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Psychobabble posted:I know that in Florida they're built to serve as emergency shelters in case of hurricanes so there are no windows but in other areas they do have windows. Because what is going on inside is so SUPER DUPER SECRET if you regular people saw it your heads would probably explode.
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Mar 24, 2015 21:33
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Darth Freddy posted:So what would happen if your door to door group ran into the Mormons door to door group. Would it be a preach off? Would it be a sharks and jets style brawl in my front lawn? I don't really know how it was for other congregations but we were always told to respect others. Essentially, as long as someone worships Jehovah, they're on the right path. Even though door to door work is basically for covert conversions, it was officially treated as education for God fearing Christians on how the world was going to progress in the future. Mormons, while ironically often seen as a cult by Jehovah's Witnesses, are somewhat respected for also spreading the word of God to the rest of the world in the same fashion JWs do. It's a 'their heart is in the right place' kind of thing and they should be pitied, not disliked. A little off topic but for a good part of my door to door work, I lived in North Carolina. There, door to door work was awesome. You'd only end up visiting about one house in a 4 hour period because they'd invite you inside and you'd end up chatting about nothing and drinking sweet tea and eating watermelons the entire time. When my family moved up north, door to door work became among the most hellish things that could happen on your Saturdays after the morning cartoons aired.
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Mar 24, 2015 22:16
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There's a Kingdom Hall across from my neighborhood bar that has a sign reading "Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses" and then the same thing in French underneath which confuses me because it's in Seattle. Also no windows, but then again my Presbyterian church growing up didn't have windows either. Probably the idea is not "keep people from looking in" but "keep churchgoers from zoning out and gazing out the window" like in school. If you wanted to could you just show up at a service as a non-JW?
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Mar 25, 2015 02:02
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Keith Atherton posted:If you wanted to could you just show up at a service as a non-JW? Yes. You'll be surrounded by people shaking your hand and being super nice to you. And the Elders will probably approach you and invite you to a dinner and bible study. You'll probably get introduced to just about everyone there. As long as you're not disfellowshipped, they'll do a lot to get you to keep coming back.
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Mar 25, 2015 02:21
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Keith Atherton posted:There's a Kingdom Hall across from my neighborhood bar that has a sign reading "Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses" and then the same thing in French underneath which confuses me because it's in Seattle. Also no windows, but then again my Presbyterian church growing up didn't have windows either. Probably the idea is not "keep people from looking in" but "keep churchgoers from zoning out and gazing out the window" like in school. I imagine its the same as at most other churches, no one would stop you and they would probably reach out to you to find out more about you. The dual language signage is because two different congregations share the same building and you happen to be near a large population of French-speaking people. I could be wrong but I seem to recall there being only a set number of blueprints they would pick from when building a new KH. They would get the foundation prepared and then one long weekend hundreds of members from around the region would gather and build the thing. It was a pretty organized system.
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Mar 25, 2015 02:27
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Is there much diversity with the JW, and further more, were any at the level of 'elder'? We use to have a very kind elderly black lady that would come to our door handing out the watchtower and wanting to talk, but beside her every JW I knew was white as the fallen snow.
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Mar 25, 2015 02:55
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Psychobabble posted:I imagine its the same as at most other churches, no one would stop you and they would probably reach out to you to find out more about you. The dual language signage is because two different congregations share the same building and you happen to be near a large population of French-speaking people. The Kingdom Hall I'm talking about redid their exterior and roof a couple years ago and it was impressive as hell. It was a big project and they got it finished in a week. It reminded me of an Amish barn raising. What are services like? I went to a Mormon Sunday service in high school and was surprised that it wasn't much different than the generic Protestant services I'd grown up with. Edit: ^^^^ North Seattle is white as hell and LOTS of black people go to this church. Cat Hassler fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Mar 25, 2015 |
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Mar 25, 2015 02:59
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Keith Atherton posted:The Kingdom Hall I'm talking about redid their exterior and roof a couple years ago and it was impressive as hell. It was a big project and they got it finished in a week. It reminded me of an Amish barn raising.
