Thomas Flake

@MakJae9 @pimomormon I don't have any opinion on what the JWs do...strange that you are judgemental about groups you aren't part of...kinda weird way to spend your time.

@tgflake @pimomormon No don’t see it as important. Just one is more exploitative than others. But would you have the same opinion if it was about another church? Or is it cuz it’s your system it’s okay ? If it was JWs you wouldn’t feel the same

Mormons need to quit lying about the requirement to pay tithing to enter the temple. You can’t get a recommend for it while being honest. If you don’t pay tithing and you are honest, you will fail the temple recommend interview.

@NewProgressUSA Learn some economics first..then come post something. All UBI will do is result in one eternal round of 1)free money followed by 2)inflation followed by 3)calls for more free money followed by 1)more free money followed by 2)more inflation...

Everyone who opposes UBI now deserves to be ridiculed for the rest of their lives once we finally have it. They should forever be mocked for being the most primitive among us. Don’t ever let them live down the fact that they stood in the way of progress.

I voted for Donald Trump because, at the time, he felt like the lesser of two options I didn’t trust. I didn’t want to see Joe Biden or Kamala Harris continue what I believed was a system full of corruption, mismanagement, and constant tension. Trump’s message was simple: No new wars. End existing conflicts. Put America first. That was the foundation of my support. But looking at things now, I’m struggling to square those promises with what’s actually happening. We’re seeing conflicts intensify instead of cool down. Billions continue to flow overseas in aid and military support to places like Ukraine and Israel. And at home? People are still dealing with rising grocery bills. Veterans are still without stable housing. Families are still buried in debt and uncertainty. So I keep asking the same question: Where does America First fit into all of this? I didn’t vote for deeper global involvement. I voted for stability at home. I voted for relief, not expansion. And honestly, that’s where my frustration comes from. Not anger for the sake of it—but disappointment in what’s changed, and the gap between what was promised and what feels real on the ground today. I’m not sure how many others feel the same, but it’s getting harder to ignore that gap.

@Truth_matters20 Where in the Internet, nuclear power or space travel found in the Bible?

Where are Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon found in the Bible?

@oliverburdick Does you logic hold for Jospeh Smith and the founders of the LDS church or are we going to witness your double standard once again?

Jesus's disciples risked their lives to spread the Gospel to the nations. Almost all of them became martyrs in the process. They did not die for a lie.

@RockChartrand @grok at this point we have had years to assess what a higher minimum wage has done to the amount of available entry level jobs in California. What does the data tell us?

The uncomfortable reality is that for many workers the transition wouldn’t be from $7 an hour to $15 an hour. It would be from $7 an hour to unemployed. A wage law cannot magically double someone’s productivity or the value their labor creates. If a position only generates enough value to justify a lower wage, many employers respond by: • Cutting jobs • Reducing hours • Automating tasks • Refusing to hire inexperienced workers • Increasing workloads on remaining employees So the workers who keep their jobs often end up doing the work of the eliminated positions while entry level workers lose the opportunity entirely. Paying market wages is not disrespect. The disrespectful position is pretending politicians can override supply, demand, productivity, and business reality without consequences for the very people they claim to help.

@jonathanplumb That's more or less true for everything after the return from the Babylonian captivity...before that some is tradition taken from older cultures, some is myth and some is history.

I find it fascinating that someone can say they believe the Bible is literal and the response is something like, “So you think Jesus was a door?” No. I think Jesus literally said that. If you can’t distinguish between a literal historical record and metaphor used within spoken language, I don’t know what to tell you except maybe history/theology isn’t for you. The Bible records real people, real events, and real statements. The fact that human beings speak metaphorically does not suddenly transform the surrounding historical account into fiction. Jesus literally said He was the door. Balaam’s donkey literally spoke. The Flood literally happened. If the Bible says it happened, you can take that to the bank.

@MakJae9 @pimomormon Both are commands of the Lord for each member to obey or not, they are identical.

@tgflake @pimomormon No. One is the church taking wealth from its members. The other “commandments” the church doesn’t take wealth. It isn’t the same

@MakJae9 @pimomormon Only if you see one commandment as more important than another, which you obviously do.

@tgflake @pimomormon Not keeping the word of wisdom doesn’t make the church richer. Stupid comparison.

@simonmaechling Do they alter your MRNA? If so, how is that better. Asking for a friend that didn't have Leiden factor 5 before COVID vaccine.

For the umpteenth time, mRNA vaccines are not gene therapy. They cannot alter your DNA.

I think the Church is sensitive to even the appearance of this. Used to be you could rent temple garb, now you can borrow it, and or own your own. Many of the new temples you must own your own. With regard to tithing as indulgences, I can see your read, I don't agree with it any mote than you saying not keeping the word of wisdom is somehow untoward.

@tgflake @pimomormon Because it’s indulgences. Pay us to get saving ordinances. Terrible.

