Living in the South, if you do not wish to be almost entirely friendless, one needs to associate with Evangelicals. It is just part of life here. One Evangelical minister is a good friend of mine and we get together at least once a week for breakfast and/or play in a band. He was a professional musician before becoming a minister. He is liberal, which is an oddity for preachers here that I r
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When our son returned from combat in Afghanistan in the early days of the war, I asked why was he wearing a wedding ring. He served with the Northern Alliance which was a group of Afghan tribesmen who were of course devout Muslims. Our son said he had to get a wedding ring because with Muslim men (at least in Afghanistan) considered young boys or young men pleasure boys and were abused sexual
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This 'blame the members' is how the Watchtower handled their failed prophecy of the world ending in 1975. The Watchtower blamed the members for their misunderstanding and inappropriate conduct due to their inability to interpret Biblical teachings correctly. Finland lost 1/3 of its JW membership over that debacle in 1976. Unfortunately, that event has gone down the memory hole and the Watchtow
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My very last church meeting was a stake conference. DW did not want to attend as she severely disliked the leaders with good reason. The stake president gave a strange talk and spent the majority of the time praising himself. He is a classic narcissist. After the meeting ended, I walked out into the foyer and a woman who I had never met before said to me, 'Isn't he wonderful' I almost said ou
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The book The Bible Unearthed is excellent. I read it years ago and it is on my bookshelf. David, per the book and current archeology, was apparently a real person. Stories about David were written by a George Santos analog.
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Sigh. I did this decades ago when I was an Elders Quorum President. It only facilitated getting people to resign from the corporation because they did not want to be bothered yet again by church people. Some were angry at being found and screamed at us. Not one person returned to the church. It will be a great frustration to those members who try to implement this program.
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I was asked a number of times to teach engineering courses at a local community college as an adjunct. The folks there know me. The pay - $1900 per class per semester. I tried to be diplomatic, but I said it was not worth my time even though I am retired. Their response to me was to consider this community service. Sigh.
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It sounds like you are going to be OK. Advice I give to newly minted ex-Mormons is not to jump into another religion of any kind. It appears you will not going from one cult to another. I certainly have felt foolish for believing Mormonism for so many years. What you have learned and experienced may now help you avoid scams that are not religion based. So there is some benefit in my opinion.
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Two women, who kept their JW.org badges concealed behind their coat lapels, rang the door bell early this morning. Both appeared to be in their early 60s. They were well dressed just as we have noticed in our travels as they set up JW.org kiosks at music and other events. I immediately asked if they were JWs. They nodded their heads. I then started my normal spiel for JWs at the door. M
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We saw the historic churches of course in Norway. The architecture was interesting. You might need to see East TN where in our county there are over 120 churches. Many are quite small mom and pop type congregations including the group named 'The True Church of God' about 5 miles from my home. Not to be confused with the Mormon church. It was a relative reference - the contrast to churches eve
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DW and I were in Norway this summer for a couple of weeks. As we walking around the outskirts of Bergen DW asked me, 'Do you see what is missing?' I replied, 'I do not understand'. She said, 'There are no churches here'. Funny. We live in East TN and there are churches everywhere you look. Just from that minimal observation, it appears Norway is a post-Christian society - a high standard of
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This has certainly been on my mind more. I turned 71 in November (2022). I am fortunate to go to the gym 5 days a week. Being retired, I can go when it is not crowded. Paved walking trails that start across the street from my house for additional exercise. Playing musical instruments helps keeping the mind active and socializing with other people. I assist at a community college as a vo
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Merry Christmas
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At least the Book of Mormon has a useful noun for those who love to proclaim their righteousness. The book is rather useless otherwise. On Tuesday I was set to perform at an assisted living facility where I play monthly. It is always at 10:30 AM as the residents are in bed by 6:00 PM, so no evening performances :-). They go to lunch afterwards. It is fun to play music from the 40's and
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Playing music is a great hobby, which I got back into when I left Mormonism. As of today, I have 22 gigs or performances (at universities) scheduled through Sept. of 2023. That is something I would never of anticipated years ago. I get to meet interesting folks and have a good time. So keep up the guitar. You have a ways to catch up as I have 4 clarinets and 4 saxophones. You are a few ins
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I worked in the power industry. Our power grid in the US is surprisingly vulnerable to simple attacks. The majority of local substations have at best a wire fence for protection. Transformers, depending on their size, can take up to 18 months for replacement. Few are in stock. Generating switch yards, usually at power plants, are also quite vulnerable. The concept of cyber attacks on ou
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When I first left Mormonism I ran into inactive Mormons on occasion and tried to talk to them. Surprisingly, they were the strongest defenders of the corporation. I noticed a fair amount of self loathing among those where did not attend yet still believed. They said they were not living up to the standards. I believe the Mormon church does tremendous harm to these folks. The self imposed gu
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Whoa. I thought this was a parody when first seeing this post. Sigh. 15,000 members in a country of over a billion. India has its own struggles without adding yet another cult. Fortunately the Mormon influence there is insignificant. The Mormon leaders got a nice vacation to an exotic location however.
