Posted on 01/29/2011 7:01:29 AM PST by Colofornian
Mormon Missionary Rules
The Mormon Scriptures teach that the purpose of life is a test to see if we will do everything that God commands us to (Abraham 3:25). Once we get pretty advanced in the game God might push the envelope on this and command us to do something totally bizarre and immoral such as killing our children (Genesis 22:2), but most of us never reach that level.
The Mormon missionary is given innumerable opportunities every day to show God that he will obey. The missionary's life is defined by rules. The rules dictate who he will be with, what he does with each hour of the week, which books he may read, and that he won't receive information about the world through radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, or the Internet. And he is assigned a vigilante to follow him around 24-7 to make sure he obeys. A church video about missionary life has a scene depicting a missionary reading the newspaper. That missionary was breaking the rules.
Last night, my wife saw me reading the Missionary Guide. It brought back all sorts of nasty memories from her mission and she said I must be a masochist for reading it. I laughed at that, but now I'm wondering if she had a point--just thinking about the mission rules is painful to me. As a missionary, I felt that the mission, God's church, and ultimately God himself despised individuality and freedom. My efforts to obey the mission rules resulted in immeasurable amounts of emotional and physical pain. I have had Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis since I was a child, and it was impossible to take care of my body and obey the missionary rules. So, I tortured my body throughout my mission, and abused it to the point where I literally couldn't stand, much less walk.
The mission rules caused my body permanent damage, and did serious damage to my emotional health--I've been home for over 10 years and apparently I still haven't completely recovered.
The above are the rules from The Missionary Handbook (commonly known as the "White Bible"). It is a little booklet that the missionaries carry in their shirt pocket. There are many rules the missionary is subjected to that aren't in the White Bible, but these are the basics. I am frequently asked if I am serious about these rules. The answer is yes. A few parenthetical comments have been added.
As you think about these rules, it is worth also considering psychologist Steven Hassan's BITE model. Hassan asserts that if a group passes a certain threshold of manipulating its members behaviors, thoughts, emotions, and access to information, the group is rightly categorized as a cult and is exercising destructive mind control. You can read about his model here. You may decide for yourself if such manipulation exists, if it is harmful, and whether or not the Mormon missionary experience is a good example of this phenomenon. Here is a site that brings the BITE model to bear on the Mormon missionary program.
(From --> http://www.lds4u.com/Missionaries/rules.htm )
Ah, rerun from 3.5 months ago, eh, PD?
Back then you said the essential same thing: Again. God said it. Not Joseph Smith. You have a problem with God? [Source of quote @ link below]
I'm going to pull out how I responded back then -- but interject it a bit with newer comments [see bold-faced bracketed comments below].
The reason why I added some comments not only fits in perfectly to what PD reiterated yet again in this thread, but I wanted to also address how that all fits in based upon one of the leading Lds payroll apologists Daniel C. Peterson -- and what Peterson said this week in a Mormon Times piece. In fact, I'll just start out with the Peterson excerpt I want to reference, respond to it briefly, & then refer back to it in quotes to intermingle it [in bold-faced brackets] w/my comments back from Oct. 10:
Peterson: When Joseph Smith learned that the then-existing Christian churches were corrupt, that didn't mean that they were totally wrong. To say that something is "corrupt" means that it has been damaged. We speak of "corrupted texts" or "corrupted files," intending to say that they have been infected or tainted — not that their original content has been replaced by something completely different.In fact, many mainstream Christian doctrines were and are substantially correct. There is indeed a God. He has a divine Son who came to earth, atoned for our sins, rose again on the third day and now sits at the right hand of his Father. Those who taught prayer, preached of the Savior and translated the New Testament during the centuries between the early apostles and the Restoration preserved and transmitted many central gospel truths. (Source: http://www.mormontimes.com/article/19481/Gods-sheep-recognize-his-voice Mormon Times, Jan. 27, 2011 "God's sheep recognize his voice")
[Note #1: A shrewd apologist attempting to dart around something won't cite the most problematic, objectionable comment. They'll ignore it. Hence, when Peterson was responding here to critiques about the "First Vision" comments in vv. 18-20 of Joseph Smith - History, note that Peterson shies 100% away from Smith's comments that ALL their creeds were an abomination in his sight (v. 19). What's interesting is how do you go from Smith's comments in the "First Vision" about "ALL their creeds"-->Peterson claiming that "many mainstream Christian doctrines were and are substantially correct" and "Those who taught prayer, preached of the Savior and translated the New Testament during the centuries between the early apostles and the Restoration preserved and transmitted many central gospel truths."]
