NeuroTypical

If a stalker knows where to find you, you have cause for concern. If you don't share personal details online, and the stalker has no clue who you are or how to find you, you only have cause for concern if you don't know how to block him out of your life.

I still don't know if this thread ever had a genuine issue to discuss or not. But things seem to be working out ok, so I'm happy.

Oh yeah - my little girls and I have been blasting Matisyahu for a year or so now.

So, Ceeboo, sometimes I have a hard time telling if you're speaking literally, or using flourishing language to add vigor to some point that is escaping me. If you're speaking literally, then you are claiming to have an actual bona fide marriage problem. You say since your wife came here, you've stopped having online friends and she's started having a lot of them. You say you are jealous, sad, and upset. Is that about right? So, a few things to think about: * Why is it ok for you to be jealous, sad, and upset when she has online friends, but it wasn't ok for her to be jealous, sad, and upset when you had them? Or, to put it another way, if she's doing something wrong, were you not also doing something wrong? Or, to put it a third way, if you weren't doing something wrong, why is it wrong when she does it? * All that said, at the end of the day, if something bothers one spouse, the other spouse ought to think seriously about things. In other words, you ought to be talking to your wife about how this bugs you instead of bugging us about it, because it's neither our fault nor our problem. So, when you talk to your wife about it, what does she say? * So, after those last two bits of advice, lemme just say that I enjoy reading your posts (when I understand them), and I hope you and your wife work things out, and you stick around. LM

Present and accounted for! I first read Tolkein back in middle-school in the '80's. Tolkein gave birth to my love of epics - especially those involving important struggles of good vs. evil with everything on the line. I would of a day when technology would advance to the point where someone could make a movie about the trilogy - complete with ten thousand orcs storming Minas Tirinth. Peter Jackson didn't dissapoint. I'm currently reading The Hobbit to my two girls for our nightly book. It's a good thing Rowling had Tolkein to read - otherwise her Harry Potter books would have been a lot more boring! Same for Gary Gygaxx. LM

Back by popular demand - with a new friend who sought me out.

Clean your own shelf first - I like it. I'll add it to the list of advice I occasionally give myself (and often give critics of my church). * Clean up your own back yard. * Physician, heal thyself. * Remove the beam from your eye before complaining about the mote in your brother's.

I prefer anonymity. It means I get to share personal details without embarassing my wife.LM

They may have made their decisions in this life, but the Bible makes it perfectly clear that the earthly ordinance of Baptism is required for salvation.And as others mention, not everyone gets to live a life on this earth and hear the name Jesus Christ. Seems like a just and loving God would not doom people to hell due to an accident of birth. LM

Yeah, it really is. It's wrong, not because the world wouldn't be a better place without him, but it's wrong because of the stain such thoughts leave on your soul. Yes. Control them. Feelings can be right or wrong, but they often get in the way. Be mindful of your duty to forgive this person. You don't need to do it tomorrow, but you ought to do it soon. Finding it hard to forgive a pedophile? Well, first of all, good - there are waaaay too many people who sacrifice their children to known dangers in order to appear "righteous" - they mistake blindness for forgiveness. But second of all - even though it is hard, it is in everyone's best interests for you to forgive him. Take a look:The Healing Power of Forgiveness - James E. Faust - Ensign, May 2007 It is ok to acknowledge dangerous people as dangerous people. It is ok to refuse to be a doormat. It is your duty to protect people in your stewardship from dangerous people. It is ok to make righteous judgements - perhaps it would help you to learn which judgements you should make, and which ones you must avoid. Here is help: “Judge Not” and Judging - Dallin H. Oaks - Ensign - August 1999 countrygirl66, I know a pedophile or two. I have firsthand knowledge about the feelings you mention. My advice - read these two links. Over and over. Internalize what's in these talks. Make it part of you. LM

Hey science4life, if you really wish to hold up and defend science as a good thing, you should learn the difference between evidence and proof. Because as things stand now, you seem to have some misconceptions. If someone calling himself Jesus showed up in Tokyo, he'd leave evidence. There's a big difference between evidence and proof.I wouldn't expect you to desire to learn the difference from a guy named "loudmouthmormon", but please look into it on your own. LM

Light hearted, not light minded.

Oh phooey. Strait people need wills and powers of attorney and visitation forms every much as gay people.I could care less if a particular group of people have an extra hoop or two to jump through to get what everybody else has. Goodness knows that as a homeschooler I have enough extra hoops to get my kids into college. LM

So, just out of curiosity, since it's already legal for gays to visit each other in the hospital and leave stuff to each other in their wills, why does anything need to happen at all? LM

I don't think you could find a person in America with a heartbeat who would reject the notion that gays should be able to visit each other in the hospital and leave stuff to each other in their wills.

