Meanwhile, "back at the ranch...er...temple".....
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The policy is stated clearly in an official LDS manual as follows:I believe I shall sign this petition...anyone care to join me?
Posted on 12/01/2009 9:19:57 PM PST by delacoert
NAMPA - Becki Detro said she was married to the church for 28 years of her life. Constant feelings of unworthiness caused her to leave her faith.
"It was very hard," she said. "It's a hard thing when your whole family..." she couldn't continue and was visibly emotional.
She's now joining an effort to help other followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who want to leave the church, but still have a place to worship.
"I see a concern that LDS people are leaving because they are not receiving the healing balm of His forgiveness," she said.
She connected with Pastor Mark Cares. He founded the Truth in Love Ministry in 2005 with a mission to bring people from the Mormon faith to his church.
"Over the years we have ministered to people who have felt stressed over Mormanism," he said. "We are just trying to reach out to those people."
And his ministry is reaching out with five new billboard advertisements. Ads that read: "feeling Worthy?" and display a support website, http://www.hishealingnow.com/
The website features stories from Detro and others who've made the switch. It's tone is blunt with links reading, "healed from shame," and "I was washing clean."
"it's not to bash Mormons but to point out those differences and then to talk about the ramifications of those differences," he said. "We have a sense of urgency that the people in Mormonism will be lost and that's a hard message to send."
The tone and tactic of the awareness campaign disturb some.
"I think he's really reaching trying to figure something out and trying to take advantage of a couple situations," said Wayne Petersen, a bishop in the Mormon faith for six years.
He says the standards are high for a reason and that there is support within the church.
"We don't apologize for the standards we set because they are true principals that stand for a good quality of life," he said.
But that quality of life wasn't very high for Detro who says those standards ostracize many and make some feel bad about themselves.
"I went to church and heard the message of free and full forgiveness," she said.
Regardless how people feel about various religions, Petersen says this method is unbecoming.
"I feel sorry he has to take this approach," he said. "I guess he's just trying to build his own flock and I wish him good luck."
None are worthy.
Yourself included plainly.
Bookmark
This is awesome. “Heart of the Matter”, a TV show in Utah, also seeks to reach out to those hurt or broken by Mormonism. Those who go “inactive” because they can’t deal with their own failures or sin.
The amount of pressure to be “worthy” in LDS Church and culture is tremendous. The most common phrase by those who left the LDS and became Christians is “I felt a burden being lifted off my shoulders”. And that is exactly how I felt.
Couple of good websites:
BornAgainMormon.com - free book in PDF format. The focus is on a personal relationship with Jesus, regardless of where a person attends church, knowing full well that the Holy Spirit will lead them out of the LDS church.
IRR.org/MIT - for those who have been hurt by or no longer believe in Mormonism but think Jesus is still the answer. Also has a support group.
Regardless how people feel about various religions, Petersen says this method is unbecoming.
“I feel sorry he has to take this approach,” he said. “I guess he’s just trying to build his own flock and I wish him good luck.”
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It is always about making money and “sheep stealing” to the LDS. Never mind that they send out 60,000+ missionaries every year to convert nominal Christians to the LDS.
Meaning that this has accelerated the exit of mormons from mormonism.
He says the standards are high for a reason and that there is support within the church.
Meaning that as long as they toe the line, they will not be ostricised.
"We don't apologize for the standards we set because they are true principals that stand for a good quality of life," he said.
Mormon speak for "we earn our way to heaven and godhood through works.
And they wonder why Utah has such a high rate of prozac use.
The tone and tactic of the awareness campaign disturb some.
Meaning that this has accelerated the exit of mormons from mormonism.
He says the standards are high for a reason and that there is support within the church.
Meaning that as long as they toe the line, they will not be ostricised.
“We don’t apologize for the standards we set because they are true principals that stand for a good quality of life,” he said.
Mormon speak for “we earn our way to heaven and godhood through works.
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Perfect interpretation, ‘zilla.
I was a sixth generation, young, working mother of five, married to an abusive husband withing the LDS framework.
I never could do enough to feel “worthy.” I often had thoughts of despair and reasoned that my life was miserable because I wasn’t doing enough or being enough. I wasn’t the perfect wife, mother, daughter, employee. I only baked bread twice a week, could never find enough time to attend the Temple or properly prepare my primary lessons for Sunday. My five children were never clean enough, nor well-behaved enough. My husband was never satisfied and he took it out on me. I guess he too was having feelings of abject failure to the Mormon god who demands perfection.
When I was finally on the verge of suicide, Christ found me. He reached down into the depths of my despair and rescued me - a fallible sinner.
I pray this billboard can touch the lives of those other poor women who “can’t be perfect” enough. He offers solace that Prozac cannot touch.
Yes.
It would be very interesting for me to learn about the true numbers of people walking away every day. Some of us have known for fifty years that it was not for us, however until the freedom of the internet for anonymous research it was difficult to investigate.
I will now pander to all of you by saying:
Intelligent people have always known the truth of it all. That is what puzzles me about those with any level of intelligence. Why can’t they see? (rhetorical)
Meanwhile, "back at the ranch...er...temple".....
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I believe I shall sign this petition...anyone care to join me?
Given how agressively lds has tried to maintain high membership records, as an outsider, I can only offer a few ideas.