[How does Peterson try to dodge Smith's nucleur attack? He ignores the word "creeds"; he ignores the word "abomination"; he instead focuses on the part in v. 19 where Smith said "those professors were ALL corrupt" and then tries to maneuver out of it with his "corrupt text" and "corrupt file" analogy.]
So, how do we address Paragon Defender's claim that Smith was a mere "God quoter" & "God" -- not Smith -- said what's in that First Vision?
My October comments -- From Here to Eternity: Of Mormons and Celestial Marriage [with a few new comments in bold-faced brackets included] :
No. Mormons are saying it. Contemporary Mormons. All on the word of what a pimply-faced 14-yo boy said he saw & heard. You really think that barely teen-age BOY Joey Smith was able to take in an assessment that said 100% of Christianity's creeds were an "abomination" to this being?
Have you ever thought about putting 2 & 2 together? About an "angel of light" appearing & proclaiming "another gospel" (what the apostle Paul prophesied about in Galatians 1:6-8)
-- and the reality that ONLY SATAN or a demon would announce that 100% of Christianity's creeds were an outright 'abomination' to him???
[Note the Mormon progression...from Smith in the 1820s claiming that 100% of Christianity's creeds were an outright "abomination" -- to almost 200 years later as mainstream of an Lds apologist (Peterson) as you can get claiming that "many mainstream Christian doctrines were and are substantially correct" and "Those who taught prayer, preached of the Savior and translated the New Testament during the centuries between the early apostles and the Restoration preserved and transmitted many central gospel truths."]
[IOW, even Peterson realizes that Smith overstepped himself, stepped in a fresh pile full of manure & other animal excrement, & there's just no way Peterson & many contemporary Mormons are going to allow Smith's "ALL their creeds were an abomination in his sight" to be even acknowledged to Smith's incessant front-door knocking, let alone let that comment into "household" discussion! Even Peterson seems to give a head-nod that such slander is vulgar, inhospitable talk; that perhaps only Satan or a demon would denouce 100% of Christianity's creeds as being outright abominable to him!]
[But what about Paragon Defender? Does he likewise back off and follow Peterson's lead apologetic role as a "good Mormon defender" should do? Not on your life. Paragon Offender instead finds the biggest catapult he can find & the biggest "pile" he can find & proceeds to launch himself straight into it!!! Why, Paragon Defender doesn't seem to mind at all the excrement-covered feet of Joseph Smith running loose throughout his household? Why just look how "hospitable" PD is to Smith...PD directly addressed my #22 comment, Have you asked them to stop referencing ALL of our creeds as an “abomination” to God? in post #25 by saying, "Why should we stop quoting God?" PD doesn't seem to mind at all the tag of being in open league & alignment with what the demons & Satan would surmise about Christianity!]
["Congrats" PD...The most mainstream Mormon apologists are leaving your smelly inhospitable habitat & heading for higher ground...leaving the likes of you to hold the "clean-up" mop of Smith's desecrating footsteps!]
...Picking up Oct. 10 comments:
(..even a Mormon wouldn't say The Apostles Creed was an "abomination" to him or her, let alone God!!!)
I challenge YOU, EVERY MORMON APOLOGIST, EVERY MORMON LEADER, AND EVERY MORMON GRASSROOTS PERSON to do two things in this regard -- in fairness & in consideration of the millions of $ of slander you put out about the Christian church every day!
What are those two measely things I ask you & other Mormons to do?
#1 Please review the Apostles Creed
Now why do I challenge you and other Mormons on this? Because Christians in 1820 only embraced a few universal creeds within the church. The Nicene Creed. The Apostles Creed.
And I've read The Apostles Creed with "Mormon eyes." I've looked for what might be objectionable to a Mormon in that creed and can't find it. (Caveat: Please note that the word "catholic" in that creed did not = the formal Roman Catholic church; it only meant at the time universal)
Now why is this important? Because if Mormons CANNOT pinpoint what is so abominable about this creed, then the personage who spoke to Smith wasn't God or Jesus Christ. Because God or Jesus Christ would not speak a falsehood.
