Vort

An anti-Mormon's opinion and a dollar will buy you a candy bar. In all sincerity, I advise you to ignore anti-Mormons, refuse to engage them in any conversation, and avoid their web sites like the cancer they are.

Had a friend today at work that has never gotten a ticket in his life and was pulled over, after he showed the officer his concealed weapons permit he was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car.  He was eventually let go with a ticket for obstructed tags. I saw his tags and they are in no way obstructed. The poor guy sat down and just started sobbing. He felt so humiliated and embarrassed. Yesterday he stopped traffic on the 95 when his tire blew and he hit the guard rail. He's had a bad couple of days. 
 
The cop today was white and he happens to be black. He feels strongly it was because of his skin color. Other black co-workers shared their own experiences confirming it was because of his skin color. I told them to be careful to rush to judgement. I've had jerk cops and nice cops. Plus it's the first time he's ever, EVER, been pulled over and he's at least in his early 30's. I've been pulled over a ton, but I don't have a concealed weapons permit, so I'm not sure if the officer was following protocol. 
 
Anyway, funny how some things we talk about here hit close to home. 

John 13:34-35 gives the best instructions I know of to tell if someone claiming to be a Christian is in fact, a Christian.  They are, appropriately, Christ's words.
 
 34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
 
 
I might be reading it wrong, but there's no debate about trinities or Nicene creeds anywhere as far as I can see.

An anti-Mormon's opinion and a dollar will buy you a candy bar. In all sincerity, I advise you to ignore anti-Mormons, refuse to engage them in any conversation, and avoid their web sites like the cancer they are.

"Time Vindicates the Prophets", a series of 32 fifteen-minute radio addresses given in 1954 between about March and October, may possibly be the best Nibley lectures I have ever heard -- itself a remarkable statement. It is mostly as relevant today as it was sixty years ago, allowing for a bit of outdated content regarding the Dead Sea scrolls and such. I am listening to it again right now. (That is, it's my current playlist, not that I'm listening to it at this moment.)
 
I understand that it's now freely available for download. I can't find it on Youtube or on Google, though. You can buy the CD set for pretty cheap. I very highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys Nibley. You absolutely will not be disappointed. Every lecture is a treat, and the final lecture, though light in academic content, is the best of them all, being in essence Nibley's testimony.

Silhouette, here is a thought about being a secretary.
 
I have served in several quorum presidencies and a group leadership, though never as secretary. In my last calling as an assistant in the high priest group leadership, I served with a friend who was also the secretary and who took his calling very seriously. He was the only "holdover" from the previous group leadership. He took careful notes of all our meetings, including discussion on the various topics, decisions made, and ideas we floated.
 
I do not believe I am exaggerating when I say that he was the most important member of our leadership group. The HPGL agreed with me on that, as did the other assistant, so it wasn't just me. But strangely enough, until that point, I had never realized just how important a good secretary can be for a presidency. We were literally three times as effective because he was there, doing his job.
 
I mentioned this to my wife at one point. Her response was, "When I was the Primary president, I had Vickie So-and-so as my secretary, and she was the most valuable person in our presidency."
 
Moral: Your position is no afterthought. If you do your job well, you will make your presidency vastly more effective. Don't stress over this, of course, but don't underestimate the importance of what you can contribute.

I heard the same thing. Not sure whether I believe it.

Well, there's general conference....
 
...and general conference.....
 
...and oh yeah, general conference.  :)

So, I had a Race and Minority Relations class in college, where the teacher essentially taught, class after class, that white people (especially men) were bad and hurting all other races.  I assume she often talked to her husband about this annoying white kid who wouldn't shut up and listen in class, because I often called her out on many of the logical fallacies she spewed.  
 
For that class, I read "Black Like Me".  I highly recommend it.  It's a true story about a white man who took pills to make his skin go dark and lived for a while in the deep south. What I learned from the book, black people have struggles that I simply don't have.
 
She also showed us a movie of a study where two asians, two blacks, two hispanics, and two whites were put in a room (I debated PCing that sentence up a little, but decided it wasn't worth the effort.  I'm sorry if anyone is offended for me not wording that correctly).  In the movie, one black man asked one white man what it meant to be white.  The white man had no answer (which was obviously a crime).  The teacher asked us to write a paper about he movie.  I thought about what it meant to be white and wrote it down.
 
