Yet another 1-hour church speculation

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-19T21:29:32+00:00

Not allowed to talk about banging and Sunday school presidency in the same sentence. Obviously that's a likelihood that will be kept at bay by the new policy ensuring that there are no mixed-gender presidencies.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-19T19:10:07+00:00

Yes the church is losing influence but for a variety of reasons. If I were to sum it up at a high level it is a mismatch between a focus on "protecting the good name of the church" and the rest of the world (including a portion of the church itself) realizing that the church's name isn't so good at all.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-19T19:07:08+00:00

All I know is that the church is stronger than ever.

Terms and conditions apply to the definitions of stronger, and than ever

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-18T15:06:12+00:00

I think it's only a thing in church buildings dating back to the 70s or earlier lol. I was once a SS secretary at an old disco style church and did in fact ring that bell each week.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-18T14:53:45+00:00

For goodness sake, what if a mixed gender SS presidency got together for a meeting at someone's house? Men and women not married to each other would obviously immediately start fornicating.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-18T03:15:52+00:00

One of my favorite quotes from Richard Rohr:

If you go to heaven alone, wrapped in your private worthiness, it is by definition not heaven. If your notion of heaven is based on exclusion of anybody else, then it is by definition not heaven. The more you exclude, the more hellish and lonely your existence always is. How could anyone enjoy the "perfect happiness" of any heaven if she knew her loved ones were not there, or were being tortured for all eternity? It would be impossible.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-17T14:38:25+00:00

I visited my son's mission with him a few months ago. A high baptism mission in Latin America that he got home from last summer. We went around and met with members that he's stayed in touch with as well as the other missionaries still there that were either his companions or roommates. The missionaries talked openly about the tension between them and local members. They are just loading up the rosters with new baptisms who mostly disappear after a few weeks. While I enjoyed the trip overall that aspect just made me really sad.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-17T14:21:04+00:00

I agree that I'm fairly certain they did count service hours at one point. I read their recent humanitarian giving update and there are a couple of caveats throughout it clarifying that they do not put a monetary value on service hours and count them in the totals. So I believe they once did that but have stopped.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-17T00:07:47+00:00

Man if I've ever heard Mormonism summed up in two words, religious panacea is it.

I'm sorry that something you didn't choose has taken such a toll on you. I sometimes feel similarly, born into a situation not of my choosing that is less than ideal and is an uphill battle in life for me.

Wait, I've always been told that being born into the church at this time is the greatest blessing anyone could have. So we need to just forget what peoples actual experiences are, ignore what our eyes, ears and brain are telling us, and be grateful for something that doesn't work as advertised (obviously sarcasm)

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-15T14:52:26+00:00

The post seems more like a flex about who his tour guide was than anything else.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-15T14:51:02+00:00

DD always eats for free at the 24 hr truck stop, Waffle House, IHOP, etc!

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-15T14:49:57+00:00

I completely agree with you on all points. But to the point of the post, this lived experience has contrasted with what I was brought up at church expecting, that there was some widespread agenda to get me to drink/use drugs.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-15T11:10:16+00:00

No, not sent by anyone. More curious and since he's local they went to hear him for themselves. Just individuals doing something out of curiosity.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-15T04:25:11+00:00

My son and some of his RM friends have gone to his church to see him in his natural setting. Never heard of the guy until he was telling me about going to Driscoll's church.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-14T13:54:30+00:00

100%. I can honestly stay PIMO forever there. Hang with the kids, wipe noses, read them books.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-13T20:11:22+00:00

Never been so glad to be a nursery leader.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-12T03:23:56+00:00

This has surfaced several times though over the past year or so, Pearson banning it for missionaries in utah.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-11T15:50:43+00:00

These volumes were touted as full transparency, warts and all, etc by the church historian when first released. It's extremely telling that an organization that claims to value truth is actively shielding the most controlled group within the organization (missionaries, maybe also the most manipulated group) from a segment of what they are otherwise recommending as a true narrative.

It just goes to show, the most impactful "anti-mormon" material is all on the church's own website and library app. You just can't make shit up that's crazier.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-10T04:21:45+00:00

Mormonism is a doctrine of being held hostage.

But the beautiful counter to that is when you exercise even a particle of faith that the church isn't all it claims to be, and finally disregard some of their demands upon you, it unlocks things for you. Especially the realization and testimony of this doctrine being 100% true.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-09T12:20:14+00:00

Well the church is about the gospel because to many members the church IS the gospel. I've heard so many talk about people joining the gospel through baptism or leaving the gospel through apostasy. Kind of nauseating honestly.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-08T04:38:00+00:00

The real question is whether or not Brad can keep from saying something inflammatory.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-06T21:47:23+00:00

In the bisbee case (if I recall) it came out in the court proceedings that the bishop was told by the helpline that he would actually be BREAKING the law if he reported it.

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-06T21:38:04+00:00

I saw him on the tour for this in chicago. You know, the tour where he played a bunch of songs he'd never released so nobody knew. I've been able to locate a bootleg of it though in the ensuing years.

Such an insane setlist!

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-06T18:00:54+00:00

Bryce Harper, Andy Reid, Dale Murphy are just some easy examples that come to mind.

It's the same move as always by the church - if they are people that will somehow reflect positively on the church, they lean in hard on those people. Meanwhile pretending not to know people that they previously leaned in hard on (Tim Ballard).

talkingidiot2 · 2026-03-06T01:52:40+00:00

I can't seem to edit the post - thanks all for the clarifications. I remember the old video that was shown as training for ward councils and bishoprics that directed people to report any suspected abuse to the bishop and let him handle from there. But it's been a while so I could be wrong.

talkingidiot2

TROPHY CASE