FunkyTown

I think it's okay to advertise beer in NCAA games. It's not my choice, but we aren't the majority. If we're going to say alcohol abuse can kill, we have to say that vehicular abuse can kill - More teens die to car accidents than alcohol poisoning. If it's the addictive quality, you have to avoid World of Warcraft advertisements, television ads and anything someone might find offensive or dangerous. What's worse is that this ad specifically shows Utah universities and doesn't show -any other universities- joining in on the ban. We are a peculiar people, but we want to be a peculiar people because we -choose- to be different, not because we force our beliefs on other people.

You are an incredibly courageous person. So many people lock inside when they feel overwhelmed and things end up happening that make it worse. Do you know what you need? A break. You have -six kids-, Sprinkles. When was the last time you had the -chance- to read scriptures? When was the last time you didn't feel exhausted? When we aren't prepared to feel the spirit, we can deny ourselves that opportunity. Take a break. Go on a women's retreat. Take a time look yourself in the mirror and say, "I am raising six kids. I am keeping things together despite overwhelming difficulties." And, Sprinkles? Can I take a guess? I'm guessing that it's been difficult - Maybe there's a child who screams a lot? Maybe there's more and you and your husband haven't been as close as you used to be?(It happens. Children, though we love them, often leave both partners exhausted). Is it any wonder that you're feeling this way? You need to take some time and know you're loved and that you love your family and God. I know it's hard. There are a million excuses you can take not to take time for yourself - All of which sound good in your head. I'm telling you, though, that you need some time to remember who you are: A great and faithful person who has always loved God, even when life sidetracked you.

I actually loved the Old Testament. It was the reason I joined the church. God is an unchanging God, so one would suspect that the same things he did in the Book of Mormon were what he did in the New and Old Testament. Was the old testament violent? Sure. That was what the times were like. Were there reasons for every commandment? Yes. Just as assuredly as the end times will be violent because unbelief and apathy have forced a loving God's hand to shake us from the sleep of ages, the beginning of the age of man was marked by unbelief that needed to be shaken. "Better that a man should perish than a nation should dwindle in unbelief." There were also many acts of beauty and wonder in the old testament.

Yep. T's totally right. However, many of the 'overt' symptoms are similar - Being charismatic, manipulative, etc. Here's an example of what it's like. Histrionic Personality Disorder

That is true, Fent. Sociopathic-like people who have empathy are often people with Histrionic Personality Disorder.

Wait... The Mason's are apostate? The Shriner's are apostates? They build children's hospitals and donate time and money to helping people. I know Mason's. My -Grandpa- was a Mason. I was -invited- in to the Masonic order(Though I didn't join.)

I am, Moe. I am very sincerely supporting this quote. I know what you're saying because I've read the OP's posts as well. Good on you, Moe.

I'm a convert and I had an experience. Most of the time, I joke and make light of things, but this is something that I won't. There's a long story to my conversion but the short version is: Something happened in my life to make me look at religion. I had always felt a connection to God. Always. I had prayed and felt Him near, but I had no idea what religion had the truth. I decided to study it out and find out. I studied Buddhism and Brahmanism, Catholicism and Judaism. I read the Bhagavad Gita, studied the Torah with the help of a book by NYU professor of Judaism Richard Elliott Friedman. I read C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton. For two years, I was desperate for an answer. I realized I believed in Christianity, but there were so many questions that I thought I'd never get answered. I felt tempest tossed, like a little rowboat in a hurricane, lost and adrift and looking for answers to questions that(As far as I knew) could not be answered. Finally, I was at work discussing religion and politics(Something I never should have) and someone asked if I wanted the missionaries to come over. I decided I would. Couldn't hurt, right? When they first came in, I had questions. I didn't know anything about the church at that point. I was going to hit them with the hardest questions I could so that I would understand. "All right - I do have questions: If God and Jesus are the same person, why does Jesus pray and say 'Why dost thou forsake me?' - How can a man forsake himself? Also, why did he say in Gethsemane, 'Would that thou wouldst take this cup from me. Nevertheless, thy will and not mine be done.' Why not say 'My will and not Mine be done'?" Also, in the Torah, it talks about Enoch 'Being no more'. Traditional Jewish thought on this is that he never tasted death as this particular use of words only appears twice in the old testament. Why, in the middle of the most holy works of the Jewish faith, is there only one sentence about this? 'By the way, he was so good he went to Heaven never having tasted death.' You would think that this would be something important.' The missionary who was teaching me laughed and said, "Well, we have answers, but I think we're getting ahead of ourselves." But still, I didn't trust that. It -felt- right. The answers were there. All the things I'd wondered about seemed to be what they were talking about the very first meeting, but I still didn't trust my experience. My family, my friends all thought it was stupid. They still do. My mother accused me of joining a cult. I knelt down in prayer and said, "God? This feels right. But I know I'm not the smartest person where it comes to religion. If I was, I would have known the answers to these things. If it's true, you have to tell me in no uncertain terms." I had the impression to do something so I flipped open the bible to a random page that happened to be Matthew 7:16. I've never looked back and I've never and never will deny what I know is true. I've been weak and made mistakes, but God gave me an answer and I can't look back.

