I had a political science professor that once said "revolutions and collapses of totalitarian regimes rarely happen when repression is at its height. Regimes collapse more often after attempts to liberalize have been made and people are given small tastes of freedom and truth."

If that is true, the church Essays are the begining of the end of the church. They are starting to loosen up their silence and repression of the true history of the church. there is enough truth in the essays that people will start looking to find out more. After being lied to about teen brides, they wont believe the marriages were not sexual.

Its all over.

"Regimes collapse more often after attempts to liberalize have been made and people are given small tastes of freedom and truth."

I only hope you are right but I haven't seen any small taste of freedom, have you? To me, the Morg is as despotic and dictatorial as ever.

These essays are corroborating what we exmos have been saying for years. The church has given a morsel of truth, and that will be their undoing. People will start demanding more.

If the church hid the truth in the past, why should people trust them now. I suspect shelves are going to have added stress.

Freedom comes when you read about revered Joseph who can't keep it in his pants, but is second to Jesus only in his life accomplishments, and you realise, I'm a good person. I really am. No more guilt for me and I'm going to say no to that calling, because I don't have time.

The Mormon claim that Joseph Smith was exceptional falls apart as his low character is revealed.

I posted links to Utah newspapers that had the info about the polygamy essays.

Three of my friends responded. They all said it didn't make any difference and two bore their testimonies.

<Heavy sigh>

give them time. it will take a while to swirl around in their heads.

Yeah, I used to do that. You desperately need to reiterate your testimony. When it fails over and over again to 'save'the apostate, you're left by yourself wondering, why is God not answering my prayers?

Crack.

isn't it interesting that they feel they have to bear their testimony to protect themselves from information their own church is releasing?

LDS inc has painted itself in corner.

The did not see the internet coming, and it will destroy them.

LDS Inc is built on systematic fraud and deception. It has retained power by using family strong arming to avoid questioning.

The internet hit it like a tsunami and the old guard leadership made several, and continue to make, many strategic errors.

It will hit a tipping point, and that will come as pressure to make financial disclosers gets stronger.

When this happens, it will crash suddenly if there far less money in the coffers than the membership expects.

I completely agree. Dh and I were discussing the fact that for over 100 years, the church could feed the masses anything they wanted without fear, and could also keep stuff from the public without a care. Then along comes the World Wide Web and BAM. Gig's up. They're scrambling to keep up. Before, they were a step ahead. Now, they're desperate to keep up.

And the funniest thing? I've heard talks about the internet being invented in order to share the gospel! Sweet irony.

We all know there is not just one single reaction TBMs will have when they learn the Church has admitted these facts about Joseph Smith's polygamy. I can say that I was a completely committed TBM in the end of March 2013. I had served in a stake presidency and on a high council, was dedicated in my current teaching and missionary callings, had read the church magazines cover-to-cover every month for years, had read the Book of Mormon 81 times and the other Standard Works 16 times. Then I finished Vol. 6 of History of the Church on my way home from the temple one night. I felt some vague confusion about Joseph drinking wine purchased from his enemies in Carthage jail (in violation of D&C 27), and about him emphatically denying polygamy before the body of the Church and the city council (these were unequivocal, not carefully worded, denials). I went to fairlds.org to read about polygamy and there discovered that Joseph married (and had sex with) women who had living husbands. My "shelf" didn't collapse - I knew this couldn't go on the shelf, so I researched it and prayed for understanding as though my life depended on it. Realizing my testimony had many components, I took every item off the "shelf" and examined it carefully. By General Conference (less than a week) I was convinced Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet and the Church wasn't true. I suspect there are people like me, who are now firm in their conviction that the Church is true - and who (when they're ready) will learn these facts and almost overnight become just as firm in their conviction that the Church is, in the words of Gordon B. Hinckley, "a great fraud."

"... read the Book of Mormon 81 times ..."

You poor soul!!!

Most don't read anything more than the lesson manual.

reuben Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "They are starting to loosen up their silence and repression
> of the true history of the church."

They have two choices:

1. Remain silent and hope that the internet onslaught is repelled by the faithful members (i.e., business as usual)

or

2. Admit to certain things, use their best apologetics, and hope the faithful members buy into it.

They have chosen option 2. However, they are exposing some very ugly truths which will cause them irrepairable damage. The chickens have come home to roost, and the morg finds itself in a no-win situation. Time to pay the piper. The morg will pay heavily for their decades of abusive lying.

I posted an article about the latest essay yesterday with some innocuous commentary. I was put on blast by at TBM on the Facebook thread. He then inboxed me and started to berate me and called me out on being anti-Mormona and how he needed to stand up for his savior and his savior's church, blah blah blah...

TBMs do not care. Period. The church is still true no matter what.

Time is an enemy of the church. The tide is changing and the children of today are the adults of tomorrow being more educated - the schools and jobs demand it. As a side result they are likely to think critically less faith more facts and more in the center of conservationism and liberalism - Gay marriage, drugs etc. Truly, game over for the church in the long run.

That's straight out of True Believer by Hoffer.

