. . . a lapsed Mormon who was a retired career employee with the federal government of another nation.

He recommended how to deal with officially-uttered claims by governmental institutions (which applies, as well, to the ever-dubious and regularly-debunked assertions issued for dumbed-down public consumption by the Mormon Church's godless government of Deseret).

He said:

"Take whatever they say, turn it around 180 degrees--and that's the actual truth."



Edited 11 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2010 09:54PM by steve benson.

I can't think of one thing I learned in church that had any element of truth to it.

It's posts like these that helped me understand why I was often at cross purposes with my BIC ward members.

They were lying about their spirituality or 'feeling' the spirit because they had never had genuine spiritual intuition. ( I lived among them for twenty years and we knew each other better than we wanted to sometimes)
But I have had answers to prayers. Call it super intuition if you want, and I do have some esp, but I was often guided to know where to go, or forebear getting something, only to have it appear shortly in my life or the route to drive in Vegas. I missed many closings of freeways, a shoot out and wind damaged blown down signs blocking traffic because I took a different route through the city that day than my usual route.
So I was surrounded by Mormons who lied and grasped at straws and made up 'answers to prayers' and spiritual stories. I never made it up. I was the genuine article.... no wonder they hated me! Must of thought I was better at 'story telling' than they were!

I had a friend who submitted an article for the Ensigns 'Mormon Journal' about a miraculous rescue from a car accident. The Ensign edited all the spiritual aspects out of the story, put in it's PR spin and printed it. It was sugary and sweet but had no substance. Can't have the member know how to be in touch with the higher part or spiritual part of being human can we??? If it isn't done or felt as dictated by SLC then it is to be stomped out.

I am amazed that so many lies or mormon stories were just stories (like Tommys Widows Tales). Why print lies when there are plenty of real life examples all around you? Must have been because they weren't happening to the service to self people who were running things. So the service to self make it up and vague enough like the Munson Tales so you can't verify them.
And the GA schemers mystify the masses. Why? because as the OP said, too often when you look into the story deeply it is completely different than what really happened.

As Tommys Widows Tales, if they were true, we would have dozens of people retelling the good things he did and Tommy would never have to toot his own horn, others would be doing it for him. I imagine those who were living in the wards with Tommy at the time his stories supposedly took place looked at each other and wondered who was he talking about??? Which widow did he help? It wasn't anyone they knew and they had never known him to go out of his way for anyone, so who did he help??? I can just see his former ward members wondering where his stories really took place, because the Widow helping Tommy they never knew!

their friendship, charity, values and doctrines all shift with the winds. Moroni should be a weather vane on the temple barn providing warning for which direction the BS is coming from.