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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
i don't see much wrong with most porn. sometimes its funny, and very often it is boring, and every once in a while its just what you want.I can't define "pornography," but I know what I like. 
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Helen: You are correct that Marriott is big time LDS connected, but The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has approximately 153,000 employees. In fiscal year 2000, Marriott International reported systemwide sales of $19.8 billion. J. Willard Marriott started out with a root-beer stand in DC and parlayed it into a multinational corporation. He contributed heavily and regularly to the Republican Party and was a close personal friend of Dick Nixon's (though it's hard to imagine Dick having any close friends and some people honestly believe that Nixon was Nixon's only friend and not a very good one at that.) Marriott contributed most of the costs of building the Mormon Temple that's right off the DC beltway in Maryland. You cannot believe that place! The best way to view it is to go counterclockwise on the beltway at night. As you come around a curve it looms into sight, looking like a cross between a cathedral and a fairy-tale castle, all white stone with tall spires pierced by white stone windows (about which more below). Here's a picture: http://www.lofthouse.com/design/photo/above.html I called it Disneyland on the Beltway. Prior to its dedication, the temple was open to Gentiles, which includes our Jewish brethren, and I took the tour (this would have been 1974 I guess.) The opulence is breathtaking. In the main sanctuary there's a baptismal font (baptism by immersion I assume) that is mounted on the backs of eight bigger-than-life statues of oxen, all covered in gold leaf. There are circular staircases up into the towers, which from the outside appear to glow from within. When you are on the stairs you can see why. The windows in the towers are glazed with the same stone as was used for the skin of the temple, only cut so thin that light from within shines outward so the temple appears to glow. During the day sunlight filters through the marble, though I know this only from reading about it. I took the tour at night. One of the precepts of the Mormon religion is that you can save your ancestors by marrying them to make them part of the church. This is the primary reason for the Mormons' deep interest in genealogy. You can't marry your great-grandfather if you don't know his name. I'm not clear on whether males can marry their male predecessors or whether you still have to cross gender lines, but marry their ancestors they do. Only confirmed LDS members may enter the temple after it has been dedicated, and then only with special permission from the president of your stake, if memory serves me correctly. And when you do get in, you must be dressed entirely in white. At the temple in DC, there are changing rooms (locker rooms actually) that are just immense, with lockers for perhaps 5000 or more for each sex. The temple provides the clothes, in support of which there is a huge laundry area. Believe it or not, they had front-loading washing machines that were big enough to hold a couple of VW bugs! So big the doors were opened and closed hydraulically. All in all I came away with a feeling that a gret deal of money had been spent on this building that could have been better spent on helping the unfortunate throughout the world. I've also been through the temple here in the Denver area (again just before it was dedicated.) Same opulence on a much smaller scale. What I remember of that one was the silk flower arrangements. I could have retired off that contract! And yes, I agree with you about the hypocrisy; perhaps the most noted example is what happened to the official LDS stance on polygamy. The Mormon community in what is now Utah wanted to come into the Union. Congress decreed that admission was incumbent on changing the name from the religious name Deseret in favor of the secular name Utah. They also said that the Utah constitution would have to specifically forbid polygamy. The president of the church soon thereafter revealed that God had come to him in a dream and told him that it was OK for the Mormons not to practice polygamy any more. Similarly, there was a big flap involving the Boy Scouts. A young black man in Utah wanted to be a senior patrol leader, but could not because the Mormons required that only bishops in the church could be SPLs, and blacks were not allowed to be bishops. Being a bishop in LDS is more or less like being confirmed in other religions, as I understand and remember it. There was a monstrous foofaraw and the President of the church had a dream. You guessed it; it was suddenly OK for black kids to become bishops. I've always wondered why a black person would even want to be a part of a church that specifically said you were second-class because of the color of your skin. Whatever trips your trigger, I guess. TEd (who, as you may have guessed, is NOT a Mormon)
TEd
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
Seen it many times since we came to this area almost exactly 10 years ago and never once had any idea what it was. I thought it was maybe a Catholic church, but it looked different than any Catholic church I'd ever seen. Being the busy sort, I'd never taken the time to go check it out.
