Ask a Mormon....almost anything.

Hope you don't mind if I join in, Gemini. Nice to see a fellow member around, I was getting lonely.

Eh... Looking over that other post, it would probably be easier if you pointed out certain ones than trying to go over the whole thing. There's just so much of it.

 

I didn't ask you to go over the whole thing, though, did I? Just select a couple of the inter-galactic doctrines and comment on them. Your choice. Why are you trying to avoid that?

 

ChiKaea:""""I am a proud member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. If you have a question about my religion, please ask me, and I'll see what I can do for you.""""

Ok , can you answer my question....the OP seems to have disappeared...

 

Didn't disappear, my world just doesn't revolve around this forum.

To be perfectly blunt and honest? Obedience. We believe that this life is the "proving ground" to determine the next life's potential. I suppose you could equate it to getting a college degree. In order to get our degree, there are things you simply have to do.

As for the complications and rigidity? Well that is in the eye of the beholder. I find it easier to engage in behaviors that reduce complications myself. But that is my opinion.

Why do nations have laws? To promote order and tranquility. Religions are not much different. Although the rules aren't "multi-interpreted" as you'd think in the Church - one of the reason they have handbooks is to prevent just that problem. This is also the main function of Stake Presidents, to keep the rules uniform throughout the church.

God's house is a house of order, in his house there are rules - like any other parent's house really. Not an amalgam of different ideas. There is one way to return to the Father, and that way is outlined in the scriptures(book of "rules" I suppose"). It is through the Son of God. Also, the gospel is about freedom at its core, it is entirely voluntary. There is only persuasion and encouragement(although a fair number of people take this a bit too far...) to abide by the precepts taught. At the end of the day you are left with the choice to heed the teachings, or not.

 

Great post. Kudos

 

See the other thread for it, I'm going to address a couple today.

 

Sorry, I like people better when they behave because they are just good people, not people who live in fear they may break a rule...

 

How is it that 100% of the Mormons I've met have been cool as (*)(*)(*)(*)? Honestly, I've not met a single Mormon that I didn't like. I've met a lot of Mormons too... the area I reside in is somewhat important to their history, and I've lived all over Nevada, in Utah, California, Idaho. I don't have a bad thing to say about any Mormon I've met.

 

I am guessing you have just had a very good sampling of them. Because like all faiths, we have our undesirables as well.

Luck perhaps? The church tries its best to promote brotherly behavior towards our fellow man, but as individuals we can either come up short, or fulfill the calling.

 

God. He reveals his commands to his servants, who in turn pass it along to others. Much like a chain of command if you are familiar with military operation.

There is an abundant lack of commonsense in the world. Otherwise we wouldn't need laws to keep people in line. Our faith is different, it is non compulsory, if you don't want to practice, than don't. But if you desire full participation, there are qualifications one must abide by.

Laws are compulsory, our religion is not.

Turning on the news for twenty minutes causes me to question this. School shootings, warfare through the world, corruption at all levels are not indicative of peace and tranquility.

One must be careful not to confuse rules with traditions. For example, it is customary to take the sacrament with your right hand and pass it with your right hand. Some people even chide other to do so - this is stupid! I have never seen it doctrinally based that we must take the sacrament with our right hands. And to do so would be ruthlessly unfair to amputees everywhere. Some customs and traditions have been blown out of proportion in regards to importance in the church, and I make it a point to refute this nonsense when I encounter it.

Excellent questions. Yes, there are rules, and there are those to take them too far. President Uchtdorf actually gave a great talk about living a well balanced life a while ago and addressed this. You can live the letter of the fiercely, and be perfectly miserable because you aren't living the spirit of the law. For example, we are commanded to keep the sabbath day holy, yet there are people who have to work on the sabbath day - the medical profession comes to mind, as does security. Both perfectly honorable professions, but they don't exactly take days off. Militant extreme behaviors in reverence to rules can be destructive.

What exactly is too far? A good indicator of this is the spirit of the home in question and the people within it, if you can't live with the spirit's influence you have gone to far. Who decides what is too far? The individual, because every individual situation is different. There is no one size fits all command. At the end of the day and of life, you give an accounting of what you did with your life to God and he judges it accordingly.

