THE THIRTEEN ARTICLES OF FAITH Mormons Believe But Are Afraid To Tell You
Friday, May 15, 2009
Maybe this is why the image of the church is suffering, it's all so different than mainstream Christianity or even reality. Some members aren't even aware of some of these beliefs, because the church is slowly moving away from some of the crazier one. Older church prophets, manuals and instruction books taught all of this however.
THE THIRTEEN ARTICLES OF FAITH Mormons Believe But Are Afraid To Tell You
1. We believe that if we are good Mormons who marry our wives in the Temple, when we are resurrected, we become Gods. We get our own star and have lots of sex, so we have billions of spirit children. If we are lucky, we get more than one wife. Our firstborn spirit child becomes the Jesus to a planet we populate. We get to make an Adam and Eve for each planet. Then they (that planet's Adam and Eve) start making physical bodies for all our spirit children.
2. We believe God was once a human just like us on another planet. He was a good Mormon with his own Jesus and his own God. He was eternally married to a woman from that world who became our Heavenly Mother. God and Heavenly Mother got their own star and their firstborn spirit child was Jesus. Above God the Father is God the Grandfather, and above him, God the Great Grandfather, and it goes back forever.
3. We believe Jesus, the Holy Ghost, Michael the Archangel, Satan, all humans, and all demons are spirit children of our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. We all lived together in the Pre-existence with God near a star called Kolob, God's first created star. One third of God's spirit children took Satan's side, got thrown out of Heaven, and became the demons. The rest took Jesus' and Michael's side. Michael became Adam and the ancestor of us all.
4. We believe the body of Jesus was created from a sperm of God the Father's. The Holy Ghost put that sperm in Mary's womb, and the embryo of Jesus was created.
5. We believe the Bible has been chopped up quite a bit. A lot of good stuff has been taken out, like the books of Jasher, Ahijah, Shemaiah, Iddo, and Jehu, and the Laodicean Epistle by Paul. There is also the story in Genesis about Enoch and his city, which was taken to Heaven.
6. We believe the Book of Mormon to be Scripture superior to the Bible, because the Bible has been changed so much from when it was originally written. The Book of Mormon is a history of two Jewish Indian tribes, known as the Nephites and Lamanites. They came here about 600 BC. The Nephites were mostly good and wrote the Book of Mormon on Gold Plates. Jesus visited them shortly after his resurrection. In time, the Nephites became pretty bad, and were wiped out about 400 AD. Moroni, the last Nephite, buried the Gold Plates in a hill in New York.
7. We believe in three heavens. The highest one is called the Celestial Kingdom. God the Father, Heavenly Mother, Jesus, and all good Mormons and children who died before they were 8 will live there forever. The middle heaven is called the Terrestrial Kingdom. It is for good people who did not want to be Mormons. Jesus and people from the Celestial Kingdom can come down to visit, but God the Father and Heavenly Mother cannot. The lowest heaven is the Telestial Kingdom. It is for people who were pretty bad, and spent the whole Millennium in Hell.
8. We believe people who did not get a chance to become Mormons in this life can become Mormons in the next life. Mormons get baptized for dead people in the Temple. This will go on in the Millennium until every good person who wants to become a Mormon will get a chance.
9. We believe the only people who stay in Hell forever are Satan, the demons, ex-Mormons who criticize the Church, and really, really bad Mormons who would have killed Jesus themselves if they could have gotten away with it.
10. We believe those of African descent are descendants of Cain, through Ham's Cainite wife, Egyptus. We believe they could not have the Priesthood because they were less valiant in the Pre-existence.
11. We believe we no longer have to believe what dead Presidents of the Church believed. We don't have to believe, as Brigham Young did, that Adam is God the Father, or that Jesus was a polygamist, or that gold grows. We don't have to believe, as President Joseph Fielding Smith did, that we would never make it to the Moon, or that those of African descent cannot receive the Priesthood until Abel has children on another planet, who get the Priesthood there first.