So, I beg of you to read it: And as you read it, if you cannot find in it that which God would label it as an "abomination," you know then, that the statement within the First Vision was no better than even from a Mormon point of view to be a "half truth"...and God and Jesus are given to stating "half truths."
#2 Reread the First Vision of Joseph Smith.
Go to vv. 16-25 of Joseph Smith History, Pearl of Great Price. Now tell me anywhere in those passages where these "Personages" are identified as either "God" or "Jesus."
Go, ahead. You said, "God said it...You have a problem with God?" Well, surely since I referenced what this entity said in v. 19 there MUST be some attribution to "God" if He said it.
Is His (or Jesus') Name in v. 19?
No? Well, maybe 14 yo Joey set it up in v. 18?
What? Not there either?
v. 17?
v. 16?
Well, let's look after v. 19.
v. 20?
v. 21?
v. 22?
v. 23?
v. 24?
v. 25?
Where is the SOURCE for you to claim that "God" said it?
Let's review what Joe said he felt and saw and heard:
v. 16:
Felt
Saw a pillar of light
v. 17:
“the light”
“two Personages” brightness & glory defy all description
a son of the other
v. 18:
“the Personages”
v. 19:
“the Personage”
v. 20:
“the light”
v. 24:
“a light” “heard a voice”
v. 25:
“a light” “two Personages”
But Paragon. You said you thoroughly investigated Mormonism before you joined!
Yet you NEVER knew these entities deliberately avoided identifying themselves as either God or Jesus?
Do I have to be the one who breaks the news to you that being "a son" of another unnamed being/personage (v. 17) doesn't equate to being Jesus?
Do I have to be the one pointing out to you that these entities are "no names" -- identityless -- per the vision account?
PD, you were sold a bill of goods that are valueless. And that to me is absolutely heart-breaking.
Are you righteous in Christ Jesus, right now?
As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies.
Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith.
He wrote these things in his first letter to Timothy, a young CHRISTIAN pastor whom he had mentored.
I assure you, the early Christians were not engaging in "dead dunking".
What do you suppose happened that compelled them to prohibit tampering with odometers?
Or playing full court basketball?
(You know, this is why we can’t have nice things!)
At the end of the sentence I wrote that I was speaking from a political and [constitutional] traditional point, iow, not religious.
My knowledge on Mormonism consists of meeting them in Europe where I grew up. They would come knocking on the door, before they got to show their book, my beautiful Catholic mother (RIP) would ask them if they were hungry, the answer was usually an affirmative, she’d feed them and off they’d go warm and content. I guess that was her witness along with the Sacred Heart picture on the wall, Holy Bible on the shelf, Crucifix’, rosary beads, statue of the Blessed Mother and St. Martin of whom she was fond, a holy water font at the door...you get my drift. :) I don’t know what their witness was except perhaps that they’d traveled a long way to try and convert us. I’ve since lived in Utah for a winter for the skiing - learned some things they believed - debated - tried to convert each other but w/ a negative result. I found it a little cult-like.
I have read about their Masonic rituals and have found most of them innocuous but would add that Mitt Romney (and guess many others within) are of a higher degree of Masonry. What I find most interesting is that there were very few temples until the age of aquarius sixties - after that time there’s been a proliferation of at least one temple in every major city in the world...another interesting point is that their first temple in Ohio had none of the rituals nor masonic symbols as all their temples have since...(this is around the time the “planners” made their move) -
http://home.teleport.com/~packham/temples.htm
The picture within, use link above, reminds me of the outfit Obama wore when he was in Kenya...
http://home.teleport.com/~packham/m1-sign.jpg
The parasitic infiltrations I was talking about are the high degree Masons and their “useless idiots/eaters” who’ve infiltrated ALL churches in order to change them - consider the Anglicans/Epis., consider my own church, and consider your own though if you attend a decentralized church you might not notice. Anyway my point is that the Mormons are no different from that point of view.
Most Mormons are well meaning in their belief systems though certainly in grave error. I still stand by my “unite” statement, as in, the POLITICAL arena.
