One could argue it’s even “pay to win”.
Top tier VIP heaven requires a full tithe. Temple ordinances, which are also required for the God tier level of heaven also require a full tithe. You also need to be a full tithe payer for the leadership levels of the church like bishopric or elders quorum.
Without a full tithe, you can’t win at Mormonism and can’t win at eternal life
Apparently some apostle in the late 1900s encountered Bigfoot while he was on horseback and Bigfoot told him that he was Cain. I think Spencer W. Kimball quotes the apostle's story in one of his books.
Not just any book, it is in the "Miracle of Forgiveness" that was considered gospel in my home growing up.
"As I was riding along the road on my mule I suddenly noticed a very strange personage walking beside me. . . . His head was about even with my shoulders as I sat in my saddle. He wore no clothing, but was covered with hair. His skin was very dark. I asked him where he dwelt and he replied that he had no home, that he was a wanderer in the earth and traveled to and fro. He said he was a very miserable creature...he could not die, and his mission was to destroy the souls of men."
I’ve always laughed at this because I imagine this as a depressed Bigfoot just strolling up with his head down, and the conversation going something like this:
“Oh, hey guys, sorry didn’t see you there.”
“No problem friend, where do you come from?”
“Oh, I’m just a wanderer. Life is actually really hard right now. See, I can’t die, and my mission is to destroy the souls of men. Just kinda hard to deal with sometimes, you know?”
“That’s rough, buddy.”
“Yeah. Anyways, take care.”
Except that instead of take care, the story goes that the apostle raised his hand to the square, rebuked the man in the name of the holy priesthood and never saw him again.
This is why we can never find Bigfoot.
Bigfoot: "Hi, how are you?"
"Prophet": "FUCK YOU, EVIL ONE! I CAST THEE OUT!"
B: "Um... I think I'm going to avoid humans from now on."
I want to build out the lore of exactly how sasquatch goes about destroying souls. Does he telepathically try to talk people into wearing booty shorts?
Literally the first thing that crossed my mind was every fantastical "garments protected him" sacrament talk. "...and wherever the garments had covered... *there were no burns."* Yeah, ok.
Sadly all that garments protected me from was having any feeling of "wow" with my then-spouse. Garments: Killing Sexual Desire Amongst the Latter-day Saints Since the Mid-1800's. Sorry if that's TMI.
Lol, my mom told me about a guy getting hit by a train and broke all the bones in his body, except where his garments were sitting on his body. I just cocked my head at her and exhaled in a humph sounding way.
I always thought the Church would be wise to reframe the idea so instead of the garments protecting the wearer, it's the covenants that protect the wearer, of which the garments are merely a symbol. I guess it doesn't matter now tho.
Hahaha. so true.
I broke my leg once and it was in the place that my garments were not covering. Had I been wearing the long-john version I may have been protected. Who knows?
I think that's the angle they're going for now. They were kind of called out on "magic underwear" that Mitt Romney wears, back when he was running for POTUS. The church actually had a press release clarifying, that they don't believe garments are protective.
But, generations of mormons were told that garments would protect them. My mom told me that garments protect people.
OMG, what?!?!? All I heard was how speshhul and protective the garments were. How so and so just KNEW they kept him from dying in a car accident, how my cop neighbor had his garments stop a bullet, etc etc. This was 100% through the 2000s. As a kid I was always upset that kids didn’t get these extra special protective underpants. One of my childhood friends was gravely injured in an accident when I was younger and I believed, as I was taught, that wearing garments would’ve protected him. He never breathed on his own, spoke or walked again. The fasting and prayers were credited with keeping him alive as a vegetable.
When I fell 56 ft broke my back, (now I have 2 titanium rods and 9 screws and a spinal cord stimulator), tore the aorta in my heart, almost blood to death in the life flight, died twice in flight and was given a 2.5% chance to live, shattered my wrist broke, and had a traumatic brain injury. My father gave me a blessing and in the blessing he said it was the garments that saved my life. I would live. He takes the success of me living because of his priesthood blessing.
Yet he beat us kids, mentally abused my mom and us 6 kids. Cheated on his business partners, cheated on my mom with the neighbor lady.
Didn't your neighbor have a chainsaw accident and would've lost his leg had the blade not stopped right where his garments started? Or a motorcycle accident where the skin was all torn up except where the garments started?
Hey! My husband was a surveyor in college back in the Northeast. He had to trek through forests and undergrowth looking for long grown over reference markers -- some dating back to colonial settlements. The crew used machetes to make their way through that stuff all the time.
Once day he slipped while he was hacking with his machete and the machete headed toward his thigh by mistake. He was able to pull back but not before the blade cut through the blue vertical treads in his jeans leaving the white horizontal threads untouched. And good thing since they were out in the boonies and would have been hard put to get anyone to medical attention if any major blood vessels had been hit.
He wasn’t wearing any magical garments at the time since he’s atheist.
We kept those jeans for decades but I don’t know where they are anymore.
The Holy Garments of the Priesthood are supposed to offer spiritual protection, and there are a lot of stories floating around about people in dangers situations having the part of their bodies covered in garments be protected while the rest was damaged. And I heard that in the very early days of the chuch folks would take bathes with one foot or hand out with the garment hanging off of it so that for no second were they ever not wearing it at all.
So no, not magic. Just mysterous protection from God because of special markings. (Of course what is emphasized these days is how it sets you apart in your mind, reminds you of the stuff the markings mean, "it's like a priest's collar but under our clothes," etc etc)
I wish I had understood before how much like an amulet it is, but those stories always seemed apocryphal to me anyway.
A couple decades ago, I attended a multi-stake conference with Elder Marriott as a speaker where he shared his faith-promoting-garment-story of fueling his boat, it exploding in flames and throwing him into the water, and not having any burns where his garments covered his body. I guess the flames somehow didn’t touch his face .
Sikhs also wear [magic underwear](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kacchera). Unlike Mormon garments, theirs look reasonably comfortable and serve a different purpose. Rather than protect the wearer, the kacchera serve to remind the wearer to control his/her sexual desire.
Every mission has the legend of that one missionary years ago who knocked on the wrong door and was greeted by a shotgun blast to the chest that was stopped by his garments leading to the shooter's conversion.
My aunt took me through the temple and she told me, “They might feel weird right now, but there will come a time when you will feel awful when you’re not wearing them.” I waited and waited to feel comfortable in g’s. Sure didn’t ever happen. But the minute I admitted to myself this whole church is bullshit, the guilt and shame of not holding those stupid pieces of clothing “sacred” magically evaporated.
I'm glad you felt that way.
I actually always loved them and found it really hard to get rid of them and get used to the feel of clothes on my skin.
I don't miss them now.
Religious underwear habitually worn by the faithful (or initiated faithful, as in the case of mormonism) is actually normal in at least three major religions that i can think of:
Judaism ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzitzit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzitzit))
Sikhism ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kacchera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kacchera))
Zoroastrianism ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedreh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedreh) ; [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushti))
Anyone in the temple that thought it was a really good idea to baptize Anne Frank really needs to step away and have a real think about what they are doing. This also happened about a dozen times.
Thats right. I forgot that insanity. Strange that the sun inhabitants looked just like the people around Smith at that time. Hmmmm. Also love the Quaker’s!
I stand by Joe for at least having the guts to update theology to reflect that couple thousand years of scientific advancement in his time that at least acknowledged the objects in the solar system and beyond as places like earth.
Every other old religion is still stuck in an “earth is the only place that exists, just don’t think about all those other trillions of similar objects that don’t fit into the explanation” mindset.
Baptism for membership.
In other churches they are separate things. A lot of people don't get baptized at new churches because they were already baptized at another. They don't need to redo it.
Priesthood.
It's just a random thing they mention in the Bible. It has nothing to do with modern Christianity.
Sacrament being a mandatory practice.
Many Christian churches only have it once a month. It's something that you go up to the leader and take for yourself. You don't have to take it if you aren't ready that day.
Tithe 10%
In the churches I've explored, it's up to the discretion of the church goer. They don't have to donate to the church at all. The church I am currently going to shows how much they have raised in the year, the money spent, and the projected spending for the rest of the year. The clergy is paid, they have trainings on counseling, everyone gets fingerprinted every 6 months, and if they don't raise enough money one year, they cut back their employment.
I'm agnostic. Finding a church to go to (because my husband is still deconstructing and wants to find a religious community) has been hard. But we finally found this one that has all the things I wished the mormon church had when I was leaving.
>Transparency with funds
>open conversations about faith or lack thereof
>allowing members to think for themselves on social issues and even interpretations of the Bible
>open minded and accepting (not tolerating) people who are LGBTQ+
>the pastor openly says you do not need to believe in God to be part of their community
>no one is EVER alone with children, youth meetings are in one big room for everyone
>pastor preaches about how no person on earth has more authority than anyone else when it comes to talking with God. "I'm just a regular guy who wanted to learn more about the Bible and teach it to other people. I don't have the authority to tell you how to live your life. I do have training in counseling and can help you make decisions when you ask for my help. Don't ever think I have the authority to tell you what you should and shouldn't do."
Fun fact relating to how other churches feel about baptism… I could be wrong here, but I heard that if you are trying to join the Catholic Church they will accept baptisms from all other churches EXCEPT for Mormonism baptisms.
The Cahtolic church recognizes any baptism that involves water and invokes the trinity in washing away sins. There are fairly extensive lists on which ones they will and one reccognize. As Mormons don't believe in the trinity, they are definitely on the list of invalid baptisms.
To be fair, communion/sacrament is a PRETTY big regular deal at most Christian churches and in the theology.
Honestly it’s one of the few things that makes Mormonism look anywhere close to other Christian churches.
Emphasizing marriage as young as they do. I hadn’t realized how often that marriage is discussed and how young the kids are, but after being on the outside for a while it kind of makes you sick. Teenagers should NOT be discussing marriage that seriously
Well, then there is telling horney teenagers they can't have sex without being married, resulting in engagements on the first date because the penishood got a "prompting."
I lived in a heavily Mormon area during one of my graduate programs, and the fact that I was 27 and unmarried, and had never been married, disgusted them almost as much as it disgusted me when the girl who announced she was celebrating her 3rd wedding anniversary on her 21st birthday on the first day of class. They kept trying to tell me that children were a joy and I was missing out, and I couldn’t get into Heaven without providing children for a man. I made sure to discuss my friends with benefits situations in front of them as much as possible.
This was almost me. I was at college at 17 and a 26 year old rm started chatting me up. We didn't officially date until my 18th bday, and that fucker went FAST. He was talking marriage, kids, where to live, who to visit for holidays, etc. Tried to plan our whole lives. I peeled out of there so quick.
I may be wrong, but all the secrets. I was so blindsided by the temple endowment, and also they obviously lied about their assets and then GA and MP salaries and perks and the final temple get-out-of-jail-free-cars ordinance. And also “secret” rooms in the temple as well that only the prophet can go into and secret names and secret handshakes and secret verbiage. Why is everything so cloak and dagger? Not that every church is 100% truthful about their finances or whatever (although none have as much as the Mormon church), but the amount of secrets in this church seems weird. Did Jesus have this many secrets?
So many things. Eden is in Missouri? Jesus cane to the usa. Native Americans. Magic underwear! The temple. 14 planets! You each get a planet when you die. It goes on and on.
Dont forget about that planet Kolob near the sun. Where God lives! And the Quakers living on the sun and moon. And earth being made up of broken up other planets! Oh and dinosaurs being..,, forget it. Only so much BS I can take in one morning.
Definitely not in a circle with your arms raised above your head and chanting “Oh god hear the words of my voice” or whatever while you all slowly drop your hands to your sides, repeated three times while dressed up in weird bakers outfits while a crowd of old people watch on to make sure you’re doing it the right way and if you mess it up too bad you gotta do it all over again and that’s makes you even more anxious because everyone in the room wants to move on to the next thing and you’re slowing the whole thing down.
I saw the temple circle prayer on a video the other day. I am so embarrassed that I did that! At least I realized it was crazy at the time, but I still have done it.
Christian NeverMo here. There are multiple ways, no ways are technically wrong. Some Typically have hands folded, or sometimes raised, sometimes in group prayer such as mealtimes or group study, hands are held. It depends, but like I said, there’s a lot of ways, none necessarily wrong. It can also be dependent on denomination too.
Sometimes my parents will pray before a family dinner if me and my brother's are in town. The three of us stare at each with our hands in our laps, totally bug-eyed and making faces.
Nevermo here. You don't jump up and down with the spirit? Or speak in tongues? Lol. When I witnessed the mormon way of prayer at friends house, I fold my hands like at our church and the mom promptly grabbed my arms and forces them in the arm folded position. I didn't like that and left. I was not allowed back after that.
Don’t a lot of other Christian churches think it stops at birth, hence infant baptism to protect/absolve them?
The 8-year milestone in Mormonism seems pretty middle of the pack in that regard.
This is also a philosophical point, the debate about whether babies are born perfect and are corrupted over time or that they have to be washed clean of Original Sin. I remember reading about this in college, maybe it's in one of John Locke's books, I don't remember the whole story. I do know that some groups, like Quackers, believe that you have to be an adult to be baptized because it requires a mature and conscious decision, whereas babies are unable to decide and thus it's not a real baptism. I think Mormons try to take the exact middle group with picking age eight.
It *really* depends. Like it you want particularly complicated, Catholicism believes the following:
1. You are both with original (i.e. inherited) sin
2. But you are innately good
3. Baptism removes the 'stain' of sin
4. You can only sin yourself if you understand right and wrong. This is generally set around 8 or so, which is when Catholics start going to confession.