Folks, I've always seen time as our ally.

Rather than worry over preps, viruses, and 2 year supplies, I gotta wonder....

Are there enough lampposts?

And is there enough rope?

Just askin.

Got to ask. Were you going for a record reading the BofM 81 times? And, I have to agree with the comment, "You poor soul."

Glad you saw the light.

Why had I read the B of M 81 times (and finished the 82nd time after learning the Church isn't true)? Because I'm the kind of person who is either all in or all out. I took Ezra Taft Benson literally when he said to read the B of M 30 minutes a day in 1985. At that rate, I read it nearly 6 times a year for several years, then finally figured out I was the only one I knew still following that "prophetic" admonition. Still read it 2 or 3 times a year (2 chapters per day = 3 times in a year) until I left the Church. Part of my motivation was hearing that Pres. Kimball, when he was near the end of his life, said he had read it 76 times, and I thought "I can do that."

I don't know if I'm a poor soul. I was true to my convictions, which is what caused me to reject the Church when I learned that Joseph Smith and his successors aren't true to theirs. I bet there are a lot of people like me who expect the prophets to follow their own teachings.

Was that ETBs speech when he testified, "The BOM is the most correct book of any book. This I know!"

I got my mission call from him.

It would be a dream to think LDS was closing shop for a time period.

Any LDS accountants or financial guys have some comments about the following date January 15, 2015:


Makes me wonder about the certificate of authority document that was signed received by Utah state July 25, 2014 giving Robert W. Cantwell, Douglas H. Martin, and Steve C. Penrose (All church auditors / accountants) the ability to

"individually, as an agent authorized and empowered to act and execute documents on behalf of said corporation sole (a) to execute stock powers and to assign and endorse for transfer certificates representing stocks, bonds, or securities now registered or hereafter registered in the name of said corporation sole and (b) to establish trading accounts with stock brokerage firms to designate those with authority to initiate transactions through such accounts. "

"This Certificate of Authority shall expire and be of no further force or effect as of the close of business on January 15, 2015.

Dated July 16, 2014
Received July 22, 2014
Signed by the State July 25, 2014

Amount paid for the document change $17.00

=============================================

Reuben, excellent post. I agree completely. Glasnost was the end of the Soviets, and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints lost most of its gravitas when it opened up about the book of Mormon.

However, I would disagree on one part. I think we are mistaking the cause for the effect. The Soviet Union was already on the descendency when it started glasnost policies. The community of Christ, formerly known as the re-organized Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, was already struggling with membership issues by the time it opened up about the book of Mormon.

I think the LDS church is absolutely losing its totalitarian power. It can't even get rid of John Dehlin or force members like Terryl Givens to toe the party line exactly the way they want him to. 20 years ago John dehlin would have been exed and terryl Givens would have been forced to say only ultra orthodox things or be threatened with excommunication himself. The fact that they have not is NOT evidence that the church is voluntarily opening up, at least not in my opinion. I believe it is evidence that the church knows it has no teeth anymore.

What my concern is...is that we, the RfMers are the only ones reading the essays.
My TBM cousin doesn't even believe they are on their site. When I send her links, she thought someone set up a fake LDS Church site to fool people kind of like some thieves set up PayPal sites etc. to fool people.
It is all a spoof to her.
For those of you that actually attend from time to time, has any TBM mentioned them to you?
Do they mention the essays from the pulpit? (I suspect not.)

I asked some missionaries if they had read the essays, because they came here and I didn't know what else to say. They had no idea what I was talking about.

Chapel Mormons don't care about Church HISTORY. They are focusing on Christ. BOM talks about Christ. GOOD enough. JS talked about Christ...again good enough. Focus on raising your kids to be Christlike. Be good..etc etc. Focus on what is important...Christ. That Sells. And is not going away soon no matter what the Morg puts out as essays hidden on their website.

Or, in other words, they are like the dead people in the Sixth Sense where the little boy says "They don't know they are dead - they only see what they want to see."

My mom is like that. She doesn't care about the questions - she cares about having a place to belong, something to make her feel good about herself and a purpose (i.e. saving people through genealogy.) She doesn't even necessarily care about sharing the gospel with live people. She wants to live a Christ-like life and thinks what the church teaches will help her do that and cherry picks things from the church that proves her point. And that's that. Essays, truth, empirical evidence ... none of that matter to her. She's found her niche in life and sees what she wants to see and ignores the rest. Some people only care about keeping the status quo - not about truth or making a stand, but about being happy where they are and not wanting to move an inch from that place for any reason.

"The Mormon claim that Joseph Smith was exceptional falls apart as his low character is revealed." - I think JS was exceptional.
the old saying is
You can fool some of the people all of the time and
You can fool all of the people some of the time but
You can't fool all of the people all of the time.
And yet in his day, JS did. Has to be one of the greatest con artists to even walk the earth. And he had to do all that connine while screwing 1/2 of the members, the female half. That is exceptional. He would have been a walking ad for Viagra in his day.
He is exceptionally evil to the bone marrow.