12. We believe a text which was proven to be a 4th century BC Egyptian funeral text, which has been translated by many Egyptologists, to really be the Book of Abraham, and that Joseph Smith's totally different translation is the only true one. We also might believe the Kinderhook Plates he translated to be accurate, even though they were proven to be a hoax, or that he knew he was being tricked, even though he translated part of them.
13. We believe whatever the President of the Church says is true, even if it contradicts a dead President of the Church, or even if it contradicts history. Our salvation depends on us sacrificing our intellect to the President of the Church, and its General Authorities.
Labels: LDS church, mormon
Author: Lilith » Comments:
LDS Church: Do as I say, not as I do
LDS Church: Do as I say, not as I do
by Micah McAllister
When it comes to evaluating or scrutinizing the LDS church, most members will tell you that the doctrine or church is perfect, but run by imperfect people. While this may sound good in theory to the members, it should be a blaring red flag. This is actually a “stop think” method utilized to keep members from thinking critically about the organization and blaming themselves for it’s (the organization’s) shortcomings. To continue this discussion, I would like to distinguish and segregate LDS faithful into two groups. The first group is comprised of the average member, serving in their local vicinity in various capacities and generally trying to do their best to fulfill what has been asked of them and what they believe is right. The second group is what I would call “upper management”, those at the top of the pyramid dictating the direction of the church whole. This group includes the First Presidency, the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, Seventy and some of the many office positions that keep the church running.
This second group is where I would like to focus and apply my theme of “Do as I say, not as I do”. Though there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of examples of this, today I will play nice and only focus on one, which in a way, covers most of the rest. Honesty. To setup this example, let’s establish from the LDS Church’s own Gospel Principles what it means to be honest:
"Lying is intentionally deceiving others. Bearing false witness is one form of lying. The Lord gave this commandment to the children of Israel: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" (Exodus 20:16). Jesus also taught this when he was on earth (see Matthew 19:18). There are many other forms of lying. When we speak untruths, we are guilty of lying. We can also intentionally deceive others by a gesture or a look, by silence, or by telling only part of the truth. Whenever we lead people in any way to believe something that is not true, we are not being honest. "(“Chapter 31: Honesty,” Gospel Principles, 203)
While I was on my way out of the church in June of 2008, I met twice with my Stake President. In trying to understand my reasons for leaving, he asked me several questions. “Have you been offended?” No. “Do you have any unresolved transgressions or sins?” No. (Side note: These are the typical off hand reasons that LDS members think of when hearing about a member going inactive or falling away. While this is sometimes the case, it is usually not the norm for stalwart members who leave unexpectedly.) “What is your main concern regarding the church?” My response to this question was the lying and deception to cover up and withhold the full history of Mormon origins.
How do I know the church is covering up or withholding the full story? Because Apostles themselves have admitted and admonished to not teach the full version of church history. Their reasoning is the whole “milk before meat” mentality. However, the diet of church history is never transitioned to “meat” and members are forever left to subside on “milk”. Church educators for seminary and institute often take it upon themselves to learn the “meat” of church history but when they attempt to share this “meat” with eager students, they are sometimes disciplined, threatened, or even fired. So while the “upper management” of the church preaches “honesty”, they themselves are failing to be honest themselves under their own definition of the term: “We can also intentionally deceive others by a gesture or a look, by silence, or by telling only part of the truth”. Essentially what is taught in seminary, institute, primary, and Sunday school doctrine classes around the globe is a severely biased, watered down, and even modified version of the real events.
“It is . . . my conviction that God desires everyone to enjoy freedom of inquiry and expression without fear, obstruction or intimidation. I find it one of the fundamental ironies of modern Mormonism that the General Authorities, who praise free agency, also do their best to limit free agency's prerequisites--access to information, uninhibited inquiry and freedom of expression.”
-Michael Quinn, ex-LDS Historian
The following quotes are excerpts from a discourse given by Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1981 to LDS church educators during a conference at Brigham Young University. This clearly depicts the lengths and means the “upper management” is willing to enforce to keep the LDS faithful on a steady diet of “milk” while withholding the more filling and needed “meat”. (source: http://byustudies.byu.edu/shop/pdfSRC/21.3Packer.pdf )
"Church history can be so interesting and so inspiring as to be a powerful tool indeed for building faith. If not properly written or properly taught, it may be a faith destroyer."
“There is a temptation for the writer or the teacher of Church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith promoting or not. Some things that are true are not very useful."
"The writer or teacher who has an exaggerated loyalty to the theory that everything must be told is laying a foundation for his own judgment. The Lord made it clear that some things are to be taught selectively and some things are to be given only to those who are worthy.”
"That historian or scholar who delights in pointing out the weaknesses and frailties of present or past leaders destroys faith. A destroyer of faith - particularly one within the Church, and more particularly one who is employed specifically to build faith - places himself in great spiritual jeopardy. He is serving the wrong master, and unless he repents, he will not be among the faithful in the eternities. Do not spread disease germs!" (Boyd K. Packer, 1981, BYU Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 259-271, emphasis mine)
While I understand the LDS church’s concerns and reasons to build faith instead of “destroying” it, my question is, if the full version of history and events is such that faith would likely not be established when taught, then perhaps it’s not a foundation one would want to have faith in anyways. Notice that Elder Packer’s concerns are not whether truth is being taught, but whether faith is being established. Using this logic, one could freely modify and teach the history of events of any cause to recruit followers, gain power, wealth or whatever and feel that the ends justify the means. However in the LDS church’s case, this is in clear contradiction to their own values and creed.
“As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil they set out to destroy.” -- Christopher Dawson
When history is modified such that it only paints a positive light for any organization, it is easier for people to get warm fuzzies about it, such that they falsely think they are joining a good cause and fail to recognize or accept all of the skeletons in the closet from both the past and present. They only see and accept what the organization want them to. Unfortunately, when combining this control of information with other subtle means and tactics, the free agency and authentic identity of individuals is literally robbed from them.
“For faith, as well intentioned as it may be, must be built on facts, not fiction - faith in fiction is a damnable false hope.” -- Thomas Edison
Teaching a biased, watered down version of history is, in a very real sense, teaching fiction, spun to the benefit of the organization at the expense of the individual. Deception, lies, and cover-up are normally attributes of evil. An organization that preaches one thing but does another is not an organization worthy of loyalty or trust.
“The prophet himself stands under the judgment which he preaches. If he does not know that, he is a false prophet.” -- Reinhold Niebuhr
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” -- Aldous Huxley
Please distribute freely.
Labels: honesty, LDS church, mormon
Author: Lilith » Comments:
SLC Apostate Craigslist Letter
Friday, March 13, 2009
Dear Elder (Name):
As one who suffers from within, I write this letter to inform you of the magnitude of a growing problem. I am fully active, fully worthy, and fully apostate. I remain active solely for the sake of immediate and extended family unity, and to preserve my marriage. The fact that I cannot act upon my knowledge about fraudulent church history and doctrine has created a considerable dilemma for both the church and myself. The church is filled with people like me, and if you do not address this dilemma, the church will collapse from within. This letter, therefore, is an appeal for your consideration of my personal dilemma, and to serve as a witness against you if you fail to act.
I am writing this letter anonymously because I fear the power of your unrighteous dominion. It is not acceptable for you to claim that you personally would not wish for those like me to suffer or fear. The “Strengthening Church Members Committee” has proven its reach in the true style of “1984 Thought-Crime” investigations and “Ministry (councils) of Love” discipline. Yes, I fear you, I loath your tactics and I forcibly serve you. If you doubt my claim of forced servitude, then you would be wise to withhold your assessment until the end of this letter. I am writing with the futile hope that you (or anyone) will care enough to resolve this growing and unavoidable tragedy within the church; the tragedy of those who know the truth and cannot act upon it without destroying their families.