And you are free to do so. I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

"""I wouldn't have it any other way"""

What? You mean you need rules? Don't need rules but "belong" to LDS anyway....?????

 

I refer to your ability to choose what you like, and what you'll do. Agency in a nutshell.

Like I said before, the gospel is voluntary. Nobody forces me to do it. Now if I want full participation in the gospel and its many appendages there are certain rules I must abide by. Kinda of like HOA for certain communities - you can live here if you choose to, but you can't grow certain trees if you want to live here. Nobody forced you to buy the house though.

Savvy?

 

Why did God change His mind on polygamy? Just that keen on Utah getting into the Union?

 

Begin speculation-

Glad you asked. Because I actually think that was the sole reason. You have to keep in mind something, the Church is all about gaining membership and helping mankind. If the US is to be the host nation for the church, it has to be accepting of it. At the time polygamy was seen as some heinous evil - and still is to this day by many. If we are in the business of saving souls, it only makes sense to shed a doctrine physically that can still be practiced spiritually and in the afterlife as well via proxy. The church never actually gave up the practice or the doctrine - in the eternal scope of things, section 132 illustrates this in detail. Physically we do not practice it any more because it was a requirement to gain statehood.

If we can't practice our religion in a government setting, how could we really preach it and hope to gain converts? It makes no sense to preach an unlawful religion that will get its practitioners arrested. The growth of the church would be dismal at best.

Basically, a hearts and minds operation in my opinion. We still believe in it, but no longer practice it physically, but spiritually we do because a man can be sealed to more than one woman.

-End speculation.

God said so. It fulfilled its requirement at the time. Polygamy comes in bursts as mentioned earlier, in the Book of Mormon is was prohibited, but in the Bible is was okay at times. So really, it depends on God's will at the time.

 

Gemini, I wasn't asking about "the Church".....I was asking about "God".


Why was polygamy okay with God one day.....not okay the next? Or does "the Church" control God?

 

Baptising the dead is weird - and doing so on false information even more so. The LDS genealogists are convinced my Great-great-grandmother died unmarried at eighteen. That's about a hundred subsequent people denied existence, by my reckoning. Seems a bit strange - and I've been in touch with a relative whose ancestors are probably responsible too. No change!

 

I support the good christian behavior of your congrgations and see that the membership behaves as christian ought.

In areas of your theology I wonder how the Book of Mormon which seems New World Centered can be that Gospel which "will be preached over all the world, before the end shall come."

"That" gospel was specifically referred to by Jesus as the one taught as found in the New Testament, that Christ is the Truth, the way and the light into man's life on earth.


Matthew 24:14
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

 

.....""""spiritually we do because a man can be sealed to more than one woman......"""" oh, how convenient for god to have made that little rule...for men.

I take it "sealing" stuff with multiple men is a no no for women.....

 

Hmmm...

It makes some sense into the money flows from men to women, not the other way around.
Hence a man with more than one wife his paying the price.

But a woman who can negotiate with as many men as she might is a harlot or worse.
She can create a second "currency" that buys and sells in accord with her favors.
It gives her better marks from the college professors and better employment advantages for her employers.
It pays for cruises and trips.

But, most damaging to a sociey is that it competes against the institution of marriage and destroys families which raise the next generation.
It creates welfare, abortion, and fatherless criminal minded kids.

Four wives does none of this if they are all under the same roof.

 

Many other groups do that. Evangelical Christians http://christianyp.com/ do, as do African-Americans. (http://www.blackpages.com/ )
Catholics do it as well www.catholicyellowpages.net/

 

My guess is that the same happens in almost every rural town. If you want to succeed in that town in business, you'd better be the member of the right church.

 

BTW, can I just add.....the most Christian and nicest woman I ever knew was LDS....

and the most evil woman I ever knew was also LDS.

 

Structure makes things easier for most of us. We are humans, and some of us need different things than you do.

 

Call it what you want, but it is true that women cannot be sealed to more than one man as their husband.

 

Are you saying that if I run a video store I have to stock R rated movies? Shouldn't I have the right to stock what I want to stock?