Our new Indie Games subforum is now open for business in G&T. Go and check it out, you might land a code for a free game. If you're developing an indie game and want to post about it,
follow these directions. If you don't, he'll break your legs! Hahaha! Seriously though.
Our rules have been updated and given
their own forum. Go and look at them! They are nice, and there may be new ones that you didn't know about! Hooray for rules! Hooray for The System! Hooray for Conforming!
Posts
Okay, you win the thread.
I'm thinking is the Mark of Cain sort of like a Tiefling?
I know this be new for some Americans but I think you finally have a president above such things....
gamertag: Canadianllama
I guess it would be the equivalent of a used car salesmen telling me about the fucked up muffler on the vehicle I'm about to purchase.
or perhaps the church was run by old racist white men 30 years ago and the church has progressed a little beyond that
1. Mark of Cain is not the same as Curse of Cain.
2. Joseph Smith (founder, Mormonism) himself ordained black ministers.
3. In the LDS church (the president of which Obama met), there's no policy or doctrinal distinction between whites and blacks since the "divine revelation" of 1978. From their point of view, God himself prohibits racism in the church.
4. Among the non-mainstream ("fundamentalist") Mormon churches, there are those that are openly racist. This is not unique to Mormonism.
Two personal observations:
1. I do think the LDS church should officially apologize for its racist past. I expect that eventually they will.
2. Refusing to talk to people is no way to overcome bigotry.
Alright, I'll slip into my asbestos suit now.
I bow to your point. I've been so wrapped up in my own state's east-coast battle for gay rights, I completely forgot the influence that the Utah-based LDS must've had over the vote on Prop 8 given the geographical proximity.
Edit: Also remember that, historically speaking, it takes Churches a fairly long time to apologize for doing stupid things. See Galileo.
But having just finished reading Under the Banner of Heaven, I've become pretty fascinated with Mormons/LDS/FLDS. I wonder if they presented Mr. Obama with magic underwear...
It's a trap anyways.
It wouldn't be 2 seconds before Obama finished his last sentence chastising the Mormons that every two-bit pundit on TV would be screaming about Jeremiah Wright and "Obama was on a magazine cover with Farakkhan blah blah blah" all over again.
Mostly because they retroactively baptize people.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
I guess one could out the Jehovah's Witnesses: Mind you, I'm not arguing either side here. In fact, I think the argument against them being a bunch of racists is stronger.
I don't really care much either way though - they don't celebrate birthdays, and that's just wrong.
I voted for Obama, and I think Glenn Beck (politically) is one of the biggest morons on tv.
Ok, I'm not going to deny that many members in the past were probably racist. All of us probably have ancestors who had some belief that we arn't too proud of, just like some of my ancestors were probably racists, because, well, they lived a hundred years ago and people were stupid back then; I wouldn't doubt that many of you had racists ancestors back then too. Theres nothing we can do about it, thats the way things were.
As for the limitation of the priesthood, whats important to understand is that, 1st, this didn't limit membership in the church, only priesthood responsibilities and temple participation. Other than that, they were still baptized into the church, recieved the holy ghost, just like everyone else.
2. As for the reason, its...not very clear. In fact, there was never any decree by God through the Prophet that they couldn't recieve the priesthood. (Which is why Joseph Smith and others earlier had no problem ordaining them to the priesthood). I think part of the reason was simply, a lot of people were racists and God waited untill a time when the Church was strong enough to set them straight. (or maybe I'm wrong, I dunno, I guess we'll just find out after the millenium and all the other mysteries are revealed)
Anyway, here are some articles about the subject.
The first is by a black member of the church who used to be extremely "anti" and converted to the church (imagine someone like Quingu becoming Mormon and you have an idea of what this guy was kinda like)
He isn't an authority in the church, just a member talking about his feelings about it. He especially acknowledes how there were racists comments made before and we shouldn't ignore that.
http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Conferences/2002_Dispelling_the_Black_Myth.html
Here is a sort of timeline of different instances of blacks in the church.
http://www.blacklds.org/history
Theres also http://www.fairlds.org/
Which is an apologetics page attempting to answer some of the criticism of the church (most of the stuff the op talked about).
Yea I know how you feel, blah blah blah mormon apologetics blah blah. But either you can just sit here and fume over something that happened years ago which no ones really proud of, or you can maybe try to see some of our theories as to why it might have been that way or what it really meant...
Ok I'm done, you can go back to hating us again.
God does work in conspicuously convenient ways.
God is a lazy son of a bitch.
Eh, I would hope not. Actually i'm not sure I said anything that would really give off that assumption...
"Ok I'm done, you can go back to hating us again."? What about how you constantly refer to anyone who criticises Mormonism as an "anti"? It's like Sarah Palin calling people who disagree with her "haters" or whatever it is. It's ridiculous.
