likely reversing course, will be baptized into LDS.

[© Tweed the Younger]

after discussing with a few confidants I decided that my greatest opportunity to make a positive contribution to the Latter-Day Saint movement would be to work within the LDS church.  here are screenshots of conversations I had with online missionaries.




I guess they are under orders not to discuss Romney/politics.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

are you ever going to get around to comparing Mormon doctrine with the bible?

[© Tweed the Younger]

are you ever going to get around to comparing Mormon doctrine with the bible?

hopefully by June, yes.  however my attraction to Mormonism is best defined as personal/sociological rather than theological.

[useful idiot]

Even on non-religious grounds, I'd strongly suggest you reconsider. It seems like you're merely stringing these people along. Unless you're completely up front with them about your intentions (in which case I'm certain a local ward won't baptize you), this is hardly admirable. If you're concerned about your own integrity, deceiving people who are trying to help you (even if it's in a horribly misguided way) probably isn't the best thing to do.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

hopefully by June, yes.  however my attraction to Mormonism is best defined as personal/sociological rather than theological.

so, for personal/sociological reasons, you're going to subject your unknowledgeable self to a bunch of brain washing before you decide to seek knowledge?! 

and what are the personal/sociological reasons you're attracted to Mormonism?

[Chareth Cutestory]

so, for personal/sociological reasons, you're going to subject your unknowledgeable self to a bunch of brain washing before you decide to seek knowledge?! 

Sounds like what we do to our children with regards to religion...

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

so, for personal/sociological reasons, you're going to subject your unknowledgeable self to a bunch of brain washing before you decide to seek knowledge?! 

Sounds like what we do to our children with regards to religion...

fyi, I don't use brain washing techniques

[Chareth Cutestory]

so, for personal/sociological reasons, you're going to subject your unknowledgeable self to a bunch of brain washing before you decide to seek knowledge?! 

Sounds like what we do to our children with regards to religion...

fyi, I don't use brain washing techniques

I disagree on a basic level, but I predict this conversation going nowhere so I'll leave it at that.

[© Tweed the Younger]

already posted, but this part of my testament answers to the "personal/theological" most directly.

Oh, Lord! The novelty of my Ivy League degree amidst the sea of BYU and Utah State grads.  And how I would impress Sister Smith’s mother, I swear I would… in a month I could master enough LDS theology and history to convince them all of my worthiness of Latter-Day Sainthood.  They’d be convinced of how curious and learned I am just by my reading of mainstream biographies of George Washington and inane American exceptionalist histories of the Civil War.  How easy it would all be!  And when I needed my fix I could always sneak onto the Atlas and hunt-and-peck my way towards an impassioned defense of Lenin, or head into Salt Lake proper and catch a show or an indie film, or even StubHub my way into seats when the Clippers come to town two or three times a year.  I’d have my outlets!

And what makes this fantasy stick, is that it’s not impossible.  It’s not too far from the real.  I could never believe in my heart that God talked to Joseph Smith Jr. on that dark 1823 night, I could never write an archaeological dissertation feigning to prove the historicity of the Nephites.  But is this really the question, are the critics putting the cart before the horse?  Religion and God are there to serve us, to give us comfort in this otherwise cold, harsh, dark alley.  And while my fantasy is sure to be flawed, idealized, whatever, it’s not too far from a truth that repeats itself countless times over, and is repeating as we speak.  All I have to believe is that the whole package is a “spiritually correct analog”, or even just a “spiritually useful analog”, and head on my merry way to the snow-capped pastures.

[asexual trans victimologist]

To be honest, while Tweed's testimony there certainly isn't the 'right' (or 'ideal', whatever that means) set of reasons to get religion, it's certainly not as 'wrong' as many I could name either.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

so all this joining the LDS is about serving some self-admitted fantasy? as if living a fantasy is better than living life itself?

ok, seriously, that is not a life.

[© Tweed the Younger]

it's about living a narrative dude.  we all live narratives, and I contend that we are incapable of gauging their objective 'truth'; we have our frames, through which we interpret events, and walk through.  now.  organized religion, LDS of course included, is a 'pre-packaged' frame: it is a relatively definite sense of coordinates, reference points.  certainly more definitive that I would be able to construct on my own.  this is the 'crutch' that self-affirming atheists speak of; the need or desire to 'purchase' what's already been constructed, and plug it into one's own life.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

it's about living a narrative dude.  we all live narratives, and I contend that we are incapable of gauging their objective 'truth'; we have our frames, through which we interpret events, and walk through.  now.  organized religion, LDS of course included, is a 'pre-packaged' frame: it is a relatively definite sense of coordinates, reference points.  certainly more definitive that I would be able to construct on my own.  this is the 'crutch' that self-affirming atheists speak of; the need or desire to 'purchase' what's already been constructed, and plug it into one's own life.

then what was all this talk about the book of Mormon being the word of God?

[© Tweed the Younger]

you'd have to refer me to the context in which I said that in order for me to comment.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

you'd have to refer me to the context in which I said that in order for me to comment.

my fault, I forgot the context of your stated beliefs:

I was reporting from the annals of Mormon theology, not necessarily from personal belief.

---

now, don't get me wrong, I like you and all, but you're really not serving this forum or yourself any purpose with all this Mormon stuff you yourself don't believe in

[© Tweed the Younger]

I can understand the latter part, but how is this detrimental to the Forum?

[Tidewater_Wave]

hopefully by June, yes.  however my attraction to Mormonism is best defined as personal/sociological rather than theological.

so, for personal/sociological reasons, you're going to subject your unknowledgeable self to a bunch of brain washing before you decide to seek knowledge?! 

and what are the personal/sociological reasons you're attracted to Mormonism?

How ignorant and intolerant. You don't find Christianity brainwashing? I'm a Christian for social and cultural reasons and even adhere to no meet on Friday during lent. However, that's only socially though. There's nothing wrong with being part of a religion if one gets something out of it.