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STEVE BENSON - SECTION 1
Total Articles:
25
Steve Benson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. editorial cartoonist for The Arizona Republic. Benson is the grandson of former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and LDS prophet Ezra Taft Benson.
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The last words of Pope John Paul II:
. . . "Let me go to the house of the Father," according to documents released by the Vatican.
His words were spoken in his native Polish to aides hours before he died last April [2005].
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4257994.stm
[Hearing that the Pope was near death], [t]housands of people rushed to the Vatican, filling St Peter's Square and beyond, and held vigil for two days. At about 15:30 CEST, John Paul II spoke his final words, "Let me go to the house of the Father", to his aides in his native Polish and fell into a coma about four hours later. . . . He died in his private apartments, at 21:37 CEST (19:37 UTC) on 2 April, 46 days short of his 85th birthday.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II
VATICAN CITY - Struggling to swallow and breathe, Pope John Paul II mumbled his final words weakly in Polish: "Let me go to the house of the Father." Six hours later, the comatose pontiff died, the Vatican says.
The account of John Pauls final hours appears in a meticulously detailed official report on his last weeks just released by the Vatican in what might be an effort to ward off any doubts about how forthcoming it has been about his illness and April 2 death. . . .
Swallowing and breathing problems were consequences of the progression of Parkinsons disease, which the 84-year-old pope suffered from for years, doctors have said.
Six hours before his death, John Paul said in Polish, "with a very weak voice and with mumbled words, 'Let me go to the house of the Father,'" the report said.
The official account is quite close to one offered last month by John Pauls longtime personal secretary, now Krakow Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz. He told an Italian TV interviewer that a nun who was near the pontiff heard him say: Let me go to the Lord.
Media accounts published at the time of John Pauls death said he looked toward the apartment window and whispered "Amen." The Rome newspaper La Repubblica quoted a Polish priest, Jarek Cielecki, as saying the pope died "an instant" after he made a great effort to say, "Amen."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9377134/
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The last words of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith:
"Oh Lord, my God!" [as he was] crying out while being shot by a mob inside his room [at Carthage Jail in June 1844].
Some assert Smith's cry was a Masonic distress call for help as Smith and some of those within the mob which assassinated him were Masons.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Famous_last_words
"Joseph Smith's DeathMasonic Cry" (Excerpt MormonismShadow or Reality? p. 485):
"Although Joseph Smith found himself in trouble with the Masons, he gave the Masonic signal of distress just before he was murdered. In his book concerning Masonry, William Morgan gives this information concerning what a Mason is supposed to do "in case of distress": 'The sign is given by raising both hands and arms to the elbows, perpendicularly, one on each side of the head, the elbows forming a square. The words accompanying this sign, in case of distress, are, "O LORD, MY GOD" is there no help for the widow's son?'" (Freemasonry Exposed, p. 76)
"John D. Lee claimed that Joseph Smith used the exact words that a Mason is supposed to use in case of distress: 'Joseph left the door, sprang through the window, and cried out, "OH, LORD, MY GOD, IS THERE NO HELP FOR THE WIDOW'S SON!"' (Confessions of John D. Lee, reprint of 1880 ed., p. 153)
"Other accounts seem to show that Joseph Smith used the first four words of the distress cry. According to the History of the Church, Joseph Smith 'fell outward into the hands of his murderers, exclaiming, "O LORD, MY GOD!"' (History of the Church, Vol. 6, p. 618)
"Less than a month after Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered, the following appeared in the Mormon publication, Times and Seasons:
'...with uplifted hands they gave such SIGNS OF DISTRESS as would have commanded the interposition and benevolence of Savages or Pagans. They were both MASONS in good standing. Ye brethren of "the mystic tie" what think ye! Where is our good MASTER Joseph and Hyrum? Is there a pagan, heathen, or savage nation on the globe that would not be moved on this great occasion, as the trees of the forest are moved by a mighty wind? Joseph's last exclamation was "O LORD MY GOD!"' (Times and Seasons, Vol. 5, p. 585)
"The Mormon writer E. Cecil McGavin admitted that Joseph Smith gave the Masonic signal of distress: 'When the enemy surrounded the jail, rushed up the stairway, and killed Hyrum Smith, Joseph stood at the open window, his martyr-cry being these words, "O Lord My God!" This was NOT the beginning of a prayer, because Joseph Smith did not pray in that manner. This brave, young man who knew that death was near, started to repeat THE DISTRESS SIGNAL OF THE MASONS, expecting thereby to gain the protection its members are pledged to give a brother in distress. In 1878, Zina D. Huntington Young said of this theme, "I am the daughter of a Master Mason; I am the widow of the Master Mason who, when leaping from the window of Carthage jail, pierced with bullets, MADE THE MASONIC SIGN OF DISTRESS, but those signs were not heeded except by the God of Heaven."' (Mormonism and Masonry, by E. Cecil McGavin, page 17)
"On page 16 of the same book, Mr. McGavin quotes the following from the Life of Heber C. Kimball, p. 26: 'Joseph, leaping the fatal window, GAVE THE MASONIC SIGNAL OF DISTRESS.'"
http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/josephsmithsdeath.htm
******
(Personally, I kinda like actress Joan Crawford's reported final expression):
"Dammit. Don't you dare ask God to help me."
. . . This comment was directed towards her housekeeper who began to pray aloud.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Famous_last_words
| | | "Some Things That Are True Are Not Very Useful:" For Those Who Think Mormonism Does Not Teach Its Followers To Lie About Its History, Doctrine And Leaders
Article Archived: Friday, Nov 4, 2005, at 08:25 AM
Stored Under Topic: STEVE BENSON - SECTION 1
Outside Link To Article: RIGHT CLICK - COPY LINK LOCATION
Original Author Of Article: Steve Benson |  | |
"First Caution
"There is no such thing as an accurate, objective history of the Church without consideration of the spiritual powers that attend this work.