1. Anti is how THEY refer to themselves. These are people who make it their past time to try and scare people away from the church. I'm not even complaining about them, I was just giving you information on the guy who wrote the article and how he used to be of that ilk.
2. Don't for the love of all that is holy ever compare me to Sarah Palin. I might have to go shower now.
3. Theres been people in this forum sanctioning the killing of Mormons before. Saying that these threads are usually a hate fest is less than an exaggeration.
Acknowledging how people feel about us, or treat us, is far less than complaining about it or playing the victim, (which I wasn't doing).
But seriously, Sarah Palin? That hurts...
Do you think the Garden of Even was in Missouri?
Yeah, crazy fucking Mormons. Haven't you been paying attention to Catholics and such?
The proper way to do it is "Oh, we misintepreted God's words. He actually meant 'Blacks are cool' and we just fucked up the translation. Our bad".
Jesus, do we have to teach you people EVERYTHING.
RE- baptisms for the dead. I guess it's better to not give every person the opportunity to accept or reject the ordinance. Let's just send them straight to hell instead. I guess you just can't win.
damned if you do, damned if you don't :winky:
that's one of the ones the crazies believe
It would be odd to believe in the Garden of Even.
Is this supposed to be more, less, or the same ammount of crazy as believing the Garden of Eden was somewhere else?
It is supposed to assess the degree to which the individual holds Joseph Smith to be significant.
So yes, yes I do believe that the Garden of Eden was in Missouri. Why, do you happen to have proof to the contrary?
Do...do you have any proof of your position to begin with? Because I can assert that the Garden of Eden was on Jupiter, and you'd most likely have a hard time offering conclusive evidence that it wasn't. Conclusively proving a negative tends to be a bit tricky, you see. That's why most people don't generally go around stating wacky shit and then daring people to disprove it.
Well, except the damn Flying Spaghetting Monster cultists. But screw them.
It is impossible to prove a universal negative given how proof functions.
Do you believe that Native Americans were descendants of one of the twelve tribes of Israel?
Well, my reasoning is on my belief that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Its not me pulling a location out of no where, or randomly asserting that it is in X location.
Of course, but what proof do you have that Joseph Smith was not pulling a location out of no where? What funds your enterprise of belief in Joseph Smith? For what reason do you have faith in Joseph Smith?
Yes, yes I do. I'm not sure where your going with this, but I can tell, if you its Church Doctrine, and you are holding it in the correct context, then yes, I can say I believe it.
The problem is, people usually take our beliefs and dont present them in the light or context from which they derived. Out of that light they might seem foolish, but with the whole puzzle together, I understand and accept it, and dont find it nearly as incomprehensible as any other belief in any other religion.
John 7:17 "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself"
I have lived part of my life not following the gospel, not living up to the light or knowledge that I possess. And then I have lived my life following the gospel, doing as this scripture say and following what I believe to be his will.
Since doing this, I have fealt the spirit more abundantly in my life. I can truly say that I at times feel the presence of God. This would not happen if I had not changed the way I was doing things, and it is not something I was experiencing when I was disobeying the gospel.
I believe that we all are born with the light of Christ. It prompts us towards choosing the right. The more we heed its promptings, the stronger its influence is and the easier it is to discern its promptings. Even though everyone is born with this light, the more someone does not heed it, the less stronger its influence is, and the harder it is for that person to recognize it.
As I have lived the gospel, these promptings have become very stronger, and I feel that these promptings are evidence of the truthfullness of the gospel.
Lastly, I have experienced for myself, certain events of a holier nature. There is one specific time where I had a near death experience, and because of that Light of Christ which I mentioned, because of those promptings, I was able to escape that situation, where as, if I had not had those promptings, I would not be sitting here typing to you right now. There have been other experiences, moments when I have witnessed strong yet reverent spiritual experiences.
All these things beckon me to believe in God and that Joseph Smith was his Prophet. All in all, I truly believe that God has answered my prayers privately in ways that are discernable to me, that these things are true.
The thing is if you are trying to make a reasoned argument then it is the burden of the person making the positive claim (eg: the garden was in Missouri) to provide the proof. That's how reason works.
Obviously this does not apply if it is an opinion based purely upon blind faith. But in that case it is completely impossible to even discuss the issue. You cannot disprove blind faith with any evidence at all, no matter how concrete, because it is not based on evidence to begin with.
What of situations where that fundamental context is at odds with other contexts put forth by science, physics, and the general empirical enterprise of knowledge?
Asked another way, do you get a flu vaccine and then deny evolution? How does your operative religious context interract with other empirical / scientific contexts?