The Internet is Killing the Church?

[_Kevin Graham]

I see nothing inherently wrong with making investments. The Book of Mormon says that seeking riches is good--if done for the right purpose.

How about the churches tax exempt status?
If they are investing money, then shouldn't they be paying taxes on it like the rest of us?

I agree

[_Kevin Graham]

The fact is those Mormons are growing in the American middle-class primarily due to ridiculous birth-rates among the active Mormons in that class. Since the dive of 1995, the Church has only opened a a dozen missions in the USA.

Eight of those were in States with high concentrations of Hispanics; a group who tends to be more humble, but more importantly, more ignorant too. I served in Santa Ana California for a few months, and I can tell you that the baptism rates there were ridiculously high for the same reason they are high in Mexico. So since 1996 the American based missions that have been created are in California(twice), Arizona(twice) Texas, Florida and Nevada(Twice). Most of the other missions were created in areas that already have a high concentration of Mormons; thus, we saw new missions in Colorado, Utah and Nauvoo. The only three exceptions seem to be Chicago, Atlanta and Washington. Aside from that, there have been no new American-based missions since the dive of 1995.

So their failuire to open more missions in metropolitan areas and in areas where the people tend to be more educated, is not really surprising since it goes along with my overall thesis. The Church finds success only with the ignorant. Those without internet tend to be more ignorant than those who have internet. Information kills the Church and empowers the people to make educated decisions about life-changing things such as religions.

[_Redefined]

Eight of those were in States with high concentrations of Hispanics; a group who tends to be more humble, but more importantly, more ignorant too.

You are calling me and my kind ignorant, huh? Them be fighting words! ;P
I prefer to think of it as "more trusting".

(What, Redefined? You. . . Hispanic?? Well, by marriage of course. . .AND yes, that makes me one of 'em!)

[_Kevin Graham]

Of course when I say ignorant I refer to knowledge of the LDS faith. The fact is the Church relies heavily on people who know little to nothing about the LDS faith, and this is why there is such a high baptism rate among Hispanics, particularly those who recently crossed the border and require Spanish speaking Elders.

by the way, My wife and kids are Brazilians.

[_why me]

So their failuire to open more missions in metropolitan areas and in areas where the people tend to be more educated, is not really surprising since it goes along with my overall thesis. The Church finds success only with the ignorant. Those without internet tend to be more ignorant than those who have internet. Information kills the Church and empowers the people to make educated decisions about life-changing things such as religions.

Since 1995, the world has become a more open place for opening new missions. The church is now in parts of the world that years ago, they were not. The lds church does not have 50million members. It is a small church with a limited pool of young men and women.

The internet because of its nature of spreading doubt and hypotheticals does have an impact. But...as I said before, if someone manages to wade through the mud and enter cleaner waters, they would be fine. The power of persuasion that the anti sites have is powerful. No doubt about it. But, when all is said and done, no one has proven the church false. Also, investigators are not expecting perfection in church history nor with its past leaders. In fact, reading about BY and Joseph Smith in the internet should give comfort to investigators that even the leaders of the lds church made mistakes and were not perfect.

Here are the facts. Not one of the witnesses ever denied their testimony of what they saw and felt. And certainly they had more than enough time to do so. Oliver especially is a case in point. Although he was experiencing financial difficulties he never attempted to make money from exposing the supposed con you claim he knew about. Why? Because there was no con to expose. And oliver would have done it if his family could have made some needed cash. Critics such as yourself need to come up with good explanations for such behavior.

[_why me]

Of course when I say ignorant I refer to knowledge of the LDS faith. The fact is the Church relies heavily on people who know little to nothing about the LDS faith, and this is why there is such a high baptism rate among Hispanics, particularly those who recently crossed the border and require Spanish speaking Elders.

by the way, My wife and kids are Brazilians.

Of course you are assuming that the holy ghost has no influence among the hispanics. Only ignorance of church history. You do sound like a gringo with such an attitude because you equate hispanics with ignorance. Talk about offensive.

What should the hispanic population know about the lds faith? What would you like them to know? What critic speculation you would like them to learn about?

[_why me]

How about the churches tax exempt status?
If they are investing money, then shouldn't they be paying taxes on it like the rest of us?

Churches do have investments. Do you think that they depend only on help from its members? How does your church support itself if it is large church?

[_aussieguy55]

Have you ever noticed when doing a search on Google for some issue it seems the apologetic sites come up first? I did this with the Spalding issue and it occured. Is there something they place on their sites that enhances this?

[_Polygamy-Porter]

Here are the facts. Not one of the witnesses ever denied their testimony of what they saw and felt. And certainly they had more than enough time to do so. Oliver especially is a case in point. Although he was experiencing financial difficulties he never attempted to make money from exposing the supposed con you claim he knew about. Why? Because there was no con to expose. And oliver would have done it if his family could have made some needed cash. Critics such as yourself need to come up with good explanations for such behavior.

Please put this old horse to rest. Stop trotting him out.

The only people who put any weight to the silly testimonies of the so-called witnesses are Mormons members who have a need to believe.

The rest of the world looks at them as nobodies.

Mormons aren't the only religion with stories of people who hold strong feelings about their beliefs. K? Get it dumbass?

What next? Trot out the old numbers horse? Growth pony? You will always loose the argument when using internal subjective pseudo facts about the Mormon church and it's own version of it's history.

Besides all of that, why are you still inactive? Huh? Care to answer that? Put up or shut up bitch.

[_Polygamy-Porter]

Have you ever noticed when doing a search on Google for some issue it seems the apologetic sites come up first? I did this with the Spalding issue and it occured. Is there something they place on their sites that enhances this?

I would not doubt it if LDS Inc spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on SEO to ensure they and their facade of apologetic sites bubble up to the top of Google.

Edit to add: I bet some of the nazi TBMs who work for the COB probably give new websites "blessings". Gag.