NeuroTypical

Hi Wheats! Welcome to the board! You have raised an issue that gets discussed quite a bit and quite zealously in circles of conceal-carry permit holding Saints. Rest assured that your take on the issue is very well represented in such circles, but so is the other side of the issue. People, as we discuss the issue, lets keep a few site rules in mind: There are at least two polarized sides on this issue - let's civilly advocate for our reasoning, and keep our judgements and condemnations out of it.LM p.s. I used to carry at church, but changed my mind a few years ago and don't anymore.

ConvinceTheWorld seems to be doing better than a lot of end-times sensationalistic folks I run into. I mean sure, he insults us with the standard "all is well in Zion" zinger, and also the tired old "this will be dismissed by the wisdom of the world which is foolishness before God" rejoinder. However, he does use that magic word "if" in a few of his posts - most zealous end-of-timers don't come within a mile of that word. He also says stuff like "For me this is 100% proof" - allowing the possibility that others might come to a different conclusion. I just hope we can find him on September 1st.

The last time someone predicted this at me, the day came, and he fervently pointed to a list of the 200+ earthquakes that had happened that week.So, in the interests of having everyone all down the learning curve ahead of time, I'd like to point out that there are hundreds of earthquakes going on all over the earth in any given week. Here's the website where you can get live details. Here is an example of an average week on planet earth. Sometimes there are more, sometimes less, sometimes we get a slew of greater than 5.0, but this is a rough example: So, ConvinceTheWorld also figures an 'earthquake as we have never seen before'. I'd like to further remind us all, that we all saw a 9.0 quake on 11 March 2011 that occured 80 miles east of Honshu Japan.

So, to make sure we understand - by "bright light" you mean something visible during daytime (assuming no clouds). And it will stay visible, and get brighter, for at least 24 hours of visible brightness. Yes? And by "huge earthquake", you mean at least 9 on the richter scale? (Again, there are hundreds of earthquakes occuring naturally every day. 6, 7, even the occasional 8.something occurs every now and then without making the news.)

Excellent. Now - there are literally hundreds of earthquakes that normally happen on any given day throughout the world. What sort of thing to you see as "something"?

Hi there.Could I ask for a little clarification here? How did you hear we're concerned about Iran, and who wrote you, and who is "us"? I guess my last question would be, if you're a member of the church, why chose Hindu scripture for your screen name? (Just interested) Welcome to the board.

Here's the next big honkin date: Sep 26-28th (The website says this could be the biblical "three days of darkness". Elenin is between Earth and sun - same alignment that supposedly caused the Japan quake - except this time - Elenin will be closer to us) Ok ConvinceTheWorld - I'm calling you out. I propose a little bet. If nothing happens, you have to dress up in a pink tutu and sing "I'm a little teapot". If something happens, I'll dress up. Do you have the courage of your convictions? Do you truly believe deeply enough in this deal to risk a little public embarassment if you turn out to be wrong? This is not the first time I've made (and won) such a bet. LM

Probably not what you were looking for, but when I went inactive as a teenager, some of the stuff my mom and grandmother told me, probably qualifies. "Satan's coming to get you!" and whatnot. I've had good luck with the evangelicals I've encountered. I even went to an "Are Mormons Christian" class or two thrown by my local megachurch, and they didn't come anywhere near any sort of prediction about my soul's future. Just trying to equip their members with ways of expressing concern (they called it "convicted civility"). When President Hinckley died, I tried to get some sort of statement out the lady running the class. But she flat out refused to judge, allowed for the possibility that Pres. Hinckley was indeed a saved Christian, and offered her condolances. Of course, in my apologetic running around, everyone and their dog was telling me I was heading for hell and should stop trying to get people to follow me. But I went out and found those people because I wanted to argue - it's not like they busted down my door to tell me.

Love it. I consider that video, and the original one, required viewing for anyone wishing to have an understanding about why we fight about economics.

Hi Aussiechick, and welcome. You're not alone.

Oh, the intent of your heart is good - I don't think anyone doubts that. I think of gossip sort of like a computer virus - it doesn't matter what the intent is of the person clicking the link - the virus spreads when the link gets clicked. I advocate placing yourself above rumors and gossip for a few reasons. Yeah, we shouldn't spread it. But also, once people know you don't put up with rumors at all, they tend to stop doing it around you, and that makes life easier.

