Ugh.

I hate how I find myself standing up for Mormons against super anti Mormon Christian groups say a bunch of stuff about Mormons that isn't true.

I'm like. Dammit! There is so much crazy shiz here! Can't you attack the church on real stuff?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2013 12:28AM by suzanne.

Funny and yet true - I still find myself defending Mormons from certain attacks coming from people I feel have no business attacking. Fetch - this is my attack territory. I would never defend the history or any truth claims but defend their right to be as crazy as anyone else that believes Noah built an ark or people lived to be 600 years old, or magically found food on the ground (except the Sabbath of course)-- If you are crazy enough to go that way- you got no right calling Mormons out for simply updating and rebranding the madness-

My impression of the mega christian anti mormons are lazy.

They are just repeating what their pastor said last sunday in an anti mormon rant. The pastor himself hasn't done his homework.

The end result is they sound just as crazy or worse than the mormons.

It they knew what they were talking about they would have a lot more credibility. They think that making stuff up will do the job. If they really knew anything about Mormonism, they'd know they don't have to make up anything.

francine Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My impression of the mega christian anti mormons
> are lazy.
>
> They are just repeating what their pastor said
> last sunday in an anti mormon rant.

And garbling what the pastor said anyway.

I post on a lot of other message boards, frequently, on mormon related topics...

Whenever someone comes up with a real dozy on the boards, I kindly point out reality–with references.

I have no idea why; I guess because the cult is crazy enough without all the lies...

You mean like Westboro Baptist making claims that God hates Mormons? Like they actually have a direct line of communication to God and he tells them who He hates?

Of course. God hates everyone--except them.

Uninformed grumbling and snip-snapping isn't good or helpful, but unfortunately it's part are of human condition.

I got hold of some anti-Mormon literature put out by a Christian church when I was TBM. It was full of half truths and out-right lies. It strengthened my testimony. Blerg.

That's why I still can't stand to listen to these people, or the ex-Mormons who join them, when they start arguing that Mormons don't worship the REAL Jesus! These people were NO HELP TO ME AT ALL. Whenever I hear these same arguments, I have a Pavlovian reaction: "Just shut up!"

Not buying that what Christians, antis, or what **I** do controls this fragile little quirk that mormons hold so dear.

Next time I'm with my nevermo friends I'm going to lamblast mormons on this issue. Sheesh!

Look at it this way....

How many Mormons actually correct other Mormons when they say things that are inaccurate about Christianity and Judaism?

Look at it this way....

What would you think of someone who constantly was correcting people when incorrect things were said about the KKK?

Honestly, you could just say that "Mormonism is crazy enough in truth. It doesn't pay to come up with lies about the religion because you lose credibility and then people won't believe the crazy truth."

I think a good reason to correct anti-Mormons with bad information is the credibility factor. If people are caught telling lies, then it's hard to believe them even when they are telling the truth. And Mormons will grab any chance to discredit those who don't agree with them. It's much harder to ignore provable truth that disproves your religion.

So true. I just had a similar experience. I got accused of defending the church. It's so weird because on this board if someone corrects a misunderstanding the normal response is appreciation because we understand that an accurate critique is important.

truth is stranger than fiction. The only reason I can imagine anyone comes up with anti-mormon lies is that they are just to lazy to read.

What are some inaccuracies you've heard/read? I'm so out of the Mo loop it hasn't registered in my consciousness.

Sometimes they get it right though. The Godmakers is often demonized as the product of anti-Mormons running amok and saying all kinds of untrue things about the Church. Well, I finally saw The Godmakers many years after I left the Church, and I was surprised at how much Ed Decker got right, at least in the animated portion of it, which is what most people see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuO2Ov_D08c

The only thing he got wrong that I could tell, other than the overall negative tone of the video and the ridiculous animation, was at the very end when he said that Mormons believe that Joseph Smith had done more than any man *including* Jesus Christ. That should be "except" Jesus Christ, but I was taught everything else in that video when I was growing up in the Church in the 1970s and 1980s.

Oddly enough, I saw this movie in 1990 at a church I attended in Sacramento, CA. By that point in my life, I had ceased telling people my previous religious affiliation.

Regarding the 'work' of Uncle Joe Smith, I, as a TBM heard it several ways, Joe Smith did more than Jesus, or JS did as much as JC or JS's work was equal to the work of JC.

This is just part of a larger film which was an expose of TSCC. Upon the end of that viewing, some idiot that I remembered from my University days (aptly named Moroni) stood up and foamed at the mouth regarding the films contents. He called curses from heaven to all those who were watching and he even made the comment, "When all you in this room get cast into the spirit prison in the afterlife, I will make sure to remind you of this 'golden opportunity' to seek him out to 'discover' the 'true gospel."

Moroni was really full of himself, he believed himself to be God's gift to the earth. His daddy was part of quorum of 70, or so he would always say. The idiot even stood up and tried to 'out' me as being a member of TSCC. I had a lot of explaining to do.

The following Sunday, I excused his outbursts as, "Well, we played football at Sac State...I think he took too many steroids back then as his memory is a little fuzzy." I had to lie in church because of that idiot.

