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Perhaps we are all dead and preserved in ice with electrodes in our brains, and the man we perceive as having died in 1982 is still alive?
 
rynner2 said:
I'm having problems with an article about a conference next month, written by someone who died in 1982... :?

I'm presuming its a nom de plume.
 
I would love to see a South Oark episode about this.

A trademark fight over the word 'Mormon'
COMMENTS (96)

Could the Catholic Church trademark a crucifix? Could the Jewish faith corner the market on the Star of David?

Obviously not, since the symbols of these thousands-of-years-old religions are firmly in the public domain. But what about a newer faith, established in a time of more robust intellectual property protections?

This is the gist of the debate going on in Texas, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is currently waging a legal battle with a dating site called Mormon Match over its use of the word "Mormon".

Intellectual Reserve Inc., the holding company for the LDS church, has a trademark on the word, as well as "Book of Mormon", "Mormon.org", "Mormon Tabernacle Choir", "The Mormon Church", "Mormon handicraft" and an outline of the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - which bills itself as "the leading non-profit organisation defending civil liberties in the digital world" - filed a friend-of-the-court brief last week in support of Jonathan Eller, the founder of Texas-based Mormon Match, as he tries to get a federal judge to permit him to use the word.

"The name of this service simply describes what it's doing - matching up Mormons," EFF's Corynne McSherry said in a statement. "Trademarks are supposed to be used to protect from unfair competition, not to stifle a small business or to control language."

Eric Hawkins, an LDS spokesperson, presented the church's position in a statement to ABC News:

We have made repeated attempts to resolve the issue without litigation, as we have in many comparable disputes over the years, including similar trademark applications. The objection of the church is that a for-profit business is trying to deceptively capitalise on the church's name and image to promote a product that has no affiliation with the church. By attempting to trademark the name, the group seeks to claim exclusive rights to use a term that is clearly associated with the church.

"When is a Mormon not a Mormon?" asks the consumerist's Kate Cos. "When he's a 'Mormon (trademark).'"

Jezebel's Kelly Faircloth says that it seems the LDS Church doesn't want anyone "making bank" off the Mormon name. She notes that both Mr Eller and his co-founder are Mormons.

"The next church barbecue is going to be really uncomfortable," she writes.

It's not the first time the LDS church has employed its lawyers to battle what it sees as intellectual property infringement. In 2007 it prevented a coffee shop in Utah from printing a likeness of the angel Moroni, whose statue stands atop many Mormon temples, in newspaper adverts.

"A standard criticism of the church is that it's more a business venture than a religion," writes Religion Dispatches' Holly Welker. "Actions like this lend credibility to the claim, and you'd think the church wouldn't want to make it seem any more valid."

According to Ars Technica, a federal judge in Texas will hold a hearing in the Mormon Match case on 8 August
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27708734
 
Mormon church excommunicates prominent U.S. activist Kate Kelly

SALT LAKE CITY, June 23 (Reuters) - Prominent Mormon activist Kate Kelly was excommunicated by her church on Monday for violating its "laws and order" after advocating for women's ordination, a view that leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said amounted to apostasy.

Kelly in 2013 founded the group Ordain Women, which has pushed for gender equality and has appealed to the faith's highest leaders to seek direction from God on the issue of women joining the priesthood.

A three-man panel held a church disciplinary hearing for her on Sunday in Virginia, where she lived until recently, and their verdict was delivered by email.

"Our determination is that you be excommunicated for conduct contrary to the laws and order of the Church," Kelly's former ecclesiastical leader in Virginia, Bishop Mark Harrison, said in the message.

"These conditions almost always last at least one year," it said, adding that if she showed "true repentance" and gave up teachings and actions that "undermine the Church, its leaders, and the doctrine of the priesthood," she could be readmitted.

Kelly, a former Washington human rights attorney, said the decision had forced her out of her community and her congregation and was exceptionally painful.

"Today is a tragic day for my family and me as we process the many ways this will impact us, both in this life and in the eternities," Kelly said in a statement.

