HaggisShuu

The cult accusations always get under my skin. Forgive me Americans, but I'm wondering if Church culture in the land of the free 🦅🇺🇸🦅 can at times be problematic. Because all of these "I escaped a CULT" videos tend to be from America, and the online discourse on whether or not the church is a cult, appears to be discussed between Americans. In my experience the Church is anything but a cult. My brother in law is homosexual, and inactive. He is loved and respected by his family and not excluded by any measure. On the odd occasion he comes to church to support family by listening to a talk or to witness a calling members of the ward greet him and ask how he is. He was the best man at my wedding. Some cult if you ask me. I think at worst, the church is a very conservative community with some very unorthodox beliefs when compared to the mainstream, but cult? Sounds like click bait.

I sympathise with alot of this, reflecting on my own journey, I got engaged to my now wife about 6 months after my baptism. Not long after my baptism I started reading alot of anti-church material online, and the biggest thorn in my side was the book of Abraham. I didn't want to quit going to church because it would probably spell the end of my relationship, so for a time I just concluded that the Book of Abraham was not scripture, but everything else was, and that helped to stop me going insane. As my testimony matured I gave it some deeper consideration and more in depth study and prayer and I've had a spiritual experience confirming its truth. But, if I never had that experience and went the rest of my believing the book of Abraham was not inspired, I don't believe it would have that bad an eternal consequence for me. If that's the belief that kept me attached to the gospel, then it was worth it. I feel the same about polygamy deniers. While I think they are wrong, if that is what keeps them grounded in the restored gospel, then I think it's permissible (so long as they don't go round trying to convince others, because I think that it, along with my rejection of the book of Abraham could be spiritually harmful to others.) I think cafeteria mormonism is generally not a good thing to encourage the general membership to turn to, but if somebody is struggling, I think it can be a good stepping stone towards reactivation.

I appreciate that. I'm stressed about it at the moment as I'm not sure if this was a one time burst of emotion, or what is the start of a now ongoing issue for us.

We came up with the list together. I think the list we've came up with, if successful will allow for a good grounding in the gospel without being too overbearing. I think I'm like you in a way, as I could easily get carried away in trying to teach the kids the gospel constantly, I want them to learn, but want them to have a normal and enjoyable childhood as well! Looking at my Wife's mother, their parents weren't master theologians, but they had a happy and stable childhood, and I'm hoping if I can provide that, then that will be sufficient for the most part.

There is a polish lady who lives on the ground floor of our building who literally sits outside smoking all day. When we first moved to our block of flats, we chatted with her quite a bit, then she tried selling us a home made dumpling subscription service, for £20 a week, she'll drop us off some dumplings and trying to get us to order from her new fish and chip shop (which failed.) After these 2 encounters I became alot more skeptical of her friendliness and reduced the level of chat I engaged in accordingly. Then, once our baby was born, getting in and out of the flat was alot more effort than it was before, and we accidentally left the glass doors into the building open a few times, and she had a snap at us calling us inconsiderate because we were letting the cold in and yada yada. So I reduced the already limited chat to one word "Hello's" as we walked past, we also started occasionally using the other set of doors to come in if she was smoking, because we have a baby now and I didn't want her breathing in smoke. Today, we walked past her and I didn't say Hello to her. We were trying to get the car seat, baby, pram and a few bags of shopping in, so I wasn't really paying attention, and she was out hanging her washing on an airer so I didn't think too much of it. She snapped at us saying we didn't have any manners, were avoiding her, acting like she has the plague and topped it off with a "I think you're racist" Needless to say this experience has left me with some mixed feelings.

Our first daughter is 5 months old now, and the time has gone by so quickly, it won't be long until she is walking and talking it feels like. Which has had me considering, how do I create a family environment, which fosters a desire to remain a member a Church? I've had a few faith wobbles, so for a time I was considering if I should teach the kids apologetics from a young age, but I think that would just cause resentment, and not a deep enough understanding of spiritual things to know the gospel is true, and just overall felt uninspired. So my wife and I have been discussing and we want to try and create our own "family culture" and 2 things my wife and I have done to work on that so far are: 1) Having a special "Family" set of scriptures. We've purchased a genuine leather quad combination, and in the front of it my wife and I have glued in a copy of a testimony we both wrote onto archival quality paper, as well as table for important family names and dates (such as date of birth, the dates of various ordinances etc.). The set of scriptures is to be a family record keeping tool, but also to be something symbolic of family unity in a way, as it'll be used for readings during special family events, like a baptism for example. Almost to send a message like "Oh, Dads got the family scriptures out, we'd better behave for this!!" The second thing we've done is write a "Family constitution", which is essentially just a set of rules and expectations which we all will try to follow. I've attached it in case you want to comment on it. But most importantly, looking toward the future I'd just like to ask, what have you done that's worked? and what have you done that probably didn't work as well as you'd hoped? If anybody is willing to share, I'd be grateful to hear and learn from your experiences, Thanks. The Family Constitution.docx

