Tyme
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Posts posted by Tyme
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I'm trying to remember why I resigned. I can't remember and have no idea. All I know is the night before I resigned I had a dream of being in church with President Monson then being under the tree of life. I wish I would have kept a journal because details are slowly fading. It's amazing that I resigned after having that dream. I still did despite the dream. *perplexed*
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11 minutes ago, let’s roll said:
I’m sorry, and asking sincerely, what assumptions do you think I made about the above in my response, which was only my personal opinion agreeing with your comment that tithes and taxes are completely different and a statement about what I would consider inappropriate action for me.
It looks like I'm guilty of making assumptions too. I thought you were implying that I'm not worthy and don't listen to Prophets.
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I know some people who would rather their kids go to BYU than Harvard. I'll never understand that.
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11 minutes ago, let’s roll said:
I agree tithing is very different than tax dollars. I’d suggest that as citizens with a representative government, those representatives should spend tax dollars in accordance with the will of the citizens they represent.
Our covenant with the Lord regarding tithes is that we give willingly with the understanding that we a returning to him a portion of what He has given us, it was never really ours, and is given to His representatives to be utilized in the way He desires and those representatives should look only to Him as to how to use the funds.
Personally, I would never deem it appropriate for me to counsel the Lord or His representatives on how to spend tithes (which is why my other post in this thread should be understood as a comment on unhelpful attitudes about getting into the Y not a serious suggestion about denying admission based on place of residence).
There you go with the assumptions again. A lot of people around here seem pretty good at assuming.
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7 minutes ago, MormonGator said:
Isn't it a good thing that your tithing money goes to help under privileged students who want an education?
If it went strictly to under privileged students that's a good thing. However, it covers any member who goes to BYU.
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2 minutes ago, Jane_Doe said:
Again, do you object to your tax dollars funding state schools?
No, I don't. Although state funding has gone way down. With that said, tithing is very different than tax dollars.
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3 minutes ago, Jane_Doe said:
Do you likewise object to funding your state schools?
Yes and yes. There's less cost with admin overhead and tithing helps support costs. Just as your in-state schools are supported by in-state taxes, and hence generally cost less to attend then other schools.
State schools cost roughly double what BYU does. If BYU raised the tuition to be on par with state schools the school wouldn't need tithing dollars.
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Does it actually cost less to operate BYU than other colleges or are tithing dollars covering the additional costs?
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They should raise the price of tuition. That way they won't have to send as much tithing to the school. I don't understand why people who didn't go to BYU have to bankroll it.
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I think gun owners stand a good chance against a tyrannical government. The government isn’t going to want to slaughter their citizens. This guys a joke and back tracked very quickly.
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8 hours ago, SpiritDragon said:
I can only speak for myself personally. If the church leadership proclaims that homosexuality is righteous, it is my belief that the church will have apostatized, not me or anyone else who leaves. Having spent much of my life exploring other faiths and finding the LDS teachings to be the only faith I can fully accept, I would likely wind up agnostic after a renewed search for truth elsewhere.
There are core principles that God cannot excuse Himself from. The very definition of what is sin is one of them. Changes to "how" we go about the work of salvation are not that big a deal, the underlying message is still the same. Changing the "requirements" of salvation is an entirely different story. Whether we ward teach, home teach, or minister is really not critical, but whether we keep the law of chastity or not - the commandments can't change and God be a consistent God we can put our trust in.
That means you should have empathy for those who leave the church due to its gay stance. It's essentially the same thing just a different position.
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I think four things need to be done: eliminate the tax cap, raise retirement age, eliminate social security for those who make over x and increase the payroll tax.
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2 minutes ago, bytebear said:
My point is this. We are keeping the peace. Even when we are bad at it, the US is a force for peace, and it's working. And we are doing it with fewer resources every year. In the meantime, we are spending massive amounts of money into entitlements, that aren't solvent, and that don't actually solve the problems of poverty or health care, and in fact, in my opinion make them worse. We don't save for retirement like we did, and we assume the government will bail us out. And we aren't charitable as we should be because we assume government will do the job, making us even resentful for those in need. I believe it goes against the gospel. I think that learning compassion and charity are lost when we rely on government. So, aside from the waste and corruption, we lose out on our own spiritual growth.
I agree something needs to be done about social security and medicare expenditures. I'd be interested in hearing ideas on that.
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2 minutes ago, bytebear said:
Sure, i can do that too. The numbers are still far lower for Iraq than Vietnam. In fact, all Middle East wars combined are still less than Vietnam.
Fair enough.
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3 minutes ago, bytebear said:
But much of Iraqi deaths were due to civil war, not US intervention.
