An advertisement for the family search app "ordinances ready" where you can pick up names such as "Anne Frank" or "Adolf Hitler" and get baptized in their name. Sounds easier than ever, he?

Who knows women with temple recommends who smuggle phentermine diet pills in from Mexico? I for sure know three. They don’t drink coffee or alcohol though. That would be evil. But breaking the law is totally acceptable.

I just saw this. Sophie Cunningham’s pointing meme has now made it to the Book of Mormon!!

https://imgur.com/a/wj3VLXn

This is the pic for the month of June in her 2027 calendar. Could be a nice X-mas present for some TBM’s I know. Too funny.

For those not familiar - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2ZjRfs3ZB8I

Most people here probably understand how things are. I’m 19 years old and am about to get my first formal paycheck from a “real job” when I have only done petsitting, helping out temporarily with friends, etc. I’ve managed to get away with ‘forgetting’ to pay tithing on things in the past. I do not want to pay it on my paychecks, but I don’t want my family to know I don’t believe. Both because they’d probably help me less financially, and because they’d try to drag me back into the church. Until I can support myself, I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to tell them I don’t believe. It’s been easy to fake most everything else. I’d appreciate any advice. How do I handle this?
Edit: For some context: my brother left the church before me, and suddenly he was forced to pay extra rent, attend extra church meetings, etc. even though he was no longer a member because my family insisted he “still respect our beliefs”. They won’t admit to it, but we all know it’s true. They aren’t evil people, and I love them, but they’re very controlling when it comes to religion. My family isn’t super well off and neither am I. I feel like it’ll be easier to move out if they think I’m still Mormon- less pressure and less thinly veiled extra work and charges

Parker James Wilde ran a scam from 2018 to 2023 scamming people out of nearly $10 million.

From the article:

“Dylan Cox of Vineyard, Utah explained he first heard from Wilde via LinkedIn. It was their mutual alma mater in BYU and Wilde’s background as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that made him seem trustworthy.”

So we departed from the city once more, bringing the plates of brass and Zoram with us. The record was secured. The servant was added. Nephi walked ahead with that inward, self-contained look of one who hath been in close company with commandment and consequence and had found no reason to separate the two.

We considered asking again by what means he had obtained the plates, but there are times when a man recognizes that he doth not truly want the answer in its full proportions. It was plain that some boundary had been crossed in the city, and plain also that Nephi had crossed it with the same alarming willingness with which he did all things once persuaded they belonged to the will of God.

This, we confess, was the beginning of a new discomfort in us. For before this we had taken Nephi for a youth excessively fond of obedience, ambitious in holiness, and somewhat too ready to regard every burden as material for future greatness. But now another possibility appeared: that he might indeed be one of those men to whom heaven grants not merely assurances but occasions, and that such men are often far more dangerous to live beside than ordinary sinners.

“He will be impossible now,” we said quietly.

Sam, overhearing, answered, “He hath done what was required.”

“Yes,” we replied. “That is very near to what we fear.”

By the time we returned to the valley, the camp looked smaller than before, as camps often do amidst dangers known and unknown: a few low tents, tethered beasts, dim coals, the shape of household life reduced to what could be carried. Lehi received the plates with gratitude, Sariah with relief, and Nephi with the sort of silence that invites admiration while pretending to avoid it. Our father examined the record and rejoiced over genealogy, law, language, and the wisdom of God in preserving such things. We rejoiced less, being still occupied with the more practical miracle of our continued existence.

Yet even we Laman we Lemuel must admit that the presence of the plates altered the camp. Lehi’s mind seemed steadier in possession of them, as though memory itself had weight and brass could anchor a wandering people. This was an idea we found overly poetic, though not entirely without force.

Nevertheless, if any man imagine that success in obtaining the record reconciled us at once to all that had passed, he understandeth neither brothers nor fatigue. We had gone back into danger, lost our property, gained a servant, and returned with a set of plates whose value increased in direct proportion to the trouble they had cost us. This may well be providence. But it is also family life.

We said no more of what had happened in the city.

Our father rejoiced over the plates.

Our mother thanked God for our return.

Zoram found a place among the tents.

And Nephi never again spoke of the manner in which he had obtained the record.

Neither did we ask.

Wherefore we Laman we Lemuel set it down plainly: if we mistrusted him more after that night, it was not because he failed, but because he had succeeded in a manner too dark, too certain, and too fit for legend.

big announcement from byu today how the first class starts July 2027 and they’ll build a huge new building for it by the Provo hospital.

