Such a supremely dumb religion. If you’re ever bored, look into its history and be completely dumbfounded by the fact that people believe this shit in 2023.

  • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I fucking despise the Mormon religion and the way it relies upon cultural and historical revisionism at the expense of my ancestors.

    Imagine if I did the same shit to the Anglo-Saxon history. "King Arthur was actually from Namibia." They would lose their fucking minds.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Retconned history like this happens all the time. There are a group of vocal young men who hang out at the Downtown Houston bus stop, dress all in purple, and insist Ashkenazi Jews are part of a vast conspiracy to undermine the original black tribes of Israel. There are Chinese Christians that insist Jesus's brother came to liberate East Asia. There are Hinduvistas and American Natives and Australian Aboriginals that will all tell you they're the birthplace of human civilization. The Ancient Astronauts die-hards will insist there's no place on earth where you can find the birthplace of human civilization.

      I honestly don't care. If Mormons want to read my name off a list, ring a bell, and insist I've been retroactively baptized into their faith because that's what gets them off, cool. Whatever.

      What bothers the fuck out of me is how many of these little parasites are propping up the CIA, the FBI, and a host of other 3-letter agencies. This dipshit with a flag takes no skin off my nose. But I bet dollars to donuts that he's got a sibling in law enforcement just looking for an excuse to give someone a bad day in order to improve his resume.

      I wouldn't know or care what Mormonism was if not for the enormous network of influence that's snaked its way into every group of armed thugs my nation sponsors.

      • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        There are Chinese Christians that insist Jesus’s brother came to liberate East Asia.

        At least this one isn't asserting a historical claim or invalidating anyone's identity.

        Hong Xiuquan was a guy who existed, led an anti-imperialist war in China, and believed he was Christ's brother.

        Still very weird.

        • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          At least this one isn’t asserting a historical claim or invalidating anyone’s identity.

          Idk if you can seriously make the claim that the Taipei Rebellion never hurt nobody.

          They certainly invalidated a few identities as they converted people at sword point (and then formed schisms and started re-converting each other at sword point).

          Even then, I'm hard pressed to argue what they do was strictly wrong. It just wasn't this liberalish pretending at egalitarianism. The Rebels came to rule, not to simply make space for their new beliefs. At some point, Mormon leadership understands the need to grasp political power if they want to live in their ideal world.

          • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Idk if you can seriously make the claim that the Taipei Rebellion never hurt nobody.

            I wasn't making a claim about the violence of the rebellion itself.

            I was making a claim about the damage caused by "retconning history" when "there are Chinese Christians who insist Jesus’s brother came to liberate East Asia."

            That's not a retcon in the same way the others are and isn't invalidating the history or identity of people like when you claim someone isn't a real Jew or ancient aliens built everything.

            • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
              ·
              2 years ago

              the damage caused by “retconning history” when “there are Chinese Christians who insist Jesus’s brother came to liberate East Asia.”

              Was the convert-or-die zealotry of the adherents. It wasn't hurt feelings. They were literally stabbing you if you disagreed.

              That’s not a retcon in the same way the others are and isn’t invalidating the history or identity of people like when you claim someone isn’t a real Jew or ancient aliens built everything.

              Its exactly the same. They all did the same stuff. They were so eager to fanfic local histories to accommodate the new faith that they ran straight over each others toes and started killing one another over claims of heresy. It was Protestantism all over again.

              • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]
                ·
                edit-2
                2 years ago

                They were so eager to fanfic local histories to accommodate the new faith that they ran straight over each others toes and started killing one another over claims of heresy. It was Protestantism all over again

                This makes a lot of sense. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

                I get what you mean now analogizing Hong and the Heavenly Kingdom with Smith and Mormonism.

                Was the convert-or-die zealotry of the adherents. It wasn’t hurt feelings. They were literally stabbing you if you disagreed.

                I think I got tripped over the frames of reference/verb tense. I was taking the initial frame of reference to be primarily a modern Chinese Christian (who oddly upholds Hong Xiuquan, but probably isn't stabbing anyone), rather than actual 19th century people who definitely did a lot of violence.

        • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]M
          ·
          2 years ago

          I'm a much bigger fan of Jesus' definitely real brother, Isukiri Christ, who took his brother's place on the cross so that Jesus himself could move to Shingō in Aomori Prefecture, Japan to fulfil his dream of being a garlic farmer, and changed his name to Torai Tora Daitenku.

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I haven't seen it in decades but I'm like 60% sure that this was lampooned in Samurai Champloo.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Doing necromancy on other people's dead ancestors is a special kind of perverse depravity I haven't really encountered anywhere else. There are a lot of people who believe a lot of really weird shit, but conversion for the dead is such a uniquely bizarrely wrong practice.

        • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Doing necromancy on other people’s dead ancestors is a special kind of perverse depravity

          It's just lazy self-satisfied non-charity. You get to spend a few hours doing busy work and tell yourself that you saved more souls than anyone working at a homeless shelter.

          It has nothing to do with the people getting baptized and everything to do with reinforcing dogma on the people doing the baptisms.

    • Dolores [love/loves]
      ·
      2 years ago

      we can swing an arthur character being from africa as a transplant from the african bits of the roman empire, but namibia's a bit beyond the transportation technology of the time

      • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        That's kinda why I chose it. I mean, St George was a brown dude from North Africa. Ended up the patron Saint of England. So I had to further afield in my fictional attempt to piss off the :anglo-burn: