Chalk Up Another MAD-influenced Apostasy

[_Sam Harris]

This particular Board is many times entertaining. Pathetic self-centered lives are replayed in anonymity and hypocrisy rules the roost. Nary a trace of Christianity in the lot of you; even GIMR, the apparent divinity student, has little truck with any of the moral imperatives of the Gospel.

Attaboy. Insult everyone on the board and all posts they have made here. That'll get you some traction with people respecting your opinions.

*kiss*

Aww, thank you sweetheart...on behalf of all of us.

*goes back to the brothel*

[_Sam Harris]

When you are on the line, some of their attacking posters may misinterpret it and go after you. This isn't so much a a shark thing with blood in the water, but a reflexive defense of the Church type thing.

Perhaps so, but a little humility on their part would go a long way. When I explained to Juliann that her pet website wasn't helping me much, I wasn't on my way out. I was on my way back in. But a year of that zoo made me rethink exactly what it was that I was doing.

How far should one go to defend a church at the expense of a human being? I'm sure rcrocket knows the answer to that one.

[_Sam Harris]

Someone threatened to rat you out to your bishop? I may be pathetic, but I'll stand up and defend even a judgmental person when the occasion arises. To whoever threatened rcrocket: you're a moron.

There are some people who have massaged their priesthoods into such massive proportions that they think their every pompous action is legitimate. The only authority they bow to is that of another man who appears to have massaged his priesthood into something even larger, or had a higher authority do it for him.

I once had a man in the church who refused to leave off asking me to date him. He did so because we were both the seed of Cain, and he felt that he stood no chance with the "righteous" seed in our singles ward. I felt the same way, but didn't see the need to restrict myself to my fellow Cain-ites. It took him 18 months to stop stalking me (he found my house by getting my number from a mutual acquaintance and going to the reverse number lookup). What stopped him? I threatened to tell his bishop.

When you have someone as TRULY moronic as our little rcrocket, who demands to know who individuals are, while simultaneously defecating on their characters because GAWD TOLE HIM SO, you wonder how far someone like that would go for the sake of his GAWD. If I had someone like him on my back and I knew who he was, you're damn right I'd tell his bishop, and if said bishop had any sense, he'd bring our little davy crocket in for a meeting to ask him if he'd stopped taking his meds.

Mind you, the person in question has made more than one insinuation that I'm a harlot, so I'm just gonna have to be a moron, CK.

[_Runtu]

How far should one go to defend a church at the expense of a human being? I'm sure rcrocket knows the answer to that one.

I have all too often seen that happen. It's fascinating to see how quickly the long knives come out when someone's questions or struggles are perceived as an attack on the church. I guess it serves its purpose in weeding out the tares, but then at some point there may not be much wheat left at all.

[_Sam Harris]

How far should one go to defend a church at the expense of a human being? I'm sure rcrocket knows the answer to that one.

I have all too often seen that happen. It's fascinating to see how quickly the long knives come out when someone's questions or struggles are perceived as an attack on the church. I guess it serves its purpose in weeding out the tares, but then at some point there may not be much wheat left at all.

I'm reading this website on mystical Christianity, and one of the pages speaks about the fact that our descriptions of reality are not reality. We're just seeing things through our own lens.

And perhaps this is why I haven't fully attached myself to any one church again. I like the pastor of the church I attend, but I don't want to hero-worship. The man is brilliant, but he doesn't want us to go to war over what God has helped him create. To me, churches are four walls and a roof. Sometimes good things go on there, sometimes not. What I want is communion with God, and most sundays I get that alone in my room with scriptures in my lap. Some look down on me because of that, something is wrong because I don't go to church every sunday. I can't always, but does that mean I don't get in touch with God?

[_moksha]

How far should one go to defend a church at the expense of a human being? I'm sure rcrocket knows the answer to that one.

My hunch is that Jesus would have come down on the side of the human being in one of his parables.

[_rcrocket]

When you have someone as TRULY moronic as our little rcrocket, who demands to know who individuals are, while simultaneously defecating on their characters because GAWD TOLE HIM SO, you wonder how far someone like that would go for the sake of his GAWD. If I had someone like him on my back and I knew who he was, you're damn right I'd tell his bishop, and if said bishop had any sense, he'd bring our little davy crocket in for a meeting to ask him if he'd stopped taking his meds.

Mind you, the person in question has made more than one insinuation that I'm a harlot, so I'm just gonna have to be a moron, CK.

God told me no such thing, and I have never implied that you are a harlot. Your posts, though, indicate that you are a divinity student but that you don't believe in any of the moral imperatives of Christianity. I certainly find that interesting. I don't have a clue about your private life, at least I don't recall anything. Am I mistaken about your belief that the New Testament does not require any moral behavior?

And, I'd appreciate it if you not tell my bishop anything. You have my name and you can do what you want, but he'll just get mad.


rcrocket

[_skippy the dead]

And here's yet another way to reach across the aisle (not). This is charity's none-too-charitable response over on MAD to a Deseret News article about postmormon.org that jigglysaint pointed out:

]jiggly, I agree that people who leaving the Church need their heads examined. But this support group, bridge builder thing is poppycock. And abandoning souls? Get real. They are abandoning their own souls. If they don't think what they are going to is better than what they are leaving and they are doing it anyway, they really do need a shrink.

Note that at no point did jigglysaint imply that people who leave the church "need their heads examined." To the contrary - he had some favorable comments about people getting support, and being pleased to find that not all people who leave the church are angry.

[_Mister Scratch]

It has been interesting to read people's takes on this topic. To me, it seems quite clear that Mopologetic websites such as the aptly named MADboard do indeed contribute to apostasy. I think that this probably played a significant role in the severing of FAIR/FARMS relationship with that messageboard. I don't know if any of the Brethren are aware of what is going on in cyberspace (notably Elders Oaks and Packer), but I wouldn't doubt that they would take major, major issue with the problems raised by MAD. In fact, if I was a TBM on MAD, I would seriously re-evaluate how my behavior might affect my eternal salvation. If anyone were to assemble a compelling case demonstrating the rather alarming number of apostasies which have been influenced by FAIR/FARMS/MAD/Mopologetics, it seems to me that the necks of Dan_G, juliann, & et. al. would be on the chopping block, membership-wise. Even DCP could, as one poster recently put it, "get thrown under the bus" in the interest of saving members' testimonies. Perhaps this helps explain his often apoplectic behavior and paranoia.

[_Yoda]

This particular Board is many times entertaining. Pathetic self-centered lives are replayed in anonymity and hypocrisy rules the roost. Nary a trace of Christianity in the lot of you; even GIMR, the apparent divinity student, has little truck with any of the moral imperatives of the Gospel.

Wow, that is fairly incendiary. You must have been quite angry as you wrote that.

I think you give Bob too much credit, Mok. Frankly, I don't think that Mr. Crockett was angry at all.

He has admitted openly that this board is a form of entertainment for him. He gets his jollies out of spewing inflammatory insults at people and then sits back and watches the fun as they react.

Humorously, yet sadly at the same time, Bob is the biggest hypocrite on this board.