My conversation with Dan the Mormon.

Carpe_Omnis
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My conversation with Dan the Mormon.

Dan The Mormon:
"He was 14 years old in 1820, and he was living in a town
called Palmyra, New York. He wanted to know which Church
was true, because there were so many that were teaching
different things. He read in the scriptures that if we
don't know something that we should ask God and he will
give us the answer. So he decided to ask God and find
out for himself. While he was praying one morning to
know the truth, God and Jesus Christ appeared to him and
told him that none of the Churches were true - and they
called him to be a prophet and to restore the Church
to the Earth."

 

Me:
"and is the Church of Latter-Day Saints that church? I mean,
does it trace its roots back to Joseph Smith himself?"


Dan The Mormon:
"yes, he organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints under the direction of God."


Me:
"What is the church's policy on African Americans? There
has been controversy over that in the past." *


Dan The Mormon:
"They are equal in the Church, in every way."

 

Me:
"What's the Church's viewpoint on reading and interpreting
the scriptures? Is everything meant to be read literally,
and no commandment meant to be altered or changed? Or..." **


Dan The Mormon:
"There are many things that are hard to understand in the
scriptures, we should always pray for inspiration and
guidance when we read the scriptures so that we can
understand them and be able to apply them in our lives.
We believe that the Lord still speaks with his living
prophet and reveals important things to him that we need
to know."


Me:
"Who is his living prophet?"

 

Dan The Mormon:
"The prophet who is living today is named Thomas S. Monson."


Me:
"The president of the church?"


Dan The Mormon:
"Yes."


Me:
"Is every president considered a prophet?"


Dan The Mormon:
"The President of the Church is always also the prophet."


Me:
"I guess this is my last question. I was wondering if you
could explain to me what the Church teaches on homosexuality,
what (if anything) the book of Mormon says about it, and how
it is dealt with in the Church."


Dan The Mormon:
"Well, the Church considers it a sexual sin, just like many
other sexual sins, and that it is not acceptable. There are
people in the Church who struggle with it, just like there
are members who struggle with many other sins, and they are
counseled to pray and to ask for strength to overcome the
temptation and to repent if they have participated in it-
just like others who commit other sins are to repent."


Me:
"I see. The Church draws these teachings from the Old and
New Testaments solely, correct? The Book of Mormon itself
does not contain any reference to the issue, does it? Also
were there revelations received by the prophets of the church
concerning the issue? Or does the Church use only the Old
Testament and New Testament in regards to the issue of
homosexuality? I don't know much about the Book of Mormon..."


Dan The Mormon:
"It is taught in the Old and New Testament, like you said,
but the Book of Mormon also condemns sexual sin, and
homosexuality is considered a sexual sin, and the prophets
and apostles in the Church have also taught that it is wrong."


Me:
"And therefore, those found to be committing homosexual
acts risk being... um.. "ex-communicated?" from the Church?"

 

Dan The Mormon:
"If they do so, and are not willing to repent and try to
change, then that could be an end result, yes."


Me:
"And could fellow members of the Church, whom are aware
of this person's 'illicit behavior,' also risk being kicked
out if they help in keeping it a secret?"


Dan The Mormon:
"Every situation is different, and I wouldn't be able to
make a judgement on that."


Me:
"I see. But would you consider it the duty of fellow Church
members to tell the person what they are doing is sinful,
and to, if they felt it necessary, report it to church
officials?"


Dan The Mormon:
"I Would say they probably should, but it would probably
be best to approach the person directly first about it."


Me:
"I see. Well thankyou for your time!"


Dan The Mormon:
"You are welcome."
 

 

 

*The Book of Mormon contains verses which portray black people as cursed people who are meant to be nothing but 'slaves of slaves' thanks to the sins of their ancestors Cain and Ham.

