At the close of 2017 – Did we learn anything from “General Discussions"?

[Five Solas]

In 2017 I learned a few things on the forum I didn’t know before.  I’ll share, in no particular order—

* My view of Joseph Smith’s evolving idea of deity was overly simplistic

* Speaking in tongues/glossolalia isn’t as alien to Mormonism as I’d supposed

* The Catholic Church is doing just fine in the U.K. (despite the LDS Church’s troubles & all the hand-wringing/excuse-making about European “secularism” and public financial disclosure requirements).

* I could author a thread that garnered no replies, ouch!

* mfbukowski is one of those air-cooled nuts (owns a vintage Volkwagen)

Things you didn’t know before & learned from the forum over the past 12 months--please share!  (And if you can't think of anything--then just tell us why you're here.)

--Erik

_________________________________________

There's a dream I keep having
Where my mama comes to me
And kneels down over by the window
And says a prayer for me
Got my own way of prayin'
But everyone's begun
With a southern accent
Where I come from

--Tom Petty (1950 - 2017)

[Robert F. Smith]

26 minutes ago, Five Solas said:

........................................

* mfbukowski is one of those air-cooled nuts (owns a vintage Volkwagen)

Yeh, but I have a vintage Prius.  Does that count?

26 minutes ago, Five Solas said:

Things you didn’t know before & learned from the forum over the past 12 months--please share!  (And if you can't think of anything--then just tell us why you're here.)

--Erik

My theme song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReUaQlsZZ5I .

 

26 minutes ago, Five Solas said:

_________________________________________

There's a dream I keep having
Where my mama comes to me
And kneels down over by the window
And says a prayer for me
Got my own way of prayin'
But everyone's begun
With a southern accent
Where I come from

--Tom Petty (1950 - 2017)

I just keep free fallin, what with Petty's vampires gliding and sashaying down Ventura Blvd.  He left us way too early.

[Darren10]

5 hours ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Yeh, but I have a vintage Prius.  Does that count?

My theme song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReUaQlsZZ5I .

 

I just keep free fallin, what with Petty's vampires gliding and sashaying down Ventura Blvd.  He left us way too early.

While the Germans do i deed make fibe automibiles, I’ll take Japanese auto over German auto anytime.

Agreed on Petty. Zombue Zoo is my most listened to song from him but not necessarily my favorite.  

[kiwi57]

9 hours ago, Five Solas said:

In 2017 I learned a few things on the forum I didn’t know before.  I’ll share, in no particular order—

* My view of Joseph Smith’s evolving idea of deity was overly simplistic

* Speaking in tongues/glossolalia isn’t as alien to Mormonism as I’d supposed

* The Catholic Church is doing just fine in the U.K. (despite the LDS Church’s troubles & all the hand-wringing/excuse-making about European “secularism” and public financial disclosure requirements).

* I could author a thread that garnered no replies, ouch!

* mfbukowski is one of those air-cooled nuts (owns a vintage Volkwagen)

Things you didn’t know before & learned from the forum over the past 12 months--please share!  (And if you can't think of anything--then just tell us why you're here.)

--Erik

_________________________________________

There's a dream I keep having
Where my mama comes to me
And kneels down over by the window
And says a prayer for me
Got my own way of prayin'
But everyone's begun
With a southern accent
Where I come from

--Tom Petty (1950 - 2017)

• Five Solas can slip a slam against the Church of Jesus Christ into a post purporting to be a friendly social chat; see highlighted portion above.
• But he can't admit to a clear and obvious contradiction when it's right in front of his face. Whatever you do, don't mention "Sola scriptura."

[bluebell]

I should really keep track of these kinds of things. I know I’ve learned stuff on the board this year, but I can’t think of anything right now to share. 

Edited December 30, 2017 by bluebell

[Guest]

I have learned that Faith is both a private and shared issue. Fun to discuss, but at the end of the day, the search engine that is needed, is the soul. It is there in those quiet moments, when Spirit speaks to spirit, where true conversion becomes the light by which we traverse the darkness. For there and only there can we find God.  

[CV75]

17 hours ago, Five Solas said:

Things you didn’t know before & learned from the forum over the past 12 months--please share!  (And if you can't think of anything--then just tell us why you're here.)

I learned that MormonLeaks is so transparent ["How transparent is it?"] that the documents can be used to say things they don't really say!

Edited December 30, 2017 by CV75

[theplains]

I learned that despite our differences in beliefs, we can still have meaningful discussions.

Thanks,
Jim

[The Nehor]

I think I am less of a monster at the end of this year than I was at the beginning of the year.

And the Catholic Church is doomed in Britain! Doomed I say!

Oh, never mind on the first thing. Premature assessment.

[Duncan]

I learned that Mormon leaks is more like Mormon Drip...............................................................................drip..................................drip. I think it's the age we live in , things that are huge news are like over and done with in 2 weeks if that,examples being the exed General Authority and Elder Hales dying, the whole Charleston, Virginia sitch, world's biggest gossip for a short time until the next big thing that you forget about in another short time

[Mars]

i went through a moment at church a few months ago where i realized that being in a place where many people at different stages in their maturity levels in any given facet of life, who come together to try their best and worship their God and build each other up, is a very wonderful thing.

it shifted my focus away from my selfish and internal griping about sunday school or whatever to focusing on the very real and meaningful positives of church.

[clarkgoble]

On 12/29/2017 at 6:29 PM, Five Solas said:

* The Catholic Church is doing just fine in the U.K. (despite the LDS Church’s troubles & all the hand-wringing/excuse-making about European “secularism” and public financial disclosure requirements).