I come from 1837-convert lineage. I grew up in the Mormon Colonies in Mexico; I was hyper-valiant in my youth; I completed reading the full set of scriptures by the age of 16; I had all the missionary discussions and missionary scriptures memorized before even getting my call to serve; I served a very successful mission in Mexico; I attended BYU; I married in the temple; I served in four different bishoprics, high council, stake executive secretary, gospel doctrine instructor, young men’s president, high priest group leader, and various other callings; I was a student of the gospel, and was known for my answers to difficult historical and doctrinal questions; I have attended the temple more than 800 times, and virtually have the whole thing (all ordinances) memorized; I am a set-apart ordinance worker; I am currently serving in three ward and stake callings; IN OTHER WORDS: I deserve your respect, and am not engaged in any unworthy activity, so before you categorize me into some convenient slot, think again.
I have five children, two returned-missionary-temple-married, one attending BYU, and two active in the youth program. My wife and I have lived our nearly 25 years of marriage completely united in our commitment to a gospel oriented home. My wife is one of the most valiant, unquestioning, devoted members you will ever meet. Our happiness in marriage was centered in the gospel. We have faithfully performed all of the home-strengthening practices (FHE, daily prayer and scripture study, etc) throughout our married years. Our children are strong in the church because we as parents gave them that foundation. We are your typical success story.
This changed approximately two years ago. The story about how it changed is long, complicated, and spans years of personal study, personal observation, and experience. Rather than rehearse the entire journey, I will only summarize the end results. Suffice it to say that I have discovered reliable unchallenged facts about church history, church operations, church doctrine, and church culture that have brought me to the undeniable conclusion that the church is not true. Not only is the church not true (meaning that it is not what it claims to be), but the church purposefully withholds (even denies) vital information that would lead ANY thinking person to the same conclusion. Finally, church leaders even boast about the moral and ethical justification for acting this way. This is the behavior pattern of a cult; it is inconsistent with the church’s own articles of faith; and it is the central reason for the growing groundswell of revolt from within. To ignore this fact is the height of arrogance. You are either stupid or you are devious; whichever you choose, you lose.
I have a feeling (since I cannot imagine a different possibility) that you already know about this problem. You already know that the church is not what it claims to be; you already know that Native Americans are not the Lamanites of the Book of Mormon; you already know that the whole story of the BOM is not accurate or historical or even a translation of gold plates; you already know that the Book of Abraham is not a translation of the papyri that it claims to be; you already know that the first vision account is not reliable or accurate; you already know that church history is a warped version of real history and real history paints a pretty bleak picture of church origins and behavior; you already know that spiritual “special witness” experiences are not what the average member believes them to be; and you already know that as prophets, seers, and revelators, you do not possess any such gifts as they are understood by the average member. You receive and even encourage unqualified trust in your special abilities, and you know very well that those abilities are not special at all. You may be talented administrators, but you are not prophets, seers, and revelators, and you know it. Yet you allow members to revere and honor you as such. You are either self-deceived or you are willing deceivers. You know that members believe and teach that you have had personal physical visitations from Jesus Christ, and you know that you have not had this experience. Yet, you are willing to allow members to perpetuate this myth for unknown but unavoidably dishonest reasons. This is a pattern, not an anomaly. You know you are not what you claim to be (or what church culture teaches about you); and you allow this false perception to continue. What does that say about you and your integrity?
So, after coming to this awful realization that things are not what they claim to be within the church, what are my options? This journey was so disruptive and internally tumultuous that I chose to travel it alone. I was absolutely certain that there were solid faith sustaining answers to each disturbing fact. Finally, after I had absorbed the magnitude of the truth, I tried to share it with my wife. To her horror, she saw that her husband had gone into the unthinkable realm of “apostasy”. At first, she resented me for even looking; then she denied the possibility that any of it could be true; then she tried to stand on the shaky ground that even if it was true it did not lead to the conclusions I had made; finally, she clings to the defensive posture that I cannot be smarter than you (how can so many good men be wrong and her imperfect husband be right?). This is where you come into the picture. This is where the church comes between me and my wife in our marriage relationship. This is where the damage is done in countless other relationships. Do you think that you can escape responsibility for this damage? Do you doubt your complicity in creating this wedge? Can you understand how people like me come to a point of powerless resentment against the church? I suspect that you cannot understand such things, because if you did you would use your influence to make necessary changes.
