hope this isn't a repost ...

Book of Mormon’ musical can inspire doubters to stay


http://www.sltrib.com/csp/cms/sites/sltrib/pages/printerfriendly.csp?id=52020601

After “The Book of Mormon” opened on Broadway, The New York Times quoted me as calling the musical “inspired.”

If a belief leads people to happiness and a better quality of life, that belief is a good thing — and (here is the key) people shouldn’t allow doubts about the truthfulness of that belief to interfere with its impact.

So stay, doubts and disagreements and all. If heard, this message could save to the church many thousands who are tempted to leave. In this way, the musical could be helpful in strengthening the LDS Church. So maybe the hand of God did inspire it, rough language and all.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2011 10:01PM by Susan I/S.

I love this quote... you can't make this crap up.. you have to be raised in it and bottle fed the koolaid to write this kind of stuff.


the Quote..

"Truth can be the enemy of good; fables can shape behavior for the benefit of all society"

Well, this guy may be the next prophet who finally declares: "Yes, folks, we admit it, it's all made up crap, but look at how good it makes us feel; in other words: the church is false, but it's TRUE!!"

Maybe, perhaps. I'd guess there are tons millions of members that stay without a testimony just because going to church makes them feel good. It is that way already and the musical isn't making that big of an impact.

When I went on my mission a testimony was a big deal. If you didn't have one you were told to work on it. Even in the MTC many of the talks were about finding or strengthening personal testimonies. Fast forward to when my cousin left for his mission in 2008 or so. He was very open that he didn't know if it were true. He told me he wasn't sure but his leaders had convinced him that since he felt good about it that he should go. The church is very aware that it is all B.S. and they have to think of other ways to keep members because general population of the church is going to start figuring it out at a faster and faster rate.

This sounds very similar to an experience I had. Before leaving for college, I was pushed by parent's and local wward to become an elder. We didn't do it fast enough, and when I went to college and expressed the same doubts the bishop there said that it wasn't a bad thing if I wanted to wait. Thank goodness this bishop was more rational and actually thought about what was happening to me

If it's just a feel-good experience, why pay 10% of your gross to a black hole of a church that doesn't spell out what they do with it?

If you tell yourself the same lie over and over you start to believe it. When you are born and raised being told a lie, you simply accept it as truth. I mean, you don't know any better, do you?

If my mother had told me from birth that blue was red, I would probably argue angrily with anyone who told me otherwise.

“Exposing the lie doesn’t enlighten and bless the villagers. Rather, they feel foolish and are shamed.”

Wow. Ya think!

“They go away crestfallen — until the elder and his companion decide to stay and continue their work. The evil warlord changes his ways, as do others, and a happy ending leaves the audience euphoric."

So the tribe figures out that these guys mean well. Doesn’t make the lies go away and doesn’t make the church true. Lies don’t make truth Adam Ford, you big Lawyer you.

“Everything might not be as it seemed in Primary and seminary, but the LDS Church remains a community striving to make the world a better place, and it is having a positive impact.”

Good grief. State the obvious then ignore and obfuscate with unrelated info. More Lawyer speak.

“Truth can be the enemy of good; fables can shape behavior for the benefit of all society.”

Lawyer speak, as in “there are very good reasons to believe in lies and fables, it’s all good”. So what we've learned here is Mr. Ford, Dallin Oaks, and Boyd Packer all pee in the same yernal.

This kind of childish doublespeak is exactly why thinkers are leaving the church. This man may be a good lawyer but he is
an intellectual child when it comes to his religion and his defense of it. He defends it at the very cost of truth and integrity in which profession he made an oath to uphold.

It's like I said. The LDS church makes liars out of good people.

The reviewer completely misses the point that the Mission President sends all the missionaries home, but they defy him (Priesthood Authority!) to stay and help the villagers, and found a new made-up religion based on "The Book of Arnold". They don't stay in the Mormon church but become Arnoldites.

For an attorney this Adam Ford dude couldn’t be too bright based on his statement: “But I used the term not to denote the high quality of the acting, music, choreography, costume or set design. I meant that Matt Parker and Trey Stone may well have been stirred by the divine in their writing of the musical.” It’s Matt Stone and Trey Parker not Matt Parker and Trey Stone.

God, I drink and fifth of whiskey and feel pretty damn good. However, it doesn't mean that it is a good thing for me to do, especailly when I know it is toxic.

Great reasoning, Kolobians.

Time to bleach my eyes again.

At the end of the South Park episode "All About Mormons," the LDS kid Gary delivers the following soliloquy:

"Look, maybe us Mormons do believe in crazy stories that make absolutely no sense, and maybe Joseph Smith did make it all up, but I have a great life. and a great family, and I have the Book of Mormon to thank for that. The truth is, I don't care if Joseph Smith made it all up, because what the church teaches now is loving your family, being nice and helping people. And even though people in this town might think that's stupid, I still choose to believe in it. All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you're so high and mighty you couldn't look past my religion and just be my friend back. You've got a lot of growing up to do, buddy. Suck my balls."

If the Book of Mormon musical contains a similar message, then I can totally understand how a Mormon apologist could interpret that as an endorsement of the organization of the church, if not the religious beliefs of Mormonism.