@religiongal Might have something to do with all the democrats moving in from California.

Black Latter-day Saints says racism in Utah has risen a lot in the past decade due to "the political situation" in America. Does that match what you have seen? sltrib.com/religion/2026/…

@oliverburdick The Apostle Junia (a woman) and the female prophetesses of the Bible would like a word...

“Did God really say women aren’t permitted to preach, or was that just the Apostle Paul?”

@LisaBlackpoint @mehdirhasan @AOC Uh, she ran in a primary where the DNC screwed Sen. Sanders because she was the coronated candidate and his popularity became...inconvenient...you mean that primary...that wasn't really a primary?

@tgflake @mehdirhasan @AOC Hillary ran in a real primary. I voted in it. What are you all talking about. You’ve all swallowed a cult pill.

So I think @aoc’s super power in 2028 is that a bunch of terminally online Republicans and addicts of Fox have convinced themselves AOC is dumb or extreme, totally underestimate her, and they don’t have any clue just what a powerful and inspiring communicator she is and how much ordinary Americans - as well as Republican base voters, will be impressed by her mission statement.

@rabbriansamuel You left out Acts 15, where the Lord in a vision to Peter and ratified by the church did away with the necessity to keep the mosaic law except for four exceptions.

One thing that is both biblically factual and admittedly difficult to reconcile is that Paul participated in Temple sacrifices decades after his conversion. In Acts 21, Paul returns from a missionary journey and meets with James and the elders in Jerusalem. James tells Paul that many thousands of Jews have believed in Yeshua, and that they are all zealous for the Torah (Acts 21:20). At the same time, rumors had spread that Paul was teaching Jews to forsake Moses, avoid circumcision, and abandon the customs (Acts 21:21). To publicly refute those accusations, James tells Paul to join four men who are under a vow (Acts 21:23). These men would have been Jewish Christians. Otherwise, why would they be traveling with James? The vow was certainly a Nazirite vow, because the men shaved their heads at the completion of the vow, in accordance with the Torah. Acts 21:24: Take them along and purify yourself together with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads. Numbers 6:18: The Nazirite shall then shave his consecrated head of hair at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and take the consecrated hair of his head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings. Acts 21:26 says: “Then Paul took the men, and the next day, after purifying himself together with them, he went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.” This demonstrates several important points: 1. Paul purified himself before entering the Temple and participating in the offering process. Ritual purification was required for approaching the Temple in a state of cleanness, which involved immersion in water (this is where baptism comes from). 2. These Jewish Christians completed their Nazirite vow with the required sacrifices, in accordance with Book of Numbers 6. In addition, Acts 18:18 indicates that Paul himself had previously taken a Nazarite vow, which would have required a sacrifice at its conclusion: “At Cenchreae he had his hair cut, for he was under a vow.” This very well could have been the same vow that he concluded with the four men in Acts 21. I am not unaware that this creates tension. Hebrews firmly teaches that Yeshua’s sacrifice was final and sufficient, offered once for all. Yet the plain reading of Acts shows that while the Temple was still standing, Paul and others continued to participate in Temple practices, including the offering associated with the completion of a Nazirite vow. Scripture must be allowed to speak for itself, even when the full implications are difficult to reconcile. And Scripture explicitly states that Paul continued to keep the whole of Torah throughout his life. Acts 21:24: “...but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the Torah.”

@ThoughtfulSaint @ByJimbob Even when you have a central adjudicator you get schism. We have FLDS and RLDS they have SSPX.

Without an ultimate single adjudicator like a pope or a prophet orthobros like @ByJimbob have the same problem as Protestants. It’s why the eastern and oriental orthodox split. When you don’t have a central adjudicator you get schism.

Never happened. Ignatius -> Polycarp -> Iranaeus. Which one was Pope? John was the last living Apostle...why was he never Pope? Why did Polycarp...the Bishop of Smyrna travel to Rome late in life to clean up the mess there allowed by the Bishop (not Pope) of Rome? Why was his authority recognized by the Bishop of Rome? There was no Pope until after the creation of the State sponsored church by Constantine. Until then you had city based Bishops, Rome had several, not one. Read Revelation - John addressed parts to various churches NEVER to the Pope, why is that?

Catholicism is the original church. Orthodoxy developed between the 5th and 9th centuries. Protestantism in the 16th. Only Rome is built on the bones of St. Peter and holds his faith unbroken.

@Truth_matters20 "Of these, faith, hope and charity, the greatest is charity"...why is charity greater than faith?

We are not saved by baptism, sacraments, obedience, and works. We are saved by faith and by faith alone.

@JoelMCurzon The difference could be attributed to the popularity of the Harry Potter books and no equivalent today?

My daughter is in 11th grade, and has now taken 8 AP tests. She reads real books. She’s interested in philosophy, physics, biology, etc. But on average, the kids are not doing well at all. Education is failing in the United States.