1/x I haven't published anything about growing up in fundamentalist Mormonism until today.
Most people outside the sect have no idea how weird it really is. Here's a story of the day I almost sold my soul--to God flux.community/matthew-sheffi…
In the LDS religion, adherents are forced to give everything they have to the church. My father took things several steps further and made his kids promise to become perfect or be cast into hell. It was a very disturbing experience and the first time I didn't believe.
The idea came to my father on a trip we took to a field in northwest Missouri where Mormons believe that Adam from the Bible lived after being cast out of the Garden of Eden, which was also in Missouri, dontcha know
Mormonism is known for its absurd origin story of Native Americans but it really grew as a end of the world cult. That's why the official name is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
For more than 150 years, Mormons have taught that Jesus is coming back any day.
They don't talk about it to outsiders but this is still a current belief, taught to even the youngest of children.
We all were made to sing this song about what we'd do if Jesus returned some random day. The guilt culture starts very young.
Pretty much every Mormon who takes their faith seriously is manipulated into constantly doubting their own moral worth and to fear being burned by Jesus.
Evangelicals have developed this idea in recent decades, too.
It's such a damaging belief, so terrible to subject kids to.
Anyway. Please have a read and let me know your thoughts.
I could use some help spreading this thread as the link is the first chapter in my upcoming memoir.
Thanks!
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Lots of people outside of the white evangelical subculture couldn't believe that the "family values" crowd would be so loyal to a casino owner and habitual adulterer like Donald Trump.
1/x. Donald Trump's defunct blog is the latest in a string of far-right media failures. Here's my look as a former conservative media consultant at what it means.
Far-right Republicans have been trying to create their own "alternative to X" platforms for decades. RightBook, ReaganBook, and FreedomBook all come to mind.
I personally was involved w/a Christian YouTube wannabe called EyeBlast. It failed. The domain now directs to a porn site
The one thing all of these ventures have in common is that despite their claims to be against "censorship," they actually were nothing but propaganda sites. Left-wingers or moderate Republicans weren't welcome.
There's a long history of such media failures going to the 1970s.
1/x I haven't published anything yet about growing up in a Mormon fundamentalism but editing @C_Stroop's latest article about evangelicals' obsession w/sex got me thinking.
Although their doctrines often have vast differences, authoritarian religions often function the same.
That's definitely true in regards to the unhealthy views of sex that are so common in high-demand faiths. Members do not have autonomy over their own bodies, their very selves.
Chrissy's essay speaks to this very well in the evangelical Protestant subculture but I've heard people from extremist Catholic, Jewish, and Islamic families say the same.
Those aren't my stories, but I can tell of my Mormon experience and how it parallels to Chrissy's account.
Beyond the obvious Disney carve-out, the law is a great example of how the flim-flam peddled as conservative technology policy is nonsensical and would harm them also.
Legally, all of these laws can be used against right-wing social sites. And they will be.
Suppose that by dint of a miracle that Trump does actually get to the 100 million uniques threshold in the FL law. That means that leftist trolls can sue Trump if he bans them.
People would be lining up to file such suits. And they would be hilarious.
Kirk began his career on a lie, claiming to know that he had been rejected by West Point based on affirmative action. He started TPUSA by telling rich, elderly Republicans that he would stop the millennials from becoming socialists. (That didn't exactly work, did it?)
But Kirk did have one important difference in his message from past GOP youth outreach. He correctly understood that Americans, especially young ones, want secular arguments for ideas, not religious ones.
This idea + Kirk's open embrace of trolling, propelled him on campus.
Texas has so many additional taxes that its burden is actually higher than California's for middle-class people.
California's taxes on rich people are significantly higher than Texas. That's actually why GOP commentators whine about CA taxes bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…