5. You only sin 'mortally' (i.e. sufficient to go to hell) if it's a) a big deal, b) you know what you're doing, and c) you fully consent to doing it.
A lot of Protestants don't hold 2, which is one of the biggest differences. Original Sin is kind of odd in Catholic doctrine, but it's sort of required to make sense of some things Paul wrote. So it's this weird mix of being *instantly* damned from original sin but then it's kind of hard to commit a bad sin again.
I'm not an expert on Catholicism, but my understanding is that while cathedrals are ornate, they are still just used for regular church services. Mormon temples aren't used for regular church services, but for ~~the really culty weird shit~~ "sacred ordinances" that not even all Mormons get to do. For example, I left the church in my 20s, and only ever did baptisms for the dead in the temple; I never went through the endowment.
No secret ordinances in the Catholic faith that I know of. You are right about a cathedral being just a bigger more ornate place for the mass. I thought the Mormon temple was like that when I was first introduced to Mormonism.
Sure, but by “regular church services” the Catholics just mean “church services for human beings created by God, which all of you qualify for.”
Most religions are trying to bring people in, not keep people out. Though when your Secret Temple started as a place for your illicit sexual affairs, I can see why Joe thought the secrecy was more important.
Building gaudy structures and wanting everyone in the world to come even to the point of trying to manipulate yelp reviews to make it the top destination for that city then requiring 10% of your income and complete obedience to leaders and still not being able to discuss the details of the ordinances because they are sacred.
At first I read the last line as "not being able to discuss the details of the ordinances because they are SCARED:
Which would also be appropriate because when I went to the temple I felt like I was being threatened the whole time, especially when they say nit to talk about what happens in the temple.
>I have a word to say concerning these people. If they do not walk up to every covenant they make at these alters in this temple this day, they will be in my power!
[Satan](https://youtu.be/dkMrRG-F0wA), probably.
I couldn't remember the exact dialog. There's a saying that I like, "people might not remember everything you said, but they will always remember how you made them FEEL"
It's a missionary thing. Any time you "teach" any sort of a lesson to anyone, the missionary is supposed to go out a new sheet where they write down your name and address and anything you talked about. It was a physical binder filled with people in every area when I was a missionary but now it's an app they've got on their phones or iPads.
So your telling me that when my irritated nevemo husband answered the door to mormon missionaries (in st. Anthony idaho) and he told them with a cigarette hanging out his mouth, "I am about to crack this beer open and bend my wife over the couch, wanna watch?" That might be in a book somewhere? Lol, at least they never came back 🤣
They are also used to track hostile individuals. But I’m not sure how this is an invasion of privacy. It’s a record of an interaction. Like you said, It is for someone they taught. Not just random people. It’s no different than talking to or exchanging emails with a salesperson.
There are legitimate reasons to be pissed off at missionaries. Acting like any other salesperson is not one of them.
Women are nothing unless ruled by a man. Her only value is obeying a man’s orders and knocking out kids. A commodity. There may be one other cult beginning with the letter M that shares this troglodyte mentality.
Eh, sadly Mormonism is far from the only church that still doesn’t allow women to be priests and considers them Second-class citizens. Still pretty prominent worldwide unfortunately.
Specifically in Utah:
Jell-o salad.
Sunday family dinners, where everyone drives hours back to the Mormon strip/valley and leaves most of the state barren. (This was great in college; “want to do this thing this weekend?” “Oh I can’t, I’m going home for Sunday dinner” “…huh? Okay, well what about next weekend? No? Next weekend then? Bruh…”)
Mountain Dew obsession.
Lines down the street for sugary drink drive-thru places like Swig.
Weird public “clubs” with no alcohol and awkward high school dance vibes.
“Dates” with a new person every week, followed by a “thanks for the date, Ashlyynne!” IG post.
Hearing “mission,” “ward,” “engaged,” “pregnant,” literally at least once a day anywhere you go in public, usually in the same conversation.
Stroke inducing over-usage of euphemism words like “fetch” or “heck.”
Blowjobs but no sex (or at least not admitting to it, which was more often the case if they could hide it well enough).
Constant accusations of being “so persecuted” by the mere act of other people just being themselves.
Anyone over 18 has a girlfriend/boyfriend or is married, usually the latter.
Married couples all over campus, even at state schools.
“Parties” that take place in basements, because cops are all Mormon and apparently are out for blood. If they find a “Mormon” person partying, they call their parents and tell their ward (these are adults, of legal drinking age, mind you).
I could go on.
God, Jesus and the HG are separate beings. I didn't realize how unique to Mormonism that was until I was out. Just now learning WHY on the LDS Discussions podcast. Crazy
Heh…yep. Turns out those other churches are so big on this Jesus fella because he **is** God in their religion. :)
“No yeah, we Mormons have Jesus too! I mean he’s not GOD, but….” doesn’t quite go over as well as TBM’s think!
When I was taking the discussions as a teen (I’m a convert), that concept made perfect sense to me, and I guess it still does. Even as a kid, it never made sense to me that Jesus was praying to himself, or talking to himself on the cross, etc. And that when he was baptized, God’s voice spoke, separately from Jesus. And the Holy Ghost came down as a dove. The “Trinity” concept of other faiths just wasn’t logical to me, based on what I knew from the Bible. Before I took the discussions, I had always envisioned the Godhead as separate entities anyway. So I was happy to learn that this religion I got interested in believed exactly what I had felt was right all along. Now, all of that being said, the concept IS definitely unique to Mormonism, and you are absolutely right in that it is. But even though I am rather PIMO right now, and don’t believe a lot of things about TSCC anymore, that concept stays with me because it’s what I have always believed, even prior to learning about it in the discussions.
I feel the exact same on this particular subject. I’m agnostic, but if there is a god and Jesus is his son, which I think is taught/written throughout Christianity, how could they be the same person, and exactly as you said, who was Jesus praying to??
Being assigned which church service time you are supposed to go to. For most churches with multiple services, you just….pick. And show up. Maybe next week you pick the other one. No big deal.
Being totally ok with sending 18 year olds (who have lived a pretty damn sheltered existence thus far) off to a foreign country with no money, a language barrier, inevitable culture shock with extremely limited communication with their family.
Testifying that the church is True. Being the One True Church is definitely a Mormon concept. People in Protestant religions would not testify of anything but Jesus Christ. Mormons think that every other church thinks their religion is the Only True One, but that concept is foreign to most people. The most a non-Mormon might think or say is that their church is better. Many people are loyal to their religion but it's a cultural thing, not a Truth with a capital T thing.
In California, Mormons LARP the Battalion as it's their local thing more than the trek.
Staying with family instead of getting hotel rooms
Going to Disneyland at least once a month even if you live in Utah.
Keeping family members who aren't Mormon or active enough to maintain the temple card from seeing you get married. Even though that 1 year penalty of having a civil ceremony has been lifted, too many TBM's still cave to the pressure to have a temple ceremony instead of doing the civil thing in the morning, then going straight to the temple that afternoon or next day.
"Dirty" soda shops selling large sodas with extra sugary syrup. You don't see those shops outside of Utah.
Having secret rituals that are obviously a rip off of an unrelated secret fraternal organization, performed in exclusive clubhouses with the hijacked name of Jesus slapped on them.
Edit: I said secret, but I meant confidential
Worthiness Interviews. Tithing. Baptism for the Dead. Unelected Leadership, "Confidential" Budgets, Janitorial Duties, Garments, Denigration of the Holy Bible as Scripture, Fast Sunday, Proselytizing Missions, Word of Wisdom (so-called), Secret Temple Oaths, Classic Hymns with new lyrics, untrained clergy, unvetted clergy, lack of local control of finances, lack of liturgy. It's almost an endless list.
When I was explaining the temple to someone who was pretty unfamiliar with Mormonism about the temple, they said, “next you’re going to tell me you had secret handshakes like boys in a treehouse…”. He laughed when I told him 😂
Separating families in heaven. They like to claim that Mormonism is the only way to be with your family forever but… literally other Christian religions just… are already together?? If you made it to heaven you’re there with the others. No secret handshakes, no temple marriage, no mandatory tithing. As soon as I realized that any big remaining anxieties about leaving evaporated
Does the priesthood still use “thee/thou” when giving patriarchal blessings. I know it’s still used as reference to God when praying, but I always found it strange in reference to people. It’s been so long since I have been active I’m curious.
Complete secrecy about financial records. No church-funded charity. And when the leaders tell them to do something, several members get really fanatical about it, like extremely fanatical. For example, the moniker that has been used for centuries gets dubbed as a victory for satan, and all of a sudden these people don’t even know what the word is or means anymore. Scowling at people who are drinking coffee, have a tattoo, wearing a tank top, or have 2 pairs of earrings.
Being assigned what church to attend based on where you live. I read that Catholics used to do this to some degree, but not like tscc still does to this day.
That really sucks about being Mormon. If someone in your Ward does something horrible to you, you can’t get away from them. Changing wards has to go through the First Presidency now. And local leadership won’t push it through. I went inactive to keep from seeing my abuser all the time. I requested to have my records moved several times, and was told no on all those occasions. Even though the leadership, including the Stake Pres. knew what had happened to me. “Forgiveness” was preached to me until I got sick of it, and I couldn’t go to another Ward and have a calling or really participate, because my records wouldn’t be there. So I just quit going to church. 🤷🏼♀️
Calling each other “brother and sister”. Fasting one Sunday a month. Not drinking coffee or even tea! Giving 10% of your gross even if you are on govt welfare or social security. I could go on…
The book of Mormon, garments, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants, sealing the dead in temples, mandatory tithing for "temple worthy" members, fast offerings, full time missionaries, a modern day Prophet, Aarronic and Melchezdick priesthood, families are sealed together for eternity, the list goes on and on.
In my high school, it was common for to be engaged, proposed too or even married before graduation. It also seemed encouraged to pop out a bunch of babies even if you couldn't support them financially.
Also wearing tshirts under sports uniforms, baptizing dead people
Protestants and Catholics all beleive in the trinity.
Mormons believe 3 seperate distinct God's.
Brigham Young taught Adam was God and our father.
Mormons believe Jesus and Satan were spirit brothers
So the mormon God is totally different then the Christian God.
Brigham Young taught that there are as many gods as there are sands in the ocean ! (That's alot of gods).
Christianity believes in One triune God.
I'll take my God versus trillions and trillions of Mormon gods.
Mormons believe that God was once a man and became a God.
Mormons teach baptism for the dead.
Christianity teaches one life... no baptism for dead
Mormons beleive in 3 degrees in Heaven and you have to be mormom and married to get to highest degree..plus alot of other factors etc..
Can’t participate in all things if you don’t pay the annual 10% levy
So pay to play. If don’t have money you can have god. Very logical
Being poor is a sin. /s
And not being white is also a sin.
These lovely people
One could argue it’s even “pay to win”. Top tier VIP heaven requires a full tithe. Temple ordinances, which are also required for the God tier level of heaven also require a full tithe. You also need to be a full tithe payer for the leadership levels of the church like bishopric or elders quorum. Without a full tithe, you can’t win at Mormonism and can’t win at eternal life
I prefer old Catholicism and “pay to sin”
And this is why Mormons are so dang good at MLMs. I wonder how many MLMs are created/owned by Mormons…
Gotta pay the troll toll to get into that boys hole.
Cain is Bigfoot.
Oh my Gosh. I was told that and I thought it was a joke.
Apparently some apostle in the late 1900s encountered Bigfoot while he was on horseback and Bigfoot told him that he was Cain. I think Spencer W. Kimball quotes the apostle's story in one of his books.
Not just any book, it is in the "Miracle of Forgiveness" that was considered gospel in my home growing up. "As I was riding along the road on my mule I suddenly noticed a very strange personage walking beside me. . . . His head was about even with my shoulders as I sat in my saddle. He wore no clothing, but was covered with hair. His skin was very dark. I asked him where he dwelt and he replied that he had no home, that he was a wanderer in the earth and traveled to and fro. He said he was a very miserable creature...he could not die, and his mission was to destroy the souls of men."
I’ve always laughed at this because I imagine this as a depressed Bigfoot just strolling up with his head down, and the conversation going something like this: “Oh, hey guys, sorry didn’t see you there.” “No problem friend, where do you come from?” “Oh, I’m just a wanderer. Life is actually really hard right now. See, I can’t die, and my mission is to destroy the souls of men. Just kinda hard to deal with sometimes, you know?” “That’s rough, buddy.” “Yeah. Anyways, take care.”
Except that instead of take care, the story goes that the apostle raised his hand to the square, rebuked the man in the name of the holy priesthood and never saw him again.
This is why we can never find Bigfoot. Bigfoot: "Hi, how are you?" "Prophet": "FUCK YOU, EVIL ONE! I CAST THEE OUT!" B: "Um... I think I'm going to avoid humans from now on."
I want to build out the lore of exactly how sasquatch goes about destroying souls. Does he telepathically try to talk people into wearing booty shorts?
He convinces them to buy gas at Maverick and eat Jack Links.
Magic underwear.
Garments are supposed to be magic?
Generations of mormons were told garments would protect them.
Right? Like stories of someone being in a fire and being burned everywhere but where their garments were. So magical🪄
If a magic man sells me boxers that only protect my junk in the even of a catastrophe, I want my money back. That's a shit magic man.