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Mar 25, 2015 04:34
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Thanatosian posted:I feel like most of the JWs I see handing out literature around Seattle are black. There are two of us, so that makes it data, right? Speaking of the Seattle JW Scene - I've seen groups of people passively standing by 5 foot tall kiosks with literature, just waiting for people to approach them. Always in the same places, too - Rainier and Edmonds, in front of SCCC, Pine between 3rd and 4th, the ID by Uwajimaya. I've just seen this in the past year or so; is this a new type of prostelyzing that's on top of the door knocking? Or, are they moving to this mode instead of door knocking or other forms of outreach? Also - do the JWs have any type of food restrictions? I find that to be a fascinating part of any religion, what the followers can and cannot consume, and why.
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Mar 25, 2015 04:58
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Qu Appelle posted:Also - do the JWs have any type of food restrictions? I find that to be a fascinating part of any religion, what the followers can and cannot consume, and why. Anything made of blood. If you ate meat, it had to be slaughtered in a way that the blood was drained, which is pretty much how most livestock are slaughtered. So, as an American, there's been no difference in my diet from before being a JW and after.
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Mar 25, 2015 05:07
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I knew two JWs in school, a pair of twins. They were incredibly nice, polite people, like the Mormon family from that episode of South Park. Other then their somewhat unusual kindness(which was a good thing, don't get me wrong, it didn't seem faked) they seemed perfectly normal. When I was a very little kid, I went on a fishing trip with them and their dad, though I can barely remember anything about it so I don't know if they mentioned any of that stuff.
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Mar 25, 2015 07:50
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Qu Appelle posted:Speaking of the Seattle JW Scene - I've seen groups of people passively standing by 5 foot tall kiosks with literature, just waiting for people to approach them. Always in the same places, too - Rainier and Edmonds, in front of SCCC, Pine between 3rd and 4th, the ID by Uwajimaya. I've just seen this in the past year or so; is this a new type of prostelyzing that's on top of the door knocking? Or, are they moving to this mode instead of door knocking or other forms of outreach?
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Mar 25, 2015 07:55
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Qu Appelle posted:Speaking of the Seattle JW Scene - I've seen groups of people passively standing by 5 foot tall kiosks with literature, just waiting for people to approach them. Always in the same places, too - Rainier and Edmonds, in front of SCCC, Pine between 3rd and 4th, the ID by Uwajimaya. I've just seen this in the past year or so; is this a new type of prostelyzing that's on top of the door knocking? Or, are they moving to this mode instead of door knocking or other forms of outreach? I've noticed these around a few times as well. It seems to be a new thing though. Like was mentioned, the only thing you couldn't eat is something containing blood. However smoking is banned as well. As for how services are now, I'm not sure exactly. I know within the past five years or so they changed it from 3 days a week to 2. Sundays you get a visit from a traveling elder who gives a lecture based on a topic from headquarters and then you read and answer questions about the Watchtower, interspersed with songs and prayer for two hours. One weekday we would study the current selected literature from a dozen or so different books. This one was rather informal and done in smaller groups. It was the best because it was only an hour long. Then there was another two hour meeting with one hour devoted to skits! It was meant to prepare you for work in the field and how to address different situations that may come up. I can't quite remember what the second hour was, someone else can fill in the blanks. Then every few months you would attend a "circuit assemblies" and "district conventions." The assemblies were around 2-3k people but conventions took place in sports stadiums with tens of thousands of people. Also they had more elaborate skits.
