Easy to be Entreated

I love the Simpsons! When I was a TBM, I found the show very inappropriate and sacriligious, but now I love it. Despite being crude, it tackles some serious philosophical and ethical issues with witty satire (as does South Park). Anyway, since "losing my religion" I have espeicially enjoyed the religious humor of the Simpsons. I find this article on the Simpson's view of religion with plenty of quotes that made me laugh out loud. Here is the link . Enjoy! "Dear God, this is Marge Simpson. If you stop this hurricane and save our family, we will be forever grateful and recommend you to all of our friends." Or a nuclear meltdown, begun at Homer's workplace. "Dear Lord," Marge prays, "if you spare this town from becoming a smoking hole in the ground, I'll try to be a better Christian. I don't know what I can do. Ummm . . . ...

After leaving the Church and theism, my priorities and values have changed somewhat. I mean I still value honesty and kindness and such, but much that I used to respect is no longer important to me such as I looked negatively upon less than valiant church attendence, watching R-rated movies, and shopping on the Sabbath. I can't believe how much I fussed over things that I now believe don't matter. Personally, I would have absolutely no problem with my young kids cussing if I lived a society where everyone is cool with it. The only reason I don't think it is a good idea for my young children to cuss is due to the negative reaction other adults would give. Some people might advise, "Screw what other people think, live your life the way you are comfortable". But, I have found that there are numerous advantages to socially fitting in, and small concessions are worth the pay off. Although I still feel that those who have a problem with cussing are raising much ad...

I love margaritas, strawberry daiquiris, mojitos and hurricanes. I can't stand beer, at least none that I've tried, but I am getting to the point I don't even want to try beer anymore. I think why waste money on another beer that I'll taste then throw out, when I can spend that same money on some other form of alcohol that I either know I love or am likely to love. I do like wine coolers which are actually flavored beer, but don't taste like beer. I love wines of all sorts. I started out with the sweet wines, such as white Zinfandel, then progressed to the dry wines (not sweet). I like both white and red wines, but I'd suggest starting with a white wine if you are new to wines. I also found that I really enjoyed mead, which is a wine made from honey. One can drink mead cold, in which it is very similar a white wine in taste and viscosity. Mead is often sold with a packet of spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, etc). One can heat up mead over the stove and pour...

Occasionally, I hear of couples having marriage problems due to differing religious beliefs. While working on my MA in Psychology, I specialized in couples therapy. I suggest finding a therapist who practices Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy (IBCT) . Research shows that it is the most effective couples therapy out there. You may also want to look into getting a copy of the companion self-help book Reconcilable Differences written by the developers of IBCT, Jacobson and Christiansen.

I am sure the TBM's who read this post are going to accuse me of spreading anti-Mormon rumors/lies about the beloved Prophet. This will be especially the case because most if not all of my sources are statements from those disaffected with Joseph or the Church. I acknowledge the possibility that the allegations are untrue. I don't believe either of us can declare definitively whether these allegations are false or true, but no doubt some TBM's will speak as though they KNOW that these allegations are false, which of course they can't know that. So, why post these quotes? Because people deserve the opportunity to investigate for themselves and make up their own minds about it. The more I research things, the more I trust the word of the disaffected Mormons more than the Church Leadership. Mrs. [Sarah Pratt].: "You hear often that Joseph had no polygamous offspring. The reason of this is very simple. Abortion was practiced on a large scale ...

Maybe it is just me, but I cannot comprehend what people are talking about when they say it is important to find your own truth. You see, for me, there is no such thing as "your truth" and "my truth", there is only the truth and it is the same for all of us no matter what we believe. Because I understand truth to mean the way things really are, and they either are some particular way or they are not. Either Mt. Rushmore exists or it does not; it cannot exist for me and not exist for you. Now, you might not know it exists, but that doesn't change the reality - that doesn't change the truth. You might perceive it differently or call it by some other name, but it either exists for both of us or it doesn't exist for both of us. There is no my truth and your truth about it; there is only the truth, at least the way I use and understand the word truth. So, others must be using the word differently from me and I want to understand what they mean by...