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Lair of the Demon (10 unread)

I created a new video

Posted: April 25th, 2008, 2:04am EDT by Demon of Kolob

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There are still problems the sound is out of sync, but it delivers its message. [www.youtube.com]

Repose to Thomas S Monson's come back speech

Posted: April 7th, 2008, 3:39am EDT by Demon of Kolob

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"LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson invited "the less-active, the offended, the critical, the transgressor" Sunday to come back and "feast at the table of the Lord and taste again the sweet and satisfying fruits of fellowship with the Saints." "

Tommy Boy Talk is cheap, you do not really mean what you said. If you did you would extend an olive branch with those words ,do something to back them up.
For Example

Be honest about the church's history.
Stop excommunicating and "disfellowshipping" scholars who present you with mountains of scientific and historical evidence that Joseph Smith was an imaginative fraud and the BoM is a hoax.
Repeal the 132nd section of the D&C and admit polygamy was a mistake.
Apologies for the slander and mistreatment of Blacks, Gays and Women by the church.
Welcome back into full fellowship excommicationed members whose only sin was to criticize the church or wrote about the history of the church. Allow criticism of church leaders , be human.

If you are unwilling to do anything to show that the church has changed your words ring hallow and their is no reason for us to believe them. You weren't really speaking to those of us who left anyway were you, just saying words to flock to calm them about all the members who have the church.

Comment from the SLC Tribune Article

Elder George Carlin: said on 4/7/2008 8:51:00 AM

Article sates: "President Thomas S. Monson invited "the less-active, the offended, the critical, the transgressor" Sunday to come back and "feast at the table of the Lord and taste again the sweet and satisfying fruits of fellowship with the Saints."

   Wow, instead of using negative terms like "the offended, the critical, the transgressor", how about using more accurate terms to describe people who left like "intellectual, vocal, critical thinker, and spiritually progressive"? Oh yeah I forgot, many of these people didn't leave...they were kicked out for simply voicing their views and/or questioning historical issues within the church.

   Instead of having a "feast at the table of the Lord and taste again the sweet and satisfying fruits of fellowship with the Saints", I feel, it would have been much more of an accurate description to state "stay away from the table of the Mormon Church and it's judgmental members. Don't keep eating the B***S*** they try to jam down your throat at every turn."

   Monson's speech is just further evidence, the Mormon hierarchy and many devout members "just don't get it." As much as I love my friends and family who are LDS, I feel every wardhouse is simply a "non-thinking ghetto

Some Humor

Posted: March 17th, 2008, 2:43am EDT by Demon of Kolob

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The comic is from cectic.com Expalination here Book of Abraham From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other meanings of this name, see Book of Abraham (disambiguation).
The Book of Abraham is a scriptural text for some denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. According to Joseph Smith, Jr., the movement's founder, it is "a translation of some ancient records....purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus".^[1]

The work was originally published in 1842 in the Latter Day Saint movement newspaper Times and Seasons [1] together with facsimiles of vignettes from the papyrus and Smith's explanations of them. In 1851, it was republished in England as part of the Pearl of Great Price, which has been included in the canon of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1880.^[2]

For many years the original papyri were thought to have been lost. In 1966 eleven fragments of the papyri were found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and are now designated the Joseph Smith Papyri. Both Mormon and non-Mormon Egyptologists examined the fragments and concluded that they are portions of common funerary texts, dating to about the first century BC, and contain no reference to Abraham, bearing little resemblance of Smith's interpretation. As such, their discovery amplified the long standing dispute concerning the authenticity of the Book of Abraham.

[en.wikipedia.org]
Why??Utah has twice the national average of anti-depressant use and Utah is 70% Mormon. DO THE MATH!

Posted: March 12th, 2008, 12:41am EDT by Demon of Kolob

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Two Studies Find Depression Widespread in Utah Study Calling Utah Most Depressed, Renews Debate on Root Causes By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
March 7, 2008—

The still waters of the Great Salt Lake run deep -- and dark.

Take Wendy, a 40-year-old teacher and mother of three from Utah County. To all appearances, she led the perfect life. Just as she was expected to, she went from high school cheerleader to Mormon missionary to wife and mother.

"But life has a funny way of not being perfect," she said. "Three years into my marriage my husband was drinking, using drugs and stepping out on me.

"I knew I was depressed and needed help, but there is a stigma about depression in this area," said Wendy, who asked that ABCNEWS.com not use her last name. "People think it's a sign of weakness. It means you're not capable of being a good mother or wife or teacher."

Wendy's secret is Utah's secret. The postcard image of Utah is a state of gleaming cities, majestic mountains and persistently smiling people. But new research shows a very different picture of the state, a snapshot of suicide and widespread depression.

A recent study by Mental Health America, the country's oldest independent mental health advocacy organization, ranked Utah the most depressed state in the country.

Another survey released last week by drug distribution company Express Scripts found that residents of Utah were prescribed antidepressant drugs more than those of any other state and at twice the national average.

According to MHA, some 10.14 percent of adults in Utah "experienced a depressive episode in the past year and 14.15 percent experienced serious psychological distress. ... Individuals in Utah reported having on average 3.27 poor mental health days in the past 30 days."

The reason for Utah's mass depression, however, is unknown.

"The truth is, we don't know why," said Dr. Ted Wander, spokesman for the Utah Psychiatric Association.

Neither study was broken down by gender, but nationally women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with depressive disorders as men, experts told ABC News.

Psychiatrists point to several factors that could contribute to Utah's high levels of depression: limited mental health resources, restricted access to treatment as a result of cost, poor quality of resources and a varied list of other factors, including an underfunded educational system and a culture deeply rooted in the Mormon faith.

"Availability to resources, a lack of professionals and barriers to treatment, including the ability to pay all drive up instances of depression," said Dr. Curtis Canning, a Logan-based psychiatrist and former president of the Utah Psychiatric Association. "But there is also -- especially when it comes to women and girls -- a cultural factor."

Seventy percent of Utah's residents are Mormon. When Express Scripts issued its first national survey of prescription drug use in 2002, it sparked a heated debate across Utah about what, if any role, the church played in the state's high dependence on antidepressants such as Prozac and Zoloft.

"In Mormon culture females are supposed accept a calling. They are to be constantly smiling over their family of five. They are supposed to take supper across the street to an ill neighbor and then put up with their husband when he comes home from work and smile about it the whole time. There is this sense that Mrs. Jones down street is doing the same thing, and there is this undercurrent of competition. To be a good mother and wife, women have to put on this mask of perfection. They can't show their tears, depression or agony," Canning said.

"Obedience, conformity and maintaining a sense of harmony" are unspoken but widely recognized behaviors, which all contribute to what he calls "the Mother of Zion syndrome."

When Wendy first started seeking professional help and was put on Zoloft 10 years ago, she felt the sting of shame even from her own family members.

"Marriage and family are so important that there was a huge amount of pressure to make things work. I was supposed to try harder, and buck up and that would make me happier and keep my husband from abusing me," she said.

"There are expectations from the community, but mostly from other women," she said. "It doesn't come down from the church necessarily, but it's passed from mother to daughter. My family was reluctant to see me taking the drugs, but since seeing me at my worst, they now encourage me to take my meds."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints, however, says the high number of prescriptions is a result of people receiving the drugs they need in Utah more than in other places.

"I don't think it's clear that there's a crisis in Utah," said Brent Scharman, a psychologist and the assistant commissioner of LDS Family Services, a church network that provides counseling. "You've got one camp that says there is more depression and another camp that says we just have more consumers." Scharman said studies on organized religion and depression found that religious people were generally happier than nonreligious people, and that held true for Mormons.

"It always boils down to the issue of what influence the LDS lifestyle has on the depression phenomenon," he said. "Non-LDS and some LDS people say this is a kind of driven lifestyle and that we push too hard and smile too much. But studies show, and those living it out see, that religion is good support. It creates a positive network and helps people get through crises and deal with long-term problems.

"Are there people who feel 'I'm not living up to the LDS ideal,' or 'I'm not living up to my family's expectations'? Absolutely, there is no question. But having done counseling outside the LDS community, I saw people there, too, who were depressed because of perfectionism," he said. "I wouldn't say it is any worse here than in more diverse communities."

The MHA study evaluated information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., and factored in suicide statistics to determine each state's "depression status."

Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

[abcnews.go.com]

Utah has twice the national average of anti-depressant use and Utah is 70% Mormon. DO THE MATH!
An Example of Mormon Respect for other religions

Posted: March 11th, 2008, 1:02am EDT by Demon of Kolob

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Missionaries in Colorado desecrated and vandalised Catholic shrine. Most commenter's on the Desert News website wondered what the big deal was, they would have felt different if it was an LDS temple.

[www.chieftain.com]

Not all Mormons approve of this kind of thing but many do. I was a LDS missionary so I know this kind of disrespect is common among them.
Utah's racist senator Chriss Buttars strikes again

Posted: February 13th, 2008, 2:41am EST by Demon of Kolob

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Utah state senator and bigot Criss Buttars took time off from bashing gays to utter more racist comments on the Senate floor. This is the same guy who made national headlines saying "Brown vs Board of Education was the worst decision of the Supreme court". Here is the article from SL trib State Sen. Buttars' perceived racial slur brings rebuke and apology By Robert Gehrke
and Cathy McKitrick
The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 02/13/2008 06:32:32 AM MST
A West Jordan senator shocked his colleagues and later apologized for comparing a bill he opposed to a black baby, calling it "a dark, ugly thing."
    Republican Sen. Chris Buttars' comment came during a debate on SB48, aimed at equalizing school construction funds. Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, called it "the ugly baby bill," but, as Buttars stood to vote, went further. "This baby is black. It's a dark, ugly thing," he said.
    Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said he perceived the statement as offensive and took the issue to Senate leaders. "I felt it needed to be addressed and needed to be addressed promptly," he said.
    Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, said he was surprised by the comment.
    "I didn't see it coming," he said. "I didn't take it as a racist remark, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was inappropriate and a breach of decorum."
    Buttars agreed and felt bad about it and asked for a chance to apologize, Valentine said. After senators returned from a 10-minute break, Valentine noted the "breach in decorum," and gave Buttars the floor.
    "I made a comment that I think a lot of people could take racist. I certainly did not mean that in any way but it was wrong and certainly could easily have been taken that way," Buttars said. "I apologize to anyone who took offense. . . . I ask for your forgiveness."
    Romero said there was talk off the floor of censuring Buttars, and he appreciated the apology, but "I have no idea how it would be interpreted not to be offensive."
    Word of Buttars' gaffe spread quickly around the Capitol, leaving members from both parties shaking their heads in disbelief. Leaders of Utah's black community also were shocked.
    "I am appalled that he would utter such words in the capacity as senator and representing the people of Utah," said Jeanetta Williams, president of the Salt Lake branch of the NAACP.
    Sen. Bill Hickman, R-St. George, said he is confident that Buttars, who left the Capitol quickly after the Senate adjourned, didn't mean his comment to be offensive.
    "He felt bad that he had said it," Hickman said.
    gehrke@lsltrib.com
    cmckitrick@sltrib.com
Sad news for Mormons

Posted: February 8th, 2008, 12:43am EST by Demon of Kolob

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Longtime LDS CEO Gordon B Hinckley died last week at age 97. Hinckley has been the Mormon leader for over 25 years , since 1995 as official leader and since 1983 as the De facto leader. Thomas Monson is the new Mormon leader. We called him Two face around the COB because of his extreme spilt personality. Mitt Romey has quit the presidential race , this puts an end to hopes of the White Horse Prophecy coming true this year. I wonder if the new leadership cut off Mitt's funding.
More insanity from BYU and happy valley

Posted: January 22nd, 2008, 3:37am EST by Demon of Kolob

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Here is an article From KSL.com showing the idiocy and hypocrisy of BYU. Provo and Orem are number one in sales of pay per view porn in the whole USA. From KSL.com Some students say health club showing pornography January 16th, 2008 @ 10:00pm
Sam Penrod reporting
Some college students in Utah County are calling some music videos pornographic, and they are trying to get a health club to take them off its screen.
The controversy involves two Gold's Gym locations in Utah County frequented by BYU and UVSC students. Five organizations are banding together to keep the videos from being shown at the gyms.
The organizations that fight pornography in the community are upset with the videos at the gym and say they have collected nearly 1,000 signatures on a petition calling on Gold's Gym to quit showing the videos.
Gold's Gym officials here in Utah agreed to hear their concerns this afternoon, as the students prepared to protest.
The Gold's Gym near the BYU campus is one of 19 Gold's Gyms in Utah. A majority of this gym's customers are BYU students. Dallen Johnson says, "I've had to leave, honestly! There have been four times I've run out of the cardio cinema because of racy and inappropriate things being shown, things I personally view as pornography."
The students have documented five music videos played on the Gold's Gym music video network which they call objectionable. Jesse Yaffe says, "Once you are a member here, you basically don't have the choice anymore. You're forced to watch indecent material because it seems everywhere you go there's a TV. They've got the Gold's Gym membership network, and certain videos they play are extremely indecent, and some are outright pornography."
The protesters say Gold's Gym is not the only business they are concerned about. "The things I see the most is people have no idea how it affects people and how widespread it is and how serious of an issue it is," says Nicole Braden.
Managers at Gold's Gym told Eyewitness News today they use Gold's TV network instead of cable channels like MTV to offer more conservative videos but can't control individual videos that are shown.
They say cardio machines have individual monitors which allow gym members to watch any channel they want.
Gold's says music helps to energize people who are there to exercise and say they don't want anyone to be offended at the gym during their workout experience.
The students gave Gold's 10 days to remedy their concerns before they start picketing the health club. They outlined four specific issues they'd like resolved:
- No rated R movies or sexually explicit or racy PG-13 movies.
- Change the content of Gold's Broadcasting Network or don't show the Network.
- Keep external TV's on decent and clean stations, or let members choose the channels themselves.
- Install blinds on the aerobics room to block the dancing, which is very provocative.
Brigham Young’s Deseret Alphabet

Posted: January 21st, 2008, 2:51pm EST by Demon of Kolob

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXl1gUBJexY

Brigham Young's Deseret Alphabet
One of the curious items of early Utah history was Brigham Young's effort to introduce a new alphabet, known as the Deseret Alphabet, into Mormon use. Western historian David Bigler observed:
"Old Testament ideas on land ownership and marked ballots were not the only indications that Utah's earliest settlers were bent on creating a society altogether unlike the rest of the country. Soon after arriving in the Great Basin they even undertook to create a new method to write the English language.
"In 1854 the University of Deseret, predecessor of the University of Utah, introduced the Deseret Alphabet, consisting of thirty-eight characters to conform with the basic number of sounds in the English language. The curious set of symbols was created by 39-year-old George D. Watt, an expert in Pitman shorthand and the faith's first English convert.
"Aimed to reform the representation of the English language, not the language itself, the new phonetic system offered a number of advantages. First, it demonstrated cultural exclusivism, an important consideration. It also kept secrets from curious non-Mormons, controlled what children would be allowed to read, and in a largely unlettered society that included non-English speaking converts, eliminated the awkward problem of phonetic spelling. For such reasons, for nearly two decades Brigham Young pushed the new alphabet on reluctant followers. The church-owned Deseret News at Great Salt Lake City, Utah's first newspaper, published portions of its 1859 editions in the distinctive system. And the University of Deseret's board of regents at one time voted $10,000 to print text books in the alphabet for students in classrooms across the territory.
"Like the law of consecration, however, the Deseret Alphabet never achieved widespread acceptance, despite repeated attempts by Young to promote the system. On some things, the people of Utah quietly overruled their strong-minded leader." ( Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847-1896, by David L. Bigler, Arthur H. Clark Co., 1998, p.56)
Ex-Mormon Cartoonist Steve Benson Says Romney Not Telling Truth

Posted: December 18th, 2007, 8:45am EST by Demon of Kolob

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[www.editorandpublisher.com]

Ex-Mormon Cartoonist Steve Benson Says Romney Not Telling Truth

By Dave Astor

Published: December 18, 2007 3:50 PM ET

NEW YORK As an ex-Mormon, Arizona Republic editorial cartoonist Steve Benson has strong opinions about current Mormon Mitt Romney. He said the Republican candidate's recent speech on religion should not be trusted by media people and other Americans.

In his talk, Romney said "I believe in my Mormon faith" while also noting that the church's "teachings" would not influence his decisions if elected president.

"Yeah, right," responded Benson, adding that "Romney also believes in misrepresenting what his Mormon Church actually espouses."

Benson is the grandson of former Mormon leader Ezra Taft Benson.

He told E&P that a Mormon believer is required by church doctrine (as dictated by the church's "living prophet") to "obey God's commands" over anything else. He said "Romney, like all 'temple Mormons,' made his secret vows using Masonic-derived handshakes, passwords, and symbolic death oaths that he promised in the temple never to reveal to the outside world" -- and that Romney also secretly vowed to devote his "time, talents," and more "to the building of the Mormon religion on earth."

So, said Benson, the only way Romney could be truly independent of the church as U.S. president would be to disavow Mormon doctrine. "He hasn't done that," said the Creators Syndicate-distributed cartoonist.

"When Mitt says he belongs to a church that doesn't tell him what to do, that's false; it's a 24/7, do-what-you're-told-to-do church," added Benson, who won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1993.

That was the year Benson left what he calls the "Mormon cult." One reason for his decision was disgust with the way Mormon officials tried to fool church members and the general public into believing that Ezra Taft Benson -- Steve's then-94-year-old grandfather and church president -- was still capable of leading the church. "He was not mentally or physically in a place where he could make any meaningful decisions," recalled Benson. "I know it because I saw his condition with my own eyes."

Benson -- who was contacted by E&P for this story -- said journalists have basically given Romney a free pass on the "fundamental contradiction" between being an observant Mormon and a U.S. president. "Most journalists don't know about actual Mormon teachings and practices," noted the cartoonist, adding that they instead see the religion as perhaps "strange" but "rather benign."

Romney "needs to face an informed member of the media with 'cojones' who has a working and perhaps personal experience with Mormonism," said Benson. "It would be harder for Romney to do his well-practiced duck and dodge."

Benson himself drew a post-Romney speech cartoon that pictured John F. Kennedy saying "Ask not what your country can do for you..." followed by Romney saying "...do whatever it takes for me to win Iowa." (Many people believe Romney gave what he hoped would be a JFK-like speech on religion because he was losing support in Iowa.) But Benson said he hasn't heavily focused on Romney's Mormonism in other cartoons. "Religious issues are very touchy," he said. "I do what I can, but I pick my battles."

Another reason Benson distrusts the words in Romney's speech is because the candidate has changed his public positions on issues such as abortion and gay rights to woo conservative GOP voters in states like Iowa rather than the more liberal voters he once courted to become governor of Massachusetts. "He flips and flops like Jesus is coming tomorrow," said the cartoonist. "It's like Romney is reading from the Mormon Church playbook."

Benson explained his last comment by noting that the Mormon Church has also "publicly flipped 180 degrees when it feels it's necessary for its image, for its financial solvency, and for political expediency."

He mentioned, by way of example, that black Mormons weren't allowed into the priesthood until 1978. And while polygamy has been publicly disavowed by the Mormon Church, Benson said "the church still holds that it will be practiced as a matter of eternal doctrine in heaven. The church also currently performs polygamist marriage 'sealings' in its temples around the world."

Benson predicted that Romney will not win the Republican presidential nomination. If Romney somehow IS nominated, added the cartoonist, he will not defeat his Democratic opponent.

Voters, said Benson, "are not ready for someone in the Oval Office who has committed to absolute obedience to a religion they feel is extremely odd and not in the American mainstream. I trust the rational U.S. electorate, not the weird Mormon God."
Dave Astor (dastor@editorandpublisher.com) is a senior editor at E&P.

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Lair of the Demon (10 unread)

Posted: April 25th, 2008, 2:04am EDT by Demon of Kolob

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Posted: April 7th, 2008, 3:39am EDT by Demon of Kolob

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Posted: March 17th, 2008, 2:43am EDT by Demon of Kolob

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Posted: March 12th, 2008, 12:41am EDT by Demon of Kolob

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Posted: March 11th, 2008, 1:02am EDT by Demon of Kolob

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Posted: February 13th, 2008, 2:41am EST by Demon of Kolob

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Posted: February 8th, 2008, 12:43am EST by Demon of Kolob

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Posted: January 22nd, 2008, 3:37am EST by Demon of Kolob

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Posted: January 21st, 2008, 2:51pm EST by Demon of Kolob

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Posted: December 18th, 2007, 8:45am EST by Demon of Kolob

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