Cov for Sunday 20 April

Doesn't time fly when you are having fun?

First in this edition is this from CV Rick Nina Writer, who writes on Fast Sunday. Always seemed very slooow to me!

http://www.cvrick.com/cv_rick/2008/04/growing-up-mo-1.htmlhavnig fun?
"Let me tell you what Fast Sunday is all about in the Mormon world. It was the one weekend a month that I hated more than any other, it was dread, it was the pain and suffering that can only come from the directives of a vengeful God.

My father never did anything halfway when it came to adhering to the principles and precepts of the gospel until after I had moved out of his house. I hear he softened a bit for the younger kids but I'm not in touch with them enough to know if this is true. However back in the day, when it came to Fast Sunday there was no softness in the old man."

And next one from Eight Hour Lunch. It's not long, So I am not going to quote from anything, but but the title. "Your Doing it Wrong!" And you know, I think he might have a point!

http://www.eighthourlunch.com/2008/04/youre-doing-it-wrong.html


And next something rather moving from South Bay Soliloquies:

http://south-bay-soliloquies.blogspot.com/2008/04/carolyn-jessop-on-her-escape-from-flds.html

It links to a video interview of Carolyn Jessop on her Escape from the FLDS and her book.

http://averticalbloghappens.blogspot.com/2008/04/hooray-for-religion.html
Wow. How wield! THIS one's hyperlink worked!
"Hooray for religion, writes Blog Happens:

Let me start off by warning you all that I am a whirling tornado of hormones right now. I'm on day twelve of freakin' fertility shots and I am truly amazed that I am still a.) alive b.) still employed and c.) still married. Poor Military Man.
And my own current blog entry takes a look at the FLDS raid and takes a look at who is realy responsible for all this:

And here is my blog entry
http://notamormon.blogspot.com/2008/04/flds-in-texas.html

"The FLDS story will, to coin an old journalistic expression, run and run. Especially when lawyers for the FLDS get involved. And just wait for self-proclaimed civil Rights lawyers to get their snouts in the trough!

Some people have questioned the propriety of the raid/s in that they offend their liberal sensibilities. These seem to run along the lines of: "People should be allowed to do what they want on their own property" and "parents should have a right to bring up their own children in any way that they see fit." Yes, but not if that bringing up of children utilises what boils down to torture techniques outlawed by International Military Conventions for use against enemy combatants, let alone against your own toddlers and children, for goodness sake!"

That's all the entries for this issue.

See you next time, in two weeks when we will have more about TSCC and Mormonism, the FLDS and whatever else we want to blog about.

Cheers!

FLDS in Texas

The FLDS story will, to coin an old journalistic expression, run and run. Especially when lawyers for the FLDS get involved. And just wait for self-proclaimed civil Rights lawyers to get their snouts in the trough!

Some people have questioned the propriety of the raid/s in that they offend their liberal sensibilities. These seem to run along the lines of: "People should be allowed to do what they want on their own property" and "parents should have a right to bring up their own children in any way that they see fit." Yes, but not if that bringing up of children utilises what boils down to torture techniques outlawed by International Military Conventions for use against enemy combatants, let alone against your own toddlers and children, for goodness sake!

The people responsible for all this are Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Sidney Rigdon and the other early leaders of The So-Called Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It was Brigham Young's decision to move to the then isolated territory of Utah and the ultra-draconian measures he introduced (including ruling by fear) that caused this dreadful situation to exist down to this time.

Brigham Young used Mountain Meadows, attacks on native Indians and guerilla attacks on the USA Army for two purposes. The first to stop the rule of law -of real law- being introduced in Utah and to raise up a fire-storm of fear in the hearts of his followers. Dissenters knew that they were likely to be taken out at night, their throat slit and to be denied a decent, Christian burial.

Their wife and children would be put upon Brigham Young's slavery auction block and sold off to the highest bidder. Oh, its doubtful if money changed hands. for the bill of currency was that of favours owed and favours dispensed.

"You scratch my back and I'll ensure that the next apostate dissenter who crosses my path and needs to be 'used up', well, his wife, his children and his lands will be yours in order to build up your kingdom when you get to the Celestial Kingdom."

Of course, the corollary to that was: "Change your ways, cross me, and the same thing happens to you."

The history of attacks and murders within the fundamentalist Mormon Church down through the decades shows that the Danite murder gang -almost a sect within a sect, if you will- and their descendants have operated almost without pause since Smith founded it.

People who have raised the legitimate question about Joseph Smith "was he a "pious fraud?" need to understand one thing: The answer to their question was staring them in the face throughout: Does a pious fraud set up a secret murder gang / death squad and use it to terrorise and to brutally rub out opposition by internal and external outrages? By murdering people and by stealing the land of followers and of non-member neighbours? By using fraud, trickery, deceit and outright theft? "No," I think is the answer to that.

If you want to study the operation and structure of the early Mormon Church,how it treated neighbours, members and their children, study the history, dark and bleak as it is, of the fundamentalist Mormon church in all its myriad sects and offshoots.

Murder, rapine, theft, fraud, rape, torture and abuse of men, women and children is what you will find. The Mormon Church is a whited sepulchre that is built on sand. The walls are already starting to crack, and the stench from within is sickening.

The FLDS is still very much a part of the official LDS Church.