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Mar 26, 2015 03:05
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Psychobabble posted:Then there was another two hour meeting with one hour devoted to skits! It was meant to prepare you for work in the field and how to address different situations that may come up. I can't quite remember what the second hour was, someone else can fill in the blanks. Those be service meetings. The first 45 minutes consist of reading the weekly bible reading e.g. "This week's is Romans Chapter 4: Verse 1-76" and then some poor ten year old gives his first talk in front of the whole congregation. This talk consists of ten or twenty verses. In the old days when I was a publisher we had to prepare an introduction and conclusion to encapsulate the bible reading and apply it to modern times or at least make it entertaining like Aesop's Fables. I loathed doing this but my grandma did give me a $20 every time I gave a talk so there was that. After the bible reading were two more talks from more experienced dudes like Ministerial Servants. In the last 45 minutes there were demonstrations on stage where one person would play the householder and the other the witness and they would rehearse approaching people on the street or in their house and how to sell the latest headline in the Watchtower and Awake magazines. My dad did this a few times but took the demonstrations a little too far in dressing like a lumberjack for the whole meeting and at the end playing a dude uninterested in the magazines. He got in trouble for "getting lost in the role" enough times that they demoted him from ministerial servant to just publisher. Our Service meetings happened on Thursday nights and I usually missed some cool TV shows. My dad installed a small TV in his Cadillac so we could run out of the meeting as soon as it was over and watch the end of some TV show in the parking lot. Usually reruns of The Simpsons or Seinfeld. I think he just didn't like talking to people after the meeting because all the cool witnesses he liked talking to usually left or were disfellowshipped 
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Mar 26, 2015 06:09
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This is a genuinely interesting thread! Thanks to everyone who has contributed thus far. Question: for those who are disfellowed, is there anything that you now think of as 'normal', but as a Jehovah you weren't allowed to do? What about any bizarre/oddly specific things you weren't allowed to do?
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Mar 27, 2015 03:05
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Why are JWs so interested in converting deaf people? Ever since I was little, I've had them show up with either a person who knows ASL or a portable DVD player (later tablets) with an ASL video, sometimes both. That typically means that they drove out to just talk to a 10 year old deaf kid  right after the visit, I'd call my buddy who lived in the same town to not answer the door anytime soon. She did the same for me too. Eventually my parents would make me come to the door instead of hiding.I knew that they got my address back then from my deaf school's parents guide but they just found me again I HAVE NO IDEA HOW. I live in a gated community and they knew my name/address so they just came for me because I was deaf and had the correct details. The guard called when they came in so I just got someone else to answer the door while I hid. Guess old habits die hard 
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Mar 27, 2015 10:47
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Tell them you're spanish/Greek/whatever, let the learn another language in sign.
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Mar 28, 2015 06:25
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mrlego posted:In the last 45 minutes there were demonstrations on stage where one person would play the householder and the other the witness and they would rehearse approaching people on the street or in their house and how to sell the latest headline in the Watchtower and Awake magazines. It probably should be noted that this was the only thing women could do in meetings. All other services had to be hosted by a man or, in the case of the bible readings, a young boy. The demonstrations are often dominated by the women since it was the only thing they could participate in.
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Mar 30, 2015 22:36
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They just came again  The guard at the gate didn't call ahead so I had no idea and didn't think about asking to be put on the do not disturb list while I told them that I was very sick and not up for a talk. They left without a fuss but now I'm kicking myself for forgetting about the list  Chewed out the gate too for letting them in without telling us or heck, just getting approval. I don't know where the deaf ones come from, can I just call the local Kingdom Hall and tell them to put me on the do not disturb list if they share it with others in the area? I'd rather not wait until they come again to ask to be put on the list but I don't want to call in vain either if they're coming from a different area so being on the list for my city wouldn't work. Sorry, I'm just still freaked out about the surprise visit. Living in a gated community means that I don't get people at the door for bullshit stuff and it'd be one thing if they were just canvassing the area but... they personally drove out here to talk to me. Help me 
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Mar 30, 2015 22:41
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precto posted:It probably should be noted that this was the only thing women could do in meetings. All other services had to be hosted by a man or, in the case of the bible readings, a young boy. The demonstrations are often dominated by the women since it was the only thing they could participate in. That's another interesting angle on this. There were a couple of times at a book study (small gathering for bible study at a house) where the elder and ministerial servants were out sick. So there were just a gaggle of male and female publishers and children. The wife of the presiding elder conducted the book study while wearing a cloth on her head. There is something in the bible about woman having to wear a head covering while conduction a meeting as a sign of reverence or respect for the male leadership. Funny times. Tomato Soup posted:They just came again I think when special preaching groups like Chinese or deaf congregations get a "lead" to witness to one of their own, they might be a bit overzealous in preaching. There is one or a few Kingdom Halls where these special groups meet in your city. So being put on the regular do not call list in your territory might not stop the special deaf group house calls. Nut up and tell them your wishes when they visit next. If you are firm, this should be the last you hear from them for a while.1
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Mar 30, 2015 23:59
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We had a JW family down the street but all I remember is they couldn't stand up for the pledge at school. And they would walk home from school with us, and in November I would sell them my Halloween candy because they werent allowed to trick or treat. So am I disfellowshipped from the zombie paradise thing for being an acessory to jws celebrating halloween?
