Mormonism: A Cult By Any Other Name Is Still A Cult

I wasn't always a Wiccan. For the first sixteen years of my life I was raised a Mormon. I went to church every Sunday, and on Temple trips every year. I asked to be baptized at the age of eight because I was told I was old enough at the time to make that choice. I was also baptized in the names of several dead people, all the while thinking I was doing Gods will. I was a good little Mormon too. I used to carry my Quad (That's all four of the Mormon holy books in one) to school and read it at lunch, I used to go on Missionary training visits too. I had even started saving up to pay for my Mission shortly before I left the church.

So why do I now call the Mormon church a cult?

The answer to that question isn't simple, I wish I could tell you it was. The following is my list of reasons why; hopefully this simplifies what I'm wanting to express here.


Reason #1. I was taught in that church that God was once a man on an alien planet who was made a God by his God and that I too could be a God one day if I was good enough. --- How fucked up is that? Why in the hell would you tell a child something this fucked up? This is just the tip of the iceberg

Reason #2. Baptism by proxy is Gods way of making sure everyone gets to Heaven regardless of what blasphemous church they belonged to in life.--- How completely arrogant can you get? How can you even fathom being so holier-than-thou that you think going against the choices of the dead and their chosen faiths going to get them closer to God? Come the fuck on!

Reason #3. Women cannot hold high office in the church because women would lead the church astray like Eve did to Adam.--- Are you kidding me? These idiots are just as bad as Southern Baptists.

Reason #4. Only the President of the church can talk directly to God, just like Joseph Smith did. You can pray, but the church President gets a verbal response.--- I'm sorry, but are you insane? Is that how you get to be the President of the Mormon church, you have to be worthy of a rubber room at Bellevue? Not only is it insane, but it's arrogant as hell to boot.

Reason #5. This is the incident that finally opened my eyes to how twisted the Mormon church really is.

     I was taught for sixteen years that if I had any questions that I was to talk to one of the elders of the church (no I don't mean missionaries), so that's exactly what I did. When I was half way through my sixteenth year of life I started having reoccurring nightmares. Horrific stuff that ended up coming true many years later. So because I always tried to do what the church told me to do, I went to talk with one of the heads of my branch. The response was so NOT at all what I had expected. I expected some reassurance that these where just nightmares and they would eventually go away, but what I got instead was a very harsh shaming. I was berated by a man I had though of as a friend. I was told that what I was saying was blasphemous, and told I was claiming to be a prophet. I couldn't even respond, I was shocked to say the least. There I was, a scared sixteen year old kid asking for help from the church that I was taught was my one saving grace and way to salvation and what I received was a verbal beating. I felt even more scared after I left that office then when I went in. So out of pain and anger I left the Mormon church never to return.

     After leaving the church I looked back on everything they had taught me over the years, but this time without the rose colored glasses. And I realized that I hadn't been attending a church, but rather a cult. A cult that requested that you testify about your love for the church first, it's founder second, and God last. What kind of a church does that? From what I've researched, NONE. What kind of a church teaches you that you too can become a God? NONE. What kind of a church asks you to go against a persons wishes after they're dead and be be baptized in that persons name? NONE. These are all indications of a cult.

     You know, I really should have gone back and thanked the guy who screamed at me all those years ago before he died. Because if it wasn't for him I'd still be drinking the Kool-aid.

To The People and School Board of Anoka County Minnesota

Dear Residents of Anoka County Minnesota,

     I just read a very disturbing article from 'Rolling Stone'. So disturbing in fact that I am now morally urged to write to you all as a whole. There are some in your community that have made it their life's mission to "hunt down" and "weed out" the "gay agenda" from your little corner of the country. They claim it's the "Christian" thing to do. Really? The CHRISTian thing to do? Feel free to try and prove me wrong here, but Christ did not come to Earth to give these members of your community a free pass to hate, torture and bully those in the LGBTQ community who happen to share your little corner of the world. Christ did say however not to judge others unless you wish to be judged in the same way (Mathew 7:1). Christ also said that it's better to worry about your own sin than to point out and judge the sin of others (Mathew 7:3). 

     So why is it that some in your community feel they are doing the will of Christ? And why are those of you in the community who know better staying silent? The most vile things that have ever happened in recent history have been in the name of God, and these horrible acts could have been stopped if those who knew in their souls that what was happening was wrong would have stood up instead of cowering down. All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men and women to do nothing. Do not support these actions that have lead so many children in your community to kill themselves with indifference and cowardice. Do what you know is right in your soul and stand up for these children and the rest LGBTQ community in Anoka County. Just do what you honestly know in your heart to be right.

Sincerely,

Mr. Liberal

An America Citizen

For the last couple of years, politicians like Rick Perry, Michelle Bachman, and the like have suggested that being a citizen of this country was to a certain extent about character. And although I have been willing to engage in their attacks on people like me now and then, I've been here for thirty one years, and I can tell you without hesitation, being a citizen of this country, is entirely about character.

For the record: yes, I am planning on becoming a card-carrying member of the ACLU like so many other Liberals, but the more important question is, 'Why aren't they?' Now this is an organization, whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question: 'Why would a Congressperson or a Governor, their party's most powerful spokespeople and candidates for President, choose to reject upholding the Constitution?' Now if you can answer that question folks, then you're smarter than I am, because I still can't fully figure that one out.

America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center-stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his or her right to burn that flag in protest." Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.

I've heard the right-wings shtick for years, and I'd been operating under the assumption that the reason they devote so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that they simply didn't get it. Well I was wrong, their problem isn't that they don't get it; their problem is that they can't sell it. We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, the right-wing is not the least bit interested in solving it. They are interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections.

