NeuroTypical

We Mormons had a bout of 2nd-coming-itis after the death of Joseph Smith. There are a few accounts of people sitting on their roofs because they wanted to get a good look at Christ as he descended. Brigham Young told them to get off the roof and into the fields because it was planting time. 2nd-coming predictions started shortly after Christ's resurrection and ascention, and they've been going strong since. Strangely enough, there was not a big buzz around 1000 AD, but that's because the people observing that calendar were basically peasants living in illiterate ignorance who didn't know what year it was. May 21, 2011 is fine with me. Saves me from the trouble of having to pay for two weddings for my little girls.

Just FYI, the BBC online news has been all over Hugh Heffner buying back Playboy. I haven't heard that anywhere in the states.

I got married at 26. Also, my wife and I are both conceal-carry permit holders, and we homeschool. We know all about not fitting in with groups of people, and being outliers. Kind of like you're assuming stuff about me? Here's a bad attempt at PhD humor: Doctor, heal thyself. No really - showing up with a big chip on your shoulder, and then getting a huge chip on your shoulder when people answer questions you ask - does that sound like a winning plan? If you believe that it's not true that most people who show up to kid-related activities have kids, then no, we don't believe the same things. I go to a lot of kid-themed activities in this church, since I have kids. And really, honestly, truly, from what I can tell, the people all standing around me also have kids. They're there because they've brought their kids or they have callings to be there. Really, honestly, truly, it's a rare thing to see someone show up to a Girl's activity day, or a trunk or treat, or a Boy Scout awards ceremony, who doesn't have a kid involved or a calling to be there. Why does that scrape you so raw that you react so negatively to having it said out loud? Why unrighteously assume that I'm sitting there unrighteously assuming stuff about you?Dang. Sorry I used the term 'outlier'. It obviously didn't help. I wasn't talking about being unmarried in this church. I was talking about showing up at a kid function without having kids. I really intended no offense. As I re-read my original response to you, I think it's still good. Outliers are people too. I should know, I am one. I'm really interested though - what field is your PhD in?

Welcome! I've had goldens and a siamese. These days the kids are loving their parakeets. They tell me New Zealand is beautiful - worth having a gun pulled on you to see.

Sex sells. We Mormons have our "hot mormon muffins" calendars to gripe about too.

Hi Lillie, I'm in the Colorado Springs area. Glad to see we finally got a little white stuff.

I see what you're saying Funky. "A missile defence system is still a missile system. It can deploy offensive weapons anywhere within its sphere of influence and can be extremely dangerous." That's fine and dandy - but with such a limited range, how is it that the Russians would feel threatened by short/medium range tiny missiles designed to shoot down flying stuff. Especially when there are plenty of non-missile-defense short/medium range missiles already there, as part of offensive capability. When it comes to START talks and discussions around nukes, missile defense systems are a political counter to the nuclear missile, which is itself more a political thing than an actual weapon. Don't get me wrong - of course these are real weapons, but the reason they are built and deployed are to achieve geopolitical ends, not to win battles. You got nukes, you got more chips at the bargaining table. A missile defense reduces those numbers of chips, which Russia was complaining about, and which Pres. Obma handed them. There was a Stratfor article I wish I could find which I'm taking most of my thoughts on the matter from. Free Stratfor updates rock - you might find signing up for them a good thing. LM

What John Doe said. The bishop may or may not urge you to discuss things with your parents, depending on a ton of factors and what the spirit has to say about things.

This is horrible. My heart goes out to the victims, friends, family, and everyone else impacted by this tragedy.

I've long since forgotten the thread name, or even forum I was on. But various Christians were arguing against Mormonism, using their interpretation of John 1:1 to prove that the Bible was God, and therefore perfect and infallible and deserving of reverence and worship. Other discussions over the decades has led me to believe that the more extreme a Christian becomes in their inerrantist belief, the more likely they are to assign qualities of deity to the Holy Bible.I don't know what percentage of Christianity holds to that particular understanding, but it sure the heck ain't zero. And, since whenever I've encountered one of them, they're usually asking a "question" like we heard in the OP (proceeded by a bunch of things stated as fact, that really are interpretations and guesses), I thought the OP might get lucky and identify one of their core beliefs and specifically call out that LDS don't share it. No snark intended.

On-topic joke: In the Catholic church, the pope is infallible- but no one believes it. In the Mormon church, the prophet is fallible- but no one believes it. Basically, God tells us that the Prophet will never lead the church astray. But no, they don't give up their basic humanity, fallibility, error-proneness, or fallen nature we all share, just because God picks them to be His mouthpiece. We believe the heavens are not closed - and direct, personal revalation on the truth of various things is within our grasp - one of the consequences of having the gift of the Holy Ghost. A few relevant quotes from past church leaders:

Answers for your non-member friend: No they weren't. Cite chapter and verse please? Paul is correct. Paul is also not saying anything like "no more temples". Setting aside the vague and inconclusive 1 Cor 15:29, correct. Mormons believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly. We do not believe it is the final or complete word of God. We're not innerentists, and we don't worship the Bible as part of the trinity like some Christians do. We believe the way God deals with his children over time and cultures can change, as his children are different over time and cultures. You already acknowledge the set of practices and ordinances changed once due to Christ's arrival - so who's to say God wouldn't change them again at some point in the future? We say they have - Christ has restored his true church to the earth - and yes indeed, it comes with inspired leaders who recieve direction from Christ. Temples and what goes on in them are some of that modern direction.

My girl is 9 going on 10. This year we finally found something that works - I get her up 40 minutes after she falls asleep and walk her to the toilet and back. After all this time, she's finally dry the next morning. Down to an accident every other month or so. Her pediatrician says it's part of her overall poor muscle tone, and will just eventually go away on it's own. Both wife and I had issues. Wife's went away eventually, mine was solved with that horrible conductive sheet hooked up to a loud buzzer. Well, it's more accurate to say that ALMOST no child does it on purpose. There are always tiny percentages of kids with mental issues. Most likely not your kid. And there are the outliers - kids who are being sexually molested at night by someone in the house - they'll sometimes soil their sheets on purpose as a defense mechanism. Again, most likely not your kid.

Treaties and alliances work as long as they work for both parties. Once it stops working for one party, the treaty or alliance usually ends. This is geopolitics, not something unique to the USA. The only tomato you gotta duck here, is me identifying you picking up on a reason to trash the US, while somehow failing to pick up that it's something all nations do, and all have done, and all will continue to do, until Christ shows up and makes us knock it off.

Now Funky, you know I love ya man. But dang. Maybe it's just where I live - driving past Honeywell and Lockheed Martin plants, going to church with umpteen govt. contractors who build stuff and what not, working with a bunch of R&D engineers building hi-tech stuff, but dang. Your statement is like listening to someone claim that the illuminati causes all the forest fires out there by legislating against the water content in trees or something like that. No, really - a gazillion dollar specialized weapons system is only going to be doing what it was designed to do, or maybe falling out of the sky 'cuz it didn't work. We're really a long way from the transformers movie where ghetto blasters turn into evil robots and such. No really - a missile defence system is only going to be good at shooting down missiles. It might not do it that well, but it's surely gonna stink at doing anything else. Well, we'd be in an uproar probably because Russia would be lying about what they'd be installing. There's no reason for Russia to spend a gazillion Rubles protecting Cuba from nukes, because we could eliminate Cuba using conventional means much more cheaply. Not exactly a lot of room to hide stuff on an island that size...

If you seek such a thing from human ranks, you'll never find it.(Well, the 'impartial' part anyway. 'Overt disdain' directed at the other side of the fence is as common as toe fungus.)

Hi MoreCoffee. The nicest little old lady the planet earth has to offer, is a Catholic lady named Mary who lives in Holladay, UT. And I will fight to defend her honor from any challengers. My two kids also enjoy getting deluged by a large wave of Catholic neighbor kids every week or so. I think they're up to 8 now. All great kids. I don't like coffee though. My mom was bed-ridden, and used to dump her coffee into a can and empty her ash trays into it to put out the ashes. The aroma of cold stale coffee with cigarette ashes just stuck with me, and it's what I think about every time I'm around coffee. But we can still be buds though.

Heh. Our kids get in trouble for throwing fits and blaming others for stuff they were responsible for. Give your wife a little time - there's good odds she'll find the kid's behavior getting old REALLY fast, and might come to see it your way. Appropriate consequences rock. Handing kids their agency, and being there to hug them with they need it, rocks. The trick is to know which is the truly harmful stuff to protect them from, and which is the unpleasant or painful lesson they can sit there and learn over and over again until some sense sinks into their skulls.And yes, I see our Heavenly Father approaching His children with a similar mindset.

I hope I can step in here without people thinking it's wierd. My wife did all this with both our kids, and I remember many things to pass along: * She tried both manual and electric, and found she liked both in different situations. Her advice would be to try both and go with what works for you. * In the maternity ward in our hospital, they had "lactation consultants". My wife and I quickly dubbed them the breast nazi's. They were pushy and overbearing, and would barge into a room where some poor woman was recovering from giving birth, demanding to see the woman breastfeed or pump correctly. They seemed to carry with them the threat of "do what I say, or I'm reporting you to CPS". Well, for our first kid, my wife told them where to get off, and I actually stood in the doorway and wouldn't let them past me. When kid #2 came later, they weren't at the hospital any more (gee, I wonder why?) Anyway, when you have your new baby, you will find yourself occasionally assaulted by hoardes of judgemental busybodies with strong opinions. Hopefully, it'll be more along the lines of crotchety old grandma in the checkout line, and less like the breast nazis. But you'll encounter them - and they'll probably bug you. So work on your defense now. Smiling and saying "thanks, I'll go do that right now" works - so does having your husband push them into a closet and lock the door. Again, go with what works. * We didn't buy a single item until the baby was about 4 months. Between the baby showers and the tons of free stuff they gave us at the hospital, we were supplied to the gills. Manual and electric pumps, bottle liners, bottles, boppy pillows, slings, insulated mommy bags, reusable ice packs, the whole nine yards. If you're going to be in the same situation, you might want to take time and try all the different things that end up at you, before you spend any money.

Something I occasionally do that is interesting, is to go to the main news page of Arabnews, and the main page of Ha'aaretz. You can find news stories about the same things, but dang - what a difference in the way it's reported!

Well, before we start poking fun at the Catholics, we need to remember that our church is only about 15 years ahead of them in coming to grips with the existence of serial child predators.

So, when people are convicted of serious offenses like abuse or child molesting, a permanent annotation can be placed on the member's record detailing the offense. After such an annotation is made, it's permanent, and can only be removed by a member of the first presidency. This annotation remains, regardless of how fully repentant and forgiven the member is. There may be many reasons for this, but I only know of one very good one. If you're a serial child-molester, this annotation prevents you from hopping around from ward to ward looking for more victims. It doesn't matter how forgiven you are - once you've been convicted of assaulting a child sexually, you'll never again be put in the nursery, or with the Boy Scouts, or what have you. Because when the bishop reviews your records, he'll see the annotation. This seems like plain simple common sense. How horrible would it be, to be a victim of child sexual abuse, and a decade later, find out that the guy who molested you, and did five years in prison for it, is off being a bishop somewhere and scheduling youth interviews for himself and whatnot. Not in this church, thanks. I was invovled in annotating a record once. I forget the exact steps involved, but basically the bishop makes the case for the annotation to the SP/BP, who confirms the need for the annotation and bumps it up to a higher level for final implementation. (Don't quote me on the details here - it's been a few years.) When I was a ward clerk, sometimes new records would come through with annotations. The annotations were pretty much for the bishop's eyes only. LM

Ew! Why!?!! I moved out of Utah just to get away from it! J/K - welcome to the forums.

My advice would be to go back to church, and as you're swarmed by the usual LDS welcome-brigade, make sure you mention you'd like to meet with the Bishop. Then tell the bishop what you're telling us. I'm sure he'd be delighted to hear that an excommunicated member is willing to work on completing the repentence process, and can give you much better advice than we can on how to go about doing it.

I think of it this way: Part of repentence is making resitution where possible. Part of the atonement is making things whole when they can't be made whole in this life. I don't really see the repentence process for sin, involving someone apologizing to every female he'll ever meet for his sin against her. And I don't see every single female in the world reaching the afterlife knowing that she's been made whole through the atonement, because some guy she's never met looked at naked pics of some girl she's never met. I do see the atonement making the lives whole of those in the porn industry.