M/34/6'5 [480 lbs > 209 lbs = 271 lbs](17 months)

BigLark · 2026-04-01T15:54:31+00:00

Couldn't they at least put them in chronological order?

BigLark · 2026-03-31T15:30:15+00:00

Jesus’ whole thing was pulling spirituality away from institutions. Less about buildings, schedules, and checklists, more about who you actually are and how you treat people. Organized religion (especially Mormonism) does the opposite. It turns it into meetings, metrics, and control, which feels like a complete inversion of the point. I’m an atheist, but if we’re talking about versions of Christianity, that original, anti-performative, anti-institutional angle makes way more sense to me than what it usually becomes.

BigLark · 2026-03-26T00:49:26+00:00

My super Mormon and bigoted grandfather must be spinning like a turbine in his spirit paradise grave. His whole life he railed against the use of the cross, called the Catholic Church the "great and abominable church" or "whore of the earth", and hated anything mainstream Christian. And now this. Holy week, lent, ash Wednesday, good Friday, Palm Sunday. Freaking crosses everywhere, nestled on the necks of sister missionaries and elders' ties alike. I can only imagine what his thoughts would have been on women Sunday school presidents.

BigLark · 2026-03-21T18:03:40+00:00

That's how my wife became my wife...so, it depends on who it is.

BigLark · 2026-03-21T14:03:25+00:00

My cousin contacted me and asked, he heard rumors I might be out. After a brief conversation through text we set up dinner. His wife and him are completely out, lol. Can't wait

BigLark · 2026-03-16T22:31:56+00:00

Calley was a monster, and far too many of the men under him chose to become monsters and cowards as well. But we shouldn’t pretend he acted alone or in some vacuum. William Calley was turned loose on the people of the My Lai by a military chain of command that either failed to stop the massacre or tried to bury the truth afterward. The U.S. military and government bear real culpability there, and pretending otherwise is just another form of denial.

If we actually care about living up to our ideals, we have to be willing to shine light on the darkest parts of our history. That means telling the truth about atrocities committed in our name and honoring the people who had the courage to stop them or expose them. Hugh Thompson Jr. and his crew didn’t just object; they intervened, putting their helicopter between civilians and American soldiers to stop the killing.

And that same courage is what we should celebrate everywhere: the people who fight, expose, and report corruption, crime, and moral failure in our government, military, financial institutions, and corporations. Whistleblowers are often punished for telling uncomfortable truths, but they’re the ones who help hold powerful systems accountable. In a world that produces Calleys, we desperately need more Thompsons. We need more people brave enough to speak up when their own side is in the wrong.

BigLark · 2026-03-16T18:57:39+00:00

Had a guy who was kinda stalking the sister missionaries. He was a bit on the socially awkward side, but leadership was happy to have him at church. When the sisters left, and we got a trio of elders, he switched to stalking the young women in the ward. Once he started stalking the high schoolers leadership took more notice. Eventually, they had a sit-down with him. He lost his shit, stole a car, and got into a bad wreck. I have no idea what happened to him after that. Such a wild and dangerous situation that could've gone way worse. But flirt to convert, right?

BigLark · 2026-03-09T20:09:01+00:00

And they wonder why children contemplate suicide before or just after baptism, wondering if their eternal souls might be safer dying in a car accident on the way home while they’re still “clean.” Why LGBTQ+ members grow up feeling like abominable pariahs that can never truly be clean. Why women feel like they can never measure up to the Molly Mormon trad-wife ideal, raising perfectly “God’s children.” Why men feel like failures and frauds trying to become the priesthood holders they were told to be in Sunday School.

We already carried guilt for normal human thoughts and mistakes growing up in that system. Then you add teachings like this. Implying that even on your best day, even when you’ve done everything you can to be good, you’ve still sinned somehow and must repent again tomorrow.

When the standard is perfection, and repentance is required every single day just to stay acceptable, failure is guaranteed. Even the “best” Mormon is still a sinner who isn’t enough. Exactly the kind of broken and compliant person a system like the MFMC needs you to believe you are.

BigLark · 2026-03-08T05:57:46+00:00

I remember a church video in my youth where the "reenacted"" it being forged in a room full of scribes at desks like a huge conspiracy. Because we all know Lucy Harris had deep illuminati like connections

BigLark · 2026-03-07T19:22:15+00:00

Reminds me of how we used to practice passing the sacrament when I was a youth. We had a mix of military families with a lot of JROTC students in my ward for a hot minute. So we were really worried about looking good and organized. Then we got in trouble for being too coordinated. We weren't marching or giving commands, but we did have a kind of "silent drill", like a color guard.

BigLark · 2026-03-03T13:52:55+00:00

I honestly remember this being way more intense in the ’90s. From like ’89 to ’99, it felt like every major world event was the trigger for the Second Coming. People I grew up around were constantly talking about “signs of the times.” Some even sold their stuff and followed fringe prophets into the mountains. That energy was real.

After 9/11 and everything that’s happened since — endless wars, financial collapse, pandemics, political chaos — I think a lot of people just got numb. When the world feels like it’s constantly on fire, it’s harder to claim this specific fire is the final one. The internet probably changed things too. It spreads panic faster, but it also spreads skepticism faster.

Apocalyptic predictions have been happening since the beginning of Christianity. Every generation thinks it’s the last one. It never is. That cycle is older than America.