What is the difference between them? The difference between two Mafia families, one might argue. I.E., not very much.

COV for Sunday 6 April

The latest edition of COV is here!

First up Runtu with some humour.

http://runtu.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/there-might-be-something-wrong-with-your-religion-if/


"There might be something wrong with your religion if …

You think it’s perfectly fine for your leader to have sex with teenagers and married women, but you tell your children you’d rather they be dead than lose their virginity.

“Singles Ward” is good, but “Schindler’s List” is inappropriate due to its “R” rating.

Everyone in your church was “saved for the last days,” but everyone else just happened to be born in really wicked times."

(MAT: This is freaky. It touches on a subject in my post for this week!)


And from Emerging from the ashes we find Baptism for the dead part 2 (includes link to part 1)

http://emergingfromtheashes.blogspot.com/2008/03/baptisms-for-dead-part-2.html

"The interview went well enough. I dressed up in my Sunday clothes, a dress I hated. But then, I hated all dresses. Just was not my thing. An interview with a member of the bishopric, though, required dressing up. It's how it was done, especially in my family.

Over at the church, I sat on the old orange couch in the foyer, my hands planted under my legs as I stared at the red-orange industrial carpet. Brother Hicks, the executive secretary, called my name and escorted me into the bishop's office. I was especially shy as a kid, so "don't speak until you are spoken to" was easy enough for me. Actually, adults had a hard time getting me to answer at all. But these were questions I had to answer, and answer correctly, without guilt on my face, if I wanted the temple recommend to go do baptisms."

Next up is South Bay Soliloquries

A great gig and an approach by a dirty, smelly idiot.

http://south-bay-soliloquies.blogspot.com/2008/03/spencer-day-at-hotel-cafe.html

"Last night Spencer Day debuted at the Hotel Cafe. For some reason I thought the Hotel Cafe was in downtown, but I was wrong; it's in Hollywood.

Even living in LA, Hollywood still feels like a strange, foreign city to me, full of nightclubs, bars, and tourist attractions. But I digress.

Spencer found me on MySpace a couple months ago and sent me a nice note. Most of the musician "friend" requests are fairly impersonal, but I felt that Mr. Day looked at my profile and (correctly) judged that I might be interested in his music, then sent a note to say so. Classy."


Easter Explained by Fiddley Gomme
http://fiddley.com/archive/200803/easter-explained

"I got so confused by the early Easter this year and got so wrapped up in the commercialism of the holiday that I nearly forgot to remember the true meaning of the day. Yes, Easter is a converted Pagan sun ritual. No, there's not really a giant rabbit that hides eggs all over your yard only to be found rotting under a tomato plant, weeks later by your dog."

(MATT: My wife, with the cynicism born of gaining a ThD, calls Easter The Festival of Chocolates and Christmas the Festival of Trees...)

And here is my post for this issue...

http://notamormon.blogspot.com/2008/04/its-not-that-bad-so-what-so-why-should.html

Mormonism, someone told me, "it's not all that bad."

My reply might have surprised them. I said: "Well, so what? It's bad enough and that is enough for me!"

I have tried to hyperlink the blog posts, but it did not work. Sorry about that!

See you in two weeks time!

"It's not THAT bad!" So what? So why should I care?

Mormonism, someone told me, "it's not all that bad."

My reply might have surprised them. I said: "Well, so what? It's bad enough and that is enough for me!"

Mormons speak with forked tongues. On the one had they lay the "one true church" crap on you and in the next breath they argue that "every church has bad apples" and how you can't judge the entire Mormon church by what a tiny minority of what Mormon Bishops do.

However. It IS possible for Mormons to judge the entire Catholic church by what a tiny minority of what Catholic priests do.

How can this be? Because Mormons demand special treatment for them and their church.

They want everyone else to follow their rules but for some strange reason they do not feel they should be restricted by their own rules!

For example in Utah they want to stop or restrict non-Mormons from drinking alcohol (Word of Wisdom) yet the Mormons do not follow the rest of the Word of Wisdom dietary code, themselves! Yet they want to impinge on how non-members live their lives.

Whilst a Catholic priest who has allegedly sexually abused a child "deserves to be locked up in jail or executed" (probably without trial) a Mormon Bishop or Stake President who is a known sexual abuser of children needs to be given special treatment, as Satan tempted him. He must be given the chance to repent as he has done such good for the youth of the church (including having sex with them...) and he has assured the Stake Authorities that he will never, ever do it again, born a teary testimony, so that's OK, then! No need to involve the police! Phew! Not like with that evil Catholic priest, who deserves all he gets!

And should parents or abused children kick up a fuss, just watch for the threats of "a Court of Love" to "help them sustain the bretherin" including the person who abused their children.

Plus unattributable rumours will start to spread. "I heard that Tina Brown confessed to the Bishop to having had sex with a Methodist boy when she was 14. Well, I heard they found gay porn under the bed of Tim Jones. And I heard that the parents of Billy Rae Smith are planning on suing the church for millions of Dollars, and that's why they accused Brother Fnart of raping their child. They coached Billy Rae in what to say, you know."

Is Mormonism as bad as other cult groups? Probably not. But as I have never been a member of any cult group other than Mormonism, all I can say is: So what? That's not relevant to me or my life experiences.