MustardSeed

I’m going to have to work to get beyond the dramatic musical presentation, and the hosts embarrassing attempt at a Hispanic accent. I’m not sure what our takeaway is supposed to be from this video- someone says they are good people so they are?

Yikes Thank you Im not a fan

No, clearly what is truth is truth. I don’t think we have always operated from complete understanding of what that truth is. I think that would be an unrealistic expectation. In fact, I think we would be very surprised to find out how unrecognizable certain truths are in comparison to what we traditionally think, and do. Doesn’t it make sense that we would be limited?

Of course.

Right now my opinion is that God and Satan influence me as much and in the same exact way that my earth parents influence me. Zero. The opposite, in fact.

I have carefully read all of the responses and I appreciate the feedback. A lot of it has given me good food for thought. I think I will always be annoyed anytime somebody claims that the “adversary” had any role when discussing their own poor decisions. (Accountability is a very important virtue to me personally, even though I am imperfect at it myself.) This thread has me thinking more about what I do believe. I started the thread with a post talking about what I don’t believe. I believe it will take some time, and some study and reflection and prayer, to come to a more clear personal testimony regarding the role of the Holy Spirit, God, and Satan in my life on the daily. Symbolism versus the literal is a constant question for me in the context of my religion. I guess it’s just another thing to add to the list of personal pursuits for understanding.

Yes. I’m referring to the fact that at least alcoholic behavior is proven to be a legitimately concrete reality. It still sounds bad to blame behavior on alcohol…. That said, we have alcohol laws for a reason.

Without the science to support.

I understand why my statement confuses you. I was paraphrasing. Here is the exact excerpt: ‘The adversary I’m sure worked on me,” he said, using a Mormon term for Satan. “And that’s when it was going through my mind when I climbed in bed with Chelsea and was really aroused … with the intent of spooning and snuggling you but I didn’t.”’ IMO this statement blames the devil for his actions. It waters down his opportunity to take total accountability for torturing his child. This is disgusting to me and such statements have always bothered me.

In the recent abuse thread that Calm posted, the perpetrator claimed that “The adversary” had a hand in his sexual behaviors. I have had a negative reaction to this type of claim for decades. IMO this claim precludes personal responsibility and makes the perp a victim. Doesnt matter if its sexual abuse or a benign bad thought- claiming its the adversaries influence is a major turn off to me. I don’t know that I truly believe in the traditional narrative of the devil . If the whole narrative is true, then I’m disgusted with the whole thing. That would mean that we CAN blame the devil for our choices. I despise that idea, and reject it big time as I read the article posted by Calm. Is there a way to think of this differently? I will read responses with an open attitude.

Gossip: My best friend had ward members who flocked to Hildebrandt for therapy, and my friend’s assessment was that there were questionable practices there. The reputation was that H recommended divorce all too often.

Hard read.

Anyone who suggests BB is not a critical thinker is not thinking. IMO.

Off-topic. I wonder if BRMC is at all curious at the fact that no one here uses the downvote even nearly as much as do they, even though it’s is obvious that the culture of this board is to disagree.

🤨

How could death ever occur if God intervened in our tragedies? The antidote to this suffering is radical acceptance of pain and circumstance.

^^tongue in cheek, I know that wasn’t his intent

I did lol- told him we were blessed to be in his holy presence. He backed off and said “maybe a better way to say it is I’m older than you all”- he isn’t, but I’ll take a compliment where I can get one lol- I mean, if our discussion is lacking to the point that he needs to take over (not just comment, but he literally took over) then I’ll take the compliment that he thinks I’m younger than him. A girl has to matter somehow 🤪🤣

I do have to add that when my current Bishop was put in about three months ago, he was invited up to talk by the stake president and he rambled on and on and on, and the stake president got up, whispered in his ear, and he quickly wrapped it up🤪

I wish. We had a guy get up last month and talk about his military tour and went into gory detail about what he experienced. I mean like bad. If nobody stopped that I can’t imagine anything getting stopped. Then there was the visitor who walked up during testimony meeting and spent a half an hour selling a product. Nobody invited him to sit down. Apparently the trap door does not work in my area. My relief, society president, 10 years ago did correct some false doctrine explicitly during relief society. That was awesome. Sometimes when opinions are shared as doctrine, I will raise my hand and state that it’s not doctrine but that was mostly in my 30s. I’m definitely no authority.

I agree, and in my less valiant moments I keep this in mind.

Unless there is no God. I understand why people go there, the cognitive dissonance of an uninvolved supreme being is painful. But I do believe that God is there. And I do believe He will make things right.

It doesn’t make any sense in my mind that God would interrupt bad things. I keep repeating myself, so I apologize for what I’m about to say, but if God interrupted bad things, then ultimately, a hangnail would feel like a tragedy. We cannot grow without the friction that comes from pain. I don’t know why God ever did create miracles in the past. I don’t know if He makes miracles happen right now. if he did, and does, I can see why his withholding would cause distress.

Eq pres doesn’t need to contend with any reality that something he was born with precludes his participation in anything, be that color or organs/hormones. Sounds crude but I don’t understand any of this — I operate from a lens that says there are no limits for me that are any different from others’- but at church, those limits are extremely clear. even yesterday, I was asked to sit in the young women’s class as a two deeper. Class was pretty dull but when 11 year olds have to teach a class about family history no one’s gonna be on the edge of their seats. Anyway, a bishopric member sat in on the class and literally took over. I was stunned. He self described as being “further along the covenant path” than the rest of us. He even stood to speak while the rest of us , including the teaching youth, sat in a circle. No one questioned this. What if I went in to my husbands deacons aquarium and took over in such a way? Ok I’m not correcting the spelling on that, that’s hilarious. Anyway, point is here, our problems in this church regarding the dismissal of what women have to offer are deep and static. Yet here we are 10 pages in arguing about something as insignificant as women being represented as part of leadership on a stand is good or bad. We are sooooo far off the mark in this church. IMO Jesus would have walked into that meeting in San Fran and hugged whomever was on the stand and let it be . But we just can’t.

FTR women can be predatory sexually, plenty of teachers out there proving that. Unfortunately.