slimboyfat joins the Mormons!

by slimboyfat 95 Replies latest jw experiences

  • JWdaughter
    JWdaughter

    SBF was in a Stake Building. They are usually a center in the community of nearby mormon churches, each of which usually hold 3 + congregations. Stake buildings usually are the cultural center for larger events as well as normal weekly meetings of which there are several for various groups. Young men, priesthood, young women, whatever the ladies groups were, any community or charity kinds of functions. Primary. Forgot all the kids stuff, then family events, cultural festivals---I can go on. They do plays, have musicals, dances. Those buildings stay kind of busy. Plus any local missionaries have their meetings there.

    Missionaries are loved and respected and usually are invited to dinner at homes a few nights a week. They usually sit on the front (stage) area (by the choir), but since SBF was with them, they kept him company in the normal seating.

    I think the LDS church is contracting in a lot of ways, even if the strict numbers of members aren't dissolving, the faithful adherence to sunday meeting is probably less for those who haven't left because they have gotten the message that it IS just a social club. I think the religions credibility has been shot for those who care about how "true" it is. They have testimonies that it is just a nice bunch of people to hang around with. Not that their "gospel" is actually true. So, it has become a bit of a shell of its former self. I don't think many are even pretending any more that it is really about a deep truth, but on the positive side, the church more than ever is emphasizing all the warm fuzzy positive messages of Jesus, so that isnt a drawback if they refocus on that, I think. But yes, I still have overwhelmingly positive associations with them and my dear friend is LDS and I have known her since I was in the church in my late teens.

  • joe134cd
    joe134cd

    Jwdaughter= Like I said in my previous post the thing that really struck me was for the size of the building the actual seating (in what I thought was) in the chapel area was really quite small. Perhaps seating only 150-200 people max. I was really nosey when I was in there and I thought perhaps there may of been a number of different congregation using the facility. There would of had to of been to justify such a big, expensive, and the facilities that were there. I saw no noticeboard signs indicating this though. I also thought with all the rooms etc that perhaps people were sitting else where while the service was on. The other thing I noticed was just how plain and drab the place looked on the inside e.g just plain painted white brick. To be honest I thought the KH in the same area would of had more seating and far out classed what I saw in the temple. What's your thoughts jwdaughter.

  • TimeBandit
    TimeBandit

    Mormons scare me a little...I think it's the idea of religious people running around in powerful and mystical undergarments. Power like that is a BIG responsibility and ought be well regulated by the government...Like with background checks and such.

    TB-

  • Finkelstein
    Finkelstein

    Religion is an agreed to set of lies , including the Mormons .

  • Earnest
    Earnest

    I spent some time investigating the Mormon faith and read the Book of Mormon, Doctrines & Covenants, Pearl of Great Price and another book by one of the apostles explaining the doctrine. But the most interesting book with a lot of incidental detail was A Gathering of Saints by Robert Lindsey which is about Mark Hofmann who was a Mormon and a document forger who eventually ended up bombing others and (inadvertently) himself. I think I finally gave up on them when I found that Joseph Smith had "translated" the Bible which was the Authorised Version with certain additions and revisions which God had revealed to him.

  • JWdaughter
    JWdaughter

    Joe, I went years ago in a western state. The chapel is one part of the building, but the rooms were in a busy rotation throughout the day with church, Sunday school and then the priesthood/relief society/youth and children's groups(which were for personal growth, charity projects, and other activity planning). As you know, church was an hour in the chapel, but "church" was a 3 hour tour each week. Plus midweek stuff and weekend family picnics, cookout, fireside, etc. Our chapel was usually pretty full and it was good sized. There were always things to do and activities. Of course, not all Mormons are super pious any more than JWs or baptists, but no one seemed unwelcome. I was just a kid though. My last serious connections to my local ward died, literally. My friend still in had the faith built in her like Sunday dinner rolls have yeast-couldnt get it out of her even surgically. She has the selfless service to others thing in her DNA.

    In my area, ward meetings weren't on boards outside. You can likely check online, but the west is the center of the church. Not a whole lot east of the Rockies, I think.

  • wozza
    wozza

    The USA 60 minutes did a bit on how they handle homosexuality ,showed vision of them putting porn on a TV and hooking up wires and electrocuting the persons testicles - oh yeah a fine upstanding American religion.

    Grew up in it ,all but one elder that used to call around became gay or was already gay ,always wondered if they got this treatment. Could go on but what's the point....................

  • Heaven
    Heaven

    A former Mormon wrote in to comedian Lewis Black with his little rant. I think this has been posted before but it's probably worth placing here. Enjoy!

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

  • dozy
    dozy

    That's an interesting experience. Sometimes I drive past the huge Mormon temple in Preston , Lancashire & I've often wondered what it is like inside (I guess I'll never find out.) There are a couple of Mormon missionaries here - unusually one of them is black ( I wonder if she has looked into their history about blacks not being allowed into the priesthood until a fairly recent piece of "new light". ) I saw them one day talking to one of the town drunks offering to help him with food etc. I wonder if they are sometimes exploited by these kind of people...

    Did anyone see the recent UK TV documentary on the Mormon missionaries? http://www.channel4.com/programmes/meet-the-mormons/episode-guide/

    It was quite an eye-opener - especially as the 2 missionaries have to be almost constantly within sight of each other. A bit creepy really....

  • Qcmbr
    Qcmbr

    You missed the time when being a Mormon was great. The chapels and stakehouses once buzzed with activity and most families had their entire social life there. Now they are fading badly in the West, especially Europe. Generally the people are genuine and lovely but you can see in their eyes now just how utterly boring Mormonism is. Once it really believed in itself but now all its energy is spent trying to face one fact checking problem after another. They are on the wrong side of social justice and are tied by core doctrine to binary gender definitions and a patriarchal hierarchy.

    Hope you enjoyed the people, sorry you had to smell the foisty, damp smell and genuine sympathy that you had to sit through a whole set of meetings.

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