My take away from the class:  Everyone has trials and struggles, and some of those trials and struggles are linked to our race.  A black man does have to deal with things I don't, and I have to deal with things he doesn't.  It's not a bad idea for both of us to recognize the struggles of the other.

During my investigator years and then later in my wilderness years, I read a lot of ex-Mormon and anti-Mormon material.  I didn't seek it out exclusively, I just naturally tend to understand the center by studying the extremes.  After reading this material, I usually walked away with the same feeling I have now when I change my cat's litter box: stench and waste and a need to wash my hands pronto.  Those are harsh words, and I don't enjoy writing them, but I'm describing my true reaction.
 
In those anti-Mormon things I found very little constructive engagement or willingness to debate honorably... just a lot of hurt, angry people who thought they could get better if they focused all their pain and anger on the Church on whatever wavelength they could dial up.  Maybe not all of them, but the majority.  And just as a child learns very quickly what buttons to push to retaliate against a parent, many in the anti-Mormon community have learned what buttons to push to capsize faithful Mormons.  That old "Mormonism isn't Christian" button has been pushed so many times that it's ready to break off.
 
My college religion professor (a Calvinist) said he regarded as Christian any group that identified itself as Christian and believed it was sincerely following Christ.  I think he got it about right. 
 
"Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16), and "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother" (Matthew 12:50).

Pa Pa, usually I'm the first one to jump at the chance to explain the faith and share spiritual experiences with non-members (including hearing their experiences).  However, if a person's not wanting to listen, not wanting to share, and just wants to bash.... you're not going to get anywhere when someone's heart is that closed.

An anti-Mormon's opinion and a dollar will buy you a candy bar. In all sincerity, I advise you to ignore anti-Mormons, refuse to engage them in any conversation, and avoid their web sites like the cancer they are.

Sad but true. You have several problems. One: You need to go by "MormonGuitar", not "MormonGator". Also, don't be all holier than thou. It's sad but true that the memory remains if you're the unforgiven. I'll keep you in mind wherever I may roam, my friend of misery. Mama said not to give up the struggle within or believe that to live is to die; just turn the page

An anti-Mormon's opinion and a dollar will buy you a candy bar. In all sincerity, I advise you to ignore anti-Mormons, refuse to engage them in any conversation, and avoid their web sites like the cancer they are.

Lethal in Europe.

Let me clarify.
 
 
It's headbanger code.

Sad but true. You have several problems. One: You need to go by "MormonGuitar", not "MormonGator". Also, don't be all holier than thou. It's sad but true that the memory remains if you're the unforgiven. I'll keep you in mind wherever I may roam, my friend of misery. Mama said not to give up the struggle within or believe that to live is to die; just turn the page

I have not said anything before because it is your choice, (and I can respect that)  I had no real practical experience to offer, and all the generic things I might have said had already been said.  But with this post I feel I have something to add.
 
When you asked about having your name removed I figured/guess/assumed that you wanted to cut off all contact with the church more or less permanently.  Removing your name is the way to do that.  But this post sound like you are more interesting in maybe taking a break and then trying to start over?
 
Removing your name for a reset or starting over is like setting off a bomb when you want to remodel your house.  Sure it can gets you a clean slate, but it is much more extreme then is really necessary.
 
If you are looking to come back (maybe) at a future date then there are less extreme methods to do that then to have your name removed.

Clean slates are nice.  I wipe mine all the time.
 
As a convert, I have occasionally been tempted to think I have more skin in the LDS game (to put it crudely) because I consciously chose to join the church and didn't just grow up in it without an explicit decision to join.  I certainly understand the desire to "own" your membership in a church by consciously choosing it instead of having it pressed upon you.   
 
But I can't help wonder if there isn't an easier way to clean your slate?  Best wishes whatever you decide, of course.

I and my family are about as white as they come.  Yet for some reason:
- My wife and I have been pulled over for "fitting the description".
- We've had more than one talk with our kids about how to respond to police officers.
- I am the descendant of slaves.  (I don't think they used the word, but basically, my ancestors hit the US shores after escaping Scotland because they were fed up with being pressed into wars to serve the British King.  Back in those days, you had two options - either go to war as asked, or be killed and have your family raped and sold or killed along side you.)
 
