There is a bunch of buzz in the area I live about this book titled "planted". It's supposed to have all the answers for those of us doubting or that have left. I am positive I will be receiving a copy from a family member for Christmas (yippee).
I am curious if anyone on this board has read it, heard about it, and what your thoughts are?

Amazon has some reviews on it......overall, it appears to be the same old same old....nothing new, so many smart people believe you should too, etc. Good for the faithful or those still trying to be, not much else.

I need to write a book about the church. I have nothing in particular to add to the conversation, but there are a lot of Mormons out there with money, and I want some of it.

It's an attempt to profit from the truth crisis TSCC is experiencing.

The way the top 15 have handled people leaving is vastly different from what Mormonism claims to be. You'd think that the Q15 could just provide reasonable answers instead of demanding you put your head back in the sand, so we wouldn't need apologetic works like this.

Also, if family members give you things like this, I would return the favor by giving them YOUR point of view. These things shouldn't be one-way.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2016 04:10PM by Xyandro.

+1 ! You've nailed it perfectly.

Why can't the LDS Church simplify instead of asking members to figure out how to simplify? Why can't the LDS Church reduce some of the burdens it places on members in light of the truth coming out about its sordid history? The place to start might be eliminating some of its worthiness interviews. Maybe it could reduce the number of meetings to reduce the need for so many teaching callings. Maybe it could find a different way to accomplish some of the things home and visiting teaching are supposed to accomplish. Maybe it could even find a way to make its sacrament meeting more satisfying by reducing the amount of time and the number of talks. There is so much the LDS Church could do to simplify, but it seems to be stuck in a muck because it insists on asserting control over its members rather than teaching what it claims to be true principles and allowing the members to govern themselves.

If anyone gives me this book, they will get the CES letter in return.

+1 for ericka!

Excellent advice. Gonna go print out my copy right now along with the comment from xyandro!!

Read and barf:

http://www.ldsliving.com/Surviving-a-Faith-Crisis-with-the-Help-of-Church-Members/s/80563

Most of that advice in that article is nauseating. It suggests that it's okay to simplify your church life. I remember being told how unworthy I was in the eyes of the Lord because I was working on Sundays. There was never any middle ground in the church. It's either their way or the highway!

If you really are a person who has faith in Christ and find out the LDS Church isn't what it claims to be, why not just plant yourself in a Methodist Church or become Catholic or become a Baptist where you really can simplify your church life? The demands of the LDS Church on a member are so horrendous that it is almost impossible to simplify your spiritual life. The LDS Church doesn't let you do it. I have attended several Christian churches post-Mormonism and find that all of them can provide satisfying spiritual life without the complications Mormonism brings into it.

It's not always about complications.

For some of us, the issue is mainly with the Bible and "faith" which make the other churches you mentioned just as problematic. A "spiritual life" for many of us does not involve cognitive dissonance or unfounded claims about gods which concepts from the Bible and theism require.

If you are a person of faith and Christianity is your thing, I suppose you would shop around and find a home. I thought the Methodist church I visited was uplifting and people seemed to be humble and truly interested in charity.

I guess it comes down to what types of things touch you spiritually. Ritual, music, community? Mormonism doesn't offer much, that's for sure.

(Edited- half my post got cut off. :-( )



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2016 06:54PM by dagny.

Mormons pride themselves on being held to a higher standard though. The other religions are filled with people going to the terrestrial kingdoms. They don't want to live the higher law of "gods chosen people". I get so tired of the sideways condescending glances that signal to each other "we get it, they don't".
The church won't simplify cause their faithful have bought in.

Joseph Smith himself stated in one of the Lectures on Faith, "Let us here observe, that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation." The notion of a simplified, kinder, gentler Mormonism is inconsistent with its founder. The Prophet's Boner.