Kelly is about to move overseas and did not attend the hearing, sometimes called a church court. Instead she wrote a letter defending herself and asking to keep her membership.

She has said she continues to believe in Mormon leaders and has suffered no crisis of faith, but rather has sincere questions about policies that bar women from the priesthood.

The actions of the Ordain Women group have caused tensions between the Utah-based church and the women, who say they are steadfast in their faith but want a more significant role in the life of a religion that claims more than 15 million global adherents. ...

http://news.msn.com/us/mormon-church-ex ... kate-kelly
 
The Mormon church has admitted for the first time that its founder, Joseph Smith, took multiple wives. In an essay published on its website, the church said "careful estimates" put the number at between 30 and 40, including a 14-year-old and others who were already married.

The Mormon church banned polygamy in 1890, and now excommunicates anyone who practises it.

Church leaders had previously portrayed Joseph Smith as married to one woman. But the essay, entitled Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo, said: "Joseph married many additional wives and authorised other Latter-day Saints to practise plural marriage." It said "plural marriage was difficult for all involved"; for Joseph Smith's first wife, Emma, it was an "excruciating ordeal". ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30009324
 
When the Mormons traveled across the Great Plains, the drank "Mormon tea" made from a plant called ephedra, which contains ephedrine, a stimulant and precursor to amphetamines. I also found this article about Joseph smith putting datura in the wine of his congregation http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread687983/pg1 he was also likely involved with peyote shamanism. His grandson Frederick smith claimed that peyote was central to the Mormon faith and that peyote was an important contribution of the lamanites(native Americans) http://askgramps.org/3580/does-mormon-church-forbid-use-peyote-by-mormons-native the Mormons have also been instrumental in legalizing peyote in Native American ceremonies with the ONAC Native American church. The Mormons have various other ties to peyotism.
 
I still remember that famous Disney wildlife movie where all the Mormons ran en masse and threw themselves off a cliff. To this day, we still don't know why they do that.
 
Are you sure the Mormons didn't force over a hundred innocent people over a cliff instead? They were a bit massacre-y way back when.
 
Are you sure the Mormons didn't force over a hundred innocent people over a cliff instead? They were a bit massacre-y way back when.

No. I definitely remember the furry bodies and the teeth and them toppling over the cliff.
And Disney could never be wrong.
 
incitement to religious intolerance

"Problems"? I quite agree.

Now, religion is each man's personal party (or it should be), but i believe i'm right in thinking that Mormons don't, as a rule, ingest toxins...Problem.

This, of course, brings them into direct conflict with the central tennents of the established English religion: Tea-drinking. Sorry, Mormonism's not for me, i have my beliefs... ;)

oh, here we go: http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons/daily/health/tea_eom.htm

text reads : Devout Latter-day Saints do not drink teas containing caffeine. This practice derives from an 1833 revelation known as the Word of Wisdom, which states that "hot drinks are not for the body or the belly" (D&C 89:9). Hyrum Smith, Assistant President of the Church, later defined "hot drinks" as coffee and tea (T&S 3 [June 1, 1842]:800), thereby establishing the official interpretation for later generations (see Doctrine and Covenants: Section 89). Caffeine, a cerebral and cardiovascular stimulant, has caused health concerns in recent years. The revelation has not been interpreted as proscribing herbal teas, for it states that "all wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the Constitution, nature, and use of man" (D&C 89:10).

HANG-ON: 'Wholesome Herbs' certainly sounds promising!
(sorry to stray off-thread a little soon)


G'day Yithian, (Australia here), there is a book 'Men of high degree', by a fellow called A.P. Elkin, which is about the Aboriginal 'Clever Men', Shamans, and there was a section quoting one of these Old Fellows, who reckoned that hot water wasn't good for them, so they abstained from tea drinking (yeah...I know!), and only drank cold water.
 
Mormons who fell dangerously ill on their missions say the church denied them access to medical care.