I too have wondered why there have been so few additions to the D&C, and I've concluded with these 2 points: 1 - I think Joseph Smith was special among the prophets. The vast majority of D&C are revelations given by Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith was one of the very few prophets known to actually have seen Heavenly Father in the flesh. He was the Prophet Of The Restoration. Every member of the Church and many Non-Members can name him. I think subsequent prophets, were likely lesser prophets. (I don't mean that in a derogatory way, and I don't mean it to diminish their office, contribution or worthiness.) But as @Just_A_Guy hinted at, I think the revelation modern prophets have received were likely inspired by the Holy Spirit, and not necessarily given by the mouth of God. Joseph Smith was privileged in that way. 2 - I think there is a connection between what is revealed to the prophet at any given time, and the readiness/worthiness among the membership of the church. In a twisted way, I think new canonised revelation would cause more people a faith crises than a edifying them. Which has been the case since the time of Joseph Smith who described teaching the saints new doctrine as futile as splitting a hemlock knot with a corn dodger for a wedge, and a pumpkin for a hammer. I think with technology and the dispersed, international nature of the church now, people just generally aren't ready for new revelation. I am guilty of thus myself, there hasn't been published revelation in so long that if Russell M Nelson were to present one for canonisation containing new doctrine, I would be skeptical, and I would probably ask the question "Is this real, or an attempt to solidify his legacy?"

I don't know if Piers Morgan has a following in 'Murica but in the UK he did a news segment where he was debating a gender activist who basically claimed anyone could identify as what they want, so Piers came out as a 2 Spirit Gender Neutral Poly Penguin, and as he said it this image came on screen with a cute little jingle. It made me laugh.

Good channel.

Perhaps this is more suited the chatgpt wisdom thread, all I did was tell chatgpt that I am an admirer of Joseph F. Smiths beard and the response made me chuckle:

From what I understand, BYU for a long time has had/did have a clean shaven or else policy, and I'm not aware of a single General Authority sporting facial hair.

I tried changing it but kept getting told that the file size was too big. So I gave up! Perhaps I will try again.

The church culture prejudice against beards is something I can't wrap my head around. If every man in the Church had a Joseph F. smith tier beard, I guarantee that the growth would be explosive. It's a shame I am either too young/not genetically inclined to have such a beard.

D&C 60:15 It's my understanding that this revelation was directed to a group of early missionaries heading off to St. Louis. Is this commandment to wash their feet if they're rejected as testimony against them a literal commandment, or is there some imagery at play here? Follow up question, was this directed to just the Elders heading to St. Louis or all missionaries? If is all, is it still practiced? Final follow up question, if it is no longer practiced, why? I ask because, recent study of the D&C seems to have highlighted to me, an ignorance of commandment given which today are not adhered to, I get some of it is "line upon line" logic, but there are some bits, like the word of wisdom that seem to be blissfully ignored. (Such as the sparing consumption of meat, seasonal eating, a diet high in vegetables and grains etc.). I'm just curious as to whether this is a practice which has been made obsolete by a new line and precept, or something we should still be doing, but has been forgotten to time - if it was a literal command that is.

Somebody said this joke are church today, perhaps in poor taste but it made me chuckle: A man was given a prognosis of only 6 months left to live. In disbelief he goes to another clinic for a second opinion, and after a series of test, it is confirmed, he would only have 6 months left to live. He goes back to the first doctor, and asks "is there anything that be done?" "No." Says the doctor. Saddened he replies "I just don't know what to do." The doctor says "Can I offer a non-medical course of action?" Perking up, the man says "yes, I'll do anything!" The doctor says, "Go find your local LDS church, join it. Completely immerse yourself in all the church has to offer, totally commit yourself to it, and fully engross yourself in its community." Excited, the man asks "Will it help me live forever?" The doctor says, "No, but it'll be the longest 6 months you'll ever have."