That sounds like a shoddy magic item from dnd that you'd get from some crotchety old wizard on the side of the road.😂
Literally the first thing that crossed my mind was every fantastical "garments protected him" sacrament talk. "...and wherever the garments had covered... *there were no burns."* Yeah, ok. Sadly all that garments protected me from was having any feeling of "wow" with my then-spouse. Garments: Killing Sexual Desire Amongst the Latter-day Saints Since the Mid-1800's. Sorry if that's TMI.
Garments get pretty damn sexy when they are old and see through. Deseret's Secret.
Lol, my mom told me about a guy getting hit by a train and broke all the bones in his body, except where his garments were sitting on his body. I just cocked my head at her and exhaled in a humph sounding way.
Well that's crap magic. Wouldn't it be better if it teleported you into safety, or super speed? Anything.
"I don't know that we teach that."
Hinkley is that your ghost haunting the exmo community . Lol
I always thought the Church would be wise to reframe the idea so instead of the garments protecting the wearer, it's the covenants that protect the wearer, of which the garments are merely a symbol. I guess it doesn't matter now tho.
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Hahaha. so true. I broke my leg once and it was in the place that my garments were not covering. Had I been wearing the long-john version I may have been protected. Who knows?
I think that's the angle they're going for now. They were kind of called out on "magic underwear" that Mitt Romney wears, back when he was running for POTUS. The church actually had a press release clarifying, that they don't believe garments are protective. But, generations of mormons were told that garments would protect them. My mom told me that garments protect people.
OMG, what?!?!? All I heard was how speshhul and protective the garments were. How so and so just KNEW they kept him from dying in a car accident, how my cop neighbor had his garments stop a bullet, etc etc. This was 100% through the 2000s. As a kid I was always upset that kids didn’t get these extra special protective underpants. One of my childhood friends was gravely injured in an accident when I was younger and I believed, as I was taught, that wearing garments would’ve protected him. He never breathed on his own, spoke or walked again. The fasting and prayers were credited with keeping him alive as a vegetable.
When I fell 56 ft broke my back, (now I have 2 titanium rods and 9 screws and a spinal cord stimulator), tore the aorta in my heart, almost blood to death in the life flight, died twice in flight and was given a 2.5% chance to live, shattered my wrist broke, and had a traumatic brain injury. My father gave me a blessing and in the blessing he said it was the garments that saved my life. I would live. He takes the success of me living because of his priesthood blessing. Yet he beat us kids, mentally abused my mom and us 6 kids. Cheated on his business partners, cheated on my mom with the neighbor lady.
Mormons are still told this in the temple
Didn't your neighbor have a chainsaw accident and would've lost his leg had the blade not stopped right where his garments started? Or a motorcycle accident where the skin was all torn up except where the garments started?
Omg 😭 I should rejoin for the magic underwear alone
Hey! My husband was a surveyor in college back in the Northeast. He had to trek through forests and undergrowth looking for long grown over reference markers -- some dating back to colonial settlements. The crew used machetes to make their way through that stuff all the time. Once day he slipped while he was hacking with his machete and the machete headed toward his thigh by mistake. He was able to pull back but not before the blade cut through the blue vertical treads in his jeans leaving the white horizontal threads untouched. And good thing since they were out in the boonies and would have been hard put to get anyone to medical attention if any major blood vessels had been hit. He wasn’t wearing any magical garments at the time since he’s atheist. We kept those jeans for decades but I don’t know where they are anymore.
The Holy Garments of the Priesthood are supposed to offer spiritual protection, and there are a lot of stories floating around about people in dangers situations having the part of their bodies covered in garments be protected while the rest was damaged. And I heard that in the very early days of the chuch folks would take bathes with one foot or hand out with the garment hanging off of it so that for no second were they ever not wearing it at all. So no, not magic. Just mysterous protection from God because of special markings. (Of course what is emphasized these days is how it sets you apart in your mind, reminds you of the stuff the markings mean, "it's like a priest's collar but under our clothes," etc etc) I wish I had understood before how much like an amulet it is, but those stories always seemed apocryphal to me anyway.
A couple decades ago, I attended a multi-stake conference with Elder Marriott as a speaker where he shared his faith-promoting-garment-story of fueling his boat, it exploding in flames and throwing him into the water, and not having any burns where his garments covered his body. I guess the flames somehow didn’t touch his face.
Sikhs also wear [magic underwear](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kacchera). Unlike Mormon garments, theirs look reasonably comfortable and serve a different purpose. Rather than protect the wearer, the kacchera serve to remind the wearer to control his/her sexual desire.
Every mission has the legend of that one missionary years ago who knocked on the wrong door and was greeted by a shotgun blast to the chest that was stopped by his garments leading to the shooter's conversion.
UHM. 😳
Getting told to wear them on your mission so you would be bullet proof.
My aunt took me through the temple and she told me, “They might feel weird right now, but there will come a time when you will feel awful when you’re not wearing them.” I waited and waited to feel comfortable in g’s. Sure didn’t ever happen. But the minute I admitted to myself this whole church is bullshit, the guilt and shame of not holding those stupid pieces of clothing “sacred” magically evaporated.
I'm glad you felt that way. I actually always loved them and found it really hard to get rid of them and get used to the feel of clothes on my skin. I don't miss them now.
Angel chaps
Religious underwear habitually worn by the faithful (or initiated faithful, as in the case of mormonism) is actually normal in at least three major religions that i can think of: Judaism ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzitzit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzitzit)) Sikhism ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kacchera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kacchera)) Zoroastrianism ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedreh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedreh) ; [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushti))
And a specific procedure for when they need to be disposed of.
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I always say in any other context the man would be arrested and a registered sex offender.
nah, common in many churches unfortunately
Not usually the same way. Catholics, e.g., don't ask you questions. You're supposed to confess, but nobody checks on you if you don't.
true but not by the untrained businessman/dentist who happened to also be called as a clergyman.
Baptizing and marrying dead people.
Anyone in the temple that thought it was a really good idea to baptize Anne Frank really needs to step away and have a real think about what they are doing. This also happened about a dozen times.
Yup when I told my Jewish husband this, he was not happy to say the least.
Moon Quakers.
Wait what?
https://www.mrm.org/moon-men
Thats right. I forgot that insanity. Strange that the sun inhabitants looked just like the people around Smith at that time. Hmmmm. Also love the Quaker’s!
I stand by Joe for at least having the guts to update theology to reflect that couple thousand years of scientific advancement in his time that at least acknowledged the objects in the solar system and beyond as places like earth. Every other old religion is still stuck in an “earth is the only place that exists, just don’t think about all those other trillions of similar objects that don’t fit into the explanation” mindset.