"There is no such thing as a scholarly, objective study of the office of bishop without consideration of spiritual guidance, of discernment, and of revelation. That is not scholarship.
"Accordingly, I repeat, there is no such thing as an accurate or objective history of the Church which ignores the Spirit. . . .
"Those of us who are extensively engaged in researching the wisdom of man, including those who write and those who teach Church history, are not immune from these dangers. I have walked that road of scholarly research and study and know something of the dangers. If anything, we are more vulnerable than those in some of the other disciplines.
"Church history can he so interesting and so inspiring as to be a very powerful tool indeed for building faith. If not properly written or properly taught, it may be a faith destroyer. . . .
"If we who research, write, and teach the history of the Church ignore the spiritual on the pretext that the world may not understand it, our work will not be objective.
"And if, for the same reason, we keep it quite secular, we will produce a history that is not accurate and not scholarly--this, in spite of the extent of research or the nature or the individual statements or the incidents which are included as part of it, and notwithstanding the training or scholarly reputation of the one who writes or teaches it. We would end up with a history with the one most essential ingredient left out.
"Those who have the Spirit can recognize very quickly whether something is missing in a written Church history this in spite of the fact that the author may be a highly trained historian and the reader is not. And, I might add, we have been getting a great deal of experience in this regard in the past few year.
"President Wilford Woodruff warned: 'I will here say God has inspired me to keep a Journal and History of this Church, and I warn the future Historians to give Credence to my History of this Church and Kingdom; for my Testimony is true, and the truth of its record will be manifest in the world to Come.' . . .
"Second Caution
"There is a temptation for the writer or the teacher Of Church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith promoting or not.
"Some things that are true are not very useful.
"Historians seem to take great pride in publishing something new, particularly if it illustrates a weakness or mistake of a prominent historical figure.
"For some reason, historians and novelists seem to savor such things. If it related to a living person it would come under the heading of gossip.
"History can be as misleading as gossip and much more difficult--often impossible--to verify.
"The writer or the teacher who has an exaggerated loyalty to the theory that everything must be told is laying a foundation for his own judgment. He should not complain if one day he himself receives as he has given.
"Perhaps that is what is contemplated in having one's sins preached from the housetops.
"Some time ago a historian gave a lecture to an audience of college students on one of the past Presidents of the Church. It seemed to be his purpose to show that that President was a man subject to the foibles of men. He introduced many so-called facts that put that President in a very unfavorable light, particularly when they were taken out of the context of the historical period in which he lived.
"Someone who was not theretofore acquainted with this historical figure (particularly someone not mature) must have come away very negatively affected. Those who were unsteady in their convictions surely must have had their faith weakened or destroyed. . . .
"The same point may be made with reference to so-called sex education. There are many things that are factual, even elevating, about this subject. There are other aspects of this subject that are so perverted and ugly it does little good to talk of them at all. Some things cannot be safely taught to little children or to those who are not eligible by virtue of age or maturity or authorizing ordinance to understand them.
"Teaching some things that are true, prematurely or at the wrong time, can invite sorrow and heartbreak instead of the joy intended to accompany learning.
"What is true with these two subjects is, if anything, doubly true in the field of religion. The scriptures teach emphatically that we must give milk before meat. The Lord made it very clear that some things are to be taught selectively and some things are to be given only to those who are worthy.
"It matters very much not only what we are told but when we are told it. Be careful that you build faith rather than destroy it.
"President William E. Berrett has told us how grateful he is that a testimony that the past leaders of the Church were prophets of God was firmly fixed in his mind before he was exposed to some of the so-called facts that historians have put in their published writings.
"This principle of prerequisites is so fundamental to all education that I have never been quite able to understand why historians are so willing to ignore it. And, if those outside the Church have little to guide them but the tenets of their profession, those inside the Church should know better.
"Some historians write and speak as though the only ones to read or listen are mature, experienced historians. They write and speak to a very narrow audience. Unfortunately, many of the things they tell one another are not uplifting, go fat beyond the audience they may have intended, and destroy faith.
"What that historian did with the reputation of the President of the Church was nor worth doing. He seemed determined to convince everyone that the prophet was a man. We knew that already.
"All of the prophets and all of the Apostles have been men. It would have been much more worthwhile for him to have convinced us that the man was a prophet, a fact quite as true as the fact that he was a man. . . .
"The sad thing is that he may have, in years past, taken great interest in those who led the Church and desired to draw close to them.
"But instead of following that long, steep, discouraging, and occasionally dangerous path to spiritual achievement, instead of going up to where they were, he devised a way of collecting mistakes and weaknesses and limitations to compare with his own. In that sense he has attempted to bring a historical figure down to his level and in that way feel close to him and perhaps justify his own weaknesses. . . .
"That historian or scholar who delights in pointing out the weaknesses and frailties of present or past leaders destroys faith--A destroyer of faith--particularly one within the Church, and more particularly one who is employed specifically to build faith--places himself in great spiritual jeopardy. He is serving the wrong master, and unless he repents, he will not be among the faithful in the eternities.
"One who chooses to follow the tenets of his profession, regardless of how they may injure the Church or destroy the faith of those not ready for "advanced history," is himself in spiritual jeopardy. If that one is a member of the Church, he has broken his covenants and will be accountable. After all of the tomorrows of mortality have been finished, he will not stand where be might have stood.
