california boy

I think the variable there would probably be more Idaho than small towns in general.

I know you didn't ask me, but I thought I would share my experience. I have definitely noticed a difference in my relationship with God. It is much closer, more personal, more directed as to what I should do and how I should live my life. I found that by relying on God and not the Church or it's leaders, guidance and spirituality has come from a more reliable place. Guidance from the Holy Ghost has never gone away. I think a lot of that has come from no longer lying about who I was. While I was in the Church, everyone just assumed I was straight, when I always knew I was not. I felt like I was lying to everyone. When I came out and was excommunicated, I felt like I was now totally honest about my life. While God always knew who I was, now everyone did. I could start building a more honest relationship with God and man. I definitely feel closer to God than I ever did while I was a member. This idea that only members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can have a special relationship with God and receive His guidance is false. God reaches out to every single person that reaches out to Him.

Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Baháʼí Faith, Shinto, Sikhism, Cheondoism, to name just a handful. They have about as much knowledge of the Bible as you have of their sacred writings and beliefs. Yet they all pray to God. Have you ever spent any time outside the United States? I mean more than a 2 week vacation somewhere? I have traveled to over 40 countries and spent 14 years living abroad for 6 months of the year. I have seen people of all kinds of faiths praying to God in their own way and in all kinds of different forms of prayer. I have seen their lives blessed by their religious beliefs who had no more knowledge of the Bible than you do of their sacred texts which I am guessing, by your question is little to nothing. The vast majority of the world have never picked up a Bible. There are 1.9 billion Muslins alone. I doubt very many of them learned to pray by reading the Bible. Your assumption that most people learn to pray through the Bible or even from other Christians who have read the Bible is false. Is this really a news flash????

I found this earlier Pew poll from 2017. Hard to do a direct comparison between the two polls. The scope of questions is a little different. What is similar is that Mormons were rated at the bottom of any Christian religion in both polls. Take a look. You are much better at analyzing data than I am.

There are plenty of cultures throughout the world that pray to God and have no knowledge or even access to scriptures. Your assumption is demonstratively false.

I am just looking at the data, so it is not me generalizing. Why would demographics of a small town compared to a big city make a difference? And how do you not know that the sampling came from both small towns and large cites?

I was going by the averaging percentage when you balance favorable rating with unfavorable rating looking at the data as a whole. Evangelics get a +2 rating because they have a strong favorable rating to counter balance the unfavorable ratings. Mormons have a -10. Significantly lower than anyone else.

The numbers I was comparing between the two charts shows 31% dislike Mormons if they know someone that is Mormon and only 22% dislike Mormons when they don't know any personally. That is what surprised me. How do you read those two numbers on disliking Mormons going up when they know a member of the Church? But you are right. A higher percentage also said they like Mormons better when they actually know someone who is Mormon. Like you said, that makes more sense. And there are less in the don't know enough, which also makes sense. Everyone's numbers went up in the favorable category when they knew someone of that religion.

When someone actually knows a member of the Church they like the Church even less. Any idea why? Or am I reading this chart wrong.

What I find the most interesting about the Pew survey is, not only is the Church the least liked church in America

Interesting. So you support all laws whether they go against your religious beliefs or not? Because I actually am not ok with laws that go against my beliefs. I work to overturn those laws. Just trying to understand your point of view. Just because a law will not likely be overturned is a reason to support that law? Or at least not be concerned about that law? Oh I get it. The whole whatever the Church leaders do you should follow that example whether right or wrong. That is not as important as following the leaders. Actually that makes sense. I see a lot of that in you posts. So you are ok with supporting or at least not be concerned about Satan's fake version that sends them to the chains of hell. I have to say, this is the most puzzling thought process you seem to have.

If you truly believe that God is so strongly against gay marriage, shouldn't you also be against it? Why would you support gay marriage when you feel so strongly that God is against it? Why do you not know whether you should support gay marriage or not? Are you seeing that gay marriages can provide the same kind of strong family relationships as your marriage and that there is much good in allowing gay couples to marry?

Some people find your remarks offensive and given the way you respond to posts, feel it pointless to engage with you. They use down votes to clearly let you know that they do not believe or support your opinions on certain matters. The fact that you easily dismiss concrete data on how few hold the same opinion of gay marriage as you do (only 6% of the Church population) clearly shows that facts don't matter. Instead you resort to emotional soap boxing. I personally am not much of a downvoter kind of guy. I like hearing different points of view. But at some point, when I see that continuing a conversation any longer is more pointless than illuminating, I tend to be less engaging. Maybe I should at that point just use downvotes to express how wrong I feel your posts are.