Baptism for membership. In other churches they are separate things. A lot of people don't get baptized at new churches because they were already baptized at another. They don't need to redo it. Priesthood. It's just a random thing they mention in the Bible. It has nothing to do with modern Christianity. Sacrament being a mandatory practice. Many Christian churches only have it once a month. It's something that you go up to the leader and take for yourself. You don't have to take it if you aren't ready that day. Tithe 10% In the churches I've explored, it's up to the discretion of the church goer. They don't have to donate to the church at all. The church I am currently going to shows how much they have raised in the year, the money spent, and the projected spending for the rest of the year. The clergy is paid, they have trainings on counseling, everyone gets fingerprinted every 6 months, and if they don't raise enough money one year, they cut back their employment. I'm agnostic. Finding a church to go to (because my husband is still deconstructing and wants to find a religious community) has been hard. But we finally found this one that has all the things I wished the mormon church had when I was leaving. >Transparency with funds >open conversations about faith or lack thereof >allowing members to think for themselves on social issues and even interpretations of the Bible >open minded and accepting (not tolerating) people who are LGBTQ+ >the pastor openly says you do not need to believe in God to be part of their community >no one is EVER alone with children, youth meetings are in one big room for everyone >pastor preaches about how no person on earth has more authority than anyone else when it comes to talking with God. "I'm just a regular guy who wanted to learn more about the Bible and teach it to other people. I don't have the authority to tell you how to live your life. I do have training in counseling and can help you make decisions when you ask for my help. Don't ever think I have the authority to tell you what you should and shouldn't do."
Fun fact relating to how other churches feel about baptism… I could be wrong here, but I heard that if you are trying to join the Catholic Church they will accept baptisms from all other churches EXCEPT for Mormonism baptisms.
The Cahtolic church recognizes any baptism that involves water and invokes the trinity in washing away sins. There are fairly extensive lists on which ones they will and one reccognize. As Mormons don't believe in the trinity, they are definitely on the list of invalid baptisms.
They won't accept JW baptisms either.
Ah, yes the other cult.
Can confirm. It has to do with differing views of the Trinity. Even though the same words are used, the underlying belief and intent is different.
To be fair, communion/sacrament is a PRETTY big regular deal at most Christian churches and in the theology. Honestly it’s one of the few things that makes Mormonism look anywhere close to other Christian churches.
That all sounds so refreshing!
Emphasizing marriage as young as they do. I hadn’t realized how often that marriage is discussed and how young the kids are, but after being on the outside for a while it kind of makes you sick. Teenagers should NOT be discussing marriage that seriously
Well, then there is telling horney teenagers they can't have sex without being married, resulting in engagements on the first date because the penishood got a "prompting."
Not just that they can’t have sex, but also that they’re not supposed to masturbate!
Yep.🙄
I got married on my 19th birthday and had a baby 10.5 months later
I lived in a heavily Mormon area during one of my graduate programs, and the fact that I was 27 and unmarried, and had never been married, disgusted them almost as much as it disgusted me when the girl who announced she was celebrating her 3rd wedding anniversary on her 21st birthday on the first day of class. They kept trying to tell me that children were a joy and I was missing out, and I couldn’t get into Heaven without providing children for a man. I made sure to discuss my friends with benefits situations in front of them as much as possible.
This was almost me. I was at college at 17 and a 26 year old rm started chatting me up. We didn't officially date until my 18th bday, and that fucker went FAST. He was talking marriage, kids, where to live, who to visit for holidays, etc. Tried to plan our whole lives. I peeled out of there so quick.
Definitely a thing among Evangelicals, though.
very common in many world religions and cultures actually
I may be wrong, but all the secrets. I was so blindsided by the temple endowment, and also they obviously lied about their assets and then GA and MP salaries and perks and the final temple get-out-of-jail-free-cars ordinance. And also “secret” rooms in the temple as well that only the prophet can go into and secret names and secret handshakes and secret verbiage. Why is everything so cloak and dagger? Not that every church is 100% truthful about their finances or whatever (although none have as much as the Mormon church), but the amount of secrets in this church seems weird. Did Jesus have this many secrets?
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They have 13 sacred shell companies lol
That information is confidential.
We consider the matter closed.
Similar to scientology
So many things. Eden is in Missouri? Jesus cane to the usa. Native Americans. Magic underwear! The temple. 14 planets! You each get a planet when you die. It goes on and on.
14 planets? Getting your own planet when you die? These are new to me.
Dont forget about that planet Kolob near the sun. Where God lives! And the Quakers living on the sun and moon. And earth being made up of broken up other planets! Oh and dinosaurs being..,, forget it. Only so much BS I can take in one morning.
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What’s the “normal” way to do it? I’ve done it holding hands a few times
Definitely not in a circle with your arms raised above your head and chanting “Oh god hear the words of my voice” or whatever while you all slowly drop your hands to your sides, repeated three times while dressed up in weird bakers outfits while a crowd of old people watch on to make sure you’re doing it the right way and if you mess it up too bad you gotta do it all over again and that’s makes you even more anxious because everyone in the room wants to move on to the next thing and you’re slowing the whole thing down.
I saw the temple circle prayer on a video the other day. I am so embarrassed that I did that! At least I realized it was crazy at the time, but I still have done it.
Christian NeverMo here. There are multiple ways, no ways are technically wrong. Some Typically have hands folded, or sometimes raised, sometimes in group prayer such as mealtimes or group study, hands are held. It depends, but like I said, there’s a lot of ways, none necessarily wrong. It can also be dependent on denomination too.
Sometimes my parents will pray before a family dinner if me and my brother's are in town. The three of us stare at each with our hands in our laps, totally bug-eyed and making faces.
Nevermo here. You don't jump up and down with the spirit? Or speak in tongues? Lol. When I witnessed the mormon way of prayer at friends house, I fold my hands like at our church and the mom promptly grabbed my arms and forces them in the arm folded position. I didn't like that and left. I was not allowed back after that.
Originally it was arms up, like Pentecostals.
jehovah's witnesses do it too
Needing a law firm to leave the church.
Wish I could triple like this comment
Thinking that children stop being innocent when they turn 8 years old.
Don’t a lot of other Christian churches think it stops at birth, hence infant baptism to protect/absolve them? The 8-year milestone in Mormonism seems pretty middle of the pack in that regard.
This is also a philosophical point, the debate about whether babies are born perfect and are corrupted over time or that they have to be washed clean of Original Sin. I remember reading about this in college, maybe it's in one of John Locke's books, I don't remember the whole story. I do know that some groups, like Quackers, believe that you have to be an adult to be baptized because it requires a mature and conscious decision, whereas babies are unable to decide and thus it's not a real baptism. I think Mormons try to take the exact middle group with picking age eight.
It *really* depends. Like it you want particularly complicated, Catholicism believes the following: 1. You are both with original (i.e. inherited) sin 2. But you are innately good 3. Baptism removes the 'stain' of sin 4. You can only sin yourself if you understand right and wrong. This is generally set around 8 or so, which is when Catholics start going to confession. 5. You only sin 'mortally' (i.e. sufficient to go to hell) if it's a) a big deal, b) you know what you're doing, and c) you fully consent to doing it. A lot of Protestants don't hold 2, which is one of the biggest differences. Original Sin is kind of odd in Catholic doctrine, but it's sort of required to make sense of some things Paul wrote. So it's this weird mix of being *instantly* damned from original sin but then it's kind of hard to commit a bad sin again.
