Happened in my ward once. The bishopric had just called a new counselor - a young zealot who came to "the mission field" from Utah. He was nice enough, but didn't really understand life outside the Mormon bubble and, as such, didn't really understand social boundaries. Anyway, one Sunday the meeting ran short. Like "key note speaker was sick so the meeting is wrapping up 20
Forum: Recovery Board

I saw this article on Twitter this morning. 75% of comments favored taxing religion 20% of comments were spam bots posting about impeachment 5% of comments were Mormons trying to act offended that the article says "Mormon"
Forum: Recovery Board

No words are needed. At least not from you. Not right now, anyway. Your wife is mentally preparing to say goodbye to her father. Even if your FIL beats the odds and lives another 2 decades, your wife is accepting his mortality right now (and, possibly, her own). Don't feel like you have to say things that will fix the situation - you can't. It'll just frustrate your wife and make you feel disc
Forum: Recovery Board

Whatever I'm about to say to play devil's advocate, there is no disputing one fact: that no matter how innocent his intentions MIGHT have been, he made you feel uncomfortable. Age and experience have taught me to follow your gut when it comes to things like that (which it looks like you did, based on your follow up post). Even if your goal in attending the group was to meet new friends, you weren
Forum: Recovery Board

They are no doubt trying to gauge the internal reaction, as well as how it is impacting their recruitment efforts. If they feel that either category is seeing positive results, they will start to own it and brag about it. If they see that there is no recruitment bump and the old guard is getting irritated, they'll start to walk it back.
Forum: Recovery Board

I think Nelson knew going in that none of the members were really that excited about his leadership. Following almost two decades of the most beloved leadership in the church, it was unrealistic to think anyone would be super jazzed about a new 94 year old president who - let's face it - probably won't be at the helm for too long. Even my most TBM friends were quietly talking about Nelson being a
Forum: Recovery Board

I'd personally be more curious to see their active membership statistics. How many inactive members is that overall number hiding? How many resigned members that they just haven't had the heart to take off the list? Or dead people? Until they release their active membership statistics, everything else is just feel-good fluff.
Forum: Recovery Board

I think Nelson is trying to do everything he can to energize young people without completely alienating the old guard. On paper, it all looks very nice, but it also kind of mails it in that the Mormon leadership is making it up as they go.
Forum: Recovery Board

I think that this must come with the territory when you expect 18-20 year olds to be the face of your organization and tell them that they have the whole truth. When I was in the church, it was common for missionaries to tour religious sites in the region - one of those sites being a major Catholic university near my hometown. While on the tour, the missionaries would make comments - meant to
Forum: Recovery Board

I'm guessing Russ will be having a "revelation" soon to put the hammer down on that.
Forum: Recovery Board

If I would have been in the congregation during the first bishop's story - even at my most TBM - I would have gotten up and walked out. Yeah, some people go through life carrying extra rocks, but sometimes they have to carry them because some fucking asshole put them in their sleeping bag.
Forum: Recovery Board

One Christmas (my last before leaving the church), I requested a ton of books from Deseret in a last ditch effort to rebuild my testimony. My never-Mo mom, seeing that I was having a hard time, got me every single one that I asked for. It makes me really depressed to think about how much money she dropped on those books. I left the church a few months later, having never cracked most of the books
Forum: Recovery Board

I appreciate stories like the OP's. Yes, missionaries can be annoying, and there are certainly some bad ones, but at the end of the day they are all just kids. I would like to think that their parents would be grateful that a stranger did something nice for their kids at a time of year when they are no doubt missing home very much.
Forum: Recovery Board

Even if he lives another 20 years, Nelson will be known as a "transitional prophet' (along the lines of Hunter) by most. His talks have always lacked any spiritual substance - now he just has the "gift of revelation' to make them extra disappointing. If the church would have been smart, they would have selected Dieter instead of Russ. Yeah, it's picking a slightly younger old guy ove
Forum: Recovery Board

To draw a seasonal comparison, it's a lot like the scene in a Christmas Story when Ralphie finally gets his Little Orphan Annie decoder. He spends the evening hanging in suspense for an important message from Annie herself, only to be told to drink Ovaltine. A crummy commercial! All the emotional effort he put into it and the only thing he ended up getting out of it was almost making his little b
Forum: Recovery Board