There is nothing more ironic than the saying that “A man can leave the church, but he can never leave it alone.” The truth is that “A man can leave the church but only if he leaves ‘alone’”, or “A man can leave the church but the church can never leave him alone.” You would gladly split up my family rather than allow my knowledge to draw them away from the church. You have proven such intent in both policy and practice.
I am trapped in the church; of that there can be no doubt. And yet I perceive that you do indeed doubt such an idea. It seems foreign to you that I would claim to be trapped in an institution that glorifies agency. But surely you can see the cultural elements (which you support) that limit my options. Extended family relationships are high-pressure control mechanisms. My leaving the church for doctrinal or historical reasons would have a devastating and disruptive impact on the entire family network. You glorify those who leave their families to join our church and at the same time you demonize those who would leave the church for whatever reason. You stereotype those who obtain damaging “truth” as intellectuals and apostates. You encourage an atmosphere of exclusion against those who have information that would damage faith, even when that faith is founded upon false data.
Your efforts of withholding and denying truth have had the result of destroying personal integrity. I know things that I cannot openly speak about, even with those closest to me. I lie in temple recommend interviews so I can go to the temple to see my own children get married, and because my wife is comforted by the image of a temple worthy husband. I lie to my children when they question an aspect of church history or doctrine, because the truth would place them in the same pressure cooker I am in. I lie to my wife because she finds the truth so disturbing. I lie because telling the truth is more painful than a comforting lie. And I learned to lie from you. You are lying to the membership by your silence (and denial) regarding information that is vital to faith. People base their faith on incorrect information; you know this; and you remain silent. You lie for the same reason that I lie; because people prefer a comforting lie over a disturbing truth. I am trapped here because of the culture you have created, and I am reduced to using the same tactics you use at the expense of personal integrity.
Your understanding of the culture you created and perpetuate through established programs is dismal. You preach adherence to the guidance of the brethren; you promise blessings for obedience to programs and leaders; you build a structure of dependence and hierarchical authoritarianism; you inculcate an environment of conformance without regard to individuality; and you do all of this with the stated intent of blessing and improving lives, relationships and family bonds. Your programs have evolved into a culture with the opposite effect than the one you intended; members feel constantly inadequate regardless of their effort; families pressure struggling children with bad advice that comes from your talks and books; you raise the bar, a blatant slap in the face to those who do not fit within your misguided program. Programs flounder not because of poor execution but because they are poor programs. When such negative results reach your ears, you are saddened that the poor members just do not see the vision; that they cannot learn the vital lessons. It never occurs to you that your inspiration and leadership is the flawed element. Either you are uninspired or uninformed, but your leadership is causing more suffering than blessings. But this is not really about bad programs. Rather, it is about faulty foundations. I do not expect you to acknowledge that the church is not what it claims to be, but I demand that you acknowledge your part in the failures. Stop blaming failure on the members. It is cheap and dishonest.
So, I am angry to the point of despair. I do not expect you to do anything with this information, except try to track me down and deal with me through your secret “committees”. I would resign today if I thought my family could remain intact. But I will continue to coax my family closer to the truth with longsuffering and gentle persuasion, and when they can see the real story without demonizing their father, son, and husband, then I will relish our departure and be rid of you and your unrighteous dominion. Someday I will not be so afraid of your influence, and I will confront your abuse of power directly.
Your success is over. You had a small window of opportunity to be forthcoming and open, and you have missed it. History is against you. Science is against you. TRUTH is against you. As you become more closed and protective, you will appear more ridiculous from the outside. Even though you will probably interpret this result to be “prophecy fulfilled,” the result will be the same. Enjoy your last breath of illusory comfort, because it will not last.