"I recall a conversation with President Henry D. Moyle. We were driving back from Arizona and were talking about a man who destroyed the faith of young people from the vantage point of a teaching position. Someone asked President Moyle why this man was still a member of the Church when he did things like that. 'He is not a member of the Church.' President Moyle answered firmly. Another replied that he bad not heard of his excommunication. 'He has excommunicated himself,' President Moyle responded. 'He cut himself off from the Spirit of God. Whether or not we get around to holding a court doesn't matter that much; he has cut himself off from he Spirit of the Lord.'" . . .
( Boyd K. Packer, "The Mantle is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect,"
http://www.mormonismi.net/kirjoitukset/bkp_mantteli.shtml )
______
You get Darth Packer's drift: AT THE VERY LEAST, LIE BY OMISSION--OR YOUR HEAD WILL ROLL.
| | | Follow Your Church Leaders Or End Up Dead: The Case Of The Murdered Missionary--And How The Bensons Blamed The Victim
Article Archived: Friday, Nov 4, 2005, at 08:34 AM
Stored Under Topic: STEVE BENSON - SECTION 1
Outside Link To Article: RIGHT CLICK - COPY LINK LOCATION
Original Author Of Article: Steve Benson | | |
When my uncle, Reed Benson, was president of the Louisville KY mission from 1975 to 1978, a horrible and tragic crime occured on his watch--one committed at the hands of a homicidal Mormon missionary.
If I remember correctly, the murder victim (the killer's companion) had been disabled as a youth in some kind of accident (I seem to recall that it involved a collision with a train, if memory serves me right).
The young man, as a result of the accident, was permanently brain damaged but was determined to serve a mission, nonetheless.
He entered the field and was assigned to the elder who eventually killed him. The murdering missionary (who apparently "snapped" from dealing with his impaired companion) horribly abused and eventually scalded him to death in their apartment bathtub.
I recall that the murder occurred, coincidentally enough, on my Uncle Reed's birthday (we share the same birthday, by the way, which accounts for my middle name being "Reed").
I also recollect that the murderer was eventually remanded by the courts to the custody of his parents and did no prison time.
I later heard members of the Benson family talk about this incident where, unbelievably, they essentially blamed the murder victim for his own demise.
They discussed among themselves how, after he was injured in his pre-mission accident, his local Church leaders advised him not to go on a mission but that he ignored their advice and went anyway.
Subsequently, he was killed by his companion, who had a difficult time dealing with the ill-fated missionary's mental impairment (caused by the accident), which slowed the unfortunate young man down and made him an unbearable challenge to work with, at least as far as his companion was concerned.
I was astounded to hear members of the Benson family laying blame for the missionary's death on the missionary himself, saying that he had failed to follow the counsel of his local Church leaders to forego a mission and, consequently, paid with his life.
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For an account recently posted on this board by a then-elder in Kentucky who served as a mission assistant to Reed Benson and who describes the circumstances of the murder of an "Elder Christensen, see:
http://www.exmormon.org/boards/w-agor...
A so-called reunion "found list" of missionaries who served under my Uncle Reed in the Louisville KY mission contains the name of one "James Christensen" who, under the category of "Home phone," is simply listed as "deceased," with no other information provided:
http://www.topomap.to/reunion/refound...
Another website, however, "Mahonri--Finding Light in the Darkness," offers a tribute to Mormon missionaries who have died while serving their Church:
In Memoria
"We want to honor and recognize the work of all missionaries on the Parley P. Pratt Missionary Memorial, but unfortunately we do not have a complete list of those who have given their lives in the service of the Master.
"Nor do we have a complete roster of all missionaries who now face physical, emotional and intellectual challenges as a result of accident or illness suffered on their missions.
"Further, we do not have a complete list of those missionaries whose lives were taken before being able to enter the mission field. Your help in compiling a more complete account of those we would honor will be greatly appreciated."
They did, however, have the following name and brief biographical information:
James E. Christensen, 24, Kentucky Louisville, Moroni, UT 1977
At least it was more than the pathetically meager reference offered up by the Louisville KY mission's reunion website--although the list of dead on the "Mahonri" memorial webpage is followed by a bizarre observation from Apostle M. Russell Ballard:
"'Since the day of the Prophet Joseph Smith, we've had approximately 447,969 missionaries serve in the world,' Elder M. Russell Ballard said in 1989. 'Of those 447,969, (some) 525 have lost their lives while serving as full-time missionaries,' he added. 'When you contemplate that number, it appears that the safest place in the whole world is to be on a full-time mission,' concluded the member of the Twelve."
http://www.mahonri.org/special/ppplis...
Wonderful, tell that to mentally-disabled Elder James E. Christensen: dead at age 24, due--according to family members of Ezra Taft Benson defending their own--his failure to obey priesthood authority.
| | | A Typical Mormon Cover-Up: My First Inkling Of What Went On Behind Closed Temple Doors Came Not From My Family But From...
Article Archived: Tuesday, Nov 8, 2005, at 09:33 AM
Stored Under Topic: STEVE BENSON - SECTION 1
Outside Link To Article: RIGHT CLICK - COPY LINK LOCATION
Original Author Of Article: Steve Benson | | |
A Typical Mormon Cover-up: My first inkling of what went on behind closed temple doors came not from my family but from a convert whom we fellowshipped into the Cult.
His name was Charlie and, thanks to my younger sister initially inviting one of their kids to Primary, he and his wife were eventually baptized, along with their four daughters.