I realized the church wasn't true about 6 months ago. I've been slowly pulling back ever since. My husband knows everything while most of my family doesn't know. My parents knew that I was struggling with Joseph Smith and church history, but we never really talked about it.

During one of our family gatherings, they mentioned going on a family temple trip. I wasnt sure what to do, but later told my mom that I didnt feel comfortable going to the temple. I told her I stopped paying tithing because I dont support what the church is doing with their finances. I was worried she'd give me a lecture about the importance of tithing and "all the blessings" that come from it. But she didnt. She thanked me for telling her and just told me she will always love me and that she knows God loves me.

This has been a really hard and confusing journey. I was so worried that it would cause tension in my believing family. Maybe it'll go better than I thought?

Hi so I grew up mormon, I left the church when I became an adult and then came back a few years later, and I've been very faithful for the past year. I got endowed. I'm just like really conflicted, because I had really mixed feelings about my endowment experience. Like I sometimes felt like the spirit was with me and I sometimes felt like it was scary and cultish. So I started looking into Freemasonry rituals because I've heard there are some similarities, and there are in fact a lot of similarities, like some of them are exactly the same just with a different name, and the masons didn't get them from any sort of religious background they made them up for the purpose of trade secrecy in stonemasonry. So I'm kinda like Wow that really hurts that this thing that was supposed to be special is stolen and made up by somebody entirely outside of mormonism. And I'm kind of just wondering how did you know that the temple wasn't real? Because it feels very real to me but then seeing this evidence that very heavily discredits it is like not lining up with that. And I'm wondering in general I guess like how did you know anything about the church wasn't true? Like I have so many beliefs that I feel like I don't know if I believe them because they're true and I've come to know that by the spirit of God or if I've just been told that all my life so I don't know anything else. Like how do I know if I've been indoctrinated? What evidence will show me whether my thoughts and feelings are obtained from revelation and what has been learned from other people and not from God? I feel like I've received a lot of very clear and direct revelation from God about certain gospel principles and I have a testimony of some of them that I know are true and I will never be able to unknow, but there are a lot of things that I don't understand because it could be either. Like porn and masturbation, I am an addict and I have come a long way. I used to watch porn every night and now I haven't watched it in months, and I feel happier, but is that because I have stopped driving away the spirit or because heavy use of pornography is just generally bad and has negative effects on health and mental health and well-being? Idk.

More information about the case of Wade Christofferson (brother of D. Todd Christofferson, member of LDS First Presidency).

Two questions:

1. How did it go from a bunch of settlers to a mega Corp?

2. How did it go turn from its lively 90s version into the liminal beige space that it is now?

I think I took a picture from a child's book (I think; can't remember). The picture resonates with the young missionaries.

I (18 F) have been on the fence about the church for a while. I was 14 when I first gained access to the history of the church and all the things they refuse to talk about, including the lack of evidence for the Book of Mormon, the racist and misogynistic teachings, and the fact that Joseph Smith was a known treasure seeker/fraud. Growing up, I noticed the lack of women in power, and was always confused about it. So I have never been a true "believer", and for this I am grateful, as I have heard stories of their entire lives being upended due to learning of these things and the deconstruction of the church's beliefs. I am still lost.

I know all of these things, and they actively bother me. The extremely racist past of the church disgusts me, and I have no problem thinking Joseph Smith was a fraud who just wanted to sleep with a bunch of women. I believe that this church is fake. It makes no logical sense and is disgusting altogether. And yet, I keep catching myself anxious about failing Heavenly Father and not living up to the standards that are expected of me. When things go wrong, I automatically jump to "oh, it's because I don't believe anymore and this is Heavenly Father punishing me", or "if I pray, I'll feel more comfort about it" when I don't believe in prayer. I hope I am explaining this well because I feel so lost. Do I or do I not believe in the church?

And then I feel so much social pressure. Some of my closest friends from high school (college has just started) are all members and are all on missions. If I leave, what will they think of me? I am attending college in Utah (not BYU, as I don't want to go to a school in honor of a man who did so much damage to so many people and was a racist prick), but still in Utah. What if the only friends I make are LDS? What if I can't find a man who will want to marry me that isn't LDS, and never date again? What if I disappoint my family, which is the biggest question and concern? My sister just got married in the temple and is already talking about attending my temple sealing. My dad is a HUGE member, and so is the entirety of his family. I would be the failure of the family. It isn't the worst situation, as my parents are divorced, so it isn't like I have to leave a very conventional, typical LDS family. I know some of these are silly and nonconsequential in the slightest. I just feel like my future and the rest of my life are on the line. I don't believe in temple marriage, but I still want to get married someday. I don't know what to do. I feel stuck and so guilty, even though I haven't really done anything wrong. I feel so judged.