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Mar 31, 2015 00:00
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mrlego posted:I think when special preaching groups like Chinese or deaf congregations get a "lead" to witness to one of their own, they might be a bit overzealous in preaching. There is one or a few Kingdom Halls where these special groups meet in your city. So being put on the regular do not call list in your territory might not stop the special deaf group house calls. Nut up and tell them your wishes when they visit next. If you are firm, this should be the last you hear from them for a while.1 Yeah, I just don't like waiting for them to come again. I whined about this on my Facebook and there's already 15 comments about address mining/JWs hounding deaf people. Apparently a video relay company either sold addresses or had JW staff give them to the local Kingdom Halls a while ago. I last had one of their devices over 10 years ago at a different address so that's not the case for me currently. Others have mentioned that the people who showed up said they were told about a deaf person living at their address. One of my friends had someone in her apartment complex tell them that there was a deaf person even when she wasn't affiliated with anything local deaf-related in the small town she was currently living in. Another one said they got them to stop coming to her home but then they started going to her work instead when they found out that there was a deaf person there and their manager had to threaten them to never come back. I don't understand why they care so much about recruiting deaf people and go out of their way to do so. Sure, they do manage to convert some of them but like 90% of the deaf people I know flinch when I mention JW visits.
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Mar 31, 2015 00:23
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They don't target deaf people as a whole, like was posted, there just happens to be an ASL congregation nearby. They are either deaf themselves, in which case they can only target other deaf people or they just know ASL, in which case they're focusing their skills on a population that otherwise wouldn't hear of it. It's not like, convert a deaf dude go straight to heaven. Just tell them in no uncertain terms that you are not interested and to not return or you will press charges for harassment. If it were me though, I would focus my attention on the guard who is just letting strangers in.
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Mar 31, 2015 04:27
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I never thought of it that way and it sort of makes me feel a little less freaked by the whole thing, I guess. And yeah, definitely going to have a talk with the gate about not letting in people without my consent. Thank you 
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Mar 31, 2015 11:52
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You've told them you're not interested, and they came back. That's rude. I think you're allowed to gently caress with them now. Let them in, ask them to wait in the living room, then go do something else. If they come to you tell them you'll be there in just a second, the go back to playing Warcraft or whatever. Be aggressively passive aggressive until they blacklist you. Think of it as charity work, like loving with telemarketers. You're taking up their time so they can't take up anyone else's.
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Mar 31, 2015 20:53
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Invite them in to watch some cool youtube videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpJIXDjUyvo
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Apr 1, 2015 01:50
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EvanSchenck posted:A few years ago when I lived in a largish city I had some visits from a JW. She came by my apartment and tried to proselytize to me. She seemed nice so I was reluctant to be rude and I just explained that I was atheist but to get her to leave, she was welcome to leave some literature. She gave me a pamphlet that I chuckled over for five minutes and threw away. The problem was she came back several more times. The second time I saw her she was by herself, and I told her that I was sorry but she was wasting her time. Basically I said that I understood it was very important to her spiritually to witness to people, but that I had a pretty solidly defined life philosophy and I just wasn't a good prospect for her. The third time she came by with another woman for support, and we had much the same discussion. She visited one more time, with a man who seemed much more confident and authoritative, like he was in charge of her, and finally I felt like I just had to be blunt and told her to stop coming around, it was never gonna happen, use your energy on somebody who will go for it, good luck, don't come back. I had luck telling a JW on their second visit that I was a Marxist. Then one of them said she understood and had those in "her country" (who knows where she was from, she didn't have an accent) and left to never return. I'm not sure what magic was in those words, but it works. Not nearly as fun as totally destroying the theological foundations of the Mormon faith and watching the missionaries mutter something about consulting the bishop and never returning. ZombieLenin fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Apr 1, 2015 |
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Apr 1, 2015 02:47
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No beards? Well count me out of joining up. Gosh darn it, this sounded like the group for me too.