Charlie was an honest, free-speaking guy, a Korean war vet with a great sense of humor, who had a way of relating to and hitting it off with the teenage young people in our Texas ward (me being one of them at the time).
On MIA nights, for instance, instead of giving the Explorers a boring lesson out of the mind-numbing manual, Charlie would let them shoot hoops and watch "Laugh In" in their classroom, while he'd sit back, shoot the breeze and play it cool.
In short, Charlie was, like, our favorite "old" person in the ward.
After Charlie and his wife had been members for the minimal year-long wait, they went through the temple to be super-glued to each other for time and all eternity, with my parents tagging along as part of the sealing support team.
Figuring I could get a straight answer from Charlie, I asked him what it was like inside the temple.
He smiled, then started hemming and hawing (as, no doubt, visions of slit throrats and disemboweled guts began dancing through his head).
Charlie said he couldn't tell me anything because he wasn't allowed to.
I thought to myself, "Man, if Charlie can't fill me in, then who can? This stuff must be serious."
But, still, I continued to press, pleading for him to at least give me something.
Finally, Charlie relented and said that there was a play inside the temple. He said that there was this Devil character in the play who was pretty neat--but that, Charlie insisted, was all he could tell me.
Fast forward a couple of decades-plus.
Charlie and his wife have left the Cult and are today living happily ever after.
(We've had a chance to chat on the phone a couple of times since he and his wife made their own bolt from the Cult. He had kept a lot of his deep, inner feelings about Mormonism bottled up for years, even after leaving. It was good to hear him finally let loose. It was the old Charlie we kids had come to know and love. :)
| Introduction
Before somone here chokes on green pea soup shooting from their nostrils on a movie set, a reality check on alleged "exorcisms" may be in order.
Exorcisms Are Primitive Rituals Performed on People Who are Often Simply Mentally Ill
A 2001 book on the topic, Michael Cuneos American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty, found no reason to think that anything supernatural occurs during exorcisms.
After attending fifty exorcisms, Cuneo is unequivocal about the fact that he saw nothing supernaturaland certainly nothing remotely resembling the events depicted in the 1974 blockbuster film, "The Exorcist." No spinning heads, levitation, or poltergeists were seen, though many involved some cursing, spitting, or vomiting.
As far as science is concerned, possession is a mental health issue.
http://www.livescience.com/othernews/050830_emilyrose.html
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Belief in Exorcisms is Rooted in Ignorance of Modern Science
Belief in spirit possession flourishes in times and places where there is ignorance about mental states. . . . Psychiatric historians have long attributed demonic manifestations to such aberrant mental conditions as schizophrenia and hysteria, noting that--as mental illness began to be recognized as such after the seventeenth century--there was a consequent decline in demonic superstitions . . .
http://www.looksmarttrends.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_1_27/ai_95501854
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Repetition of Exorcism Tales Has Demonstrably Led to the Creation of False Memories
[Scientific experiments reported in The Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied] tell a consistent story.
When people are exposed to a series of articles describing a relatively implausible phenomenon, such as witnessing a possession, they believe the phenomenon is not only more plausible but also are less confident that they had not experienced it in childhood.
http://www.looksmarttrends.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_1_25/ai_68966507
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Exorcisms Are Often Merely Learned Behavior
In many cases . . . supposed demonic possession can be a learned role that fulfills certain important functions for those claiming it. In his book Hidden Memories: Voices and Visions from Within, psychologist Robert A. Baker . . . notes that possession was sometimes feigned by nuns to act out sexual frustrations, protest restrictions, escape unpleasant duties, attract attention and sympathy, and fulfill other useful functions.
http://www.looksmarttrends.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_1_25/ai_68966516
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Superstitious Belief in Exorcisms is Encouraged by "Modern" Pop Culture
[Author Micahel] Cuneo repeatedly reminds the reader of the role of American media in the resurgence of the belief in demonic possession. Only the most willfully naive reader could overlook the role of motion pictures, TV talk shows, book publishers, and the insatiable appetite for publicity among exorcism authors and self-styled "researchers" after reading Cuneo's perceptive accounts of the rise of demonic awareness in the land of plenty.
http://www.looksmarttrends.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_1_27/ai_95501854
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Exorcisms Can Be--And Have Clearly Been Shown to Have Been--Faked
Possession can be childishly simple to fake. For example, an exorcism broadcast by ABC's "20/20" in 1991 featured a sixteen-year-old girl who, her family claimed, was possessed by ten separate demonic entities. However, to skeptics her alleged possession seemed to be indistinguishable from poor acting. She even stole glances at the camera before affecting convulsions and other "demonic" behavior . . . .
Of course a person with a strong impulse to feign diabolic possession may indeed be mentally disturbed. Although the teenager in the "20/20" episode reportedly improved after the exorcism, it was also pointed out that she continued 'on medication' . . . .
http://www.looksmarttrends.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_1_27/ai_95501854
Conclusion
Silly claims of demonic dispersals are, indeed, enough to make your head spin.
| | | Light-Mindedess Over Dead Possums And Funky Garments: Stamping Out Ungodly Humor In The Fort Wayne, Indiana, Mission Home
Article Archived: Saturday, Nov 19, 2005, at 08:27 AM
Stored Under Topic: STEVE BENSON - SECTION 1
Outside Link To Article: RIGHT CLICK - COPY LINK LOCATION
Original Author Of Article: Steve Benson | | |
When my dad, Mark Benson, was president of the Indiana-Michigan mission in the 1970s (headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana), the expression of appropriate humor within the walls of the mission home was emphatically enforced and reverentially regulated.
