The Narrator

@jkimballcook What if your social and political views align with the mortal Jesus but against the Church?

A true testimony of the restored gospel is not conditioned on the church agreeing with your social, controversial, or political views.

@jkimballcook Nelson and crew made it very clear that they intended to cut away everything that wasn't directly intended to lead to temple worship.

@loydo38 I think that's a little unfair (he pretty clearly sees the role of the church as providing practical guidance, direction, personal conversation and growth, abd community as well, but I agree that he prioritizes ordinances over community.

the important thing about the church is that it is not a vehicle to preserve culture or race or political ideals, it is the kingdom of God on earth, with the keys to unlock the door of salvation for all people when you understand this you understand all it's recent teachings

@jkimballcook Some years ago Oaks said that the Church wasn't a social club. It was very clear that he didn't understand how Joseph viewed the Church or religion in general.

@jkimballcook Joseph Smith understanding the Church to be an instrument for community while Nelson and Oaks view it as a ritual dispenser is all you need to understand it's recent teachings.

@stackerco Religion and Friendly Fire by D.Z. Philips

Best philosophy books I should read. Tell me.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani mocks Ronald Reagan’s infamous quote. “I can think of nine words more terrifying than ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help…’” “I worked all day and can’t feed my family.”

Senator Tim Kaine details the history of U.S. actions in Iran:

Wow. Just wow.

@nineinchna1ls Health

Give me an artist in the replies and I’ll tell you my top 5 songs from them!!

It's very funny that because Trump has fired all the women in his admin he had to add a random AI woman with big boobs to this to make it seem less gay.

This is good

You don’t loathe Fetterman enough

imagine freeing one slave in your entire life and it’s Hitler

Socialism is so sick I love when tax dollars go to schools instead of wars

Harrison Ford: “Humanity is a part of nature, not above it. We need cultural change. We need to extend social justice. We need to respect and elevate the indigenous people that are being marginalized, and in many cases, killed in cold blood. The world you’re stepping into, the world my generation left you, is a real mess”

@stackerco My middle school seminary teacher in the 90s told me that Joseph's wives weren't sealed to him until after he died.

At least Grok doesn’t gaslight us.

@jonathanplumb Deutero-Isaiah. Was. Literally. A. Different. Person. Every. Biblical. Scholar. Knows. This.

Isaiah. Was. Literally. Dead. A. Century. Before. Lehi. Left. Jerusalem. And. They. Took. The. Brass. Plates. With. The. Original. Recorded. Record. With. Them. Forcing. Jews. To. Re-record. It. Later. Stacker literally knows NOTHING about how ancient Israel operated. They literally had scholars memorize every word of scripture. They memorized every word of the Books of Moses and more. This is what they did. It’s WELL DOCUMENTED. So when Lehi took the brass plates, it wasn’t hard for them to re-record the words of Isaiah. It’s also worth noting they didn’t take ANYTHING into exile in Babylon with them. They were taken, given no opportunity to pack, and brought over to Babylon. So they couldn’t have even preserved existing records but would have had to recreate them all. But notice the game of Telephone. The Isaiah we have in the Bible is almost identical to the Book of Mormon, with minor wording differences. Literally anyone with at least a peanut for a brain doesn’t fall for the horse shit stacker falls for. This is just lazy learning. It’s exactly what he accuses others of: only affirming preconceived conclusions. He’s worse than Dan McClellan.

@stackerco At bare minimum one would have to believe that Joseph supplemented the narrative with his own inspired additions, but that's still a challenge, given how those Isaiah passages are interwoven and appealed to within the text.

Deutero Isaiah is the open and shut evidence that the Book of Mormon is not historical. There is no way certain chapters of Isaiah could have been on the brass plates. It’s really time members talked about the book as a transformational/spiritual but not a historical.

@stevengthatcher @Sola_GPT @barrelagedfaith @Orthographix Just realized I never replied to this. I'm a Utah guy and not too far in WJ. However, while I'm down for a detailed talk about Mormon apologetics, a largely one-sided discussion that might feel like I'm trying to harm someone's faith doesn't seem very appetizing.

@loydo38 @Sola_GPT @barrelagedfaith @Orthographix Are you a Utah guy? I live near Tooele. Not opposed to in-person discussion, although I fear you’ll be disappointed. I’m no scholar. I’ve only read the scriptures, Jesus the Christ, and a few of the more well-known doctrine texts.

The biggest thorn in the side of Mormonism is that its historical claims lack plausibility at an insane level. You don't have to be C.S. Lewis to recognize this (someone who even wrote a book on Miracles). Joseph Smith discovering a bunch of lost ancient texts in New York is a difficult place to begin the story. Skepticism only increases when you read the first book of Mormon, 1 Nephi, which quotes large sections of the Gospel while Nephi is a prophet from 600 years before the Gospels were written. Wow, these predictions are 5 thousand times more accurate than Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel combined! (Nephi references Nazareth, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, the Baptism of the Lord, and the 12 Apostles, and the Crucificxion all within a few verses of each other!) 1 Nephi 11 - "And I beheld the city of Nazareth; and in the city of Nazareth I beheld a virgin, and she was exceedingly fair and white.... 18 And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh... 27 And I looked and beheld the Redeemer of the world, of whom my father had spoken; and I also beheld the prophet who should prepare the way before him. And the Lamb of God went forth and was baptized of him; and after he was baptized, I beheld the heavens open, and the Holy Ghost come down out of heaven and abide upon him in the form of a dove... 29 And I also beheld twelve others following him.... 33 And I, Nephi, saw that he was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world.

@Anarcho_Cyclist @matpolloy This.

@matpolloy IMO the anti-TLJ meme is mostly a conservative point of view, in that if you have enough vision to want things to be better, political conservatism *also* frames that as hating the society you want to improve. They either do not see or do not accept the love that drives change.

TLJ has some flaws, mainly in comedic humor, but the movie is absolutely not Anti-Star Wars. The movie couldn’t love Star Wars more.