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Apr 1, 2015 03:14
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ZombieLenin posted:Not nearly as fun as totally destroying the theological foundations of the Mormon faith and watching the missionaries mutter something about consulting the bishop and never returning. Artist's rendition:  "Could God microwave a burrito so hot that he, himself, couldn't eat it?" "I've been living a lie!"
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Apr 1, 2015 03:29
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Captain Bravo posted:Artist's rendition: The short version is call into question their use of the New Testament given their belief in apostolic authority and it not existing anywhere between the death of the last apostle and Joseph Smith. Ergo, the gospels are apostate. Plus call into question the monotheistic nature of Mormon beliefs with their gods on planets in space... Then throw in the fact that Mormonism is one of the few religions that can absolutely be verified as scientifically false via both linguistic and DNA studies--which shows Native Americans have no relation to Jewish or Semitic people--I have had, with a limited sample size of two, zero missionaries recontact me after their promised consultations with their bishops.
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Apr 1, 2015 05:18
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They don't come back because your questions are a gigantic flag waving in the breeze that says "You don't want this guy." And so rather than go back and uproot their whole lives because you've shined the light on their petty little beliefs, they go back and put a big red "X" on their map over your house, and then just continue right on with their lives, probably having already forgotten about you.
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Apr 1, 2015 06:01
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When I was living in the dorms in Sweden, we got a lot of Mormon and JW missionaries. None of the Mormons we got were very good at Swedish, but the vast majority of the JW's couldn't speak it at all. Am I assuming correctly that JWs' foreign missionaries aren't as organized?
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Apr 1, 2015 06:12
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Huh, I'm going to have to do some research into the dna subject. I don't get many Mormons at my door, but I do have some as relatives. I'll see how it works in them.
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Apr 1, 2015 06:57
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Part of Mormon beliefs is that the two factions living in America would change skin color, depending on which side was currently the righteous, godly side, and which side was the evil heathen side. They swapped a few times. If they're willing to accept some divine hand waving like that, I don't think a silly thing like DNA will matter a whole lot.
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Apr 1, 2015 07:17
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counterfeitsaint posted:Part of Mormon beliefs is that the two factions living in America would change skin color, depending on which side was currently the righteous, godly side, and which side was the evil heathen side. They swapped a few times. If they're willing to accept some divine hand waving like that, I don't think a silly thing like DNA will matter a whole lot. Being an apostate mormon I had never thought about it in quite that racial context. Holy hell is that hosed up.
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Apr 1, 2015 09:34
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Not allowing blacks to hold the priesthood until 1978, and funding anti-gay marriage laws are two much more simple reasons to deny the visiting LDS missionaries. You don't have to troll poor 19-year-olds about advanced theology.
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Apr 1, 2015 11:09
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Following a cue from the excellent Oh No, Ross and Carrie podcast, I asked a Mormon about intersex people and he told me that he didn't think god would allow it and said he would ask an elder. Mormon elders are all like 23 because no rational adult would believe that horseshit for more than five minutes, by the way. How do the JWs keep grownups? Attrition is apparently a huge problem for Mormons.
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Apr 1, 2015 14:04
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peanut posted:Not allowing blacks to hold the priesthood until 1978, and funding anti-gay marriage laws are two much more simple reasons to deny the visiting LDS missionaries. You don't have to troll poor 19-year-olds about advanced theology. The LDS Church in SLC is currently supporting a law against housing discrimination for LGBT people. It's kind of nice. Also, they already believe that the Gospels have been mistranslated and only restored by Joseph Smith, Jr.'s translation, so I feel like that argument wouldn't go far.
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Apr 1, 2015 14:28
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AGirlWonder posted:The LDS Church in SLC is currently supporting a law against housing discrimination for LGBT people. It's kind of nice. Excuse me, I mean "God has given them Revelation on the gay thing."
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Apr 1, 2015 17:00
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As long as the gays remain celibate or enter a sham marriage?
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Apr 1, 2015 23:59
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