The Official "Ask A Mormon" Thread

[Deleted member 365]

As far as spouting off...

Just look at the difference between elder packer on tolerance and homosexuality vs pres Monson. Seriously, check out their talks. pres monson urged the members to be tolerant. he paused and looked straight into the camera. It was unmistakable what he was referring to.

yet, look at what pres. packer's entire talk was on!

I'm pretty sure they don't see eye to eye there. I'm not saying that the president would ever allow gay marriage within the church. In fact, I'm almost 100 percent certain that will never happen. However, I am a Mormon who understands that leaders are human being as well. They all have different views. As the church grows more diverse and foreign leaders fill the ranks, I'm pretty sure we will see a change (if we haven't already) in how the church approaches such things such as missionary work, education, outreach, addictions, and of course, gay marriage.

You can already see it. 5-10 years ago there wasn't any outreach towards gays or any calls for tolerance. Today? Rarely does a singles ward meeting to by without some sort of reference towards it. Today? Websites are dedicated to befriending and helping homosexual Mormons not feel excluded or harassed. Heck, even BYU students are getting into the act and creating movies about it and placing then on YouTube. Those students are about as closed minded and chicken(follow follow follow. necer ask questions or doubt! this aint liberal Cal university!) as they come and even they are stepping up.

I am willing to bet that some general authorities are probably for the choice of gay marriage (especially given the church's stance on free agency) while others are hyper opposed to it willing to use church funds and other influence to combat even the option of gay marriage.

While some general authorities might be fine with the one party rule system in Utah I know of at least one in the 12 who is not. Again, these folks are chosen of god however, they are also human beings. Just like I'm sure some will have different views on evolution and how/where/to what extent it should be taught in k-12 public education.

Heck just look at how the views of birth control have varied from church leader to church leader

 

[Scat]

Regarding polygamy... the LDS church still practices this in a manner of speaking. A man can be sealed to several women meaning that in "heaven", he will essentially be "married" to several women for eternity.

That said, if "heaven" exists, no man on this earth knows what it is like. Polygamy make be a perfectly fine form of cohabitation in "heaven".

 

[CONAN]

What is my beef with the church exactly?

I'm going to ask you, in all honesty, who do you think has researched this specific issue more between the two of us?

So because you spend more time trying to tear down the church I'm supposed to just bow to your opinion? I don't know what kind of nutless wonders you hang with that think your "research" is all that, but I'm not one of the them. You come in here trying to discredit those three men and yet try to use some of their statements as evidence. You can't have it both ways.

And I have no idea what your beef with the church is. And I don't care. But it's clear you have one. Show some intellectual honesty there, Guy.

 

[colton]

Mormons believe in other records being discovered... Records, I'm assuming of Christ or of Christian believing people's, right? Or what? Could it also be referring to books like the apocrypha? Gnostic texts? Stuff that Mormons actually use(such as conference talks?)

I don't have much of an opinion on that myself, but I think many LDS believe that the "other sheep" mentioned in 3 Nephi 16 https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/16?lang=eng also would have kept records like the Book of Mormon and that those records may someday come to light. I'm not sure if most would feel that's going to be before the Millennium, though. So I'd say probably not apocrypha or gnostic texts.

The world is much older than thousands of years old. So what happened to the Dino's and continents? Wasn't the world innocent and in a state of peace/immortality before the fall? So what happened to the Dino's? When Adam and Eve were expelled, did the continents begin to break apart? Or could the whole 7 day thing just be one large symbol?

My view: I believe the 7 days are absolutely symbolic. I also believe that the Garden of Eden, although literal, was localized--so that things like the dinosaurs could have lived and died while everything was blissful in the garden. But I doubt there's a consensus among Mormons on this, and no official church doctrine that I know of.

Could Noah's ark also be a symbol just like the epic of Gilgamesh or the hundreds of other flood stories out there?

I believe Noah was a literal person who built a literal ark. I'm sure most LDS feel the same way, but there may be some who view it figuratively. My own view is that the flood was localized to Noah's region, though, not the whole earth. That might be a minority view among LDS; I'm not sure.