Omitting facts was one thing, but lying like a bulletin was another.

The God makers 2 was so full lies and mis-truths that even the Tanners condemned it. The first one was mostly correct

I think it is easy to forget that there is actual "anti-mormon" information out there. Truth is not anti anything no matter the light it paints the morg in. Having said that, people with crazy beliefs that attack other crazy beliefs with half-truths are indeed being "anti". They have no grounds for attacking another religion and they make it worse when they don't even get the issues correct.

I think we should all remember this when talking to TBM's about the church and the TBM mentions "anit-mormon" literature, etc. My mom has accused me of readin anti-mormon stuff. I may have been able to make a stronger counter argument had I realized that she was likely thinking about this sort of stuff, because there are people who tell lies about the church for their own edification. This does not however make the church true or excuse its true faults, of which there are many.

I am the first person to defend the church against lies told against it. But I also think everyone should know the legitimate criticisms of Moism.

Herr Goebbels said it best, "If you are going to tell a lie, make it a big one, tell it often enough and people will believe it."

Ever heard the term "Lie like a bulletin." That little one comes from the era of the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon would send home 'bulletins' on the progress of the war, full of half truths or just out and out lies.

I stuck around for about 20 minutes, but eons ago, I attended a church (denomination I will omit) that had Jerald Tanner show up to speak about moRonism. Someone must have pointed out to Mr. Tanner that I was an ex-moRon, so every chance he got, he would say something like, "Does our resident ex-mo agree with that statement?"

After four of those little attacks, I chose to walk out. I only went to that 'apologetic' meeting rather begrudgingly; not as a source to tickle his ears or be the butt of jokes or confirm what Mr. Tanner knew or not about TSCC.

I returned, as I was, at the time, more interested in the social aspects and there were some nice people. There was a group of people my age (25 to 30 or so), that were out of college and on career paths, like myself. We would go out on a Saturday night, have dinner and maybe go to a movie or go to a place called "The Wear house Ministry" a non denomination Christian organization that had music concerts on Saturday nights.

However, there were a lot of people, who once they discovered my little secret (ex-mo), considered me their 'personal salvation project.' Maybe their hearts were in the right place, but their actions were well over the top. If I had not been 'shunned' by TSCC, I would have considered those people offensive.

A couple of people in that group had a 'plan.' Their plan was to call TSCC, and get missionaries to show up and give them the lessons; all the while attempting to refute what the missionaries would say. The plan was to tie up the missionaries so they would not deceive others.

When they ran their 'plan' by me, I told them, even though I never went on a mission, the missionaries follow a script, any deviations of that script would be met with "Well pray about it." If you tell the missionary, "Well, I prayed about it and this is what the Bible says about "X"" The missionary will simply go on to the next subject, or simply leave and not return. I remember one of the guys, he used to walk around with a briefcase full of pens/pencils that had a big yellow "I found it" sticker.

I am sure, their 'tactics' made more members of TSCC stronger in belief than they would have been otherwise.

If I remember correctly, I went to a worship that had a rock band with a girlfriend who was Assembly of God. This was back in the mid seventies. I thought it was called The Warehouse, but might have been the Wear House. I think it was somewhere in the Arden/Arcade area of Sacramento. Don't remember much about the service except that it had a rock band. That's how interested I was in any kind of religion at the time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2013 02:49PM by fossilman.

I corrected someone who said Mormons don't believe Jesus was born in Bethlehem. I told them that it was the Garden of Eden that Mormons don't believe was in the middle east. They laughed when I told them Mormons believe it was in St. Louis, Missouri

I think the person who said that to you was referring to the scripture in the BoM that says Jesus would be born "at Jerusalem." (Book of Mormon | Alma 7:10)

There's an interesting discussion of this very issue at:

http://www.mrm.org/jerusalem

Mormons belive that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County (Kansas city) not St Louis.

Oops

According to the hilarious Kathleen Madigan, TSCC owns property where they believe the garden of Eden existed. She's from near by. She said, "I hope Jesus is into meth and bbq, because there's not much else out there."

I find myself doing that too. We have a fairly boisterous "Born Again" Evangelical Christian community here in southern Alberta. I've got no time for them. The fact they use their bully pulpit to attack other faiths is pure f'ing horseshit. was approached by a woman once on the street who asked me if I was born again. I said, no mam, I was born correctly the first time....she had nothin'

Ron Burr

The problem of knowing another religion is that it takes experience to know even one's own religion. Most mos don't know the doctrines or history of TSCC. Those who have never been mormons know even less. The danger to the testimony of TBMs does not come from anti groups but from those of us who have witnessed the morg and know the doctrines first hand. It is those of us who have been to the temples, especially in the past before 1990 who know about the endowment ceremony. Those of us who have seen the effect on families and individuals are the danger to TSCC because we not only can affect the testimonies of other members but we can, with credibility, tell non-members what we know.

When reading criticisms of Mormonism on the internet, I always skip over those written by Christians. There's not much truth to be found there. One supernaturalist calling another wrong is simply the pot calling the kettle black.

Agreed. there are plenty of awful things to site without making up stuff....