Thanks for the explanation,
k
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
yes, the LDS consider even my tranquil neighbor hood to be be an extention of a modern day sodem and gohmorrah, and the make a continues effort to convert everyone on the block. (there is an image of terror, two rightious morman desending upon you!)
it is the fastest growing western religion, and its not quite christian... believing as they do, in a sort of godly re-incarnation. i am familiar with there symbolic baptisms, and my ex used there genology services when he was researching his family. Every relitive he found through them, had been postumously converted to LDS's! (as is every deceased president of the US, and i don't know how many other leaders of the world.
one striking difference, in the new testiment, jesus admonises to have opinions, and hold them strongly, ('if you (food) are neither hot nor cold, i spit you out') LDS, have the exact opposite belief, and are enjoyed not to drink hot coffee, or iced drinks.. everything tepid...
they are strictly required to tithe, and the church is very rich.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
In case anyone is interested... I wasn't aware of the marrying ancestors version, rather that they routinely baptize their ancestors into the church retroactively. Apparently there was some flap several years ago about trying to retro-induct Founding Fathers and other notables to whom they couldn't prove lineage relation. If you listened closely, you could hear the faint rumble of all those people simultaneously rolling over in their graves. Also, there's a further issue of clothing ~ some holy garment that they have to wear at all times... in the shower, in bed, at all times. Of course, it features special flaps to accommodate the making of more Mormons, but it's all blessed and sanctified - they might have a second set, I'm not exactly clear on how they manage to wear it at all times and not stink their way to the holy planets. There's a website full of stories from the inside - people who left the church who reveal some of the inner workings and hypocrisies. It's fascinating reading - a friend pointed me to it when she was in the process of divorcing her Mormon husband. She's a confirmed Athiest (so to speak)... that was doomed from the start! I'll see if I can find it if anyone is interested. Oh yeah - and on the topic of reversing the church's position - the no caffeine rule was relaxed after it became public knowledge that LDS was a major stockholder in the Coca-Cola corporation. You guessed it, some elder or another had a revelatory dream.  <Sigh>
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Many years ago I spent a couple of weeks exploring the canyonlands of Utah, ostensibly by bicycle, but almost all of it by Jeep, which is a lot easier.
I went into a liquor store somewhere in SE tah (Monticello perhaps) and doubled up over a cartoon on the wallo: "If you think our liquor laws are strange you should see our underwear."
TEd
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
yeah, the holy underwear looks all the world for what i would call a union suit... a one piece undergarment that you can still buy (hunter and other doors people use them)
and you're taught, by your parents how to ease out of one side, slip a fresh one on to the bare side, and then ease out of the other side, and finish putting the new one on.
some less religous LDS were something closer to a a teddy, but the proper garment covers the upper arms and thighs, so no shorts, no sleeveless dressed, etc. and wedding dresses are a particular problem...
there was a big scandle some 15 to 20 years ago...
Joseph Smith, the founder and translater of the book of morman(the book of morman was written on goldend plates, J. got see them, and translate them, but then the angel moroni took them back..)also translated egyptian heiroglyphics
since they believe that jesus came to the americas, to convert the indians after his death in israel, joseph used to collect scraps of egytian scolls (the were used for shipping material) and claim they were proof, since they told all about it..
the rosetta stone had already been discovered, but news hadn't reached upstate ny, or illinois, or the other places the mormans tried to settle before ending up in utah, and at that point, no one thought heiroglyphics would ever be translated...
nowdays, the church is very close about these scraps of paper, and when a forger started to come up with "early letters, and copies of the translations" the church bought them up as fast as they could, name your price, no questions asked...
the forgered ended up having his house bombed, as i recall, when he wasn't fast enough in turning over the papers... then the FBI got involved, and the elders of the LDS where very upset. a couple of bishops just plead guilty, so that there wouldn't be any trial... and the FBI would end its investagations.. (but by then, they were investigating the forger, since he didn't limit himself to LDS documents.)
i don't remember the names, but i suspect you could google up some thing just with forgery and LDS. fasinating stuff..
there is also the book, Secret Ceremonies, by deborah laake, she is a former morman, who quite the church and wrote all about it.... some very strange stuff, make all the hoodoo voodoo of the catholic rites look down right tame!
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
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This is what happens when you labia under a misconception.
TEd
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Could you please go back and shorten your link to the end of the first 49611? The rest isn't necessary and it w-i-d-e-n-s the page.
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