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Nothing new, but wish these folks would be shut down. From the FDA: November 17, 2022 -- Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to seven companies for illegally selling dietary supplements that claim to cure, treat, mitigate or prevent cardiovascular disease or related conditions, such as atherosclerosis, stroke or heart failure, in violation of the Federal
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The cost of living there is insane compared to other parts of the US. My son has a good friend who was making $180k in San Francisco and left for a higher paying job in Detroit MI earlier this year. She was unable to save any money at $180k. Rent was $3800. A place to park her car - another $500/mo. I grew up in Detroit so I am no big fan, though it has likely improved since I lived there.
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It was nicely done. Great voice.
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I really like what MissionaryMan wrote. Be sure to print it out and give it to your son if he decides to go. I believe this list would of helped me. I spent 2 years in Finland with 0 baptisms. (zero, in retrospect is good). Two years wasted with the added bonus of destroying my self-esteem.
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Dallin Oakes did not serve a mission. He stated he had other priorities like getting a law degree. How many of the first presidency served missions? I believe none of them, but you might want to check. They are asking your son to do something they themselves refused.
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I believe most people have a casual indifference to Mormonism. I played Saturday in a small jazz group at a market on the mountain. It is well attended. The majority of the time they have country or gospel. We were apparently a bit of hit as our music was quite a change of pace. The manager said they wished we could play every week. While we were playing, a pair of sister missionaries came
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I have written on this a few times. 27 years ago when I was in Finland I had a cousin who was high up in the Mormon hierarchy there. He told me they were going to build a temple in Helsinki as they had so much surplus funds they had to use them. The temple was built in a country with very few members. It is a money situation. Build temples with excess funds instead of being charitable.
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The data from the Canadian census should be eye opening to the corporate leaders. The drop in membership is precipitous. Unfortunately we cannot obtain such accurate info in the US. Correlation has drained the life out of the organization. There is little to no joy to being a member. It is mostly drab meetings and attempts to obtain corporate goals that have little benefit to individ
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Yeah!! This looks to be very promising. The corporation fears exposure.
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You are welcome EB and all others. The little site that I expected to have up for just a year is now measured in decades. Sigh. How did I get so old? Happy to have all of you here and for our current admins and admins in the past that made this possible. Eric
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Sigh. This took place just 60 miles north of me. Crazy times. We see banners once in awhile with a beefed up Trump holding an AK47 or AR15. For some reason assault rifles and extreme Christianity go together. It is difficult to comprehend.
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Our situation with the 3 year old twins is identical. DW has health issues and it takes her a day or two after watching the twins for her to recover. She probably will spend today in her recliner reading or napping. The pain from her arthritis slows her down. The quiet when they are gone is relaxing. Tonight I have a rehearsal and she will probably be asleep when I get home at 930 PM. Coff
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