Mormons believe in modern day revelation. First off, when do you know a prophet is receiving revelation or merely spouting off? Pres. Benson clearly spouted off most of the time when referring to political matters.

Excellent question. My view: I agree with you that there are certainly times that even prophets/apostles spout off, although I did notice that Pres. Benson became a LOT less political once he became church president. If the prophet says "God has revealed to me...", then it's probably pretty trustworthy. But other than that, I think you just have to trust the spirit. And recognize that policies are different than doctrines (I've seen a number of the former change in my lifetime, but not too many of the latter).

And more of a comment ban a question, how interesting it would be to be a fly on the wall when the 12 meet. Someone like elder perry or oaks might have different political views or opinions on social issues than someone born in Europe.

Rumor has it that when Hugh B. Brown(*) and Pres. Benson were in the Quorum of the Twelve together, things sometimes got interesting. That's total hearsay, though.

(*) Elder Brown was very socially liberal, and from Canada.

 

[UGLI baby]

colton is mormon??

Whoa.

 

[Tony]

Bahaha I'm having a great time reading through this thread... Whoever asked if Mormons pleasure themselves, here's an interesting fact: In 2009 Harvard did a study and found that "The biggest consumers of online adult entertainment live in the great state of Utah." So yes, I'm sure Mormons spank their wankie.

I've got a question though. My aunt has a friend and he was going to marry this Mormon girl but she wanted to be married in the temple. So he did everything required to join BUT he skipped out because on the final step or something he had to go into this room and when he opened the door and saw what was going on he said he just had to get out of there and he and the girl eventually called it quits. What was going on behind the door?

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

What is the Mormon philosophy on giving neg reps?

 

[babe]

What is the Mormon philosophy on giving neg reps?

"Nay, Speak No Ill"

 

[The Black Swordsman]

Mormons are a group of people I respect very greatly. The Masjid I go to is very busy on friday's. The Masjid is also by a Mormon temple and a Protestant church. We asked if we could use their parking lot on Friday's since it is empty for them and we would let them use ours on sunday. The protestant church said if they ever found a car on their property from someone going to the masjid they would have it towed. The mormon temple said we could use their parking lot not only on Friday's but any day of the week.

Also, I used to have a Mormon roommate who was an amazing guy, one of the nicest people I know, very hardworking, an overachiever in school, great fitness etc. It was only for a 5 day training thing in Texas so it isn't like I was roommate with him for long though.

 

[bigb]

Mormons are a group of people I respect very greatly. The Masjid I go to is very busy on friday's. The Masjid is also by a Mormon temple and a Protestant church. We asked if we could use their parking lot on Friday's since it is empty for them and we would let them use ours on sunday. The protestant church said if they ever found a car on their property from someone going to the masjid they would have it towed. The mormon temple said we could use their parking lot not only on Friday's but any day of the week.

Also, I used to have a Mormon roommate who was an amazing guy, one of the nicest people I know, very hardworking, an overachiever in school, great fitness etc. It was only for a 5 day training thing in Texas so it isn't like I was roommate with him for long though.

Just a minor clarification, but that would probably be a Mormon church house and not a temple. The only days that a temple doesn't operate is Sunday and Monday. A regular church house usually doesn't get much use during the week, especially during the day.

 

[One Brow]

Yes it does, because an experience of the Holy Spirit can change how you view the evidence.

If you already have to believe something in order for the evidence for it to seem reliable/valuable, then the evidence is not reliable/valuable. There will always be people who can't be swayed by evidence of any sort, but in general, the only good evidence is evidence that persuades a skeptic.

By the way, this comes from someone who used to believe they were experiencing the Holy Spirit.

 

[colton]

I've got a question though. My aunt has a friend and he was going to marry this Mormon girl but she wanted to be married in the temple. So he did everything required to join BUT he skipped out because on the final step or something he had to go into this room and when he opened the door and saw what was going on he said he just had to get out of there and he and the girl eventually called it quits. What was going on behind the door?

He probably accidentally stumbled across the human sacrifices.

OK, more seriously I have no idea what you are talking about.