Stargazer

I'm sure if you complained to your elders quorum president that nobody's visiting you, you'd start getting more attention. Or do you emit one of those "Don't you dare visit me!" force fields to scare them all off? Before ministering came along, and except when my HP group leader was my home teacher while my wife was in the process of dying, I hadn't been home taught for years. With ministering I've never been visited under that program. Even though one of my ministering brothers is the EQ president. But then again I'm there every Sunday, so maybe he isn't so worried about me. As it turns out, I don't particular care about being visited. If I need something, I know who to call (and it's not Ghostbusters).

I didn't attend church for three years once upon a time, even though I was a believer. Mainly because I was a teenager, the only member in my family, a member for only eight months when we moved to a completely new area, didn't know where the meeting house was located, and hadn't enough initiative at the time to make a concerted effort to find out. Yep, they should have excommunicated me. In one of my mission cities in Germany there was a branch member who only attended church if his wife kicked his heinie that day, and always sat there sullen and grumpy. In the six months I was assigned to that branch, I saw him there about twice, but his obvious displeasure was memorable. Next time I met him, guess where it was? In Provo at a mission reunion during General Conference a few years later. He was the bishop of the now ward. And you could feel the Spirit radiating from him. Yep, he should have been excommunicated during his "rebellious" years. Are you aware of the Parable of the Lost Sheep? Or, in your rejection of the Church, have you forgotten that every sheep is precious to the Shepherd? The parable ends with the shepherd rejoicing having found the lost one. I'm sure some of his friends laughed at him for spending all that time and effort looking for the lost one when he had 99 perfectly good sheep right where he wanted them. As for the bad sheep, well, I seem to recall that Jesus chose Judas to be one of his Apostles, and imagine that, he betrayed Jesus to His death! Jesus should perhaps have realized early on that Judas was a bad seed and kicked him out. But no, he was permitted to remain -- possibly because the Savior wanted to save him, even at risk of betrayal. You seem to think that the Church is omniscient when it comes to its members. It isn't. And what if it were? There'd be directives coming down every week from Salt Lake City directing bishops and stake presidents to excommunicate every member who had looked on a woman (or man) lustfully that week -- since that's tantamount to committing adultery -- or whatever little thing unworthy of a member. And by the end of the year, there'd be nobody left to attend church, probably including every official in the Church, and every Church employee. The guy that distracted police from the shooter will face man's justice, and then church discipline, because now it is known that he is a participant in child sex porn. If I don't misremember, that is an automatic membership revocation offense.

Upon completion of US Army training at Ft. Gordon, Georgia (now Fort Eisenhower), on my way to Europe for assignment I stopped at the Washington DC temple early in the morning and was baptized, confirmed, and endowed for my father who had died four years before. Sealing of my parents and my sealing to them occurred much much later, but as I was there from the opening of the temple to the closing (about 15 hours) I could have gotten all the sealings done as well. Unfortunately I didn't have all the data I needed -- this was 1980 when the information was not at one's fingertips unless one had thought ahead (which I hadn't). Incidentally, I was working against my father's explicit instructions not to have him baptized after he died. Sorry, Dad, I'll apologize when next I meet you. But hopefully he won't mind by then.

Maybe! I suppose I'm going down the wrong trail. The temple garment thing is well under the radar. But not of course DJT. As for him, he didn't create the image, but certainly posted it. And he gets a very hefty level of outrage no matter what he does, so there's that, too. Hardly comparable for statistical purposes. Nobody cares about temple garment mockery except us. And possibly some of us don't care either.

I heard far more outrage about DJT in papal robes than were ever generated by those mocking LDS temple garments. Perhaps more people saw Pope DJT than the temple garments. Who are the double standard havers? I don't know them by name. But they're out there. If that's too vague for you, I apologize. Of course I could be completely wrong, and nobody has a double standard. Perhaps the ones upset about papal robes are or would be equally upset with temple garments.

Perhaps you're right about how Catholics feel about this. But the mainstream press and the anti-Mormons out there react far more peacefully about how Catholic vestments are treated in a mocking way than they do about Latter-day Saint sacred things. That's my point. Mock LDS garments and everyone sniggers and chuckles. Mock the Pope by putting DJT in papal vestments and Oh! The Horror! Edited to add: I apologize for getting into this. My feelings about another very serious matter are currently spilling over into this and every other area. I need to chill out.

Didn't say that, did I? I brought Catholics in only for the Papal robes thing, so as to compare and contrast. I don't believe that papal robes have quite the degree of sacredness among Catholics as LDS garments. Given the number of caricatures of popes in their robes that have been publicized for centuries, I think that's pretty reliable. Here's Mr. Bean as the new pope. Did you see the furor at this caricature? No, well of course not. Everyone loves Mr. Bean. But the current US president cannot be allowed any leeway at all -- now matter who drew his papal caricature.

It's the same thing as "Experts say..." or "Scientists say..." It's perfectly likely that it was just something their office manager's second cousin said something at a party after five margaritas.

There were those who got all bent out of shape when the current US president was caricatured in Papal robes. But they're perfectly OK with mocking others. Pot calling the kettle something...

I used my screen capture software to get it:

This is from the YouTube channel "Metatron's Academy" (he has a main channel, "Metatron"). He evaluates the phrasing, vocabulary, and accent of Br. Woodruff in this "talking machine" recording. The recording he comments upon was originally posted by another YouTube channel, "Life in the 1800s," which he credits and includes a link for in the video's description. Metatron is a native Italian (probably Catholic) who lives in the United States. In talking about the recording, he mentions LDS specific scriptures, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenant and Pearl of Great Price. He also explains Wilford's use of the term "endowment" as a temple ordinance. One thing about this guy, he is one of the most thorough commentators about whatever subject he speaks about. He's a bit of a polyglot, too. Besides Italian and English, he also speaks Japanese, and I think he is conversant in Arabic. Anyway, here's the video:

I almost met her back in 2017, when my brother and I and our wives passed through her hometown at the time, Lincoln City, OR, on the day that lovely solar eclipse passed through the US. Unfortunately, I hadn't planned on being there that day and hadn't made any advance arrangements (we were wandering around aimlessly) and she wasn't available.

I thought this was a really excellent defense of "Mormonism" in the sense of debunking the occasional rather ridiculous claim that Islam is closer to Christianity than "Mormonism" is.