Changes in the church over time
Throughout my life I have had people become deeply disturbed when they find out that I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I have had people tell me that they could no longer associate with me because of my membership. I have had people offer to help me safely escape because they feared for my safety if I tried to leave.
People think that I believe some pretty wacked out garbage that is TOTALLY bizarre to me and that I COMPLETELY disagree with.
Someone just told me that "mormons performed a secret oath and if they broke it they were to kill themselves or let someone else kill them"
WHAT THE HECK?!?!! That is the weirdest thing I have ever heard and nothing like what I believe.
So... where does this kind of stuff come from?
Partly from reality and partly from distortions, misrepresentations, lies and propaganda.
Some time ago a significant part of the American population were Free Masons (George Washington, Benjamin Franklin etc etc etc). A part of their ceremony involved some stuff that today we would think is pretty weird/creepy. For example the following phrase:
""I will … never reveal any part or parts, art or arts, point or points of the secret arts and mysteries of ancient Freemasonry. . . binding myself under no less penalty than to have my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by the roots"
(that creeps me out btw...)
Did they actually mean it? Nope. Neither do people mean it when they say "cross my heart; hope to die"
The point of saying that weird stuff was to emphasize that they were to keep it SUPER secret/sacred and not talk about it outside of that place. How do I know they didnt mean it? There was no documented instance in which a person was killed or committed suicide for having violated the oaths of secrecy of the endowment.
When people partake of the sacrament its not considered weird at all. But when Jesus first introduced it, it was SUPER weird! Everybody took off when he talked about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
Since lot of people were free masons back in the early days of the Church of Jesus Christ, this weird oath stuff wasn't considered as weird at the time... today hardly anyone is a freemason and so now it seems super weird. It's now so weird that it was actually pretty distracting from the point of the ceremony (which was symbolic for keeping sacred things as sacred-- like keeping the commandments) and by the year 1990 it was determined that it was detracting from the point of the ceremony and was removed.
Why was it even there in the first place?
Joseph Smith was tasked (whether you believe it was a self-derived or God-derived task is something you can figure out for yourself) to put together temple ordinances for the Church of Jesus Christ that would be spiritually beneficial for them to make and keep promises to follow Gods commandments.
Joseph built off of the pattern of the Free-mason infrastructure for how these temple ordinances were to be operated. When Joseph had put it together, he commented how it was not quite right, but it was the best he could do at present. Over time, Church leaders have prayerfully made changes to the temple ordinances over time, piece by piece and now they are less like the Free-Mason practices they were originally patterned after that Joseph said "was not quite right".
I believe that Joseph did the best he could. I do not believe that Joseph was perfect or that he knew everything or that he always did the right thing. This isnt the church of Joseph Smith. This is the church of Jesus Christ. Joseph is dead. He was only the leader for a short while. I think the church still has a ways to go and that more changes will be made. I believe that the restoration is a slow process of progress as we climb out of our long period of apostasy and protestant, freemasonry, racist, sexist traditions very common at the time that the church was first established.
We have made a lot of progress and I anticipate much more to follow.
In my opinion, talking about the free-mason-like oath without giving context and also stating that it was NEVER documented to actually involve any intention of anyone ever losing their life, but would be more comparable to the phrase "cross your heart and hope to die" signifying that we take our covenants very seriously and not that we are actually going to cross our hearts and hope to die.
Do church members and leaders whitewash the church history and show all of the best parts and pretend that there was never anything shady or weird in the history-- yes they do.
Do hobbyist anti-mormons share the worst parts out of context without explanation and make the church appear more shady and weird than it actually is? Yes they do.
I have read both sides. My recommendation to you is to go out and find some uplifting hobbies that involve creating something or building something up and making a positive influence in the world. I think you will find this more enriching and bring more joy than obsessing on tearing down and trying to misrepresent the Church of Jesus Christ as being worse than it actually is. If you REALLY think that the church is that bad-- you SERIOUSLY need to get of Utah and see the world. Come work in the psych ward for a while and see what drugs and alcohol is doing to peoples lives.
People think that I believe some pretty wacked out garbage that is TOTALLY bizarre to me and that I COMPLETELY disagree with.
Someone just told me that "mormons performed a secret oath and if they broke it they were to kill themselves or let someone else kill them"
WHAT THE HECK?!?!! That is the weirdest thing I have ever heard and nothing like what I believe.
So... where does this kind of stuff come from?
Partly from reality and partly from distortions, misrepresentations, lies and propaganda.
""I will … never reveal any part or parts, art or arts, point or points of the secret arts and mysteries of ancient Freemasonry. . . binding myself under no less penalty than to have my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by the roots"
(that creeps me out btw...)
Did they actually mean it? Nope. Neither do people mean it when they say "cross my heart; hope to die"
The point of saying that weird stuff was to emphasize that they were to keep it SUPER secret/sacred and not talk about it outside of that place. How do I know they didnt mean it? There was no documented instance in which a person was killed or committed suicide for having violated the oaths of secrecy of the endowment.
When people partake of the sacrament its not considered weird at all. But when Jesus first introduced it, it was SUPER weird! Everybody took off when he talked about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
Since lot of people were free masons back in the early days of the Church of Jesus Christ, this weird oath stuff wasn't considered as weird at the time... today hardly anyone is a freemason and so now it seems super weird. It's now so weird that it was actually pretty distracting from the point of the ceremony (which was symbolic for keeping sacred things as sacred-- like keeping the commandments) and by the year 1990 it was determined that it was detracting from the point of the ceremony and was removed.
Joseph Smith was tasked (whether you believe it was a self-derived or God-derived task is something you can figure out for yourself) to put together temple ordinances for the Church of Jesus Christ that would be spiritually beneficial for them to make and keep promises to follow Gods commandments.
Joseph built off of the pattern of the Free-mason infrastructure for how these temple ordinances were to be operated. When Joseph had put it together, he commented how it was not quite right, but it was the best he could do at present. Over time, Church leaders have prayerfully made changes to the temple ordinances over time, piece by piece and now they are less like the Free-Mason practices they were originally patterned after that Joseph said "was not quite right".
I believe that Joseph did the best he could. I do not believe that Joseph was perfect or that he knew everything or that he always did the right thing. This isnt the church of Joseph Smith. This is the church of Jesus Christ. Joseph is dead. He was only the leader for a short while. I think the church still has a ways to go and that more changes will be made. I believe that the restoration is a slow process of progress as we climb out of our long period of apostasy and protestant, freemasonry, racist, sexist traditions very common at the time that the church was first established.
We have made a lot of progress and I anticipate much more to follow.
In my opinion, talking about the free-mason-like oath without giving context and also stating that it was NEVER documented to actually involve any intention of anyone ever losing their life, but would be more comparable to the phrase "cross your heart and hope to die" signifying that we take our covenants very seriously and not that we are actually going to cross our hearts and hope to die.
Do church members and leaders whitewash the church history and show all of the best parts and pretend that there was never anything shady or weird in the history-- yes they do.
Do hobbyist anti-mormons share the worst parts out of context without explanation and make the church appear more shady and weird than it actually is? Yes they do.
I have read both sides. My recommendation to you is to go out and find some uplifting hobbies that involve creating something or building something up and making a positive influence in the world. I think you will find this more enriching and bring more joy than obsessing on tearing down and trying to misrepresent the Church of Jesus Christ as being worse than it actually is. If you REALLY think that the church is that bad-- you SERIOUSLY need to get of Utah and see the world. Come work in the psych ward for a while and see what drugs and alcohol is doing to peoples lives.
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