Well you just keep that belief along with the only 6% of members who share that view. You must be right the 94% who don't hold that view are all wrong obviously. It is so clear isn't it.

Of course sex outside of marriage is prohibited no matter what sex. That is not disputed. I could give you just as many scriptures where God condemns sex outside of marriage for straight couples as well. Still no revelation from God whether he approves or disapproves of same sex marriage. What is the point of claiming to have a prophet that receives revelation from God when no revelation comes? 26% of members strongly support gay marriage. Another 68% just don't know. That leaves only 6% of members who hold your position. Not so clear to everyone else. If you want to be part of the 6% then fine. But projecting that God has revealed His views on whether he approves or disapproves of same sex marriage is false, as you have clearly demonstrated at this point.

So where exactly is this revelation recorded? I agree that God approves of mixed marriages. But where in the scriptures does God say he does not approve of same sex marriages? You are just making assumptions that is the only marriage God accepts.

Those may be the position of the Church leaders. Of course I agree with that. We all know the opinion of Church leaders. We all know current doctrine taught by Church leaders. I have never claimed that God does not approve of marriage between a man and a woman. There are scriptures that claim to be revelations from God on whether he approves of mixed oriented marriages. God never has said whether marriage between a man and a woman is the only form of marriage he accepts. But nothing you quoted said that doctrine currently taught by Church leaders concerning same sex marriage came by revelation from God. Your opinion about Same Sex Marriage did not come from a revelation from God. You just agree with the current opinion of Chruch leaders. Yet you changed an IF question to one from God. God has NEVER said if he approves of Same Sex Marriage or not.

The problem you are having on this board is that you make assumptions and then consider those assumptions to be correct to the point where you ascribe your beliefs to God himself. For example, you said this. See how you change the IF statement to be one of fact and used God to assert that fact? There has been no revelation from God where God said that same sex couples should not be allowed to marry in the temple. If you got such a revelation, please quote it. Heck, if you have a revelation from God that says same sex relationships are a sin, then quote that one too. If you got a revelation from God saying that the Church should not recognize gay marriage, then hey quote that one too. Because all we have now is the personal opinion of fallible Church Leaders who have been dead wrong before about who should be allowed into the temple and marry and who should not. It is fine to have your own personal opinion on any doctrinal subject. It is quite wrong to assert your opinion is the same as God's when no such revelation has come. The Church has made that mistake over and over again. Can you see why people get annoyed at you for stating your own personal opinions and then ascribing those opinions as coming from God?

Don't worry what Church leaders and others feel about who you should be with in this life. Find that man that you can love and hold dear to. Share a wonderful life with him. Grow and progress together. Share each others burdens. Experience love and joy. I would rather spend eternity in hell and be with the person I love than be in heaven married to a woman. It isn't even a hard choice. Besides, all the gays will be down there, and we will make it fabulous. We will have a community of love and caring for each other. Doesn't that sound more like heaven than being married to a woman for eternity? I couldn't even do it for a lifetime here on earth.

I am curious. Did the missionaries tell you before you were baptized that you could never have any sexual relationship with a man? Never have any romantic relationship with a man? Never go on a date with a man? Never kiss a man? That by being baptized, the only way you could have a partner ever, both in this life and the next is with a woman?

You do know your post as well as the one above is only going to be agreed to by those who already believe the SEC incident is like a traffic ticket right?

I have it on good authority that Christ wrote "Well at least you aren't gay."

Your response makes my point extremely well. While some see clear indication that managers were instructed to sign a form affirming that the form is accurate when they knew that wasn't the case, others see it as just a misunderstanding.

After reading this thread, what I have become the most convinced about is that if Church leaders were caught red handed torturing puppies, there would be those defending the Church leaders coming up with excuses about how either it is not that big of deal, puppies get tortured every day. What are you expecting? Perfection in Church leaders? And there would be those calling for the death penalty for all Church leaders caught with puppy blood on their hands. Neither side would be able to see why the other side feels the way they do. So lets attack their character and motive for their position.

Do you have a better term that you prefer to describe those members that will defend the Church no matter what it does?