A mid 40s dude who deconstructed Mormonism. A bit obsessed with Mormon history and Biblical scholarship.
Joined June 2014
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Jun 12
I’m inspired be a demon …
Jun 12
This man is inspired by a demon. No wonder he tells us demons don’t exist.
#SaintsOnX
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Jun 12
Want to know why the Book of Mormon WAS NOT written by a demon?
Demons aren’t real.
Easy.
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Jun 11
Y’all talking about a Christian/Mormon debate I did not watch.
Did any Mormon think the Christian guy won that debate?
Did any Christian think the Mormon guy won the debate?
Thought so …
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Stacker retweeted
Just finished reading Jeff Strong’s “Torn.”
I have thoughts.
The first thing that becomes clear after reading the introduction alone is that most of the people railing against this book have not read this book.
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Jun 6
There is not a single person who left the LDS church who didn’t first commit serious sin …
Nope, it's not self-protection at all. It's merely based on personal experience with dozens of exmos and less actives over a lifetime of being a member, especially as a missionary, and not finding a single instance that a person left the church without having first engaged in serious sin. (I'm not counting the kind of people who their parents took them to church a couple times when they were kids, or people that only came a couple times after their baptism; those types never had much of a testimony to begin with).
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Jun 5
No. They were cleansing rituals like Tevilah or Mikvah. Many Jewish sects were apocalyptic and were cleansing in preparation for the coming kingdom of God. That’s what John the Baptist was doing.
This was not Christian baptism, baptizing in the name of Christ like the BoM.
Jun 5
In the Book of Mormon, prophets baptize for the remission of sins 600 years BEFORE Christ. Critics called it an anachronism.
Then came the DEAD SEA SCROLLS (found 1947): the Jews at Qumran did exactly that — ritual washing in the wilderness, "preparing the way of the Lord," waiting for the Messiahs of Aaron and Israel.
Cleansing, in anticipation of a Christ who hadn't come yet.
Joseph put it in print in 1829. How?
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Jun 5
The Pharisees & scribes in the Gospels were today’s religious boundary enforcers and apologists.
Jesus called out their bullshit.
Today’s Critics = Jesus.
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Jun 5
The pushback to Torn feels less like honest engagement with the data and more like self-protection.
Apologists hear “church culture” as “my behavior,” and since they see themselves as the Church, any critique has to be neutralized before it can implicate them.
Jun 5
So far, the apologetic response seems to be an accidental confession:
“The feminists, liberals, therapists, and critics are making arguments people find more persuasive than ours.”
That does not mean their arguments are automatically correct. Important caveat. I am not conceding the truth of every progressive critique.
But the language in these apologetic responses is telling.
Instead of offering a better methodology or a stronger interpretation of 15,000 respondents, the counter seems to be:
“They were influenced by Marxists, liberals, therapists, podcasts, and grievance culture.”
Which is basically:
“The other side made better arguments, and we no likey the data.”
It would be hilarious if it weren’t so tragic.
So far, I still have not seen a substantive competing model.
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Stacker retweeted
Jun 5
So far, the apologetic response seems to be an accidental confession:
“The feminists, liberals, therapists, and critics are making arguments people find more persuasive than ours.”
That does not mean their arguments are automatically correct. Important caveat. I am not conceding the truth of every progressive critique.
But the language in these apologetic responses is telling.
Instead of offering a better methodology or a stronger interpretation of 15,000 respondents, the counter seems to be:
“They were influenced by Marxists, liberals, therapists, podcasts, and grievance culture.”
Which is basically:
“The other side made better arguments, and we no likey the data.”
It would be hilarious if it weren’t so tragic.
So far, I still have not seen a substantive competing model.
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Stacker retweeted
Jun 4
It is difficult to find a more pompous apologist than Dan. Ironically, the kind of undeserved certitude he demonstrates (e.g., in posts like the one below) is a major part of the church culture Jeff Strong points to as a reason for members disaffiliating from the church.
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Stacker retweeted
So according to Dan Ellsworth, Jeff Strong’s “Torn” is wrong because people leave the Church not for the reasons stated in his voluminous data, but rather because of…
*checks notes*
Julie Hanks and BYU Marxists.
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Jun 4
LDS members don’t like Jeff Strong’s “Torn” because it reverses the narrative they hold onto that those who leave are:
Lazy learners
Sinners
Listening to the Devil
Lost the light
Liars
Apostate
It shows their faith is partly based on anyone who leaves being the bad guy.
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Stacker retweeted
See, for instance, trinitarian language being added to New Testament texts quite late, as inferred from references in the church fathers and early Christian texts (“the great commission” in “Matthew,” and the Johannine Comma):
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youtu.be/4Ub3ntAyJnw?si=kLOm…
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Jun 4
If you want to read a biased article that shows how people replace data they don’t like with a preferred narrative of their own ideas without data, by all means read Dan Ellsworth’s garbage article.
Jun 4
Dan Ellsworth's @DanEllsworthVA new article should be required reading for anyone who has asked why people leave the Church. It's a great response to the garbage (my words, not his) being peddled recently on the topic. Link👇👇
interpreterfoundation.org/be…
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Jun 4
I keep seeing people here saying they wish “Torn” did the research right.
Yeah, who are these guys?
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Jun 4
This faith crisis survey in 2013 was used by the apostles, and Uchdorf used it in his talk when he said “Doubt your doubts.”faenrandir.github.io/a_caref…
But yes, don’t think for yourself until an apostle talks about it.
Here is a great example of why I don’t quote or read anything from anyone on Church related issues who has never held the calling of Apostle.
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Jun 3
Faithful members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
Why do you think people who leave the church do not tell the truth about why they leave?
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