This is a difficult question - What type of person becomes inactive? It's usually new members, with no family and no ties to speak of(Usually). They show up to church, they talk to people. It's all very exciting. They have a calling, they get a chance to help people and everything is good. Then, their friends go out. Their friends engage in things that were a part of the social structure - Maybe they go grab a beer after work or they throw a big house party. This person can't go. But it doesn't matter, because they have the truth! Then, the weeks go by as old friends start to fall away because you can't do the things you used to. If you aren't married, you find yourself utterly alone. The talks are all focused on family. You talk to the bishop and the bishop says to lose yourself in service. So you do. Maybe you try to help people. You go out. You talk. You welcome new members to the ward and show up to help move people. Maybe you volunteer at the homeless shelter. Regardless, you've lost your friends. The friends you've made at church probably have families or are immediately going to get married and fall off the social radar and you start spending nights at home alone. At this point, they either go out and forget the church or they stay at home. They're sad and lonely and, when church comes, they can't bring themselves to go to church to hear another 'Families are forever' talk. They love the church, but it becomes a place of painful reminders. Joining the church is not easy and following the dictates without support is nearly impossible. That's why many people go inactive.

Autism is a difficult thing to deal with. Many people who are autistic deal with things in a very different way. It could be he has felt the spirit but didn't know what it was. It's difficult to make concrete discussions without knowing what type of autism he has. It sounds like it's high functioning autism. Are you sure it's autism and not Asperger's? When is he most happy? Ultimately, I have an incredible amount of respect for what you have to deal with. It takes patience, strength and love to overcome it and coming on here to ask shows you do have that. :)

And part of repentence is that you're willing to face consequences. I know it's worrying, but trust him. :) As long as you've repented, I'm certain whatever you're afraid of won't happen.

You should definitely tell him, Definitely.

What if you read them backwards, Kira? Plus, I love the new look in your pic. Did you cut your hair?

I thought I'd chime in with something here. I'm a member and have been for almost seven years, but I joined the church at the age of 26, which in my area(It's a small area of LDS), meant that everyone was already married. I understand what you're saying about guys not wanting to date divorcees with children and it comes down to a few things: 1) People wonder what caused the divorce. There are always underlying problems that lead in to divorce and, only in the rarest of cases, is the fault entirely one-sided. Single guys wonder what happened and, if contemplating marriage, whether it would happen again. 2) Divorce carries baggage, and I'm not talking about a beautiful child. People who have been hurt will tend not to trust. Some guys have dated divorcees where their fears were palpable enough to force serious rifts in future relationships because they believe the new guy is going to be just like their old guy, so they're always on guard. 3) Guys wonder about the ex. Will he be in the child's life? When you treat the child with love and compassion, she still has to have her dad in her life. What if he disagrees with parenting decisions you've made? There isn't a guy out there who wouldn't be afraid of hearing, "You're not my Dad!"(Which is almost inevitable given that parenting involves sometimes denying them what they want - And all children go through a rebellious phase.) It's hard - Yes, there are people out there who will be able to sweep you off your feet and treat you the way you deserve. It's just going to take effort, courage, strength and understanding from both of you to make it work.

It's a book that was adapted as a movie. The first book isn't bad: Pretty typical fantasy fare with a serious dislike of organized religion. That's fine. In the third novel, the main characters kill a person named God. But besides that, it's just a derivative, poorly written piece of fiction.