**Funny, though... because once under pressure by civilized society (sometime in the 70s... I'm a lazy user of citations... just Google it sorry) the LDS church released a statement that a revelation had been receieved: black people were now miraculously 'ok.' I mention this, though Dan doesn't seem to understand... because this seems to imply that parts of the scriptures can be disregarded or nullified... but only if you're the President! Eye-wink

 

I used www.mormon.org to have this conversation. You can speak instantly with a minister online.


Stosis
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Haha, this site is awesome.

Haha, this site is awesome. I spoke with Chad. He told me some pretty weird things but I'll just post the first part of the conversation because of how funny it was

Chad: Can I help you?

Me: Hello

Me: I have been a life lonf atheist and awhile ago some mormons talked to me of the street and I am very interested in your church.

Chad: ok cool, do you have any questions from that conversation?

Me: not from that converstation but I was reading about mormonism on the internet and it says that your church was once against black people but has since changed?

Me: I am black and want to make that the church is no longer against black people before i go further

Chad: Yes the is true. the church was never against black people. the Lord just revealed new revalations in the 1970's that allow greater blessing to black people that were once not there. the church loves and accepts peoplefrom all walks of life

Me: ok, cool so black people are extra blessed?

Chad: Yeah!!!

Me: cool

[...]

Its funny how he basically told me what he thought I wanted to hear. Black people are more blessed!

[Note none of the personal information I gave was real, I just said things to see what he'd say. Just so there's no confusion in the future.]


Dracos
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The true history of the Rigdonites

Joe Smith and Sid Rigdon were a couple of con men who lived early in the 19th century.  They sold snake oil, magic rocks, and sometimes land they didn't own.  One day they made a good swindle and celebrated at Mables whorehouse.  Being flush with ill gotten cash they each rented two 12 year old girls.  After their orgy they looked at each other and said.  "We have got to find a way to make this legal !"

Sid worked at a publishing house and soon was approached by a man who had written a book of fiction about pre Columbian indians who did all sorts of wierd things.  Sid rejected the book but followed the author outside and offered him ten dollars, a bottle of booze, and a hooker, for the rights to his book.

They made up a story about translating some golden tablets using magic rocks.  At first they were going to name the church they created after Sid,  but changed it after it was discovered that Sid had a longer rap sheet than Joe.  So it became the Moron church, after a character in the original book, Moroni.  They eventually realized that might not be such a good idea, so they changed it to the Mormon church.    As always the main purpose of this church was so middle aged men could have sex with multiple under aged girls.  Joe and Sid had a falling out when Joe told  Sid that he would like to screw his 14 year old daughter.  Sid left the church.

Joe got busted for selling land he didn't own and while he was in jail some buddies smuggled him a gun and tried to break him out.  Although Joe managed to murder someone during this escape attempt he himself was shot and killed.

This is the true history of the Mormon church.


Answers in Gene...
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OK, I got Chad too.

OK, I got Chad too. Sadly, the site uses a java script that prevents copy/paste and they have a policy about not ever emailing chats on the grounds that chat is “not official doctrine”.

 

Even so, I gave him lots of questions about the real living prophet thing. I knew well going in that Gorrdon Hinckley is dead but I led him on until he said that so that I could give condolences.

 

Well, as the conversation developed, it seems that the head of the church is not the only prophet. There are 15 prophets. The head of the church, his two closest advisors and the 12 apostles.

 

The sick conversation continuing, there are other prophets as well but they are regional prophets and god only tells them the bits that they need to do their jobs. Then too, it seems as if everyone gets to hear directly from god but only the leaders get to hear leadership class advice. And only the 15 really cool guys get to hear advice about the whole world.

 

Other information that I could not work in but that I found on wikipedia:

 

There is no rule that there must be twelve apostles. When the leader dies, the advisors go back to being apostles until the succession has been settled. Usually, it is the first of the two who becomes the next leader. However, during the time before they decide, there are 15 apostles.