The mission home was located at 4700 Old Mill Road, close to Foster Park, off of West Rudisill Boulevard, in a tired, rundown, blue-collar city which I considered at that time in my teenage life to be (for lack of a better description) the cultural armpit of the Western Hemisphere. (The desks in the study hall of our 50-year-old, dilapidated school, Southside High, were bolted to the floor, for gawd's sake).
http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=...
The home itself was a sturdy, weathered stone structure, situated in an older part of the city dotted with heavy brick mansions from a bygone era. It was surrounded by thousands of square feet of lawn, landscaped with large trees, featured thick stain-glassed windows, boasted a circular staircase up to the second floor from the spacious living room, had separate living quarters for the mission home staff and sported a large circular driveway that ran between the main house and a roomy, multi-car garage.
The mission staff worked in a step-down office located in the basement, in what was a converted wine cellar.
During the winter of 1971-72, the temperature was particularly cold. It was not uncommon for the mercury to dip well below the 0-degree mark during the harshest months. It was so cold, in fact, that one quick breath of the icy air and your nose hairs would freeze, literally.
One particularly biting, frigid morning (me being 17 years old at the time), I stepped outside and discovered a dead possum--frozen stiff, lying on its back, feet poking into the air--in the middle of the driveway. The poor critter had apparently met its doom during the previous night.
I went back inside, descended the narrow staircase into the basement office and informed the mission staff of this frozen forensic find.
Always looking for something to lighten the load of their otherwise weary and dreary workday, the elders ascended the stairs carrying their scriptures, went outside and formed a small circle around the deceased varmit, whereupon they commenced an impromptu funeral service.
In an air of mock reverence, one of the missionaries opened up his Book of Mormon and, in a slow and solemn voice, quoted some appropriate verses to mark the occasion of the possum's passing.
A eulogy to the departed creature was then offered and a prayer pronounced, as the mission staff commended the spirit of the ice-cubed critter into the hands of our precious Redeemer who, as the Holy Word says, is aware of every sparrow that falls and every possum that freezes.
I was so deeply moved by the experience that I took pictures of the ceremony, in order to preserve it for future posterity hilarity.
_____
On another occasion, members of the mission staff (apparently bored out of their minds and looking for any bit of levity to lighten the load of working long and laboriously for the Lord), cut out pictures from a Sears and Roebuck catalogue featuring young, attractive models in brightly-multi-colored, billowy, one-piece lounge wear, cuffed at the wrists and at the ankles.
They then posted the pictures on the walls of their downstairs office with captions attached, noting that this line of lingerie constituted the latest in Church-approved garments.
My dad did not regard either the possum funeral or the garmie catalogue commentary to have been at all appropriate--and firmly chastized the mission staff for having engaged in such light-minded and sacriligious behavior.
Duly chastened, the mission staff returned to its divinely-decreed drudgery.
Sigh.
Living in that place was the pits.
| | | Devastating News for the LDS Cult's Sinister Spin Machine: Mormon Church Growth Rate Is Shrinking, Not Growing
Article Archived: Monday, Nov 21, 2005, at 08:27 AM
Stored Under Topic: STEVE BENSON - SECTION 1
Outside Link To Article: RIGHT CLICK - COPY LINK LOCATION
Original Author Of Article: Steve Benson | | |
Below are selected excerpts from a recent news analysis that blows the cover off of Mormonism's Perpetual Public Relations Big Lie--namely, that it is supposedly the planet's fastest-multiplying church.
(Section headings have been inserted for easier reading).
Headline:
"Keeping members a challenge for LDS church
Mormon myth: The belief that the church is the fastest-growing faith in the world doesn't hold up"
by
Peggy Fletcher Stack
The Salt Lake Tribune
26 July 2005
The Mormon Church Is Not the World's Fastest-Growing Church
"The claim that Mormonism is the fastest-growing faith in the world has been repeated so routinely by sociologists, anthropologists, journalists and proud Latter-day Saints as to be perceived as unassailable fact.
"The trouble is, it isn't true."
Other Religious Faiths Are Growing Much Faster Than the Mormon Church
". . . [S]ince 1990, other faiths--Seventh-day Adventists, Assemblies of God and Pentecostal groups-- have grown much faster and in more places around the globe."
High Membership Inactivity Rates Plague the Mormon Church
". . . [M]ost telling, the number of Latter-day Saints who are considered active churchgoers is only about a third of the total, or 4 million in the pews every Sunday, researchers say. . . .
"[Estimated] worldwide [Mormon member] activity [is] at about 35 percent - which would give the church about 4 million active members."
The Mormon Church's Convert Baptism Rate Is Declining
"According to LDS-published statistics, the annual number of LDS converts declined from a high of 321,385 in 1996 to 241,239 in 2004. In the 1990s, the church's growth rate went from 5 percent a year to 3 percent."
The Mormon Conversion Rate Has Actually Been Measured at Zero Percent
"When the Graduate Center of the City University of New York [CUNY]conducted an American Religious Identification Survey in 2001, it discovered that about the same number of people said they had joined the LDS Church as said they had left it. The CUNY survey reported the church's net growth was zero percent."
The Highest Mormon Conversion Areas Show the Lowest Member Retention Rates
"'It is a matter of grave concern that the areas with the most rapid numerical membership increase, Latin America and the Philippines, are also the areas with extremely low convert retention . . . Latter-day Saints lose 70 to 80 percent of their converts . . .'"
The Best Indicator of Actual Mormon Member Growth Rates Is the Number of Stakes Created--and the News Is Not Good
"Perhaps the best measure of LDS Church growth is the rate of new church units, such as . . . stakes . . . Because they are staffed by volunteers, such units cannot function without enough active members.