Loudmouth? Harry Potter has NOTHING to do with the Golden Compass. Nothing. At all. Phillip Pullman wrote The Golden Compass. J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling and not Phillip Pullman. I have to be very careful in saying this because you said something as fact that is not. At all. And it's libellous: J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and Phillip Pullman wrote the Golden Compass. The Golden Compass is trash, but it's not trash because it's fantasy. It's trash because it's trash.

Oh, I totally agree with these people who hate Harry Potter. No good Christians have ever written fantasy novels with magic in it. Besides... Y'know... C.S. Lewis who was called by many the most passionate defender of Christianity in the modern day. Oh, and J.R. Tolkien. Yeah. He was passionately Christian as well. I guess he wrote a lot of fantasy as well. Okay, so they're completely wrong in saying Harry Potter is satanic. However, I do agree with her on one thing: It's up to her whether or not her kids have Harry Potter stuff. It's not going to kill them not to have it and it really is her decision.

But the moment you look down upon someone just because they have nice things, you become guilty yourself, Stampede. You're right... Jesus Christ was a carpenter. But remember that gold, frankincense and myrrh were left at his cradle. I believe that man was meant to be wrapped in gold and found itself draped in golden chains. It's clear something has gone wrong, but... It sounds like you're upset when you see someone who's wealthy. That's not a bad thing. Even the pursuit of wealth isn't a bad thing - Setting goals is important. Paul said "The love of money is the root of all evil" not "Money is the root of all evil".

To be fair, Erik... He probably is referring to one of Mark Driscoll's famous speeches from the pulpit. Mark's words are designed to evoke emotion. They're designed to get a visceral reaction. In this case, it succeeded but it obviously offended him. Mark himself said, "There are two types of people in this world - People I've offended and people who haven't met me, yet." He's a good man, but you -do- have to understand he can sometimes offend people.

I lost twenty pounds and now look better than I have in years!

Hahah! I can't be offended. I was just worried that someone might hear the anger at Driscoll and confuse it with what the church teaches. I genuinely like everyone. :)

Okay... What Mark's doing there is illustrating exactly what type of person Jesus was in the language that would best be understood by the people he was preaching to. He -did- grow up in a small town that few people respected(John 1:46 'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth'). Jesus' Mom -was- poor and unwed when he was conceived. An angel had to tell Joseph not to break off their engagement. Jesus' first 30 years -were- spent in relative obscurity. We don't know what he did in that time, but when he returned to preach in his land of birth people skeptically didn't believe him: Hence the 'No prophet is honoured in his country'(Luke 4:24) which was so famous. It sounds like you're upset because he's speaking familiarly of things you hold sacred. I agree. I don't think it's appropriate, but he's trying to reach people that don't feel like God is speaking to them. He's using their language. He does it out of love. Nothing he preached in the quote you gave is against biblical teachings.

And, as a secondary part of what I had said about Mark, the same applies to you: Of course you don't believe what Mark Driscoll preaches. If you did, you'd be part of Mars Hill. Have you ever heard any of Mark Driscoll's sermons? They're well-thought out and well reasoned. If you listen to him with a need to hate him, you will, but that's not God's way. Love Mark the way you should love all men and recognize he's passionate about Christ and you'll be on your way. Then, you can comment on what you think of his sermons in a well-reasoned and charitable way. Until then, it's probably best not to dwell on how you feel about him.

Bytor? While I love that you're passionate about this, I want to point out something: The LDS church disagrees with Mark Driscoll on several points he considers key. Of course he calls us false. If he didn't, he would be LDS. Mark Driscoll doesn't hate members of our church. He's a genuinely nice guy who loves his fellow man. So, to reiterate: Of course he thinks we're wrong. If he didn't, he'd be LDS. That's a fair statement.

Wow... That's a tough question and you are an incredibly amazing person to be able to overcome it. It's clear his addiction troubles you a lot and to find out on top of that that he called a callgirl would be incredibly hard. I don't have any advice for you - You do what you have to. You deserve the best, girl, and even though marriage has to be worked at, it requires both of you to be working at it. Do you think he's working at it? If you do, it will hurt and it will be painful, but you can work past it. I'm prayin' for you.