 

Joseph Smith named several successors during his life. The most recent at the time of his death was his brother. Sadly, they were both murdered in the same jail cell. Thus a crisis of succession came to happen.

 

There were four claimants and after lots of arguing there came to be four Mormon churches. The leaders of each of then excommunicated the leaders of all the others. The LDS is only the largest of the four.

 

Actually, there are five. The FLDS split from the LDS in the 1930's over the idea of polygamy being important and thus became the fifth version of what it means to be a Mormon.

NoMoreCrazyPeople wrote:
Never ever did I say enything about free, I said "free."

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Conor Wilson
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In my (admittedly brief) time as a Mormon...

...I was taught that, technically, any given member of the Church is supposed to "be a prophet" for him-/herself.  Additionally, one is also a prophet for anyone over whom one has spiritual authority.  So, a bishop "is a prophet" for his stake (...or is is "ward?" I never did get the organizational terminology.  Anyway...); a father "is a prophet" for his family, and so on, up to the Presidency of the Church, which "is a prophet" for the Church as a whole.

 

Conor


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 This made me laugh so

 This made me laugh so hard! I was raised in the mormon church but I started being "inactive" at 15. I had forgotten what crazy crap they preach! I can't believe they have Mormon chatters, too! This is rich...

 

- Sarah

- Sarah

"I’m a polyatheist - there are many gods I don’t believe in." - Dan Fouts


Desdenova
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I never got past their magic

I never got past their magic underwear.


Brian37
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Too all theists reading

Too all theists reading this:

It is funny how other sects will look at the "magic underwear" as silly, but somehow a disimbodied being without a second set of DNA magically got a girl pregnant.

Oh, and lets not forget that dead humans can, after loosing all their blood, suffer lack of oxygen to the brain, complete organ failure, and complete celular death, they can jump up and dance the jig magically after 3 days.

So why are these people laughing at magic underwear? Before you go laughing at their rabbit's feet thinking, your sect, like theirs, believes in the magical birth and death of your common mythical hero.

And no religion has a "prophet", but wrather "profiteers" of credulity.

I used to believe my stuffed animals would protect me from the boogieman in the closet, but I grew up, isn't it about time you did too?

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog


triften
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I had a conversation a

I had a conversation a little while ago due to the fact that a Mormon friend of mine thought "atheist" meant "Please convince me." Yeesh.

Between the ridiculous rituals (many taken from freemasons), the magic underwear, the founder being a con-man (in case you were wondering why they were chased out of towns and "persecuted&quotEye-wink, it is actually the "continuing revalation" BS that gets my goat. "Yes, our religion is correct and right!... oh wait, we've just gotten an update from god: 'Black people are human too' Wow, the lord speaks... yup, always right and true, that's us." Gah!

-Triften

EDIT: P.S. Here's where I posted mine: http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/14817 which didn't get anywhere.


Desdenova
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triften wrote:I had a

triften wrote:

I had a conversation a little while ago due to the fact that a Mormon friend of mine thought "atheist" meant "Please convince me." Yeesh.

Between the ridiculous rituals (many taken from freemasons), the magic underwear, the founder being a con-man (in case you were wondering why they were chased out of towns and "persecuted&quotEye-wink, it is actually the "continuing revalation" BS that gets my goat. "Yes, our religion is correct and right!... oh wait, we've just gotten an update from god: 'Black people are human too' Wow, the lord speaks... yup, always right and true, that's us." Gah!

-Triften

EDIT: P.S. Here's where I posted mine: http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/14817 which didn't get anywhere.

At least the LDS religion is, ahem, evolving to keep up with the times.

It takes a village to raise an idiot.

Save a tree, eat a vegetarian.

Sometimes " The Majority " only means that all the fools are on the same side.


triften
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Desdenova wrote:At least the

Desdenova wrote:

At least the LDS religion is, ahem, evolving to keep up with the times.

Still, their god is slower at keeping up with the times than the U.S. government.

-Triften