1. Their minds have been blinded by satan
2. Power, and by hiding the exodus the mormon power circle can maintain their prestige to the rest of the masses of mormonism.
3. Hide the numbers for 'damage' control. Gives existing mormons with doubts less of a motivation to examine actually leaving as well
4. PR - kinda hard to peddle the "growing church means God's blessings" line the missionaries use.
But there is more. One figure I hear was that fewer than 20% of mormon membership had temple recommends and among those, even fewer regularly attended temple. This leaves 80+% with no access to attaining 'godhood' because they are unable to meet the earthly standards. If I were in the shoes of the 80%, I'd get rather burned out at trying and would probably just go through the motions in order to maintain nominal status among the local stake.
The internet has tipped the scales and has allowed those mormons an opportunity to jump ship - a trend the lds inc. is desperate to cover up.
Isn't it about family?
Meanwhile, Utah 0.0005% more LDS in 2009
So much for the "fastest growing religion" when even in Utah the rate of growth is minuscule.
Actual numbers are hard to come by, since the LDS does not release the numbers of those who have left.
The 0% growth rate has been confirmed by someone in LDS headquaters, who stated that their only real growth is those born into the church.
There is also some question as to if those whose names are removed are still counted in the numbers, because their records are changed to “non-member” rather than destroyed. Also, it has been said that “inactives” are not removed from the roles until after they would have been 110, regardless of date of death.
OTOH, Evangelical churches and ministries like the one mentioned in this thread are reported a large increase in those who are claiming to leave the LDS for a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Other sites, like ex-mormon.org also show an increase in those leaving.
How the LDS finesses their numbers can be easily seen by how they have historically reported their membership numbers at General Conference.
They used to include number of deaths of members. They no longer do so.
They used to separate converts and BIC baptisms, they do not.
They used to have a separate category for the baptisms of “children of record”, that has disappeared. Some have speculated that they are now lumped together with converts.
Regarding the number of stakes/wards, I have read that they reorganize and consolidate stakes and call that a new stake. Also the numbers required for a ward/stake have decreased, so it looks like an increase. They have also closed a few missions (consolidated) but add the new mission to the old number.
The finessing of numbers makes it appear that the church is still growing, but outside sources tell another story.
1974 -Statistical Report
Church Units
*
Number of Stakes of Zion at the Close of 1974 675
*
Number of Wards 4,756
*
Number of Independent Branches in Stakes 1,195
*
Total Wards and Independent Branches in Stakes at the Close of the Year 5,951
*
Number of Mission Branches at the Close of the Year 1,822
*
Number of Full-time Missions at the End of the Year 113
Church Membership, December 31, 1974
*
In the Stakes 2,960,143
*
In the Missions 425,766
*
Total Membership 3,385,909
Church Growth During 1974
*
Children Blessed in Stakes and Missions 72,717
*
Children of Record Baptized in Stakes and Missions 47,234
*
Converts Baptized in Stakes and Missions 69,018
1985 - Statistical report
Church Units
*
Number of stakes 1,582
*
Number of districts 352
*
Number of missions 188
*
Number of wards 10,168
*
Number of branches in stakes 2,766
*
Number of branches in missions 2,071
*
Number of sovereign countries with organized wards or branches 95
*
Number of territories, colonies, and possessions with organized wards or branches 20
(These statistics reflect an increase of 75 stakes and 542 wards and branches during 1985.)
Church Membership
*
Total membership at the close of 1985 5,920,000
Church Growth during 1985
*
Increase in children of Record 95,000
*
Children of record baptized 70,000
*
Converts baptized 197,640
1996 - Statistical Report
*
Stakes 2,296
*
Districts 671
*
Missions 309
*
Wards and branches 23,528
These wards and branches are in 140 nations and in 21 territories and possessions.
Church membership
*
Total membership 9,694,549
*
Eight-year-olds baptized during 1996 81,017
*
Converts baptized during 1996 321,385
2007 - Statistical Report
Church Units
Stakes 2,790
Missions 348
Districts 618
Wards and Branches 27,827
Church Membership
Total Church Membership 13,193,999
Increase in Children of Record 93,698
Converts Baptized 279,218
And the solution to this is to simply say to those 80% that they no longer need that silly little controlling piece of paper and oh BTW we no longer hold it against you if you choose not to give us more money than you want to give us. And then admit the old joey was full of it. Oh I forgot the most important one: You don't need to drink ten Coca Cola drinks every day. One good cup of coffee will get you started. And women can be equal. Tommy boy could have a revelation today and fix everything.
Coffee house at temple square?
This is spiderweb #1: The power of family. Family peer pressure.
Spiderweb #2: The power of testimony among people you respect. The testimony mtgs serve as "reinforcement brainwashing" techniques. People also wind up partially emulating the testimonies they've heard others give for decades.
Spiderweb #3 for temple Mormons: The power of ritual, & the fear of stepping away from that toward "outer darkness."
I love that program..
Shout out to Shawn...
I cant get the stream so I watch it a day or 2 later
Last night’s show is not up yet...
Heart of the Matter with Shawn McCraney...
:)
You're right about that. Nothing worse than a screaming father and a crying mother every time you try to talk about it. I just waited until they died. My siblings try the same routine but they're forgetting that I already know all their vices and true beliefs.
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