I have a very black Facebook buddy.  Here's what he had to say about it recently [brackets mine]:
 

It's a long and boring read maybe, but I'm not a writer! This was my attempt at bearing my testimony via keyboard.
 
 
I now carry a Shawn Bradley rookie card in my wallet everywhere I go. Even though Bradley was one of the greatest BYU basketball players in the history of the game, I don't carry the trading card around because I'm a sports collector. I carry the card around because I am a proud member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
 
As a recent convert of the Church, I never expected to be baptized and confirmed as a member. In fact, prior to watching a short Shawn Bradley interview in which he talked about his faith, I never dreamed of joining a church that I once thought was an oddity. After hearing Bradley talk about "putting his religion and his family" as a priority over basketball, I was inclined to request a free Book of Mormon from our local missionaries to see what all of the hoopla was about. I assumed I would read it, smirk, and add the book to my ongoing collection of religious literature. After a few weeks of reading it (3/4ths of that time was getting through 1st Nephi I think), there was no smirking. Only tears. Tears of joy and happiness. Tears of confirmation, and of authenticity. For the first time in my life, I knew truth. I knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that Jesus Christ was our Lord and Savior. Fast forward a few months later, I am now preparing for a mission after receiving the Melchizdek Priesthood. While my family is mostly anti-LDS (they are devout Baptists), they have seen my testimony and know that I need to go on a mission.
 
I have a lot of people to thank. I have my Church family to thank for being the most loving group a person could ever know. I have Heavenly Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit to thank, for reasons too many to name in this short letter. I have Joseph Smith to thank for restoring the Gospel and being a Prophet of this great Church. And finally, I have Shawn Bradley to thank. An ordinary basketball player with an extraordinary testimony. A testimony that seems pretty contagious.
 
In another interview Bradley had, he cited his favorite verse as 2nd Nephi chapter 2 verse 11:
　
11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.
 
 
This verse rings true in my life in every sense imaginable. It is this opposition that strengthens my faith, and encourages me to seek righteousness. When I'm on my mission, I fully anticipate on taking that Shawn Bradley card with me as I share my testimony with others and give them the Book of Mormon. Perhaps I can act as a Shawn Bradley to somebody else.

More #CrimingWhileWhite
 
KillerBunnyFooFoo @PolitiBunnyHrm. Was pulled over for speeding and I got a ticket. CLEARLY I need to figure out this whole #CrimingWhileWhite thing. *eyeroll* AdolfJoeBiden™ @BidenshairplugsI once punched a cop, he said "thank you sir, may I have another", because I'm white. Kyle Becker @IJReviewEditorMy white friends & I gathered stray puppies & loaded them in a Howitzer, shot them over the city. Cop winked, thumbs up #CrimingWhileWhite Ban Collectivism @mrgeology#CrimingWhileWhite << I was caught trying to load a stolen ATM machine into my pickup. A cop saw me and gave me a hand. Then, we had a beer. cameron carnes @cameroncarnesGot pulled over with ski masks, gunpowder, knives, a grappling hook and night vision goggles. Cops told me to be safe. #CrimingWhileWhite Wajahat Ali @WajahatAliMy last name and skin tone gets me special TSA loving at airports & extra security questioning. Oh, wrong hashtag. #CrimingWhileWhite Jim Branch @jamesbranch3#CrimingWhileWhite Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner cheating on his taxes.... 

Sad but true. You have several problems. One: You need to go by "MormonGuitar", not "MormonGator". Also, don't be all holier than thou. It's sad but true that the memory remains if you're the unforgiven. I'll keep you in mind wherever I may roam, my friend of misery. Mama said not to give up the struggle within or believe that to live is to die; just turn the page

Or "Those that divide people into 10 types and those that don't."
 
Hey, that combines two separate jokes into one. I like it.

Sad but true. You have several problems. One: You need to go by "MormonGuitar", not "MormonGator". Also, don't be all holier than thou. It's sad but true that the memory remains if you're the unforgiven. I'll keep you in mind wherever I may roam, my friend of misery. Mama said not to give up the struggle within or believe that to live is to die; just turn the page