I saw an article on my facebook feed from a fairly major news site that called them Mormons. Most of the Mormons who corrected it did so in a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek way that made me think they think the whole thing is ridiculous. One actually posted how ridiculous he thought "Russ Nelson" (no full name, no extra sacred middle initial) was being with the whole thing. My impression is
Forum: Recovery Board

This brings back a wave of memories from my first Sundays away. The last day I had attended, the bishop's secretary pulled me aside between blocks. He told me that I would be meeting with the bishop later that week so the bishop could get my mission papers started. I was a convert and enrolled in college - I had made it pretty clear from the get go that I was not in a place in my life where I
Forum: Recovery Board

I don't say the pledge, either.
Forum: Recovery Board

It was shit like this that was the reason I never gave a mission much thought. Since turning 18, I've always felt that no other adult - unless they are signing my paycheck or my parents - has the right to tell me what to do (some exceptions apply, of course).
Forum: Recovery Board

I haven't met any of them, but in the past I would have thought Holland. However, after learning more about him from people who had interactions with him before he became a GA, I'm more inclined to think that being an apostle made Holland (who sounds like he was a genuinely nice guy before being called) a GA. I've never heard anyone having an interaction with Bednar - either before or after he wa
Forum: Recovery Board

I agree with everything you said. When I was in college, missionaries would go out to the main drag of my college town (a very busy street) and step out in front of cars to invite the driver to discuss the church more with them. The MP LOVED it. Most motorists were too shocked at the audacity to have time to get angry. I saw it happen once and the guy got out of his car PISSED. The missionaries t
Forum: Recovery Board

The Mormon church is all about keeping up appearances. It's not surprising at all that your appearance is the only thing they'd notice.
Forum: Recovery Board

This is my first and second problem with the missionary program. 1.) Missionaries aren't taught basic door etiquette. Knock/ring once, wait 30-45 seconds, try again (IF YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST), then walk away after 30-45 seconds. No third attempt. Put a pass-along card in the door if you must, but don't continue past 2 attempts. It wreaks of desperation and it's just rude if someone doesn't want
Forum: Recovery Board

Your nephew is smart. I can count on 1 hand the number of F&T meetings that I thought were truly powerful, and I would have 4 fingers left over. Sometimes they serve a purpose, but for the most part it's a waste of everyone's time. It's always the same thing: - Little kids who have their testimonies spoon fed to them, just so their parents can do what other Mormon parents do and the war
Forum: Recovery Board

It's cute how they think the rest of the world is actually paying attention to what their leader says. They might be militant about this crap, but the vast majority of the world doesn't know this name correction crap is even a thing. Once Russ croaks, it'll be one of those things they failed at implementing that they just never talk about anymore.
Forum: Recovery Board

Man, God in action. If only St. Paul had been as efficient! "Brothers, I wrote to you a few months ago concerning the nature of baptism. Some time has passed and you still don't seem to get it. We shall move on and focus on other things."
Forum: Recovery Board

The divinely translated “Egyptian” makes me wonder how I ever believed that shit. I do like the idea of Kolob though - I don’t believe it, but the whole idea of riding through space and arriving at the edge of creation makes me want to write SciFi fantasy about it. Hie to Kolob was always one of my favorite hymns as a Mormon - along with being set to one of my favorite pieces of classical m
Forum: Recovery Board

The fact that a grown ass adult felt that he needed to ask a stranger what he and his family are allowed to do with a whole extra 60 minutes that used to be filled in by church is sad. That should be the real story here - that a fucking oversized man-child is the most pathetic thing I've read/heard in a while. Here is a list of things that can be done instead of any of the stupid shit the 70
Forum: Recovery Board

Re-branding to the church's full name will be a mistake. When Gordon doubled down on the Mormon nickname, the church grew. Retention was horrible, but the church grew.
Forum: Recovery Board

Unfortunately for them, the Book of Mormon is one of the only things that they absolutely can't get rid of if they want to continue to survive. Their whole schtick is Joseph and the BoM. Yes, it's made up - and if a significant number of members were to be perfectly honest, they know that it's made up. That said, consider what would happen if the church had a press conference tomorrow and sai
Forum: Recovery Board