Well a few points that will give you pause to question at least:
1. In the LDS church, a woman cannot get into any degree of Heaven unless she marry an elder (most men are quickly made elders)
2. There are degrees of Heaven, much like Dante's levels of hell but, only 3 in the LDS Doctrine.
3. Mormons are forbidden to consume caffeine yet the LDS Church is a major share holder in Coca Cola.
4. We all know the LDS church actively funded and pushed to get Prop 8 passed in California.
5. Those "magic underwear" are real.
6. You really do make a secret covenant with God in the temple, one in which you agree not to tell lest you die. yes MAJOR, GIANT, HUGE, RED FLAG that screams of cult programming in action - just ask any cult survivor, that is the number one rule and, is behind a lot of the programing (AKA brainwashing) "You tell, you die." (and yes I mean that in the context of ritual abuse, be that Satanic or otherwise.)
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This is actually a question of semantics (or is it rhetoric? I'm not sure).
But you know what? This is like the difference between terrorist and freedom fighter.
It's all a matter of perspective.
One man's cult is another man's religion.
All that said, there is only one organization that can trace it's leadership directly back to Jesus Christ and the first pope, St. Peter. That's the Catholic Church.
No other "church" can make that claim. So to be perfectly honest, every other "religion" looks like a cult to a Catholic.....
So you get my point.
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LateBloomer Wrote:One man's cult is another man's religion.
Disagree. I don't find Buddhism or Zen teachings to be cult practices. Cults function on a similar level to cliques, with conformance rules including reduced contact with family and recruiting. The sad thing about LDS is the way they preach family values, but degrade and alienate their own family if they don't "conform", i.e., come out of the closet and like coffee.
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Counselor Wrote:Disagree. I don't find Buddhism or Zen teachings to be cult practices. Cults function on a similar level to cliques, with conformance rules including reduced contact with family and recruiting. The sad thing about LDS is the way they preach family values, but degrade and alienate their own family if they don't "conform", i.e., come out of the closet and like coffee.
I see your point.
Like I said, it's kind of a semantic argument. And I think you're taking a more "technical" approach to the word "cult". I might be taking a more "slangy" approach.
But I totally get your point.
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LateBloomer Wrote:Like I said, it's kind of a semantic argument. And I think you're taking a more "technical" approach to the word "cult". I might be taking a more "slangy" approach.
And I understand your view, in my Jesus Freak days I thought anything not-Christianity was a cult, but I've learned that cults do much more harm than some religions ( SOME religions) do.
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JisthenewK Wrote:I told him "Well didn't Jesus tell the people who hadn't sinned to throw the first stone?" He replied "Yes, but he also called homosexuality an abomination."
No he didn't. This guy should study his bible before he starts preaching. :mad:
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monk Wrote:No he didn't. This guy should study his bible before he starts preaching. :mad:
Some people get Paul confused with Jesus, and really, who hasn't? They both sound the same, were alive at the same time, performed the same magic tricks...give the poor zealot a break.
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In the minds of many Christians the Bible is the Word of God, and while human understanding may be fallible, the Bible itself is not. IOW, if Paul said it in the Bible then Jesus (who is God) said it.
Actually, it's a fascinating (and disturbing) history on what was put into the Bible and what wasn't at the Council of Nicea (and why), as is how the Bible has been repeatedly tampered with since then (and now there's the Conservative Bible Project to change it yet again for political reasons, of course politics, rather than God, explains the Bible anyway).
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My Grandpa is Mormon...... That religion is so boring and it drives me insane when they show up to your house....looking for you dad.....
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No I do not think that LDS is a cult. This is the opinions of one man which reflects a past of a community of believers which has changed a great deal over the past century or so.
His reflections are those that the LDS official church has been really working hard on distancing themselves from.
If a Catholic bishop opined that witches should still be burnt at the stake, the pope would have serious grievance with that bishop. Sure, the Church's take in the centuries before the 19th century were a bit extreme, but the church has moved on and the idea of the Church sanctioning burning anyone at a stake is as absurd to the church as the ideas this man has for the LDS church.
This so called Bishop has no understanding of his own faith, further he has not really studied the bible. Nor attended seminary (which is open to all branches of faith, yes including pagans, satanists and even Atheists who have an interest attend classes).
Had he a basic understanding then he would know that the New Testament was written primarily in Greek with a few books written in Aramaic. This is a fact - not a theory, not a hypothesis secular and nonsecular students of the bible all know and understand that Hebrew was not used to write the New Testament.
Real Mormons know that the NT was written in Greek and Aramaic, they also know that Paul admonished the Homosexuals, and that Jesus didn't say anything what so ever on the subject.
Real Mormons also understand that polygamy as it was practiced is contrary to the happiness of the women who were treated as property. Modern Mormons embrace the whole 'Woman is Equal to Man' idea that the rest of the modern, free world clings too.
LDS is not a cult, it a an accepted, traditional church - a fully formed and legally accepted religion. Yes certainly they have some odd believes, such as the idea that there is an invisible man who lives in the sky that looks down and judges all of us... But then I am really hard pressed to think of a religion that doesn't have something along those lines in their mythos.
This bishop is a not a good representative of the LDS church nor the many (majority) of members who are far more tolerance and modern in their thinking on many subjects including acceptance and tolerance of homosexuals, blacks and other minorities.
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