You gather a group of middle-age, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time and you talk to them about family and, American values and character, and you wave an old Bible around and you scream about patriotism, you tell them that God hates anyone who doesn’t think like them and that those of us on the left are to blame for their lot in life.

We Liberals have done nothing to you, right-wingers. We have done nothing, but put ourselves through school, represent the interests of public school teachers, fight for the middle class, and lobby for the safety of our work places and our natural resources. You want a character debate? You better start with your own reflections, because we Liberals are way out of your league.

We've got serious problems, and we need serious people to solve them. And if you want to talk about character, you better come at us with more than a burning flag and membership cards. If you want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when and I'll show up. This is a time for serious people, right-wing, and your fifteen minutes are up. My name is Mr Liberal, I AM an American citizen and I AM THE 99%!

(This Blog is a rewording of the speech given by Michael Douglas in the film 'The American President. I hold no ownership of the original wording, only the edits.)

Enough is Enough!!!!

I have tried my best not to go completely off in my blogging, but tonight I'm throwing caution to the wind and saying Fuck It!


For a long time now this country has been assaulted by the religious right and their campaign to turn this Representative Democracy into a total fucking Theocracy. I, as a conscientious American and reader of the Constitution cannot sit by the way-side and stay politely silent any longer.


The First Amendment of The Constitution Of the United States says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...". Pretty damned cut-n-dry. Then why in the fucking hell can't these right wing theological nut jobs just fucking get it? It's not that damn hard. Fifth graders can understand it!


If you're a sci-fi fan you might have seen the film Escape from L.A.. In that movie the country was in the hands of a Life-Term Religious Zealot President who, among other things, out-lawed any religion other than Christianity. The citizenry of the nation who did not follow the religious mandate were either executed or deported. This is the kind of nation that the Tea Party and the rest of the religious right will, with-out-a-doubt, force on this nation should they continue to gain foot hold after foot hold in our political process. Is that the kind of country you want to live in, for your children to grow up in? I should fucking hope not.


"Oh, that's just a movie. That's not real life. That can't happen here."


It's the "It can't happen here" mentality that we had before Oklahoma City and 9/11. It can, and will happen here if we do not rise up as a free nation and put a stop to the forcing of one religion on the people of this entire nation. 


The founders of this country had the wisdom and fore-thought to keep religion and state separate. Those same founders came from a country where religion and state were one in the same, and did NOT want that in this new nation they were building. It was our ancestors who, after years of religious persecution, fled to the North American continent for the express purpose of religious freedom! Why would we, as a nation, want to revert to a time were if you don't follow the state religion you can be jailed or even killed for believing differently?! WE FUCKING WOULDN'T!


Then why in the fuck do most of us just sit by and continue to let it happen? Why is there not more outrage? For Christ sake, what in the holy hell is wrong with this fucking country?! Yes, I'm swearing. Of coarse I'm swearing, I pissed off at the lack of common sense the American people are showing when it comes to religion.


I'm not anti-religion by any means. I'm a Wiccan, I have faith in my religion. But, I do not go against the Rede and force my religious views on others. To do so would cause harm, something I've found all the religions I've studied teaches against; this includes Christianity. So, why then are these Zealots trying to force their extremist views on the rest of us? More importantly, why in the hell is it being allowed? 


If people like Michele "Bat-shit-crazy" Bachmann or Rick "This country needs Christianity" Perry continue to be elected to office after office, including the Presidency, the old proverb will prove true. Those who do not learn from their history are truly doomed to repeat it. But, this time it is the nation as a whole, that will suffer from the forgetfulness of those too blind to see the mistakes of the past.

What's so damn bad about 'Judas'?

(First off let me say that I am NOT a Lady Gaga fan.)

 Ever since Lady Gaga released the track 'Judas', Christians have been going absolutely nuts. People have been calling Gaga Anti-Semitic, Anti-Christian and a few other choice words since the songs pre-Easter release/leak.

Dave Bohon of the Right-Wing site 'The New American' said "...Lady Gaga’s Judas appears to be motivated mainly by a demonic impulse to sully the symbols and stories that millions of Christians hold precious — in this case the legacy of a woman from whom Jesus cast seven demons...". 


Even people who are supposed to be open-minded have taken aim at the song. A former Facebook friend went so far as to say this shortly after the song was released/leaked:

Demand Equality

I have been saying for a week now that this song is about the blood libel, about the Jews killing Jesus, and that Lady Gag is a Jew hater, and here's the quote to prove that what I have been saying is correct: "I believe in the gospel" and in the Gospel the Jew Judas betrays the Jew Jesus, and that's the beginning of the blood libel that Jews killed Jesus. Lady Gag hates Jews and that's what the song is about.


I was immediately unfriended when I asked how she came to that conclusion, and stated I didn't get that from the lyrics at  all. 


I started wondering, "Why is this song causing so much outrage and making seemingly sane people go nuts?" So, I reread the lyrics, and I still didn't understand how people were getting all these Anti-Jewish/Christian vibes out of a song that seemed to me to be about Gagas' own inner religious struggle. 


I just don't get what is so bad about 'Judas'. I see nothing anti-anything about the song or the video. BUT, if you do you'll find links to the lyrics and the Youtube video for 'Judas' below. Please read the lyrics and watch the video and give me your opinions on this song, and whether you find the song offensive or not and why.


http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/l/lady_gaga/judas.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wagn8Wrmzuc