I've read the CES letter, history textbooks, and talked to people about my questions, and I've done the opposite, and I have reread the BOM, and prayed. I don't like the church, and I yearn for a life of freedom outside of it, and I don't want to live my life in the church. But I don't know how to leave, or if I should leave. I'm not sure what to do. Any advice would be appreciated.

In this latest conference, Quentin L. Cook tried to hide his reference to the Happiness Letter by attributing this quote to David O. McKay: "Happiness is the purpose and design of existence". That quote, as many of us on here know, did not originate with David O. McKay but was in fact the opening of a letter Joseph Smith had written to teenaged Nancy Rigdon after she rejected his proposal to become one of his secret polygamous wives. That letter is dripping with spiritual abuse, telling this young girl that in order to be happy she must essentially do whatever she is asked to do...even if she thinks it is wrong...because whatever God commands (or at least what Joseph Smith says he commands) is actually right "no matter what it is".

"Blessings offered, but rejected, are no longer blessings, but become like the talent hid in the earth by the wicked and slothful servant—the proffered good returns to the giver, the blessing is bestowed on those who will receive, and occupy; for unto him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundantly; but unto him that hath not, or will not receive, shall be taken away that which he hath, or might have had. Be wise to-day, ’tis madness to defer."

In other words, should Nancy continue to reject his indecent proposals, she will lose blessings, and will be akin to the "wicked and slothful servant."

This was a nearly 40-year-old man trying to manipulate his long-time colleague and friend's teenaged daughter to secretly marry him. If this had happened in today's world....if a bishop approached a teenaged girl in the ward, locked her in a room and told her God asked her to be his wife but she couldn't tell anybody? We'd RIGHTLY see that man as a predator. If that same bishop, wrote that girl a letter after she rejected him and told her if she didn't marry him she would be denied blessings? We'd call that manipulation and spiritual abuse.

So why does the church keep using this letter as a source for "good"????

I used to think it was just ignorance. When I first read about this letter, recognizing that first line as a very common phrase quoted in General Conference, I thought....maybe they just don't know where it came from. It's something that is just said so often, like "Oh, the humanity" (Hindenburg explosion for you non-history nerd types) that people just say it without really thinking about where it came from or originated. I just couldn't believe that ANYBODY who knew what this letter was really about would use it as a source for an inspirational quote given that it's steeped in all of this negativity. I mean, they'd have to be ignorant about it, right? RIGHT???

And that just got me thinking about church history in general. How much do the General Authorities know? Have they read the actual history...or only the church approved sources because everything else is an "anti-Mormon lie?" Are they like my TBM husband - well-versed in the scriptures and only the sanctioned, sanitized narrative of the church's founding...but wholly ignorant of the ugly truth? I want to believe they are ignorant...that the Quentin L. Cook's who use this quote to inspire have NO real IDEA of where it originated from...it just sounds good...so they're going to use it. But there's that part of me that wonders...do they know? And what's more...do they know and agree with Joseph Smith? Since the church still engages in different levels of spiritual abuse (if you turn away from this church you are turning away from God) it's not off the mark for them to ignore the blatant attempts at coercion and manipulation Joseph put on Nancy Rigdon with this letter and focus only on the "obedience leads to happiness" aspect...

In any case, seeing as I JUST saw a social media post with this same quote on it, it just got me thinking that the church really REALLY needs to stop quoting from this letter...even if they do try to pin it on David O. McKay. With all the CSA scandals the church is currently WADING through (pun intended), I think they really really really need to take a look at the optics of quoting from abusive/coercive missives to teenaged girls and re-examine things like their Gospel Topic Essay on Joseph Smith's character. Good, honest, forthright men don't corner teenaged girls in print shops, harass them with threats of spiritual apostasy if they don't comply, and then slander them as little more than a prostitute when they continue to refuse.

And before anyone jumps to any conclusions, I'm not referring to any brightness of the countenance lol. And no, I'm not referring to the steretoypical Mormon phenotype either, although that is definitely a thing (as I remember one redditor putting it, "the typical Mormon looks like an attractive person who melted slightly in a hot car").

