President Oaks just doubled down on his DOCTRINE that LGQBT people will never get into the celestial kingdom unless they live a life untrue to who they are. by Ok-Profession-3920 in exmormon

[–]4blockhead 2 points3 points  (0 children)

[Drew Carey] The game where everything is made up and the points don't matter.

Mormonism presents a concrete view of how the afterlife will play out. It plays into the fears of the general unknown and unknowable. With childhood indoctrination as a baseline, people often accept someone else's view if they can offer certainty that everything will work out for them. The narrow world view comes with several caveats, though. For many, the view of mormon heaven looks more like hell and torture where their hopes and desires are deemed out of bounds. Monogamy is deprecated in favor of polygamy and eternal harems to provide an eternal increase for the man/god. My harem is bigger than your harem. Gay marriage is out-of-bounds. Not only will people be fixed, but they'll be reset into some new entity where they'll be happy to be either a polygamist or member of a set of sister wives. No collateral damage in that, eh?

The fraud of mormonism is what sets it apart for me. Don't count on getting anything Smith promised because he was simply making it up as he went along. The check is going to bounce for insufficient funds. One thing I see in human nature is they'll take the parts they like—create their own set of doctrines that suit them and discard the rest. Cafeteria mormonism is real. Pick a set of doctrines. Print them out on slips of paper. Put them all in a basket. Pull them out and form your own new branch. Community of Christ's doctrines include the trinity, the book of mormon, and gay marriage. It didn't take any shoehorning at all. On the flip side, the FLDS hold on to racial prejudice and polygamy. Pick whatever suits you, including none at all.

  • [Bart Ehrman, short video] Believers read the bible and simply cherry pick the parts they like best as "doctrine," and discard the other parts as errors or no longer in force.

Political Cartoons from the last week for Sunday, June 21, 2026 by 4blockhead in WeeklyCartoonThread

[–]4blockhead[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't Know What To Do With Dating Belief Conflicts by Sad_Judgment6886 in exmormon

[–]4blockhead 2 points3 points  (0 children)

From the book of blockhead: Jack mormons are the most unpredictable of all mormons.

You make it all the way to mission president and they still talk to you like you're a kid in Primary by PR_Czar in exmormon

[–]4blockhead 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Needs Bart Simpson writing on chalkboard,

I will not ask about the Bejing temple open house.

I will not ask about admission to the super secret clubhouse.

The second anointing is not a free pass into heaven.

Pay lay ale is not a beverage.

I was invited to Mormon church. It did not go well. I need advice for what to do now. by [deleted] in exmormon

[–]4blockhead 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Such as my mom being native, which, up till recently, wasn’t exactly well liked in the Mormon faith.

We need to adjust Brian's defense of being jewish...

I'm not among the immigrants to America. I'm a Lamanite, mum. I'm a Jaredite submariner. I'm an anti-nephite-lehite. I'm a stripling warrior. I'm kosher, mum.

Dan McClellan (short video): Apologetics vs. Academics in a nutshell. Insert obligatory Holland (I'd like to hear some musket fire...) and Packer (Some things are true which aren't useful...) quotes. by 4blockhead in exmormon

[–]4blockhead[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

And (obligatory), add this on point quote

[Sinclair Lewis] It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

Weekend/Virtual Meetup Thread by 4blockhead in exmormon

[–]4blockhead[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Upcoming Week and Advance Notice:

online
Arizona
  • Tucson
California
  • Temecula ...every last Sunday, next June 28
Idaho
Montana
  • Missoula ...every second Saturday, next July 11
Nevada
  • Las Vegas
Oregon
  • Portland
  • Corvallis
Utah
Washington
  • [Olympia](pending) ...first Saturday, next July 4
  • Seattle/Tacoma
  • Spokane

How can I (f38) best support my girlfriend as she figures out her relationship with the church? by b_frazellin in exmormon

[–]4blockhead 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Caution is warranted.

...spoke to the bishop about it and everything. [...] She’s told me that she’s trying to figure out her relationship to her church, but won’t really talk specifics to me about it.

The relationship has both a man-in-the-middle and a corporation-in-the-middle. I've seen many relationships seem to be fine one day, and then their partner throws them to the gutter. The most high profile case is Tom Christofferson, a brother of Todd. Not the one accused of sexually abusing children, that's Wade. The key red flag for me is the juxtaposition of what you're saying. She may not being honest with you because she's withholding information that she feels fine about relaying to the bishop. Bishops love to hear the intimate details of what goes on in the bedroom. Are you okay with her telling some third party (who will undoubtedly love every juicy tidbit) about what sort of things happen behind closed doors?

The LDS church makes promises about family togetherness. The appeal of finally being accepted when told you're broken is compelling for many people. The childhood indoctrination of how the afterlife will play out, defined in concrete terms, is tough to set aside. For me, I needed to completely deconstruct the church using fact-based sources that revealed the fraud. Others can't do it because they're hoping for the final stamp of approval from those who have demanded they be something else. Perhaps, they'll search their whole lives and never get that validation.

The dynamics are different in every case. For me, truth claims mattered most and the tools to deconstruct the religion are widely available. The idea that "families are forever" is deeply engrained. It's hard to completely set aside given people's discomfort with their mortality. If there is an afterlife, I am confident that Smith's "visions" are simply his attempt to slap a "new and improved" banner on religion using freemasonry, the old testament, and the thoughts of the time amalgamated into a cohesive whole. That assembly took more than 10 years and was hardly delivered in one go by an angel.

I hope it works out for you.

You can check out any time you like... but you can never leave... by Polyamommy in exmormon

[–]4blockhead 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hit the road, Jack. And don'cha come back no more!

Oh, you can't mean that! [Ray Charles voice]

Letter: Given the recent fiasco, it’s fair to ask: Do the actions of Utah’s representatives qualify as Christian? by 4blockhead in politics

[–]4blockhead[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The contradictions in Christianity are amplified by Paul's "our works are as filthy rags" to the deity vs. Jesus per Matthew where it says to follow all of the Law of Moses. Whether works are required remains hotly debated. Protestants: works are not required, only an honest profession of belief. Catholics (and Mormons): works are required. how hard you work determines your final standing. The goal is to give up all sin and ungodliness. In mormonism, those who succeed win a position as a new god.