Mormonism might be good for aspies in that

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It is prevalent in many states

Well, I am pretty sure that Mormons believe in Hell. In fact, I am sure that Mormons believe in Hell. I guess that a Mormon is a Mormon because he doesn't WANT to go to Hell, and thinks that the Mormon church is the right ticket into heaven.

The Mormon friend in my weekend gaming group said that the Mormons reserve the best parts of Heaven for themselves... and also the worst parts of Hell.



Depends on who you talk to, I guess. Like any large group, there will be members who have a more conservative view and members with a more liberal one. The way my friend tells it, the conservative Mormons say "no caffeine at all", the liberal ones are okay with cola drinks. The conservatives say "No R-rated movies at all", the liberals say "R-rated movies are okay if they're rated such because of violence... but steer clear of the ones that are rated R because of sex."

(Which, to me, seems totally wacky...)

Mormons believe in three levels of heaven

ROFL

In Judaism there are at least two degrees of excommunication. One is temporary and one is permanent. Are you sure there is no permanent excommunication for mormons?



WOW, all the other churches I have heard of would forbid excommunicated members from attending. So is it the thing about Mormonism that they are so liberal?



I am not sure about Mormonism but my general impression is that even the religions that don't believe in hell would still believe in SOME kidn of punishment, otherwise what is the point? For example Jehovah Wittnesses believe the soul of sinner gets annihilated, which isn't somethign you would want. In Judaism they believe in temporary hell that lasts for a year. Anyway, so I guess Mormons do believe in SOME kind of reward or punishment, just like everyone else does. So this leaves a room for them to pray for the person to receive whatever they consider to be a "punishment".



Are you sure? In Judaism they do curse -- see here: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/ ... curse.html



Again, is Mormon church unique on this one? Because from what I know, both in Judaism and in Christianity the association with excommunicated members is strictly forbidden.



Yah but my instincts would say that being excommunicated is a lot worse than not having been part of the church to begin with.

How come they didn't excommunicate a husband, too, for living with a lesbian? And by the way why did he marry her in the first place? Also, is divorce allowed? Even if not, may be THIS might be an exception since Jesus said that putting woman away FOR ANY REASON EXCEPT FOR SEXUAL IMMORALITY is a sin. Being lesbian IS sexual immorality so this makes it okay to divorce her.



So she failed to attend meeting and as a result they decided to excommunicate her. Now the question is what did they do AFTERWARDS once the default decision was made? Did they make some kind of ritual service with excommunication ceremony?



When you say "pray for her" what specific things were they praying for?

Okay in this case why was his wife excommunicated for being lesbian? After all she wasn't living with a woman; she was living with a man.

My friend was not celibate and she was cohabitating. But what you said is true.

Roman, to answer your questions...in the Mormon church, excommunication is not done as a way to permanently ban someone from the church, it helps to think of it as an "un-baptisim", and the eventual goal would be to get that person re-baptised...after they have continued going to church and repented. Mormons believe strongly in forgiveness...that has been impressed upon me since I first walked in the doors of a Mormon church.

Immortal - Are you LDS?

Also, just my 2 cents on the matter for what it's worth.

The Mormon Church doesn't have formally trained clergy - everyone has a "calling" to do something within the church. This includes being the head of your ward (the equivalent of a parish priest). So, the varying accounts you may hear of peoples' horror stories with the church could just be examples of a particular rogue lay-leader in the church acting outside of generally accepted church practices. Just thought that I should point that out, since some of you seem puzzled about the inconsistent actions of some church leadership people.

Yes I am, and what you say is true, none of our clergy is trained, nor are they paid....it may be true that there are some cases that leaders (Such as a churches bishop) will act in a way that is generally not accepted by the church, but rather the way that they personally think is best (They are only people afterall)...if this happens, the best thing to do is to report them to the person in a position above them. (The stake president for example) If they were in the wrong, they will likely be released from their position.

However, I would also like to add that church leaders acting in the wrong is not exclusive to the LDS church

On the questions about Mormons, for a pretty sound, unbiased opinion about the Church, go to the BBC's website at www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions

Not perfect by any means, but gives a well researched insight into the doctrines and practices of the Church. Their site doesn't lean either for or against any religion or other philosophy, and so is a good place to look at this (and other religions) without being concerned about bias.

I am personally LDS, and found the BBC site to be well considered (certainly after seeing some of the "anti-Mormon" stuff that floats around the internet). I also found the information on other religions to be enlightening for me as well.

ps this is my first post on the website so please go easy on me!

Cernunnos - Thanks for the link, I'll have to check it out. I was lamenting earlier on this thread that there was a lack of unbiased information available. There is no shortage of anti-Mormon stuff on the internet, as you say. But also, I don't exactly consider what the missionaries have to say "unbiased" since they have the job of bringing people into the flock.

Janika - you seem a lot more knowledgeable about the Church than most people, so I'm not sure how much more the link will give you, but happy surfing! I wanted to give people the opportunity to find out a few facts from an uninfluenced (by the Church or the "anti-Mormons") website, though again it's still not perfect, but better than most.

At the end of the day, we're just a cross section of society with a different religion. Apart from the fact I don't drink alcohol, tea or coffee, smoke, or swear, I stand out more because of my unusual Aspie related traits than my religious ones.

I agree that, in a sense, the missionaries can't be "unbiased" and they can sometimes seem a bit intense; but don't forget, they are generally pretty young and still have their youthful exuberance (unlike me - never did have any!)

As my other half often says: we believe the Church (i.e. the Gospel) is true, but people are people and Church members don't always get things right. Like any sector of society, we get all sorts from all walks of life and with all sorts of ideas & approaches on how to do things of their own.

Last edited by Cernunnos on 17 Jan 2007, 9:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

Gee whiz, guys. We have the right to *respectfully* disagree with each other's beliefs.

For myself, I turned down organized religion a long time ago.

But we could learn a lot from Mormons. Keep what we like/need and ignore the rest. We could learn to form communities who buy foodstuffs in bulk, communities who stock up food and necessities for a year ahead - stuff like that.