OneWingedBird
Beloved of Ra
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2003
- Messages
- 15,431
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... :?
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
I bet you didn't know that LGBTQ Mormons in Utah had an organization. A hard-working one, too, evidently. And they got an anti-discrimination bill through the state legislature, though an imperfect one.
http://affirmation.org/a-mom-gets-involved/
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.
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)
I'd have replied 'avoiding Mormons' and walked off.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.
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?Mormen tend to troll around in male couples so I congratulate them on being the loveliest couple I have seen that day!*
Godwinned!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.
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?"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?"