I'm a big fan of honesty. And to be honest myself, I went a period of time when I didn't really know any, besides the ones who were telling me I was going to hell.Then I met a few in contexts that didn't focus on religion. The in-laws of some friends were quite nice and respectful. The mom even went so far as to read the BoM. We also did a few semesters of a homeschool co-op with a bunch of Nazarenes. They were excellent people, and truly Christlike for the most part. One or two thought they needed to bring up mormonism, but the other dozen or so were perfectly content just to let us participate in their co-op. We spent one Thanksgiving and Christmas in the home of one lady and her kids, keeping them company while hubby was deployed to Iraq. I wish my kids knew Christ as much as her kids! I've discovered that not every evangelical believes evangelism means telling people they're wrong. LM

Janice beat me to it - that video will more than answer madonna's question.

Fair enough. Having a link on your website isn't the same thing as "sponsoring a website". Your premise is flawed. It's not a valid question.So, you want to change your complaint to "why would they link to a site with the opposite agenda they claim to have?" I'd suggest they would answer something along the lines of "what part of 'respectful dialogue' means we have to give up our convictions or our efforts to save you"? At the end of the day, BoMW, you can have respectful dialogue and be wrong. You can have it and be waaaay wrong. You can have it and have messed up uncharitable ideas about the other guy. So again, your premise is flawed. Just because they think we're wrong, and set out to prove it, doesn't mean they can't have respectful dialogue with us. LM

My wife inspires nightmares in VT's. She's incredibly reclusive. She never answers the phone, or returns calls. Her valiant and tireless VT's are forced to leave a message on our machine, and then stop by and drop something off. I make sure I thank them whenever I see them "for their tireless diligence in the face of extreme reclusiveness". All that said, my wife has no problem with her testimony. "hard to visit" might usually mean "going/gone inactive", but not always. LM

There is no such thing as a non-biased review. Or a non-biased scholar, for that matter. To more fully answer your question, the only people that read anything FARMS has to say, are either entrenched on one side or the other of the grand debate, or they seek to be. Nobody else cares. LM

And if we're going to inquire about Millet falling for something, we should also ask who pulled the wool over our church leader's eyes such that they allowed Ravi Zacharias to preach to us in our own tabernacle. BoMWarrior, of course Standing Together disagrees with us, and agrees with many of our critics. They're not pretending otherwise, as far as I can tell. The deal is, if we can get together with our critics and learn about each other, we're better off than if we sit there and believe they're our enemies. Yeah, the lady at a nearby mega-church was struggling with the concept of convicted civility as she taught uncharitable and sensationalistic things in her 'are mormons christian' class. But if she was to follow the precepts PC is talking about, maybe she'd invite a mormon to come present something at her next class. I think they call such things "interfaith dialogue". Mormons as a whole stink at it, and we have ever since the gospel was restored. It's not all our fault, much of the rest of Christianity reacts to mormons like a vampire seeing a cross. It looks like BoM warrior is sort of their mirror image, and that's a shame. Millet has the right idea. LM

I'm not exactly sure where this little story fits in LDS theology. It might not belong at all. But in this case, I don't really care - it helped my family grieve over the loss of our pet, so I hope it helps you also.

That's an appropriate question for some people. I know other people who struggle mightily to feel anything good or positive, either on or off medication. On top of that, finding a correct medication can be like a game of horseshoes or darts - you don't end up with the right balance on the first try.In some rare cases, some folks are faced with the choice of 1) no meds, feeling the holy ghost, but not being able to hold down a job or keep together a marriage; and 2) meds, diminished or missing ability to feel the spirit, but able to function in society and in a family. Folks with mental health issues sometimes have a very unique set of challenges, and often common-sense answers like "do what keeps you close to God" have extra dimensions and complications that need addressing. LM

There's a lot of wisdom in that sentence, JHM. I'm thinking many of us would have an easier time repenting and improving ourselves if we would look at our occasional failures through a similar lens. Sometimes, it seems like we almost demand drama and trauma when it's not warranted.Thanks for sharing. LM p.s. My wife nicknamed our two girls 'Trauma and Drama'...

Along with what Finnan said, it's interesting to consider what would happen in times where you had to rely on your own food storage. It probably means you'll have little or no access to your prescription medications. Think about it a while - what would life be like without your pills? I'm thinking a realistic answer to that question is worthwile for us all to have.