Charis kai eirene (Grace and Peace)
Why would we stop quoting God?
Ah, rerun from 3.5 months ago, eh, PD?
Back then you said the essential same thing: Again. God said it. Not Joseph Smith. You have a problem with God? [Source of quote @ link below]
I’m going to pull out how I responded back then — but interject it a bit with newer comments
And in 3.5 more months we can do it again. And you can pretty up your propaganda with more blabber and make it twice as long. It won’t change the truth. It won’t change the facts. God said it whether you like it or not. Whether you accept it or whether you understand it or not.
LOL! Exactly!
(And yet you -- or any Mormon can't identify one abominable thing in the Apostles Creed...meaning if there's nothin' abominable about it...then Smith's overreach is labeling "ALL" creeds as "abominable" registers him as a certified false prophet...and you and a certified false propagator...)
Your belief in the First Vision is tantamount to receiving an unaddressed, unpostmarked letter whom you know who sent it -- a particular man -- yet you conjure up some image of the "North pole" or wherever -- because you refuse to disbelieve in Santa Claus.
There's no "return" address to the comments in vv. 16-25, PD. No name even. The two entities left no calling card. It's all a void, which you avoid.
Well Osage, I've asked him a simple one too - was he PERFECT.
I started to leave Mormonism in mid-1992. I became a born again Christian in January 1993.
As of now, my exit story is not online, but I have been writing one and deciding if I am going to ‘come out of the closet’ and let my irl identity be known.
Since I have received death threats by the LDS for my work on here and elsewhere it is not a decision I take lightly.
If I do post it here, I will let you know.
Hey PD, I got your context right here:
“...orthodox Christian views of God are Pagan rather than Christian.” (Mormon Doctrine of Deity by B.H. Roberts, p.116)
“...the God whom the ‘Christians’ worship is a being of their own creation...” (Apostle Charles W. Penrose, JD 23:243)
“The Christian world, so called, are heathens as to their knowledge of the salvation of God.” (Brigham Young, JD 8:171)
“The Christian world, I discovered, was like the captain and crew of a vessel on the ocean without a compass, and tossed to and fro whithersoever the wind listed to blow them. When the light came to me, I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness.” (Brigham Young, JD 5:73).
“What! Are Christians ignorant? Yes, as ignorant of the things of God as the brute best.” (John Taylor, JD 13:225)
“What does the Christian world know about God? Nothing...Why so far as the things of God are concerned, they are the veriest fools; they know neither God nor the things of God.” (John Taylor, JI) 13:225)
“Believers in the doctrines of modern Christendom will reap damnation to their souls (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p.177)
“I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.” (Joseph Smith, DHC 1:6)
“I spoke of the impropriety of turning away from the truth, and going after a people so destitute of righteousness as the Methodists.” (Joseph Smith, DHC 2:319)
“...brother Joseph B. Nobles once told a Methodist priest, after hearing him describe his god, that the god they worshiped was the “Mormon’s” Devil-a being without a body, whereas our God has a body, parts and passions.” (Brigham Young, JD 5:331)
“...brother Heber C. Kimball was beset by a number of Baptist priests who had been attending a conference. He read them all down out of the New Testament....With regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world.” (Brigham Young, JD 8:199).
“The Roman Catholic, Greek, and Protestant church, is the great corrupt, ecclesiastical power, represented by great Babylon....” (Orson Pratt, Orson Pratt, Writings of an Apostle, “Divine Authenticity,” no.6, p.84).
Must be a holdover from the handcart days.
Those things had odometers on them!!
Yup; Google® IS our friend at times!
A little; eh...
;^)
The odometer as used in modern systems, where a separate gear controls each digit, was invented in 1847 by William Clayton with help from Orson Pratt and Appleton Harmon. Clayton, a Mormon pioneer, developed the odometer (dubbed the “roadometer”) to keep track of wheel revolutions on the pioneer wagons. The odometer had at least two gears, including one which turned every quarter-mile and one which turned every ten miles.
From WIKI
Where's the link?
I also heard that a mormon pioneer invented WD40 and duct tape to keep those wagons "rollin', rollin', rollin".
Why in #55!
Ask the RM...
Huh...what did you do wrong?
What did I have for lunch?
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