I am not alone. I am part of a growing community of knowledgeable members who will not be silenced for long. You have no idea how to deal with us because you fear our power. You fear it because you know that truth is on our side. I would feel pity for you except for the inexpiable arrogance that you currently display without remorse. The law of the harvest will be your undoing. You have sown seeds of benevolent deception; you shall reap a harvest of faithful rebellion.
Disrespectfully:
Faithful Apostate
Author: Lilith » Comments:
New Marriage Laws
Monday, November 24, 2008
Written by my friend Mere from http://ivotednoonh8.blogspot.com/ . I believe that those who want to secure the term marriage for meaning "just one man and one woman" and who believe marriage is about procreating, then these laws should be put forth to ensure such a measure is taken, within this great country.
Let us make sure that only those who hold the title "married" are of true opposite genders who are able to reproduce offspring without the aid of surrogacy, adoption, or fertility treatments. (We certainly wouldn't want broken people to reproduce other broken people, now would we!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We should all be thankful that Prop 8 passed.
What people need to realize is that Prop 8 was about more than stripping a minority population of their constitutional civil rights, it was about protecting the sacred and special commandment of marriage. Keeping the decadent, selfish, Communist gays form marrying was just step one in this big, big plan; who cares if some of those couples (whose marriages are now defunct) were together for 20, 30, 50+ years- their commitment and love means NOTHING in the eyes of good, patriotic, God-fearing Americans.
We won't be tricked into thinking that marriage is about love, commitment or companionship; we all know the true purpose of marriage: having children and raising them in a Christ-centered home. So in order to carry out this goal, we're going to have to move forward from here in a much more manipulative campaign with much more dubious claims and outright lies. We have to think of the children, you guys, we have to think about the children and what Christ would want us to do with them.
To this end, I have outlined the next steps we should take to ensure that marriage is no longer a right for everyone:
Since the only appropriate home for a child is a Christ-centered home, marriages between non-Christians and atheists will be illegal. You guys can have a Civil Union or Domestic Partnership but you will not ruin the sacred institution of marriage with your non-Christian beliefs. All children should be raised in the light of Christ and you cannot offer that. It is because of this that you will all be sterilized at the age of 13. Again, we have to think of the children.
All Christian heterosexuals will be tested for fertility at the age of 18. If you cannot reproduce on your own (without IVF or similar), you will be barred from marriage. If you cannot produce children, the only reason for marriage, you cannot get married. You can, however, have a Civil Marriage/Domestic Partnership.
If you are a fertile, heterosexual Christian, you can get married but you must have a child within five (5) years of marriage. If you do not, your marriage will be dissolved by the government and converted into a Civil Union/Domestic Partnership and you will be sterilized. You can never get married again as it is clear you do not take the duties of marriage seriously.
Divorce, domestic abuse and infidelity in marriages will be punishable by death for both parties. If you can't handle the sacred institution of marriage, you get what you deserve.
Gays who really want to get married will go through compulsory sexuality re-assignment therapy. A government-approved spouse will be provided to you once you can prove you've been fixed. If you lie, you will be punished. If your husband or wife dies, the Brethren government will re-assign one to you. You will not be expected to produce children unless one of you has some. If not, you will be given six (6) years to have a child; if you do not, your marriage will be dissolved and you will be sterilized.
I know these plans sound hard and scary but we must realize that the sacred, special, holy institution of marriage is under attack by people who expect to be granted the same civil rights as everyone else. We need to bridge the gap between church and state and grasp the reigns of marriage before it tumbles of the cliffs of righteousness and into the pit of depravity. We cannot allow our great country to become like the Socialists countries of Great Britain and Canada; we cannot allow misguided and confused Americans to defile God's great plan. We should ignore the sky-rocketing rates of pre-martial sex, teen pregnancy and divorce that is rampant amongst Christian Americans and focus on fixing marriage, one heterosexual, Christ-centered home at a time.
Why did you vote no on h8?
http://ivotednoonh8.blogspot.com/
Labels: gay marriage, marriage, marriage laws, Mormons for Marriage, new marriage laws, proposition 8, straight marriage, Tolerance, vote NO on H8
Author: Lilith » Comments:
