in the congregation, for the child to join the congregation.
Because the focus of church meetings is worship, discussion, and socializing, there is no need for certain people to devote so much time to the congregation that they leave their families to be 20-hour-a-week or more church workers.
You and I see so eye to eye on what our fantasy Mormon Church would be like, it's scary.Kishkumen wrote:lemuel wrote:So my fellowship group has some aspects of my Fantasy Mormonism. We are a group of about 50 people, mostly in our 30s and 40s, from a wide variety of professions and income levels.
No one is in charge. There are no leaders. No buildings. How do we get things done without leaders? We don't. We try to bear each other's burdens, and help the poor in the group. No money is collected centrally. People post needs, and those who want to fill those needs, send $$ to those in need.
Group meetings take place over continuous live group messaging and occasional video chats, with a group that is scattered across the US. The part of the group that lives in Utah gets together every month or so to hang out. We spend our time talking about the gospel and the scriptures, and making crude jokes.
We tolerate a wide variety of viewpoints. Not all of us are impressed with Snuffer as a prophet, we have a triad of polygamists in our group.
D&C 89 is a greeting and not a commandment. We have no creed that anyone must ascribe to, but most of us believe in the doctrine of Christ as in 3 Nephi 11.
We're not Zion, but we get along really well and have built some really close friendships over the years.
I am excited to hear about this. Please give us more details. It is interesting to know what people are actually doing in this vein.
Kishkumen wrote:Yes, Seriously Spiritual
Having jettisoned the strictures of a priesthood hierarchy that tells you where to stand and when to laugh, you and your fellow Fantasy Mormons will have a lot more freedom to think about what makes you a spiritual person and how you will exercise those muscles. Will you meditate? Will you do the Jesus Prayer? Will you commune with nature one sunny Sunday morning on a mountainside instead of going to church? Will you contemplate an important scientific discovery or the beauty of a complex mathematical formula?
So much about being spiritual is the reverence you bring to an activity. Just because you are not repeating the wrote activities the Brethren prescribe does not mean that what you are doing is not serious, worthwhile, and salutary. Your Fantasy Mormon Church could do the things you and your fellow congregants find uplifting. That may not include standing up one Sunday a month to say, "I know the Church is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know that President Monson is a living prophet." On the other hand, it may include doing some of the usual Mormon rituals, but with a new attitude and understanding.
The choices would be yours, made in conjunction with others of like mind.
But my point here is that you can and probably would be well served to leave behind the old LDS disdain for other religious groups and practices that came along with the only true church idea. Part of the casual cultural training in "Only True Churchism" was "Other Church Stupidism" or "Other Spiritual Practice Dumbism." That can make it tough to take other things seriously, even after you have set LDS Mormonism aside. It can also be the case that people feel that setting aside LDS Mormonism, because it is not, after all, the Only True Church, includes setting aside Mormonism altogether as an irredeemably terrible thing in every possible way.
I respect everyone making the best choices for themselves, of course. But it is not absolutely necessary, I don't think, for everyone to make the same "superior" choice of rejecting Mormonism altogether. And I think it would be a good idea for a number of people, if they found healthier ways of being Mormon outside of the LDS Church.