Re: LDS Church in Sweden, etc.


Gene Fuller wrote:
> <millerjamesc@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:11h7gcoldph5m6d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> > Gregg Smith wrote:
>
> Snip
>
> > To some (certainly not all) LDS apologists, the whole world is
> > conspiring against them, threatening them. To these apologists, there
> > simply can be no "objective outsiders" to provide objective
> > perspectives. To them, all critics are 100% wrong and all anti-LDS
> > books are so full of inaccuracies that they cannot be considered
> > reliable sources for truth.
>
> Amazing! That sounds so much like the persons who see no good in the Church.

Gene, it was your fellow apologist, Gregg Smith who said that. I
believe just the opposite. I think few critics and anti-Mormons engage
in deliberate misrepresentation and prevarication while I think lots,
but not all, of LDS do. Frankly, I think you'll find less distortion
and misrepresentation in non-LDS sources than in LDS sources. But I
don't recommend wholescale book burning of all apologist sources. I
think you need to read both sides of ALL stories.

If you want to pick a bone over the extreme statement above, do it with
Gregg who was the guy who wrote: "If I have failed to persuade you to
not waste your time with anti-LDS literature then I'd be happy to spend
the few minutes it would take me to demonstrate that any anti-LDS book
you find is so full of inaccuracies that it cannot reasonably be
considered a reliable source for truth."

How come, when apologist Gregg Smith originally posted this extreme
view, you were okay with it, but when I paraphrase it, you are amazed
and jump down my throat? Apparently if extreme apologist views are
expressed, it doesn't bother you. But when a critic merely repeats the
extreme apologist view, you get fired up to post against it. Why not
post against the original apologist? After all, HE was the guy who said
it, not me.

> By the way, James, will you remind me what it is that you see good and
> valuable in the Church?

Be happy to. I think the feeling of brotherhood is good and beneficial
particularly when it extends to community action to help people in
need. I think the LDS social activities which have now been cancelled
such as the Gold and Green Balls and other such, helped build
communities and foster a feeling of belonging of toleration of having
clean fun and encouragement of experiencing joy.

But these good and valuable things are, in my opinion, far outweighed
by the Church leaderships' oppressive and excessive authoritarianism;
the Church's obsession with money and businesses which are totally
inappropriate for a Church to own, much less operate; the Church's
current obsession with prosecution of the homosexual minority which
causes me to wonder if someone at the top has a problem with gender
identity; the individual members' extreme credulity which leaves them
prey to con artists who target noncritical LDS; the Church's propensity
and even enthusiasm for pious prevarication to defend the faith which
leads to a fictional rewriting of Church history; excessive adulation
of Joseph Smith, bordering on worship; excessive adulation of Church
Leaders; and an unhealthy obsession with sacrifice.

James Clifford Miller
millerjamesc@xxxxxxx

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: LDS Church in Sweden, etc.
    ... >>> To some LDS apologists, ... what) said here that some LDS apologists think the world is conspiring ... Church, the whole LDS world is conspiring against them, threatening them. ... I think few critics and anti-Mormons engage ...
    (soc.religion.mormon)
  • Re: Events out of our Control?
    ... >>> prophecies, fulfilled or not. ... > You may not be aware of this, Gene, but the LDS Church has a serious ... > left because of the less than honest tactics of some apologists. ...
    (soc.religion.mormon)
  • Re: LDS Church in Sweden, etc.
    ... >>> To some LDS apologists, ... >>valuable in the Church? ... >the Church's obsession with money and businesses which are totally ... consider to be examples of this excessive adulation. ...
    (soc.religion.mormon)