I hate to be all disrespectful of my objectivist friend, but what a bunch of melodramatic, yellow-journalistic, overly-sensational hogwash. This sort of drama kept the X-files tv show going for season after season, and that was ok, but it really has no place when discussing temples.We figure temples are sacred, and we speak about them in reverent ways. Kind of like discussing marital intimacy - you just don't go around blurting things out. ZorabelMay - if you'd like to know a lot about temples, here are some resources. MormonTemples.com - lots of info. Despite John_Galt_Lives' goofy claims, there's an article specifically on the Endowment ceremony. The Holy Temple by Boyd K. Packer: 274 pages - written by an Apostle. You can pick up a copy for under five bucks on amazon.com - including shipping. Temple Prep class - meet with your Bishop and let him know you want to know more, and see if there's a class for you to attend. Happy learning!

I think you answered your own question.Rumors are gossip. Gossip stinks. Don't let it come out your mouth.

All of you people:

Most of the water in the counties around me, is drilled out of aquifers that were made a gazillion years ago. Aquifers that only decrease - rain water takes too long to get back down there to replace it. New development has to pass some "300 year" test of some kind. It's vaguely concerning to a lot of people here. The science is based on guesses and there is a fair amount of disagreement.

I hate to bust up a perfectly good analogy, but I just have to add that a few billion murders later, Anakin repents, is forgiven, and ends up all glowy and immortal next to Obi Wan and Yoda.[And, apart from analogies to StarWars, I've found little else to answer these questions besides guessing.]

London was rather quiet last night, but the rioting had spread from London to Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Nottingham, Birmingham, and Bristol. BBC - UK riots: Trouble erupts in English cities Anyone a fan of the show COPS? I watched an episode of that filmed in London. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen on the rest of the episodes. The entire show consisted of showing training exercises, with maybe one or two actual stops - nothing more serious than arguing politely with a guy who was angry at his mother. They did show riot training - basically training the cops on how to not get injured as they stood there and people threw rocks and molotovs at them. I read in some other bbc article, that the cops were injured more than the protestors by like 3 or 4 to one. It makes me sad to see the violence there. I hope they can restore order. I hope they can go back to arguing with drunks as the most serious thing they encounter in an average day.

I'm having a hard time seeing where the problem is here. Tell him that temple prep class is a great place to ask every single question he can think of. Allow him the time to mull things over as much as he wants. If his family is pushing him to the point of being manipulative, then defend him. If they're just being annoying, then be annoyed too and support him.Rushing someone into a temple experience they are not prepared for or don't accept, could be a horrible mistake.

If you get why Catholics revere the Pope, you're more than halfway to an understanding about why Mormons revere their prophets. The criticism "yew dang marminz wership Joe Smith" is based on ignorance. Remove the ignorance, you remove the criticism, and are left with plain old "well, we sure don't do it that way at our church". I remember my local mega-church and it's pastor (you might remember the name) Ted Haggard. Those folks loved him. Their bookstore was full of his books. In all my dealings with such folk, I've never seen an individual so revered. But when his scandal broke and he was fired, they replaced him (and cleaned all his stuff out of their bookstore) about as quickly as a close family gets over a nasty divorce leading to the evil in-law going away forever. Evangelicals are big on not trusting the arm of the flesh, and God doesn't chose the qualified he qualifies the chosen, and whatnot. Mormons and Catholics are big on claims of God-given authority. *shrug* It's all fine /w me.

Yeah, this criticism is as old as Joseph Smith. It's not a very good criticism, continuing to live by feeding on critics' ignorance and unprepared LDS responses. Good blog post, Seattle. One other thing I can think of: If the word "praise" must be equated with worship, then by logical extension: "I just had my 6-month review. The Boss worshipped me up one side and down the other." "Little Billy just scored his first home run. Let's go worship him to help him feel good."

If anyone would like a little background to what's going on, Stratfor is a great source. They're as close to apolitical as I've found - they get paid when they turn out to be correct, not when they advocate for any particular group of people. When they use the term "crisis", it is not to score political points or forward an agenda or make a group look bad, it is because they've consulted a dictionary. Stratfor: Global Economic Downturn: A Crisis of Political Economy August 9, 2011

My wife had about half the ward believing that we were planning on naming our first child Moonbeam, and our 2nd child Granola. Controlling the gossip machine was fun.

Ha'aretz is saying the number is over 300,000.

Any particular reason they didn't add "Sealing to be solomnized in [wherever] temple?The general idea, is that whenever human beings see a gap in the information they're given, their brains will automatically fill that gap with something. And it's often more melodramatic or negative than the real explanation. It seems to me, that to omit a line like that, especially if you've got a lot of mormons in your circle, you are inviting gossiping. Of course, maybe they're like me, and omitted it on purpose to see who would gossip and who wouldn't...

Besides "let your light so shine", I suggest you consider minding your own business. Do you have some sort of stewardship over these people beyond being your brother's keeper?