Just to note again that Catholicism in the UK had been dropping in numbers significantly prior to a steep rise in immigration from both eastern Europe and Africa started making up for the losses. Quoting the Telegraph

Quote

The Catholic Church has also suffered a serious fall in the size of its congregations, but the expansion of the European Union in 2004 resulted in its numbers being bolstered by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Poles and Lithuanians.

Attendance at Mass in 1991 was recorded as 1.3 million, a drop of 40 per cent since 1963. But over the past six years it has fallen by only 13 per cent, with the rate of decline slowed by immigrants from Catholic countries.

I'm not sure I'd say a drop of 13% is fine either. But it's definitely better than a drop of 40%.

That's not to neglect our problems in Europe. But I think immigration isn't really an option for Mormonism - although missionary work among immigrants is a place to focus. Yet immigrants typically assimilate to the nation's secularism over time as well. The main problem for Mormon missionary work is that our message was primarily crafted to converting Protestants. We've not done well at adjusting that message to other religions - especially secularists.

Edited January 2, 2018 by clarkgoble

[stemelbow]

You can get permanently disciplined for following rules.  By following rules I'm sure someday I'll get permanently banned.  Ah well, I suppose the mod or mods are people too who hold grudges like many others.  

[clarkgoble]

3 hours ago, Mars said:

i went through a moment at church a few months ago where i realized that being in a place where many people at different stages in their maturity levels in any given facet of life, who come together to try their best and worship their God and build each other up, is a very wonderful thing.

it shifted my focus away from my selfish and internal griping about sunday school or whatever to focusing on the very real and meaningful positives of church.

Well said. When we cease primarily look at church as a place to have our needs met and instead a place to serve others it's nature changes significantly.

[Mars]

3 hours ago, stemelbow said:

You can get permanently disciplined for following rules.  By following rules I'm sure someday I'll get permanently banned.  Ah well, I suppose the mod or mods are people too who hold grudges like many others.  

I'm going to go start my own board! With booze! And wild women!! You know what? Forget the new board! 

[kiwi57]

3 hours ago, stemelbow said:

You can get permanently disciplined for following rules.  By following rules I'm sure someday I'll get permanently banned.  Ah well, I suppose the mod or mods are people too who hold grudges like many others.  

You can also get banned for making comments that subsequently turn out to be perfectly valid discussion points, and thread banned for fixing your own mistakes.

Fun, isn't it?

[LittleNipper]

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him think.

[The Nehor]

I have learned that for some getting threadbanned is perceived as an attack on their personal honor.

[Gray]

7 hours ago, clarkgoble said:

Just to note again that Catholicism in the UK had been dropping in numbers significantly prior to a steep rise in immigration from both eastern Europe and Africa started making up for the losses. Quoting the Telegraph

I'm not sure I'd say a drop of 13% is fine either. But it's definitely better than a drop of 40%.

 

Yes, and the Catholic Church's significant priest abuse scandals have soured a generation of Catholics on the church, beyond just trends in secularization.

[clarkgoble]

25 minutes ago, Gray said:

Yes, and the Catholic Church's significant priest abuse scandals have soured a generation of Catholics on the church, beyond just trends in secularization.

To be fair, that Telegraph article is about 10 years old, but gets at the big change with Catholicism although recent studies show the same thing. The decline mentioned in 2007 continued though - just not at the earlier rate. The most recent data has there being more young Catholics than Anglicans (5% vs 3%) but that is again largely attributed to European mainland immigrants who are working in the UK. It'll be interesting to see if Brexit affects this (if it ever truly happens). A report on Catholic retention using the British Social Attitudes survey data (but focused only , has Catholics having the highest retention, but still losing members rather quickly. It also only focuses on England a Whales and leaves out the rest of the UK. That study again finds the relative retention is primarily due to immigration. Not just Europeans but Africans and Asians as well. Not only that but there's the problem among many churches where self-identity and activity aren't that closely related (unlike in Mormonism). So 60% of born Catholics never or rarely attend mass. Shockingly ¼ of those who attend mass are women over 65!

Edited January 3, 2018 by clarkgoble

[stemelbow]

20 hours ago, kiwi57 said:

You can also get banned for making comments that subsequently turn out to be perfectly valid discussion points, and thread banned for fixing your own mistakes.

Fun, isn't it?

Not really, fun.  But it's good to know that I'm not the only one on the mods bad list.  In years past when I've on limited, after some time, they took me off, so I was free to respond and start threads again.  But it looks like I'm stuck on limited now.  Alls it takes for me to lose posting privileges, I believe, is for someone to report my post.  Once it gets reported I lose posting privileges until a mod or the mod, whoever it is, adjudicates.  Luckily for the past few months I've been getting by.  But it's also not cool when people report my post for posting things like, "good post" or "I agree".  

Ah well...maybe I shouldn't bother.  

 

[The Nehor]

10 hours ago, stemelbow said:

Not really, fun.  But it's good to know that I'm not the only one on the mods bad list.  In years past when I've on limited, after some time, they took me off, so I was free to respond and start threads again.  But it looks like I'm stuck on limited now.  Alls it takes for me to lose posting privileges, I believe, is for someone to report my post.  Once it gets reported I lose posting privileges until a mod or the mod, whoever it is, adjudicates.  Luckily for the past few months I've been getting by.  But it's also not cool when people report my post for posting things like, "good post" or "I agree".  

Ah well...maybe I shouldn't bother.  

 

I agree.

Also, I reported this post.

[cdowis]

1. I saw a topic closed, NOT for what was posted, but what was going to be posted.  The mods quickly closed a thread rather than banning me for what I was going to say to a certain individual.

Thank you, mods!

2. I am not as smart as I thought I was.  Sometimes I am wrong.

(Don't worry. I'll get over it.)

Edited January 5, 2018 by cdowis