‘MormonWikileaks’ website launched, seeking transparency in LDS Church • Hacker News Board

Re: ‘MormonWikileaks’ website launched, seeking transparency in LDS Church

#21

Post by innocentoldguy » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 10:28 PM UTC

As a Mormon, I have a hard time imagining this site being very interesting. Between fairmormon.org, lds.org, all the anti-Mormon sites, and the missionary duos, just waiting to knock on a door near you, I think the world already has a pretty clear view into the workings of the Mormon church, their history, and their beliefs.

Sure, the Mormon church "hides" things, but most of that stuff has to do with disciplinary councils, excommunications, when people were baptized, etc. I can't imagine knowing that Edgar Jones was baptized in 1953, or Deloris Canflap cheated on her husband, is going to make for a compelling web experience; but who knows?

Re: ‘MormonWikileaks’ website launched, seeking transparency in LDS Church

#22

Post by innocentoldguy » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 10:32 PM UTC

wavefunction wrote: post #13

zeroer wrote: post #4

The beliefs are batshit crazy, but in my personal experience, Mormons are consistently the nicest most welcoming people you'd ever meet. It makes me sad that the church leadership doesn't reflect that. :(

"Meekness" is encouraged among the faithful corpus. I would agree that I have met many kind and decent members of the LDS church, but I have also seen how the Church urges families to threaten or enact shunning of their relatives who choose to leave the Church, and their forays into political activism are inhumane.

I have been a Mormon my entire life, and I have never once been told, or heard of anyone else being told, to shun anyone. In fact, Mormons believe that they should show love and respect towards everyone, including their enemies, and welcome everyone into their churches, regardless.

Re: ‘MormonWikileaks’ website launched, seeking transparency in LDS Church

#23

Post by goda90 » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 10:33 PM UTC

wavefunction wrote: post #13

zeroer wrote: post #4

The beliefs are batshit crazy, but in my personal experience, Mormons are consistently the nicest most welcoming people you'd ever meet. It makes me sad that the church leadership doesn't reflect that. :(

"Meekness" is encouraged among the faithful corpus. I would agree that I have met many kind and decent members of the LDS church, but I have also seen how the Church urges families to threaten or enact shunning of their relatives who choose to leave the Church, and their forays into political activism are inhumane.

My family still talks to my sister despite the fact she left the Church. Sure, people will do stupid things when they feel hurt over loved ones rejecting something they hold dear, and there may be foolish local leaders who have given bad advice on the matter, but shunning is the opposite of what the Church teaches.

Re: ‘MormonWikileaks’ website launched, seeking transparency in LDS Church

#24

Post by scintill76 » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 10:35 PM UTC

zeroer wrote: post #4

The beliefs are batshit crazy, but in my personal experience, Mormons are consistently the nicest most welcoming people you'd ever meet. It makes me sad that the church leadership doesn't reflect that. :(

As a fairly active Mormon... I'm curious what you see as the difference between the leaders and the people. I would think most of the Mormons you know support most of the things you find distasteful in the leaders.

(Edit: I don't mean to say the nice Mormons are secretly as horrible as you think the leaders are, although that's one possible conclusion. Just trying to figure out how a group of supposedly-vile leaders so consistently produces supposedly-great people.)

Re: ‘MormonWikileaks’ website launched, seeking transparency in LDS Church

#25

Post by mholt » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 10:35 PM UTC

henrikschroder wrote: post #14

Of course they are nice, every salesman is nice to future prospects. They want you to join their cult. In reality, the people of Utah consume the most anti-depressants in the US, teen suicide rates are among the highest in the country, and if you're not a straight, white, male, mormonism is a terrible environment.

Mormon from Iowa here. I see those behaviors much more among my non-religious friends than I do within the LDS Church, and some of my best LDS friends have been female, Asian, Brazilian, or African-American.

Re: ‘MormonWikileaks’ website launched, seeking transparency in LDS Church

#26

Post by goda90 » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 10:38 PM UTC

innocentoldguy wrote: post #21

As a Mormon, I have a hard time imagining this site being very interesting. Between fairmormon.org, lds.org, all the anti-Mormon sites, and the missionary duos, just waiting to knock on a door near you, I think the world already has a pretty clear view into the workings of the Mormon church, their history, and their beliefs. Sure, the Mormon church "hides" things, but most of that stuff has to do with disciplinary co…

I've often seen people get worked up over the for-profit businesses linked to the Church. Carefully structured leaks can make such businesses look shady, and inspire knee jerk reactions of people claiming tithing is used to build malls, and that somehow tax exempt status is magically extending to the businesses.

Re: ‘MormonWikileaks’ website launched, seeking transparency in LDS Church

#27

Post by zeveb » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 10:42 PM UTC

wavefunction wrote: post #13

zeroer wrote: post #4

The beliefs are batshit crazy, but in my personal experience, Mormons are consistently the nicest most welcoming people you'd ever meet. It makes me sad that the church leadership doesn't reflect that. :(

"Meekness" is encouraged among the faithful corpus. I would agree that I have met many kind and decent members of the LDS church, but I have also seen how the Church urges families to threaten or enact shunning of their relatives who choose to leave the Church, and their forays into political activism are inhumane.

Would you shun (or, online, downvote) someone who chooses to behave in a way that you find abominable?

I'm not a Mormon, I don't believe what they believe, but AFAICT they are — most of the time, and in the modern era — behaving justly & reasonably according to their beliefs.

Re: ‘MormonWikileaks’ website launched, seeking transparency in LDS Church

#28

Post by tomcam » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 10:43 PM UTC

innocentoldguy wrote: post #21

As a Mormon, I have a hard time imagining this site being very interesting. Between fairmormon.org, lds.org, all the anti-Mormon sites, and the missionary duos, just waiting to knock on a door near you, I think the world already has a pretty clear view into the workings of the Mormon church, their history, and their beliefs. Sure, the Mormon church "hides" things, but most of that stuff has to do with disciplinary co…

> Deloris Canflap

Not sure if authentic history or minor Harry Potter character

Re: ‘MormonWikileaks’ website launched, seeking transparency in LDS Church

#29

Post by grillvogel » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 10:47 PM UTC

somethingsimple wrote: post #8

zeroer wrote: post #4

The beliefs are batshit crazy, but in my personal experience, Mormons are consistently the nicest most welcoming people you'd ever meet. It makes me sad that the church leadership doesn't reflect that. :(

Indeed. There's a Mormon guy in my (fairly large) team and he is by far the nicest person around. Really wish I had more co-workers like him.

my old team was largely mormon and my boss was their bishop. it was kinda weird.

Re: ‘MormonWikileaks’ website launched, seeking transparency in LDS Church

#30

Post by innocentoldguy » Tue, Dec 20, 2016, 10:47 PM UTC

@henrikschroder - Would you mind giving a citation that links Utah's issue of depression with Mormonism? After all, there are a lot of non-Mormons living there too.

The last I read, scientists believed that the mountain states suffered from depression due to altitude and thin air (http://www.livescience.com/50813-low-oxygen-increase-depress...)

Also, I couldn't find any statistics on just teen suicides, but according to CBSNews, Utah ranks 15th in suicide rates in the U.S. Alaska is #1 (http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/suicide-20-states-with-highe...). If you have better citations, could you please provide them?

Finally, I have several extended family members who are gay, and two of my best friends are gay (and active Mormons). My wife is Japanese. Several of my cousins are black, and I have two cousins who were adopted from India. I also have other relatives who are hispanic. In spite of all this non-white, non-straight, and non-male stuff going on in my life, I've never witnessed this "terrible environment" that you're talking about. Could you offer citations for that as well?