No Easter service?

Most Christian churches had special Easter services recently to celebrate or mark the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

The Mormon church had an advertising campaign to tell the world that Mormons are Christians.

The Mormon Church remembered to fund an advertising campaign but according to latest reports from the pews, the vast majority of Mormon wards/branches forgot to have special Easter services and/or hardly commemorated this special event in the Christian calender.

Which is probably why the Mormon church has to keep telling people that it really is a Christian church...

A website you might like to check out

http://www.monergism.com

They have a link to Notamormon on their site.

Thank you for that link. Most kind of you! God Bless you!

Are Mormons Christians? Is Mormonism Christian?

Are Mormons Christian? The answer to that questions is in most cases, yes, they are.

But is Mormonism Christian? That is an entirely different matter.

When is a secret agent a secret agent?

This might not seem connected, but it is.

Not many years ago a case came to court that seemed like the worst kind of fictional plot for a pot-boiler of a novel.

A man approached a group of college friends and he wheedled his way into their confidences.

Eventually he was able to produce evidence that he was an officer in MI6 and that he was spying on a fellow student who was Irish and, he told them, a member of the Provisional IRA and in charge of a local IRA cell. He pointed out to some perceived inconsistencies in the Irish student's behaviour and he was able to convince them that what he told them was the truth.

The man even became the lover of one of the group and, I seem to recall, fathered a child by her.

He recruited them into MI6 as agents and had them undertake missions.

Eventually he told them that they had somehow had their covers blown and he made them flee for their lives.

They spent several years fleeing from place to place, taking up whatever lowly paid job they could, always fearful for their lives. He made them get money from their families whenever they could.

This carried on until, one day, the police arrested the MI6 agent. Who, of course, turned out not to have been an MI6 agent at all.

So although the people who he recruited had been convinced that they were MI6 agents, who even had documents prepared by the alleged MI6 agent to prove that they were MI6 agents, they were, in reality, not MI6 agents at all. They were, instead, victims of a wicked, calculated fraud by a man who was an amoral fantasist.

There is a very strong parallel with Mormonism, here.

Mormons have written, documentary evidence that they are Christians. They are members of record of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their Elders have their written Lines of Authority.

But they are like the poor souls who were deluded into thinking that they were MI6 agents. All of the documentary evidence that shows they are members of the Christian Church are false papers based on a long-term fraud invented and perpetrated by a group of men, including Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.

Can You Turn a Gay Straight?

Dr. Jallen Rix has first hand experience of the type of prayer sessions Tory star Philippa Stroud is reported to have ran to 'cure' gay people at her King's Arms Project in Bedford.

Jallen Rix has an extraordinary story to tell. It’s a story of religious abuse that almost destroyed his deep spiritual convictions and his life. In his book Ex-Gay NO WAY: Survival and Recovery from Religious Abuse Jallen reveals how he endured extreme religious abuse while a part of an ex-gay ministry, which was designed to turn him from a gay man to a straight one. It is also a story of his incredible determination to live in the truth of his sexuality and with his spirituality up front and centre.

Bringing to light an extreme fundamentalist Christian view, this insider’s perspective offers hope to people grappling with the after-effects of a cult-like movement often known as "Reparative Therapy." The movement assumes that going from gay to straight is easily changeable and change-worthy, despite decades of psycho/sexual research to the contrary.

“The Ex-Gay Movement is stripped naked, and through an abundance of snapshots we get to see its vulnerability and cover-ups. These perspectives are mounted together with Jallen’s moving story telling and in-depth research. The naming of religious abuse, the dispelling of sex-phobic myths, the raw motion of personal experience make this a great resource for pastors and counsellors; yet possibly the greatest accomplishment of this book is that it brings the reader to a conclusion — a motive and means for recovery without feeling forced to accept or abandon.”

— Paul Whiting, International advocate, author and pastor.

Ex-Gay NO WAY part dramatic memoir, part compassionate manual, deals with homosexuality and Christianity and, in particular, ‘Reparative Therapy’. In it Rix describes being utterly stripped of every shred of his spirituality through this experience and reveals how he ultimately reclaimed a new unconditional relationship to God.

“Dr Rix has exposed reparative therapy in a way never seen before. He clearly compares the features of the ex-gay movement with the damaging and cultic aspects of hyper-religiosity. The similarities are so numerous that, at times, there simply is no difference between the two.”

— Thomas Erwin Gertz Ed.D., DACS, Professor of Sexology, Dean of Students, Institute of Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, San Francisco, California.

Rix, who was raised a Southern Baptist, understands completely the negative effects of a closeted life and the difficulties associated with reconciling his deep Christian beliefs with his homosexuality. He went to great lengths attempting to change from gay to straight consequently enduring the rigors of ‘Reparative Therapy’ as prescribed by ex-gay ministries.

"The very existence of Change of Orientation programmes perpetuates the idea that homosexuality is bad, and this is one of the reasons I've been against these programmes being available. They send the message to people that 'This is change-worthy, and we strongly urge this to be changed and if you were a good person you would want it changed."
— Dr. Gerald Davison, Professor of Psychology, University of Southern California

Many gay men and women have contemplated or committed suicide as a result of ‘reparative therapy.’ In Ex-Gay NO WAY, Rix makes a passionate case for ending the phenomenon known as ‘religious abuse’ and describes his attempts to reclaim his wholeness through self-affirming therapy, education, healthy sexuality and guided internal exploration.

“We did employ a lot of techniques that, looking back on it now I realise, were brainwashing techniques. Don’t associate with anybody who disagrees with you. Don’t read any non-Christian books. Don’t go anyplace where non-Christians are hanging out. Certainly don’t ever read anything that’s pro-gay. If there’s a show that presents gays in a favourable light turn it off.”

— Michael Bussee, A Founder of Exodus International and Ex-gay Survivor.

In Ex-Gay NO WAY Jallen Rix makes a heartfelt plea for the abolition of ‘religious abuse’ and the right for every gay person to live the Christian life they choose.

Book Info:

Ex-Gay No Way: Survival and Recovery from Religious Abuse

by Jallen Rix £10.99, Findhorn Press. ISBN 978-1-84409-187-4.

FACT FILE:

Jallen Rix, EdD, is a speaker, author, and educator on sexology. He writes a column called "Sex Ed in Bed," is a regular columnist for gay.com, and has appeared on TV talk shows such as ABC's 20/20. He lives in San Francisco.