Oliver had never left the United States when the Mormon church sent him on a mission in Chile in 2002. Eager to serve, the 19-year-old dove into missionary work. But after a few weeks, he began to experience crippling stomach pain. At first, Oliver was embarrassed by his ailment and tried to conceal it. After he lost 30 pounds, he approached the mission president’s wife—who was responsible for granting access to medical care—for help. She instructedhim to sprinkle fiber powder on his breakfast and refused to let him seek medical treatment. Over the next few months, he lost 20 more pounds and finally demanded that he speak to a doctor. The doctor prescribed deworming pills. Soon after he took them, Oliver excreted a several-inches-long parasite. His stomach and intestines were irreparably damaged.

http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...es_denied_access_to_adequate_health_care.html
 
I got stopped by a pair of Mormons the other day in Norwich. Well, it was either Mormons or the Men in Black. Their opening gambit was "What's the best thing that's happened to you today?" I wasn't in the mood to banter with them so just brushed them off. You see them in these parts reasonably regularly - usually Americans. I believe they own a lot of land across East Anglia. The last time I saw them I was hurrying to Morrisons when they stopped to ask "What's the most important thing in life?" Again, I just wasn't in the mood for that sort of question.
 
I got stopped by a pair of Mormons the other day in Norwich. Well, it was either Mormons or the Men in Black. Their opening gambit was "What's the best thing that's happened to you today?" I wasn't in the mood to banter with them so just brushed them off. You see them in these parts reasonably regularly - usually Americans. I believe they own a lot of land across East Anglia. The last time I saw them I was hurrying to Morrisons when they stopped to ask "What's the most important thing in life?" Again, I just wasn't in the mood for that sort of question.
I'd have replied 'avoiding Mormons' and walked off.
 
Mormen tend to troll around in male couples so I congratulate them on being the loveliest couple I have seen that day!*

*I have tried it in traditional Morman, "How bona to vada your dolly young eeks!" but they think I'm Polish these days.

Either way, they will look like they have just eaten soot. :D
 
I got stopped by a pair of Mormons the other day in Norwich. Well, it was either Mormons or the Men in Black. Their opening gambit was "What's the best thing that's happened to you today?" I wasn't in the mood to banter with them so just brushed them off. You see them in these parts reasonably regularly - usually Americans. I believe they own a lot of land across East Anglia. The last time I saw them I was hurrying to Morrisons when they stopped to ask "What's the most important thing in life?" Again, I just wasn't in the mood for that sort of question.

That's interesting, Graylien. That second one could almost work for the Scientologists, too!
The missionaries who canvassed our old neighborhood would usually open with "did you know there is a prophet walking upon the earth today?", which is more mystical but no more likely to work.

Our upstairs neighbors were ex-LDS who would always go into hiding when they came around. One of them had actually skipped out on his mission year, so he was scared they were going to hunt him down and drag him back.
Out neighbors did give us the tip that you could put the missionaries off by claiming to be a Jewish national. The LDS had a covenant with Israel so wouldn't try to convert them. (I don't know if the covenant is still in effect at this time, though.)

ETA-
@JamesWhitehead - "Mormen" :rofl:
 
Slightly off topic but round my way the Jehovas Witnesses come round on Saturday morning. I made the mistake one time when I was half asleep, of answering the door before checking the spyhole, to find them there. One of them asked me "how do you plan on spending eternity?" ffs.....
 
Mormen tend to troll around in male couples so I congratulate them on being the loveliest couple I have seen that day!*
Actually, Yeah. I've been stopped by a lot of Mormons over the years, but none of them has ever been female. Is there a reason for that? Are females exempt from doing the missionary thing?

Jehovah's Witnesses, on the other hand, seem to be largely female. The last time I encountered them, I was sitting on a bench by the river. Out of nowhere, a pair of attractive young ladies approached me. Not being Brad Pitt, I instantly knew I was in some kind of trouble.

"We don't want to disturb you" they breathlessly announced. "But perhaps you could find a moment to read this?" Then thrusting a leaflet into my hands, they hurried off into the distance. The leaflet looked like it had been designed in the 1950's and promised an answer to something like "If God Is Good, Why Does Evil Exist in the World?" So I read it. But sadly, it didn't really give a convincing reply to the question.

Then there was the time a couple of Witnesses came round to my front door. I was actually in the mood for conversation at the time, so I tried to engage them. One thing led to another, and they ended up shouting "Are you ACTUALLY comparing us to HITLER???!!!!" and then they walked off.

Come to think of it, that may have been my fault...
 
Then there was the time a couple of Witnesses came round to my front door. I was actually in the mood for conversation at the time, so I tried to engage them. One thing led to another, and they ended up shouting "Are you ACTUALLY comparing us to HITLER???!!!!" and then they walked off.
Godwinned! :D
 
I had two members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints tap on the door once and Crazy Dave walked over to the door, which was ajar, and said "Can you pop back in a bit, we're in the middle of a tricky spell?" and shut the door.
 
Who's Crazy Dave?
 
A pal at the time. He sat next to me in my first physics lecture in 1985 and said "Want to see my radio in a matchbox?"

I knew a Crazy Dave, too. He was a friend of Caveman Tommy (who was exactly as you would imagine.) A missionary would need a great deal of spiritual fortitude to deal with either Crazy Dave or Caveman Tommy. :p

My favorite story about evading missionaries came from a friend whose family were communists. They'd shout out the window: "Go away! We are godless reds!" :D

Me, I'm sometimes inclined to chat about spiritual matters, leaving the missionaries more eager to avoid me than the other way 'round.
 
I actually managed to get on to our local Jehovah's Witness no-call list. Not by any uncouth or downright rude behaviour, either, but simply by dint of asking whether or not they happened to have such a thing. And it transpires they do. There was an initial glitch, in that they called again soon after, and confessed to having not checked the list beforehand, at which point I may have become slightly abrasive, but there were no further interruptions to the quiet enjoyment of my home.

If that fails, I can confidently state I have not been troubled by unwanted callers brandishing the Watchtower since moving to Malaysia (although I have seen a brace of Mormen prowling). ETA I was accosted here while waiting for a taxi by some niche flavour of evangelical Christian. They thrust a flyer into my hand advertising a series of seminars on how to handle divorce, alcoholism, drug addiction, and being gay (what with that being a similar affliction :rolleyes:). Oddly enough, this did not win me over.
 
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Are you sure those weren't flyers for the Drug-addled Gay Christian Divorcees Drink-all-you-like Night at a local club?

Just wondering. :cool:
 
In what may be good news, several hundred mormons intend to publically leave the church today, due to it's recent policy over the children of gay couples. There's a Washington Post article about it but I still can't post links.
 
A gay woman has opened up about the horrific child abuse she suffered in a misguided attempt by religious bigots to ‘cure’ her sexuality.

Alex Cooper, now 21, has revealed she was subject to ‘conversion therapy’ as a teenager by her Mormon parents.

When she had come out as gay at 15, she was initially thrown out of her house. She was only allowed back in to live with them if she went to ‘cure her sickness’.

She was then forced to live with a couple who had no license or training to administer therapy but was convinced, having told Alex’s parents they could ‘turn’ her.

Among the torture and abuse, she was forced to stand facing a wall for up to 18 hours a day wearing a backpack full of rocks.

Speaking to a local CBS affiliate in Salt Lake City, Cooper said: ‘It’s like sending you to therapy to change your eye color. It’s not going to work. What it’s going to do is damage you.’

When she tried to escape, the man ‘punched me in the gut, knocking the wind out of me. I doubled over and choked for breath’.

After attempting suicide and several other escapes, Cooper got help from friends, lawyers and the courts. Her parents were then forced to agree to an unprecedented court order in Utah to not subject her to any more abuse via means of ‘conversion therapy’. ...

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/...9da12240f5af9d3109c04df08c-Twitter#gs.hMaHv8w
 
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