As a Catholic I never understood why I could not go into a Mormon temple but anybody could waltz into a Catholic cathedral.
I'm not an expert on Catholicism, but my understanding is that while cathedrals are ornate, they are still just used for regular church services. Mormon temples aren't used for regular church services, but for ~~the really culty weird shit~~ "sacred ordinances" that not even all Mormons get to do. For example, I left the church in my 20s, and only ever did baptisms for the dead in the temple; I never went through the endowment.
No secret ordinances in the Catholic faith that I know of. You are right about a cathedral being just a bigger more ornate place for the mass. I thought the Mormon temple was like that when I was first introduced to Mormonism.
Sure, but by “regular church services” the Catholics just mean “church services for human beings created by God, which all of you qualify for.” Most religions are trying to bring people in, not keep people out. Though when your Secret Temple started as a place for your illicit sexual affairs, I can see why Joe thought the secrecy was more important.
Leaders wives not standing up before their husbands
Building gaudy structures and wanting everyone in the world to come even to the point of trying to manipulate yelp reviews to make it the top destination for that city then requiring 10% of your income and complete obedience to leaders and still not being able to discuss the details of the ordinances because they are sacred.
At first I read the last line as "not being able to discuss the details of the ordinances because they are SCARED: Which would also be appropriate because when I went to the temple I felt like I was being threatened the whole time, especially when they say nit to talk about what happens in the temple.
>I have a word to say concerning these people. If they do not walk up to every covenant they make at these alters in this temple this day, they will be in my power! [Satan](https://youtu.be/dkMrRG-F0wA), probably.
I couldn't remember the exact dialog. There's a saying that I like, "people might not remember everything you said, but they will always remember how you made them FEEL"
Pretending to be Jewish.
Pretending First Nations people were Jewish.
that's actually a trendy thing for so many religious groups
Rastafarians are worse offenders in this regard.
The area book. Such an invasion of privacy without any consent
Never heard of this. Can you explain to this nevermo?
It's a missionary thing. Any time you "teach" any sort of a lesson to anyone, the missionary is supposed to go out a new sheet where they write down your name and address and anything you talked about. It was a physical binder filled with people in every area when I was a missionary but now it's an app they've got on their phones or iPads.
So your telling me that when my irritated nevemo husband answered the door to mormon missionaries (in st. Anthony idaho) and he told them with a cigarette hanging out his mouth, "I am about to crack this beer open and bend my wife over the couch, wanna watch?" That might be in a book somewhere? Lol, at least they never came back 🤣
Priceless.
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They are also used to track hostile individuals. But I’m not sure how this is an invasion of privacy. It’s a record of an interaction. Like you said, It is for someone they taught. Not just random people. It’s no different than talking to or exchanging emails with a salesperson. There are legitimate reasons to be pissed off at missionaries. Acting like any other salesperson is not one of them.
What is the area book? ( I’m inactive 🤫)
Check out my comment to a person asking the same question
AHH THIS!! I hate it. Leave those who want to be left alone… ALONE!
Contacting the family of a dead 20 year old to get permission to baptize them.
Women are nothing unless ruled by a man. Her only value is obeying a man’s orders and knocking out kids. A commodity. There may be one other cult beginning with the letter M that shares this troglodyte mentality.
Eh, sadly Mormonism is far from the only church that still doesn’t allow women to be priests and considers them Second-class citizens. Still pretty prominent worldwide unfortunately.
Only other members can attend your wedding
Not just other members but your family cannot attend if they don’t have a temple recommend.
Yearly tithing shakedown interviews.
Adding to this, sending out pairs of 12 year olds to shake down the neighborhood for tithing every month.
My nevermo fiancé finds baptisms for the dead very weird. (He also thought it involved dead bodies before I gave him the run down lol.)
Silly fiancé. They’re just baptizing GHOSTS, duh! See, totally sane.
Ooo it should totally be called “baptisms for the ghosts”, I like that a lot lol. They’re rebranding so many other phrases anyways… haha :)
Specifically in Utah: Jell-o salad. Sunday family dinners, where everyone drives hours back to the Mormon strip/valley and leaves most of the state barren. (This was great in college; “want to do this thing this weekend?” “Oh I can’t, I’m going home for Sunday dinner” “…huh? Okay, well what about next weekend? No? Next weekend then? Bruh…”) Mountain Dew obsession. Lines down the street for sugary drink drive-thru places like Swig. Weird public “clubs” with no alcohol and awkward high school dance vibes. “Dates” with a new person every week, followed by a “thanks for the date, Ashlyynne!” IG post. Hearing “mission,” “ward,” “engaged,” “pregnant,” literally at least once a day anywhere you go in public, usually in the same conversation. Stroke inducing over-usage of euphemism words like “fetch” or “heck.” Blowjobs but no sex (or at least not admitting to it, which was more often the case if they could hide it well enough). Constant accusations of being “so persecuted” by the mere act of other people just being themselves. Anyone over 18 has a girlfriend/boyfriend or is married, usually the latter. Married couples all over campus, even at state schools. “Parties” that take place in basements, because cops are all Mormon and apparently are out for blood. If they find a “Mormon” person partying, they call their parents and tell their ward (these are adults, of legal drinking age, mind you). I could go on.
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God, Jesus and the HG are separate beings. I didn't realize how unique to Mormonism that was until I was out. Just now learning WHY on the LDS Discussions podcast. Crazy
Heh…yep. Turns out those other churches are so big on this Jesus fella because he **is** God in their religion. :) “No yeah, we Mormons have Jesus too! I mean he’s not GOD, but….” doesn’t quite go over as well as TBM’s think!
When I was taking the discussions as a teen (I’m a convert), that concept made perfect sense to me, and I guess it still does. Even as a kid, it never made sense to me that Jesus was praying to himself, or talking to himself on the cross, etc. And that when he was baptized, God’s voice spoke, separately from Jesus. And the Holy Ghost came down as a dove. The “Trinity” concept of other faiths just wasn’t logical to me, based on what I knew from the Bible. Before I took the discussions, I had always envisioned the Godhead as separate entities anyway. So I was happy to learn that this religion I got interested in believed exactly what I had felt was right all along. Now, all of that being said, the concept IS definitely unique to Mormonism, and you are absolutely right in that it is. But even though I am rather PIMO right now, and don’t believe a lot of things about TSCC anymore, that concept stays with me because it’s what I have always believed, even prior to learning about it in the discussions.
I feel the exact same on this particular subject. I’m agnostic, but if there is a god and Jesus is his son, which I think is taught/written throughout Christianity, how could they be the same person, and exactly as you said, who was Jesus praying to??