"In 1980, The Ensign, the LDS Church's official magazine, predicted that . . . [the number of stakes would grow] from 1,190 . . . to 3,600 in 2000. . . . [T]here were 2,602 stakes worldwide at the end of 2002.
"'You can use these trends to say that the percentage is slowing, the numbers have leveled off or they are dropping.'"
The Mormon Church Is Having Difficulty Becoming a Bonafide World Religion
"One key to Mormonism becoming a world religion . . .is how well it can transcend its founding culture to become universal. . . .
"The LDS message has found a ready audience in Latin America and the South Pacific, where Mormon missionaries can tell people God did not neglect them. The Book of Mormon [tells] the story of a Hebrew family that migrated from Jerusalem to the New World and . . . of a visit to their descendants by Jesus Christ after his resurrection.
"Still, the [Mormon] church may not fare as well as other Christian religions in Africa and China, since it has no such reassurance for them . . . ."
Previous Predictions of Phenomenal Future Mormon Membership Growth Were Fanciful, Inaccurate Guesses
"In 1984, University of Washington sociologist Rodney Stark . . . estimated that if [the Mormon Church] continued to grow at . . . 30 percent, there would be 60 million Mormons by the year 2080; if 50 percent, the figure would explode to 265 million. . . .
"[Stark said,] 'The [Mormon] church liked the results and people who are against the church are desperate to figure out why it won't happen . . . Everyone takes the thing too seriously. I've tried to make clear all along that I was just trying to bring a little discipline to a lot of crazy conversations.'
"It was a game of 'let's pretend,' Stark says, when he applied [a] compound interest formula and saw huge numbers of Mormons.
"He says he never meant his projections to dictate the future of Mormonism."
_____
For the complete story, see:
http://sltrib.com/ci_2890645
| | | If The Mormon Church Is Vulnerable Anywhere, It's Vulnerable In The Area Of Sex Abuse
Article Archived: Thursday, Nov 24, 2005, at 09:08 AM
Stored Under Topic: STEVE BENSON - SECTION 1
Outside Link To Article: RIGHT CLICK - COPY LINK LOCATION
Original Author Of Article: Steve Benson | | |
With the latest, and quite significant, legal ruling against LDS Inc. stemming from a Seattle-area lawsuit, it would not be at all surprising to see similar allegations of sex abuse (and their attendant lawsuits) brought against the Mormon Church.
This--without exaggeration--could constitute the beginnings of an ominous and threatening legal precedent, one which could conceivably pose a real dagger-thrust not only at the heart of the Mormon Church's supposed moral legitimacy, but at its very financial solvency.
A word of advice to Mormons everywhere: Follow your money, not your prophet. It's starting to swirl down an unrighteous rathole set aside by the leading lights of your Church to pay for guilty verdicts in its name.
Did you ever think your tithing money would be used to defend God's "One and Only True Church" in cases of Mormon sexual abuse of minors and all the dirty cover-ups that followed?
You should have learned from Joseph Smith . . .
| Channel surfing tonight, I came across her introducing Merrill Bateman at a BYU Women's Conference in 1997.
She said, and I quote:
"President Bateman's list of accomplishments is as long as my leg and, as you can see, that's pretty long."
She paused, cleared her throat, raised an eyebrow slightly and smiled--but there was virtually no reaction from the audience.
For one thing, the audience couldn't even see Sister Dew's leg, since she was standing behind a podium and, moreover, what kind of kinky-kooky Mormon fantasy world does the pent-up Sister Dew live in, where she's imagining people gawking at her leg?
It was bizarre--and should have prompted a bishop's interview, on the spot.
| --God tells you to run for national office.
--God tells you to keep religion out of politics.
--God tells you to attack other countries and kill the infidels.
--God tells you to follow the Prince of Peace and turn the other cheek.
--God tells you he created the world through evolution.
--God tells you to condemn evolutionists to hell.
--God tells you he protected you when your plane crashed and you survived.
--God tells you it's a mystery why he allowed your God-praising church to be destroyed by a tornado and worshippers inside to be killed.
--God tells you he healed you because he needs you on earth.
--God tells you he didn't heal your loved one because he needs him in heaven.
--God tells you the Mormon church is true.
--God tells you that the Christian church down the street is better.
--God tells you where you put your misplaced car keys.
--God tells you to forget about the lost car keys--that without him you're lost.
Good gawd.
| I cannot go into the details here, but I have learned as of late that elements of the press are entering a heightened stage of alert, as they gear up for the ultimate demise of Hinckley.
Although not at this point earnestly deadline driven (pardon the pun), some suggestion was made that his death might be expected within the next few months.
Whether or not that proves to be the case, in a nutshell, the media do not want to be caught off guard, should Hinckley's passing come sooner than later.
It is common, of course, for pre-fabricated "obits" to be readied for filing as part of breaking news stories when people of note die.
In many newsrooms and broadcast booths nationwide, announcements of Hinckley's eventual death have, no doubt, already been readied for launch with pre-written articles on his life and times.
As a related aside, an earlier post noted that a Hinckley talk from decades earlier has been resurrected and reused in the current issue of the Ensign.
"Hank" wrote:
. . . This month's Ensign [First Presidency] message is a retread of a 1977 talk. I'm sure it's not surprising to most people here, and I'm sure Steve Benson has similar examples from his observations of the inner workings of Mormonism.
http://www.exmormon.org/boards/w-agor...
_____
"Hank's: subject line of his post was "Hinckley recycles old talk . . . "
It is not necessarily true that Hinckley himself has personally recycled one of his earlier sermons for use in this month's Ensign.
