Carl62

The internet could be playing a big part in this these days. It takes less than a minute to get on any anti site or youtube video that talks about the early doctrines or history of the church that may go against what we teach today, thus causing people to have serious doubts/questions that they sometimes can't get answered and therefore end up going inactive. I honestly believe this is becoming more and more of a problem. I wish the church could somehow figure out a way to do damage control on this.

Gee, I find your comments interesting, especially coming from somebody who has it written in their profile "to not judge anyone for ANYTHING they've done".

Today marks the 30 year anniversary that the late, great John Lennon was killed outside his Dakota apartment in NYC. R.I.P. John. We still miss you.

It all depends on which class you get the most fulfillment out of. Even though I've been in the church 30+ years, RM, BYU and just about everything else, I actually chose to attend a Gospel Principles class simply because our Gospel Doctrines teacher was just plain lame and boring, went strictly by the book, and didn't know much of how to handle any "deeper" subjects. The Gopsel Principles teacher was very intelligent, had a personality about him and he would go into some VERY deep topics with us, without going over our heads though, and it made the class very interesting. Try different classes and see which ones work for you. There is no class that is off limits to you (with the exception of Priesthood of course) and don't let anyone tell you any different. Good luck.:)

I find it interesting how people said the same exact thing about Mormon Doctrine 25-30 years ago and now look how it's turned. I wonder if we'll be saying the same thing about those books in 30 years? I guess that's why I like to stick with the good 'ole standard works and them only. It's a lot less confusion and more clarity that way.

There's a number of people in our ward who do the same thing and it can get ridiculous. It's like listening to Edith Bunker give a testimony.

It really doesn't have to be anything said out of bounds to have a testimony cut off. Just two F and T meetings ago, a woman got up and gave a record-breaking 28 minute testimony that the bishop had to finally give the lady a note for her to wrap it up. Only three other people got to speak after her. It was monotonous!

My favorite quote on just what exactly is doctrine comes from a former Seventy, B.H. Roberts: "The church has confined the sources of doctrine by which it is willing to be bound before the world to the things that God has revealed, and which the church has officially accepted, and those alone. These would include the Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, The Pearl of Great Price; these have been repeatedly accepted and endorsed by the church in general conference assembled, and are the only sources of absolute appeal for our doctrine". That sums it up in a nutshell right there for me.

Believe it or not, about six years ago my mother still got her temple recommend after telling the bishop that she drinks decaffeinated coffee (she still drinks it to this day).

There are probably as many different ways to honor the Lord on the Sabbath as there are number of LDS. It all comes down to what's in your heart, what your enterpretations are and what you feel most comfortable with. What may work for one person may not work for another. I think where things become wrong is when we get judgemental over others in the church over what their boundaries are for honoring the Sabbath. This, unfortunately, does happen.

I've been a member of the church for over 30 years and I've never heard of that! That's different. Oh well, I guess that's because I've never done anything trick or treating at any of the wards. Live and learn.

What's trunk or treat? I've seen that twice now in this thread. Is that when you go door to door and give the candy back?

As I gave an example of this in an earlier thread, is it any worse to give an apple pie to a new neighbor on the sabbath than it is to give candy to kids? Other than the fact that one is wearing a costume and the other isn't, I honestly don't get the difference! If we as LDS could sometimes get past our analytical, Phariseen way of thinking on minor issues as this and live more by the spirit of the law (of giving and sharing:)), then issues like this shouldn't have any reason to ever be brought up.

While I know that there's been counsel given against having tatoos, I can't believe it's a 'one size fits all' in that nobody can never have any, ever, and that they will be denied access to the celestial kingdom because of it! My girlfriend has a beautiful tatoo right above her left elbow of a butterfly that she used to cover up a big, hideous scar that doctors said would cost her thousands of dollars in plastic surgery to have it removed, with still no guarantee that it would ever be completely the same. So she opted to have a beautiful, multi-colored butterfly (she loves butterflies because she says that they are a creature that harms no one) tatoo put over the scar for just a couple of hundred dollars. Yesterday we took a trip to a local zoo and the girl at the counter was just going on about how nice her tatoo looks. This is just one of MANY compliments that I've seen her get on her butterfly. While some may say 'it's defiling the temple', others may look at it and say it's taking an ugly situation, turing it around and making it look a whole lot brighter and nicer.:)

So let me see if I got this straight. Being nice to kids by giving them food on a Sunday is now considered breaking the sabbath? Hmm. I'm sure people wouldn't think twice about giving a baked apple pie as a welcome to a new neighbor on the sabbath, but yet if it's kids then that's somehow going against what God wants us to do? Don't get it.

Now THAT'S a law I would uphold! (anyway they can make a law even against visiting).

Unfortunately, IMHO, there's more emphasis on looks then what there should be. I mean come on, white shirts vs. blue shirts to church? Two earrings vs. one earring?

What's interesting is if you watch The Beatles Anthology, George Harrison talks about how excited he was about going to Haight-Ashbury (San Francisco) and experiencing what he thought was going to be a week of peace, love, artistic and spiritual awakenings. What he ended up seeing was nothing but a bunch of drop-out kids all strung out on drugs. I think he was disillusioned with the whole Summer of Love thing like so many others were. Take away the drugs and the free love and I think we really could have been on to something (Woodstock was great though:D).

Last month, my girlfriend just got her ears pierced for a second time on both ears. Is she breaking a commandment and will therefore not be allowed in the celestial kingdom one day? She also has three very nice butterfly tatoos which she absolutely refuses to have removed (they are honestly nice looking). Will she be able to get through the gates of the celestial kingdom with them on? Curious.

From what I understand, if there is a disciplinary council and, let's say, someone is disfellowshipped. The bishop must tell people like the Sunday School teachers and the Priesthood/Relief Society teachers so that they will know not to call on that person for any prayers. Outside of that, I'm not sure if anybody else is told.

I can top all of this. How would you like to go to a Stake Conference and be rudely told "Nope. Can't sit there. The seat is taken", (and yes, said exactly like that) only to look over half way through the conference and see that the seat is still empty! That actually happened just this past conference.

Yeah, I think I know what you mean. This topic has been making me laugh also.

Do you think God would diminish your worship of him or hear your prayers any less if you were dressed like that? It's what's in your heart that counts and not what's on the outside. I guess I concern myself a lot more with what God think than what the LDS Joneses think. "Judge me on the content of my character..."

I've seen a lot of GAs who have very little to no hair. Are you implying that we need to go in that direction in order to please the Lord? If God has set the standard for how GAs are supposed to wear their hair and we are to follow their example, then why do we still show pictures of Jesus with shoulder length hair and a beard? Also, wouldn't we want to look more like our Saviour and not conform like he did? Aren't we supposed to be in the world and not of it?

So then what you're saying is that you think we (non conformist LDS) need to alter our appearance in order not to offend judgemental people that they may be receptive to our message and even join the church? Wouldn't we just be bringing in nothing but more judgemental people? Don't we have enough judgemental people in the church already that we're having to deal with? Whatever happened to those wonderful words of "judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement" (John 7:24). You remember who said that, don't you? Oh, and last thing I remember, the person who said this had a beard and long hair also.