Mormonism strikes a funny balance. Personal revelation is considered an important core tenant of the Church, but if your personal revelation is different from Church leadership positions then maaaaybe you need to try doing a personal revelation again. My dad called it "folk doctrine" and "doctrine doctrine". I think it's part of why Mormonism doesn't splinter as frequently -- only for big stuff, like ending polygamy or letting black people be ordained.

My parents force me to go to church. Ironically, despite not giving a shit about church or the Bible, I have more basic compassion for people. They’ll preach big about the Bible but when it comes to seeing another struggling person as a human being, they’ll instantly become nihilists. I mean, I’m pessimistic too, but I’m not religious so I get an excuse.

Ironically, it’s because they believe Americans are too evil and not worth helping despite loving the country so much. My mom would keep saying shit like “I’m sorry god, but you simply can’t love or help anyone in America like you can in Vietnam”

I think the takeaway here is that the US strips away your humanity.

Also, one of the significant reasons for why men don’t want to become catholic priests is because they’re afraid of being accused of sexual abuse lmao

One of my high school teachers was a Seventh Day Adventist I think and she didn't believe in dancing (singing was ok but only gospel songs). She told my buddy that she wanted her first dance to be with the Lord.

That's an interesting vid. It seems like there's a difference between the idealist conception of religion (that people join the one that matches their values) and the actual way churches operate (that people are inducted into it as part of a community and stay with it as long as they remain members of that community).

My own family seems to follow this logic, leaving and joining and leaving and joining again churches based on community rather than any kind of changing religious conviction. My mom left when she left her parents' community behind and became an atomized middle class type, then would try to join churches and bounce off because she just didn't have the attachment to the communities those churches represented necessary to maintain membership, and then in recent years has re-joined a church because my youngest siblings made friends who were members of it, drawing the whole family into that community in what I suspect will be a much more durable membership than any of the ones we flirted with when I was growing up.

I've not joined though because I'm moved out and have no desire to. I did get forced to go to church when I was a kid for a while, but that was strictly so that my mom could get a discount on tuition because we lived in a shitty neighborhood and she didn't want me in public school at that time.

God chooses who will be saved: 20%

People choose Jesus Christ as their savior: 46%

:wojak-nooo: : Noooo you can't just say people choose Jesus as their savior, that's Semi-Pelagianism and was condemned as heresy way back in 529! We spent the entire Reformation accusing each other of being Semi-Pelagianists! It undermines both the doctrine of original sin, you can't just choose to be good, you have to rely on God's gracerinoooo

:gigachad: : I have no idea what any of that means, see you next Sunday