At his advanced age, Hinckley may not be able to easily pull from his memory bank of past preachings or even do the touch-up inserts and additions to the text that dot the December Ensign's version.
On this matter, I speak from my own knowledge and experience with my grandfather, Ezra Taft Benson.
Toward the end of his life when he was no longer mentally or physically capable of effectively delivering his own "prophet-seer-and-revelator" sermons, writing them out or dictating to others what he wanted them to contain and convey, Ensign talks/messages attributed to my grandfather were actually cut-and-paste jobs from old files of previously delivered ETB sermons--as retrieved, reconstituted, rearranged and replayed by his ever-ready, cover-the-rear-of-our-prophet-dear office staff.
The explanation I heard given for reliance on these re-usable retreads was that the Saints could always use reminding of what they should be doing; thus, repeating a "prophet's" earlier admonitions was simply a reiteration of eternal truths for the benefit of the ever-needy Mormon masses.
OK, and if you belief that I've got some gold plates in Palmyra to sell you.
I am not saying, however, that Hinckley has necessarily reached the stage where he is effectively out of the lucid lecture loop and will, any day now, be put out to post-mortem pasture.
What I am saying is that it is conceivable the appearance of Hinckley's recycled 1977 sermon in the Ensign almost 30 years after the fact indicates that all may not be well in Zion.
I suspect that what is happening in media circles with regard to all of this is that astute (and perhaps well-informed) reporters have now begun to connect possible dots--and that the Hinckley death watch may soon begin to take on more focus, if it hasn't already.
| | | Kill Deer And Instill Fear: In The Mormon Cult, Obedience To Priesthood Authority Trumps Respect For Life Itself
Article Archived: Wednesday, Dec 7, 2005, at 08:51 AM
Stored Under Topic: STEVE BENSON - SECTION 1
Outside Link To Article: RIGHT CLICK - COPY LINK LOCATION
Original Author Of Article: Steve Benson | | |
When I was a teenager growing up Mormon in Dallas, Texas, an adult priesthood member in our ward took me and several other of the ward's young men on a bow hunting trip for whitetail deer in the eastern part of the state.
We ultimately came up empty-handed as far as bagging any deer was concerned--although a friend of mine pin-cushioned to death an innocent armadillo with target arrows, put the creature's mutilated body in a paper sack and secretly wrapped it up in my sleeping bag while I was out in the bush. I didn't discover its bloody corpse until I unrolled the sleeping bag out in the garage late that evening when I was dropped off home.
The "adult" ward member who took us on this mindless, ooga-ooga hunting trip--(a reasonless ritual that served no purpose except to provide young boys the opportunity to personally, and brutally, kill animals we didn't need for survival)--let us know in no uncertain terms that even though we were getting home late Saturday night, he expected us all to be up bright and early the next morning and in attendance at priesthood meeting.
In fact, he made it crystal, Liahona clear (complete with scowling visage) that if we did not show up at priesthood meeting as commanded, he would never take us hunting again.
Well, I was too damned tired to get up the next morning for priesthood meeting and, frankly, didn't care if I didn't get another chance to go "hunting" again by opting for the covers over the covenant.
I didn't tell my father of our adult leader's order that we either attend priesthood or forego any future deer-killing forays with him; I just sleepily informed my dad when he came into my bedroom on Sunday morning to get me up for priesthood that I was too tired to go.
He let me sleep in.
What skewed priorities the Mormon Cult imposes on the vulnerable children it attempts to warp into mindlessly faithful adherents.
In the Mormon mind, it's acceptable for teenage boys to venture out to slaughter wildlife for no good purpose--but if that search-and-destroy mission causes them to miss priesthood indoctrination camp the next morning, no more deer slaying for them.
Sick.
| | | Prominent Modern-Day Mormon General Authorities Who Have Known (And Who Have Secretly Fessed Up To) The Fact That Joseph Smith Was A Liar
Article Archived: Friday, Dec 9, 2005, at 09:53 AM
Stored Under Topic: STEVE BENSON - SECTION 1
Outside Link To Article: RIGHT CLICK - COPY LINK LOCATION
Original Author Of Article: Steve Benson | | |
When it came to the supposed truthfulness of LDS scripture:
**Apostle and First Presidency counselor Hugh B. Brown
who, according to Jerald and Sandra Tanner, admitted to Mormon amateur archaeologist Thomas Ferguson that Smith couldn't
translate ancient Egyptian.
From Ferguson's letter to the Tanners:
"According to Mr. Ferguson, Apostle
Brown had also come to the conclusion that the Book of Abraham was false and was in favor of the church giving it up. A
few years later Hugh B. Brown said he could 'not recall' making the statements Thomas Stuart Ferguson attributed to him.
Ferguson, however, was apparently referring to the same incident in the letter of March 13, 1971, when he stated: 'I must
conclude that Joseph Smith had not the remotest skill in things Egyptian-hieroglyphics. To my surprise one of the highest
officials in the Mormon Church agreed with that conclusion . . . privately in one-to-one [c]onversation.'"
http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no69.htm
_____
**Quorum of the Seventy member B.H. Roberts who, after extensive personal study prompted by questions from a missionary
in the field, concluded that the Book of Mormon was a plagiarized invention of Smith's immature mind.
From
Roberts' own writings in his landmark work, Studies of the Book of Mormon (which remained unpublished until decades after
his death):
"In light of this evidence, there can be no doubt as to the possession of a vividly strong, creative
imagination by Joseph Smith, the Prophet. An imagination, it could with reason be urged, which, given the suggestions that are to
be found in the 'common knowledge' of accepted American Antiquities of the times, supplimented [sic] by such a work as Ethan
Smith's, View of the Hebrews, would make it possible for him to create a book such as the Book of Mormon is. . .
