BaldProphet

Cheese balls. Giant tubs of cheese balls.

This kind of “checking that I’m still orthodox” post makes my skin crawl. Who is “we”?

This is so obvious. I don’t understand why I don’t see it being reported on more often.

I like the ten hour shifts. More money for me.

I love my 4-day workweek. My company still gets 40 hours of work out of me each week (minus mandatory breaks) and I get a bit of overtime on some of those hours. Better still, two people can cover an entire day, whereas three were needed back when we worked 8 hour shifts.

Perhaps there is a tonal message in your words that you didn’t intend (your native language seems to be German?). This paragraph comes across as dismissing my comment while making a sweeping, inaccurate, and baseless judgment that I “distrust any media that contradicts my beliefs:”

But by you talking about “the media” I guess you are trying to find reasons to further your already present distrust in any media that contradicts your beliefs?

Hard to see how that couldn’t be meant as, at best, a passive-aggressive dig, implying some level of instability or paranoia.

“The media” is a common term in American English that refers to mainstream news outlets. I said I felt gaslit because the early headlines and articles on this topic suggested that names were made visible, not that they were merely added to accounts.

Regardless, there is no call for personal attacks. I’m sure you can find the maturity to respond to comments you disagree with in ways that don’t involve attacking the users who post them.

Lol not sure why the somewhat gratuitous character attack there, but whatever.

I went to my Glassdoor account and the only place I could see my name was in the community part, where people ask questions of other professionals. Some users still seemed to have their names hidden, so it must be possible to do so. My company reviews are still anonymous.

I honestly can’t find any evidence that what the media are saying is happening is actually happening. I feel gaslit tbh lol

Have you ever asked a former member why they left? What did they say?

I helped a person rejoin the Church when I was a missionary. It was obviously not a representative experience, but he had left at a time in his life when he was angry at members of his ward for not supporting him the way he felt he should have been supported. At the time it seemed he had felt a bit more entitled to special attention than was reasonable (keeping in mind the Church has a lay ministry and we’re all just regular people with regular lives outside of church), and he had also tried to have an affair with someone’s wife, IIRC. He had requested his records to be withdrawn because he wanted members to stop contacting him. He was a lot different when I met him than when he left the Church, and had a lot of rough life experiences that emphasized the value it brought to his life.

I have not had any close friends or family leave the Church, so I haven’t had any opportunities to actually have a discussion about it with anyone else other than online. Those online interactions have been mostly hate-filled and vitriolic by the former members.

Like most members of the Church, where I live I am a religious minority. It’s far more common for people to ask me questions about my faith than for me to interact with former members.

Latter-day Saints were some of the earliest white settlers of Las Vegas, if you can believe it.

Latter-day Saints have absolutely no prohibition against interacting with former members of the Church. Unfortunately, many former members leave under difficult circumstances and distance themselves from their friends who remain in the Church. We would love nothing more than to stay in contact with them and still be friends.

I have never supported Trump. I was serving my mission in 2016 when he was elected and I couldn’t find a polling place to vote, and I sort of had a favorable impression of him at first just because my family are big Trump supporters. However, many of his policies and his hateful rhetoric are impossible to square with my religious beliefs, which I consider to be mostly centrist. I think most Latter-day Saints are in a similar boat. We are serious about our religion and aren’t going to support a political leader who goes against many of our most deeply-held moral doctrines.

The most important thing we believe are the commandments given by Jesus Christ in Matthew 22:36-40. These are summarized as “love God with all your being” and “love everyone around you as well as you love yourself”. I can’t see how it could be possible to support Trump and sincerely believe in those commandments at the same time.

For me, however, the final straw was when Trump started speculating on live television about injecting light into people to fight the Covid virus. It was utter loony talk and I was completely disgusted. January 6th didn’t surprise me at all (Trump was laying the groundwork for it a year in advance) and at that point I almost registered as a Democrat. Now that Trump has taken control of the Republican party I’m definitely registering as a Democrat before November.

Trumpism took mormons by storm, they are some of the most dedicated adherents to it.

Plenty of us despise him, though, and one of the highest leaders of the Church has donated to the Democratic party in the past.

Caltrops are better because they require less precision to deploy effectively.

I would. Some things are really enjoyable to do, and can earn you money. Whether or not the things you enjoy doing pay enough to cover rent is another problem entirely.

They’re cliches that only apply to affluent boomers.

Which is ironic because one of the Fed’s chartered purposes is to maximize employment. I guess maximizing profits is more important, even though it’s not on the list.

Ok, thanks for clarifying your stance, I think I understand now.

I can see how this could get complicated depending on the organization. For example, my church has distinct legal entities so that the “not-for-profit” side and the “business” side are kept separate.

I agree that keeping the government out of religion is extremely important.

Thanks for your time!

While I’d love to see churches start paying their fair share

Genuinely curious, what do you define this fair share as?