If you're counting Iraq as a civil war than you have to definitely count Vietnam as a civil war. I would even surmise that Vietnam was more of a civil war than Iraq. You clearly had two sides of the same country fighting each other in Vietnam. That wasn't the case in Iraq. ISIS was a group based out of Syria primarily that tried to take over the whole middle east.
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2 minutes ago, bytebear said:
Well, you said military spending was 50% of the budget. But even your own source lists it as 15%. And if you look at historical numbers, military spending went down since WWII, whereas entitlement spending (or what you would call Social Security and Medicare, among others) went from zero to about (33% + 27%).
I said 50% of discretionary spending. That's the spending the government decides over. The rest is mandatory. As far as "entitlement" spending of Social Security and Medicare the program didn't really hit it's stride until people started retiring. In other words, nobody was drawing off Social Security during WW2. It would be natural that you see more spending now as the program has hit its full bloom and there are more people.
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You're right on civilian deaths. My research shows 2 million Vietnamese civilians died and 500,000 Iraqis died. You have to remember though that Vietnam's population is three times what Iraq's is. The amount of American military who served in Vietnam was also way higher than Iraq. If you do your calculations they are not that far off from each other.
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3 minutes ago, bytebear said:
They are entitlements, under the budgetary definitions of our government. And you are wrong on your budget numbers as well. Perhaps you are doing the old switcheroo by looking only at discretionary spending and not overall spending.
And no, we aren't suddenly saving millions of lives on the battlefield. We just aren't killing as many people. And, no, the Middle East conflicts are not equating the numbers of Vietnam either. We can go over the numbers in detail if you want.
How am I wrong on my budget numbers? https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/
I'd like to go over those numbers... An example is I had a SSG. who lost his leg in Afghanistan he would have died in Vietnam.
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23 minutes ago, bytebear said:
Would it surprise you to learn that US military spending has continually gone down since WWII (as % of GDP), while entitlement spending has exploded in the same time period. No, our budget issues are not from having a strong military.
Also, would it surprise you that we are in an era of unprecedented peace globally? That death from wars is almost non-existent.
Social Security and Medicare aren't entitlements. They make about 60% of the total budget. Military spending makes up about 50% of discretionary spending.
Also it appears like we are in an unprecedented era of peace because less people are dying from war. A big part of that is because war time medical has gotten better. If you account for all the injuries sustained during Iraq and Afghanistan it would come pretty close to equaling Vietnam causalities. Also, there isn't a world war going on so you'd expect less causalities. The utter damage laid upon Iraq is just as bad as what was done to Vietnam.
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2 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:
I have a similar plan, but with slightly reduced scope, aimed at eliminating our debt.
I figure the US should just declare bankruptcy and close up shop. We get to all keep the same buildings, jobs, and consitution, we're just opening under new management. When China shows up looking to cash in United States of America treasury-bills, we just say "I'm sorry, nobody by that name works here. This is the Associated Federation of Southern Canada. Would you be interested in buying some of our treasury bills? We do offer a rate that basically still drives the global economy..."
Chinese debt was done on purpose to prevent war.
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Just now, anatess2 said:
You know why Canada and Mexico did not become US States? For a very simple reason. They did not want to. They fought wars with the US to retain sovereignty.
What makes the USA great is their unique culture forged by their history to have utmost respect for LIBERTY. Unless you forge the same culture to immigrants joining in the American Experiment, the greatness of the USA will, eventually, be LOST.
Have you ever been to a citizenship ceremony? They are more patriotic than most Americans I know.
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6 minutes ago, Fether said:
How about this. If there were no borders, then we would have no need for a military! I’m not arguing for open boarders, but rather expanding our boarders.
Right now America is this.
Why can’t it be this?
PROS:
1) No more illegal immigration
2) No more war
3) We will get to use the whole of our $50,000,000,000,000+ worth of military goods all in on decade to fully expand the boarders
4) drastically cut military spending for the future
5) Everyone is a shotgun weilding patriotic American driving a truck
CONS:
1) None
I'm all for a North American Union. Then possibly expand it over time.
I'm going to show my inhumane side a bit here. When the U.S. first created the nuclear bomb why didn't we take over the world? It would be a much better and peaceful world right now.
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I think making our military spending 2/1 would lower global military spending overall. That would be a good thing in my opinion. The money could be used domestically to improve peoples lives.
Don't know why I resigned
in LDS Gospel Discussion
Posted
It definitely made me think twice about resigning. I think you're right the dream was more for the future. That was the first and only spiritual dream I've ever had.
I know God has always had me in the palm of his hand. That me resigning was all part of the plan. I'm coming back stronger than ever. It wouldn't have happened if I didn't resign. I also believe God allowed me to and possibly I even chose to have schizophrenia. It's made me a better person overall. I'm more humble and compassionate from what I can tell. I'll even say that as difficult as schizophrenia is it is the best thing to ever happen to me.