.
" . . . [T]here is a certain lack of perspective in the things the book relates as history that points quite clearly
to an undeveloped mind as their origin, The narrative proceeds in characteristic disregard of conditions necessary to its
reasonableness, as if it were a tale told by a child, with utter disregard for consistency. . . .
"Is this all sober
history . . . or is it a wonder-tale of an immature mind, unconscious of what a test he is laying on human credulity when asking
men to accept his narrative as solemn history."
http://www.neirr.org/bomdiff.htm
| Cases in point:
--Calvin Grondahl, returned Mormon missionary and premiere editorial cartoonist for BYU's Daily Universe in the 1970s, was hired away by the Deseret News without graduating from college. (His most famous cartoon done on Provo's seminarian school grounds showed a battered and bruised BYU student under a pile of rocks, muttering to a campus policeman, "All I said was, "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone").
Cal lasted for only a few years at the Deseret News, where he finally quit in frustration and moved north to work at the Ogden Standard Examiner.
Cal left because the Desert News publisher at the time, Wendell Ashton, informed Cal that he had to choose between competing masters: either working for the Deseret News or doing cartoons that were being picked up by Sunstone magazine. (Many more of Cal's cartoons were also eventually published as collections by Signature Books).
Cal was, in fact, found guilty of having made available to a humor-starved Mormon public some hilariously irreverent cartoon anthologies--such as Freeway to Perfection and Faith Promoting Rumors--cartoons that, nonetheless, some in high Church circles actually secretly enjoyed.
For instance, Jack Goaslind (a personal family friend and eventual member of the Quorum of the Seventy) had visited our home in Arizona some years ago, during a stake-stumping sermon tour. After conference, we invited him over for lunch, where he sat on the couch and nearly laughed his head off, crowing hysterically as he eagerly read through Cal's books.
Apparently, this appreciation for the goofy and inherently spoofy side of Mormonism was not shared by the Deseret News' publisher.
Cal saw the writing on the wall and knew he couldn't last.
_____
--My grandfather, Ezra Taft Benson, initially encouraged me to try for the job at the Deseret News and even put in a good word for me there. However, I eventually began doodling cartoons down in Arizona that he found personally troubling and disturbingly out-of-line with his fiery brand of conservative thinking. (On the other hand, my grandfather also derided the Deseret News, telling me it was too liberal).
In the meantime, the editorial page editor of the Deseret News called me and asked me if I would like to come to work for the Deseret News.
He told me that they couldn't give me as much money as I was making in Arizona or as much freedom, but he did say that a benefit of moving to Salt Lake and working there would be that I'd be closer to my family. (Strike three, I thought).
I informed my grandfather that I had turned down the job offer from the Deseret News, to which he replied that it was a decision good for both me--and him.
[By the way, my syndicated editorial cartoons are still published in the Desert News, for which I would be ungrateful if I did not stand this day and give thanks. :)]
_____
--Eventually, I left the Mormon Church in a rather, ahem, outspoken and public fashion--and was thereafer removed from the pages of the Daily Universe, which refused to publish any more of my syndicated work, to which it had subscribed for a number of years.
The straw that ostensibly broke the Daily Universe's back was a cartoon I did criticizing sexual harassment of female military recruits by Army drill instructors. In explaining its decision to bid me adieu, a spokesman for the Daily Universe said my cartoons were no longer suitable for consumption by its student body.
This judgment was rendered, coincidentally enough, soon after a BYU student had written to the Lord's university student newspaper, protesting the use of tithing funds to publish the cartoons of a known apostate. (Some years later, that same individual--now a former student--wrote me to apologize and to acknowledge that he, too, was now a former Mormon. He said that his demand I be removed from the pages of BYU's house organ was a futile attempt on his part to convince himself that he was a stalwart, testimony-holding believer when, in fact, his faith was actually faltering).
_____
Being an editorial "harpoonist" in Zion's Camp can be a tricky business. :)
| Introduction: A Barren Valley--or a Legend Barren of Truth?
Persistently-propagandized Mormons have long claimed that when Brigham Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, he and his cohorts found the place to be devoid of trees--except, supposedly, for a single cedar, tenaciously clinging to life in a desolate wasteland that the Mormons boast to have (according to scriptural prophesy, of course) resurrected to resplendant glory.
Indeed, even today, Utah promotional shop-and-spend guides portray the Salt Lake Valley of invented 1847 fame to have been a veritable no-man's-land:
"Historically, the one-time desert wilderness [of Utah] was created by settlers seeking refuge from religious persecution, and neither barren land, nor drought or a plague of crickets could dissuade the Mormons from their purpose."
http://www.attractionguide.com/salt_l...
Uh-huh. And if you believe that, I've got thousands of cricket-gorged seagulls to sell ya.
Actually, It's All Kid's Stuff
Here's a dose of reality from a Social Studies unit designed for Utah fourth-graders (which, apparently, is a learning level still far above that of many true-believing Mormons):
"There is a myth about the Salt Lake Valley. It says that the valley was a barren and lifeless desert with only one tree when the first Mormon pioneers arrived.
"Here is what the valley was really like when the Mormon pioneers first came. Much of it had rich, good soil. Wherever sagebrush grew, the soil was good, and sagebrush grew all over the valley. There were also tall grasses. Trees and bushes grew along all the streams and flowed from the mountains to the Jordan River and into the Great Salt Lake. On the mountains were forests of pine trees.
| |