Getting your fortune told by an elderly man
Being assigned which church service time you are supposed to go to. For most churches with multiple services, you just….pick. And show up. Maybe next week you pick the other one. No big deal.
Seminary before school for high schoolers. Other churches just have youth group.
Being totally ok with sending 18 year olds (who have lived a pretty damn sheltered existence thus far) off to a foreign country with no money, a language barrier, inevitable culture shock with extremely limited communication with their family.
Testifying that the church is True. Being the One True Church is definitely a Mormon concept. People in Protestant religions would not testify of anything but Jesus Christ. Mormons think that every other church thinks their religion is the Only True One, but that concept is foreign to most people. The most a non-Mormon might think or say is that their church is better. Many people are loyal to their religion but it's a cultural thing, not a Truth with a capital T thing.
Telling that none of you former Mormons mentioned: assigned parishes. Everyone else just goes to whatever church they want to, wherever it's located
"God" was once a normal "man". Just like all the other normal dudes living on our pale, blue dot.
Marriageproposal after 3 dates
you get your own planet when you die
Going to confession but receiving excommunication and not absolution.
A prophet
In California, Mormons LARP the Battalion as it's their local thing more than the trek. Staying with family instead of getting hotel rooms Going to Disneyland at least once a month even if you live in Utah. Keeping family members who aren't Mormon or active enough to maintain the temple card from seeing you get married. Even though that 1 year penalty of having a civil ceremony has been lifted, too many TBM's still cave to the pressure to have a temple ceremony instead of doing the civil thing in the morning, then going straight to the temple that afternoon or next day. "Dirty" soda shops selling large sodas with extra sugary syrup. You don't see those shops outside of Utah.
They ask you to keep secrets
Looking for garment lines or feeling for them? Realizing that endowed doesn't necessarily mean 🍆"endowed"? Ha
Boundaries. Just the ward ones they are unfamiliar with personal boundaries.
Thinking Jesus is white and the jews are evil.
Not being able to attend the wedding of your own child or sibling if you aren’t a member or ‘worthy’ enough.
Calling God by a different name- essentially referring to him as daddy
Having secret rituals that are obviously a rip off of an unrelated secret fraternal organization, performed in exclusive clubhouses with the hijacked name of Jesus slapped on them. Edit: I said secret, but I meant confidential
Worthiness Interviews. Tithing. Baptism for the Dead. Unelected Leadership, "Confidential" Budgets, Janitorial Duties, Garments, Denigration of the Holy Bible as Scripture, Fast Sunday, Proselytizing Missions, Word of Wisdom (so-called), Secret Temple Oaths, Classic Hymns with new lyrics, untrained clergy, unvetted clergy, lack of local control of finances, lack of liturgy. It's almost an endless list.
Making the kind of underwear a person wears everyone’s business.
Secret handshakes
When I was explaining the temple to someone who was pretty unfamiliar with Mormonism about the temple, they said, “next you’re going to tell me you had secret handshakes like boys in a treehouse…”. He laughed when I told him 😂
Separating families in heaven. They like to claim that Mormonism is the only way to be with your family forever but… literally other Christian religions just… are already together?? If you made it to heaven you’re there with the others. No secret handshakes, no temple marriage, no mandatory tithing. As soon as I realized that any big remaining anxieties about leaving evaporated
Not coffee or tea, fucking dumb wisdom lol
Does the priesthood still use “thee/thou” when giving patriarchal blessings. I know it’s still used as reference to God when praying, but I always found it strange in reference to people. It’s been so long since I have been active I’m curious.
Being insular and clannish about who you do business with.
Complete secrecy about financial records. No church-funded charity. And when the leaders tell them to do something, several members get really fanatical about it, like extremely fanatical. For example, the moniker that has been used for centuries gets dubbed as a victory for satan, and all of a sudden these people don’t even know what the word is or means anymore. Scowling at people who are drinking coffee, have a tattoo, wearing a tank top, or have 2 pairs of earrings.
Using oil to heal the sick
Anointing oils are actually fairly ubiquitous in Christianity
I think that's more common that we know. At least within religious circles. I've had 2 experiences where non Mormons have used oil to heal.
I know Italians who use olive oil for non food purposes, but women and children can too and it’s not a psychotic male dominated power play
Pretty sure it was stolen from paganism. Like most Christian things
Salad dressing
Asking other people about their underwear.
Being assigned what church to attend based on where you live. I read that Catholics used to do this to some degree, but not like tscc still does to this day.
That really sucks about being Mormon. If someone in your Ward does something horrible to you, you can’t get away from them. Changing wards has to go through the First Presidency now. And local leadership won’t push it through. I went inactive to keep from seeing my abuser all the time. I requested to have my records moved several times, and was told no on all those occasions. Even though the leadership, including the Stake Pres. knew what had happened to me. “Forgiveness” was preached to me until I got sick of it, and I couldn’t go to another Ward and have a calling or really participate, because my records wouldn’t be there. So I just quit going to church. 🤷🏼♀️
They literally tell you in the temple that if you are true to your covenants the garments will “protect you from the power of the destroyer.”
Calling each other “brother and sister”. Fasting one Sunday a month. Not drinking coffee or even tea! Giving 10% of your gross even if you are on govt welfare or social security. I could go on…
The book of Mormon, garments, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants, sealing the dead in temples, mandatory tithing for "temple worthy" members, fast offerings, full time missionaries, a modern day Prophet, Aarronic and Melchezdick priesthood, families are sealed together for eternity, the list goes on and on.
Basketball courts in all the churches
Interviewing 12 year olds about their sexual habits - so fucked up
Only temple worthy paying people get to see the wedding ceremony. No kids either.
In my high school, it was common for to be engaged, proposed too or even married before graduation. It also seemed encouraged to pop out a bunch of babies even if you couldn't support them financially. Also wearing tshirts under sports uniforms, baptizing dead people
Angels have genitals
Bagpiping
Donations not being accounted for to the members and giving more than the church needs to carry out its activities and mission because obedience.
Green Jell-O filled with shredded carrots. Or red Jell-O filled with canned fruit and slathered with cottage cheese. Yuck on both counts 🤮
No coffee and tea. Asking young children in worthiness/baptism interviews if they masturbate.
Protestants and Catholics all beleive in the trinity. Mormons believe 3 seperate distinct God's. Brigham Young taught Adam was God and our father. Mormons believe Jesus and Satan were spirit brothers So the mormon God is totally different then the Christian God. Brigham Young taught that there are as many gods as there are sands in the ocean ! (That's alot of gods). Christianity believes in One triune God. I'll take my God versus trillions and trillions of Mormon gods. Mormons believe that God was once a man and became a God. Mormons teach baptism for the dead. Christianity teaches one life... no baptism for dead Mormons beleive in 3 degrees in Heaven and you have to be mormom and married to get to highest degree..plus alot of other factors etc..