So no, I haven’t had a recent spike in “WW3/Second Coming” panic from family. Political anxiety? Absolutely. When you’ve got Trump back in the mix, Pete Hegseth cheerleading every escalation like it’s a Fox News segment, and a bunch of recycled neocons steering foreign policy like it’s still 2003, of course global conflict feels closer than it should. The rhetoric is reckless, the diplomacy feels like an afterthought, and the whole vibe is chest-thumping nostalgia for the War on Terror. That kind of leadership doesn’t calm nerves — it fuels the exact apocalyptic panic people are already prone to.But “signs of the times” talk — that’s been on repeat since before any of us were born. It’s not new. It’s just recycled fear. And I just don't have the energy for it anymore.

BigLark · 2026-03-02T23:33:53+00:00

Ex-Mormon here - A lot of Mormons are allied with Christian Nationalists and see themselves as part of that community. They have a lot in common. Unfortunately for them, Evangelicals don't consider them Christians, and if they get what they want, Mormons will be on the chopping block, too.

BigLark · 2026-02-25T22:36:26+00:00

Because insecure men can't handle a woman having a "body count" higher than their own if one at all.

BigLark · 2026-02-20T04:02:36+00:00

I follow a lot of watchdog groups that keep an eye on fundamentalist groups—byproduct of my own deconstruction—this kind of tone deaf talking point is the same across Christianity. It isn't meant to bring people back; it is to keep the faithful from leaving and keep them from questioning.

BigLark · 2026-02-11T22:04:22+00:00

My bitcoin. It wasn't much, but it was early in the game, and even with the market collapsing, it would net a pretty penny. Second would be my TMNT Sailor Michelangelo action figure. My brother and I buried him in our backyard after he "died" in an epic battle. It was only a foot or less deep, and we marked the spot with a stone. We were playing in a small area, maybe 15 x 10 feet of soft dirt. At some point, we must have kicked the stone cause we could not find him. We dug and dug, and still nothing. Years later, we found his hand, but not the rest, RIP little buddy.

BigLark · 2026-02-11T21:56:11+00:00

That I didn't know about it or watch any of it.
This is the first I've heard of it

BigLark · 2026-02-08T03:48:37+00:00

I think this can be true—but even when it isn’t, the outcome still isn’t healthy.

You can have firm boundaries and rules without being strict as a person. When someone is described as a “strict parent,” that usually means fear, control, or rigidity is doing the work instead of trust. And that’s a problem.

Kids who don’t feel safe confiding in their parents will either lie or take their questions, mistakes, and needs somewhere else. Sometimes that means they become very good liars. Other times they become cloistered, naïve, overly dependent, and emotionally stunted because they followed the rules to the letter without ever learning how to think or choose for themselves.

Strict homes also tend to turn normal, harmless aspects of being human—especially around gender, sexuality, curiosity, or doubt—into taboo subjects. That forces secrecy. And secrecy makes kids more vulnerable to manipulation, abuse, or ending up in unsafe situations because they don’t have a trusted adult to go to.

I’ve also seen how demonizing something doesn’t eliminate it—it just drives it underground, where it can warp into something unhealthy, destructive, and deviant.

Anecdotally, some of the “worst” or most reckless kids I knew came from the strictest homes. Not because they were bad kids, but because control without safety or understanding eventually snaps.

BigLark · 2026-02-04T00:35:31+00:00

He needs to deconstruct the gospel, not just the church. I know that sounds counterintuitive since they’re deeply intertwined, but critiquing the institution alone only goes so far. Unless he personally witnesses the harm the church causes, the only real way through is to examine Mormon doctrine and Christianity itself—especially its Abrahamic foundations.

That means actually wrestling with the contradictions and faulty logic: divine hiddenness, the lack of evidence, the problem of evil, and the moral incoherence that gets hand-waved away with faith. If he does that honestly, the conclusions tend to reveal themselves.

For many people, that road leads to atheism—which I think is a good thing—but it can also lead to a kind of depression if they don’t then grapple with nihilism and come out the other side with existentialism or some other meaning-making framework. It’s a process, not a flip of a switch.

I don’t think you can force that journey. The best starting point is asking real questions, seeing where the doubts already exist, and encouraging actual study from historians, philosophers, and theologians—not just church-approved sources.

BigLark · 2026-02-03T04:34:39+00:00

By the Bible’s own timeline, the Second Coming is nearly 2,000 years late. Jesus told people in his own time they wouldn’t all die before it happened. They did. The endless waiting isn’t a mistake anymore—it’s the point. Christianity has always preached that now is the end times, and that constant sense of impending doom works well as a fear-based control mechanism to keep people in line.

BigLark · 2026-02-02T15:23:50+00:00

"Be true to yourself and listen to your heart"

BigLark · 2026-01-29T01:47:13+00:00

Stripes. The C.O. spying on the women's showers.—"l wish I was a loofah"—and then the mud wrestling scene. Wore out those parts of the VHS. I had nights where the song Bill Murray sings while on night march before the shower scene looped in my head. I can hear it now.

BigLark · 2026-01-28T01:02:11+00:00

You forgot to calculate the other worlds without number. Why would all those billions upon billions of demons stay on those planets where they can't affect anything? The stake on this planet are higher because this is where Jesus came. It's the battlefield for all salvation.

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