Hopefully when Big Nige gets elected this will all end.

I agree and disagree with your sentiment. (I don't think the police will actually show up at your door, sometimes I type out a post and have to delete because I believe it will lead to the local bobby taking me down the nick, maybe this one will.) I do think the bible has every capacity to lead to radical terroristic behaviour. Any ideology does. The KKK is a "Christian" movement after all. I think at the moment though, The christian flair for extremism has largely died down, and the dynamic has shifted. I think Islam is a provably false religion, but they have good honest members, who do believe good honest things, and have good honest practices. I do think they also have many extremist organisations which have a very dominant voice though, which is concerning, but your average muslim on many levels is going to be just like the rest of us, poor, scared and just trying to survive the hellish existence we have been born into on this planet. The issue in this country is elites in cities like London, who seem to have an obsession with virtue signalling. I believe most judges, high ranking police officials and government officials are corrupt/Free masons/ideologically motivated. "The establishment" has been whipped into a leftist frenzy, where it needs to look hip and modern to appeal to Londoners, and it does this by trying to oust tradition, and Christianity, and being too scared to offend. Islam is not native to the UK, and I think people are scared to upset what they don't understand. Many grew up with Christianity, they understand it, and can see through the BS when it is being used improperly. But most people in "The establishment" did not grow up with Islam, do not understand Islam, and so do not feel comfortable challenging its improper applications because they want to be seen as virtuous and tolerant by their corrupt peers. Just some thoughts. I hate the government.

I've noticed the UK now has 2 pride months. We have pride month and LGBT History month. Don't know when either of them are apart when the internal diversity posts get sent around at work for us to have a read and all the TV channels start plugging their special programming to celebrate.

I give it 10 minutes before our glorious police force shows up at your door to arrest you for internet hate crimes.

This is something I really struggle with finding a balance with in my personal life. How to be an effective missionary, I always worry I don't do enough. Letting your light shine is probably the most effective method, but the D&C in particular has countless scriptures which specifically state a priesthood responsibility is to call people to repentance. But that's also a really effective way to make you look like a nut in public. And you are right, debate convinces nobody. I'm am content to do the following: 1) When meeting somebody, use an appropriate way to let them know what Church I belong to fairly early on. (For example at work the other day while on break, there a BBC documentary on TV called "Here come the Mormons" with a colleague who has just moved to my work area. For a laugh I got a personal copy of the book of Mormon out of my locker and allowed a conversation to take place.) 2) Never force anybody into a conversation, but answer any and all questions I get, and be graceful about anything challenging somebody might say. People often have curiosities as many people in the UK have only ever heard of "Mormons" not really met or spoken with one, and I'm happy to let them be curious. 3) Now as for calling other people to repentance, I chose to politely call others out on poor behaviour. If somebody suggests something not appropriate, I will simply state it is not appropriate and leave it at that. Generally people are respectful, and I have some really good interactions with others. If I was actively seeking to debate others regularly I'm sure I would not be so tolerated!

Yes, the Book of Mormon is actually the origin story of Star wars. When GAs talk about "priesthood power" few know that it is actually the force they reference.

In all seriousness this is pretty awful. The level of dehumanisation in politics is downright scary.

I will be marching for vegetable rights. It's scientifically proven that plants feel pain. For too longs vegetarians and vegans have exploited innocent plants for their own consumption. The needless suffering needs to end. Cruel monoculture and tightly packed fields cause pain and distress for vegetables. We need to demand better welfare for crops NOW!

https://youtu.be/4oy8joWxouM I can't believe I was never taught this in Sunday School and that the Church has never made it publicly available. I was only able to find this after I started to question my faith and spent YEARS researching and deconstructing my faith, by reading through scholarly sources such as r/exmormon and reading the subtitles of the CES letter. I now see it so clearly, the church is a SCAM run by DEMONIC SATANISTS. I will now be joining the congregation of his Holiness Pastor Benny Hinn. I share this information so that everybody else can be freed from this EVIL CULT.

Perhaps mean, but here is a collection of memes I find quite funny: