Latter-day Saints—Mormons—members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—have been accused through the years of belonging to a cult, being non-Christian, being fanatics. They’ve even been accused of being devil worshippers. I used to laugh at such claims, but now I see there might be some merit to…
Author: Johnny Townsend
Finances
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It’s Time for the LDS Church to Use Its Rainy Day Fund
Members were shocked several years ago to learn the LDS church had investments valued at over $32 billion dollars, a number that has since grown to over $56 billion. Were they a church or a corporation? An organization with a mission to alleviate suffering or one to build wealth? LDS…
Ethics
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Personal Responsibility for Conflating Love with Cruelty
Some of my closest family members treat me badly because their church tells them to. I long tried to excuse them because I remembered when I was deceived by the LDS church as well. Then I remembered I Corinthians 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is…
pride
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Do Good People Smile Behind Closed Doors When LGBTQ Folks Are Murdered?
When you heard about a shooter killing five people in a Colorado Springs LGBTQbar, were you happy or upset? When you learned the alleged shooter was a member of The Church of Jesus Christof Latter-day Saints, were you proud or embarrassed? If you were embarrassed, was itbecause of what “the…
Testimony
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Will Capitalism Reign During the Millennium?
I can’t wait for the Millennium when we all work six days a week, twelve or fourteen or even sixteen hours a day. I can’t wait for that serene society, when Satan has been bound and we can send our six-year-old children to work in the mines or shuck oysters…
Parents Who Believe in Sexual Purity Should Still Vaccinate Their Kids Against HPV
With all the talk about COVID vaccinations, we forget that there are other useful vaccinations out there, too. “My children don’t need to be vaccinated against HPV,” I’ve heard some of my Mormon friends and family say. “They’ll still be virgins when they get married. They’ll never have to worry…
Perfectionists Against Self-Improvement
“Why are you so mean all the time?” I asked one of the religious conservatives in my life, this one Mormon. “When am I ever mean?” This particular family member had just posted on social media urging everyone to be Christlike. Immediately afterward, he posted his view that the very…
Mormon Communists with Temple Recommends
by Johnny Townsend Many Mormons in Utah see Mitt Romney as a traitor, a lefty radical, because he won’t support Trump’s most egregious acts of oppression. Mormons need to start separating their religious convictions from the Republican party line. “Valeria” was one my favorite missionaries when I served in the…
Mormons Should Make Jesus Semitic Again
by Johnny Townsend Mormons have a long, troubled history of racism, well documented in Joanna Brooks’ Mormonism and White Supremacy. Feeble attempts at addressing the problem consisted mostly of changing the wording in a few Book of Mormon passages from “white and delightsome” to “pure and delightsome.” Numerous systemic problems…
Politics as Religious Conviction
by Johnny Townsend The religious right is ramping up for a modern-day crusade. That’s not a metaphor. Racially motivated killings are in the news every day. Homophobic and transphobic murders are committed regularly. Poor men and women are forced to work in conditions that will kill a significant portion of…