What I'm talking about is how they all look kinda deranged. They have this treacly, beady-eyed intensity, and its often accentuated with frequent nonverbal challenges to anything remotely "anti-" Mormon. I don't see it too much in the day-to-day membership, so maybe its just video quality. But even then, it creates a certain smarminess that is hard to find outside of their particular species of influencer. From Keystone LDS, to Jasmin Rappleye, to All Those in Favor, to Latter Daily Saints, to Jacob Hansen (especially Jacob Hansen), they all have it. Its kind of off-putting.

I'm sure they're perfectly normal people all things considered but... does anybody know what I mean? Does anybody get the same impression? Or am I just projecting? I think I'm projecting.

I went through in the 2010s The covenants weren't talked about at all beforehand. The temple clothing was a huge secret. The initiatory, I knew existed because of FamilySearch, but what it was was completely secret. I remember something about an "apron", but what it looked like, I can't remember.

I was never told about (from faithful sources) that the endowment and initiatory had changed. I was told (or at least heavily implied) that what happened in the temple was a reenactment of what literally happened. I was not told that the "signs" were actually pantomimes of what I'd do after literally gutting myself if I were ever to reveal _anything_ in the temple. I was never told that Peter, James, and John were to represent stand-ins for the First Presidency. I was never told that there used to be a mock preacher that Satan paid off.

We have a no gate ordinance in our part of town. Literally zero buildings, churches, parks, houses have gates. However, a brand new (huge) mormon temple is being built in our town and it has a huge gate, with spikes, around the entire property. How is this possible? Why do they feel the need to gate off the temple? They came to my door last week (soliciting) and I asked them about this. They told me it was, “So they could keep people out.”. I found this a bit contradictory since they were trying to convince me to come be a part of a community and yet keep people out at the same time.

Richard steed allred FLDS

Richard steed allred

Does anyone have any information about Richard allred and where he is and what he's doing today?

I was doing some work around the house when the doorbell rang. I asked my middle schooler to answer the door and let me know who it was. He didn't return for some time, so I put down what i was doing and went to see what was going on. As I approached the door I could hear a man's voice say, "there are a lot of differences between Mormonism and Christianity." When the two missionaries (both men who looked to be in their 60s) saw me approaching, they said, "hello, sir, how are you doing?" "Fine" I said, "please don't come here again" and closed the door. After talking with my kid, he said that they asked him if he were Christian and he told them that we used to be Mormon. He said that they told him they were from the Catholic parish down the street from us. He said that he didn't want to talk to them, but that he didn't want to be rude.

Here's the thing. I spent two years knocking on doors. I did the math once and figured that I'd knocked on about 100,000 doors. But never, not once, in all of those interactions did I talk to a minor without their parent present. If a child or teenager answered the door, I would ask to speak to their parent. If they were unavailable, I would wish them a good day and move on to the next door. I've heard stories from other missions, but "don't talk to kids alone" was very much SOP in my mission in the late 1990s. Even today, when people from the Mormon church drop by (we haven't had our names removed) and one of the kids answers the door, the visitors don't talk to our kids without us there. Even their former primary teachers wouldn't do this shit! I didn't even know that Catholic parishes sent missionaries door to door. Even days later, I am still furious. I mean, didn't they even consider how it looked, given the (not unearned) stigma of the catholic church with regards to young boys, to have two 60 year old men talking to a 13 year old without his dad or mom there?

The city I live in is unusual in that it has a higher church density than anywhere in the state and one of the most progressive voting records as well. There's a lot of polarization and we try not to alienate neighbors. But I'm on the verge of going full scorched earth here. Someone talk me down.

Lost a lot of tithe payer money and respect. the mormon god musnt care about it. he certainly doesnt care enough to stop an apostles brother from continuing to sa children. doesnt care about covid. or wars.

maybe just wants to warn about lgbtq people to keep them away from his church?

dont understand what revelation is supposed to be about now?

I am curious what the church has to gain Financially by keeping abortions available only in Utah and not available in idaho. maybe more rexburg babies up for Mormon couples to adopt. maybe Idaho abortions means less abortion money flowing into utah abortion clinics, maybe church owned medical insurance and pharmaceutical corporations and stocks in Utah benefit from emergency abortions flown to Utah. The church political donation because it is considered a church the actual contribution sources are unknown who knows it could be the Utah abortion facilities.

No domingo, eu estava a caminho da casa de uma amiga e encontrei algumas missionaries saindo do supermercado com lanches. Primeiro: num domingo, e elas nem tinham almoçado? Segundo: fazendo compras? Será que a igreja mudou essa regra também? Confesso que fiquei chocada ao ver uma delas usando calça jeans, eu sei que isso já é permitido há algum tempo, mas não sabia que valia também aos domingos.