To Our CoB Lurker Friends...

[Not Buying It]

Hi! Some discussion in another thread got me thinking...CoB lurker Friends, we know you are watching. We don’t really know anything about you...you might be an underpaid father trying to raise a family and make ends meet working for an organization that is notoriously stingy with wages (unless you’re at the top)... you might be a senior missionary who thought a mission meant you’d be out teaching the gospel and instead an organization well-known for using senior missionaries for free labor for things it ought to be paying for is exploiting you to monitor websites...you sure as shooting aren’t a General Authority, those guys always get someone else to do their dirty work for them...

We don’t know anything about you - and you don’t really know anything about us. But I’ll tell you what - the pain, confusion, hurt, and anger you read about here is very real. I know, I’ve lived it. All these feelings are coming from real people who are in real pain. So ask yourself, why are you doing what you are doing? Is it because the Church sees this pain in some of its members and wants to alleviate it? Does it want to help lessen that pain? Is it really at all concerned about it? Or is the Church only having you do this because it’s concerned about itself, concerned about maintaining control, concerned about squashing dissent, concerned about monitoring and addressing threats? Who is the Church having you do this for - its members, or itself?

I feel sorry for you, whoever you are - you have to read about all of this stuff and somehow convince yourself it’s OK. Joseph Smith’s sexually predatory behavior and Egyptian mistranslations and Brother Brigham’s toxic shenanigans and all the inconsistencies of the Brethren today along with their cosmic inability to do anything remotely miraculous like their scriptural counterparts - you have to read about all the baggage of Mormonism every day. Maybe you’re exceptionally stupid or deluded and it doesn’t bother you, but most people aren’t like that. You may be experiencing some turmoil yourself, even if you try to push that turmoil away or bury it so deep it won’t bother you. And if so, know that all of us here know what you are going through.

We’ve been through it ourselves. That’s why we are here.

[2bizE]

and...we welcome you to our NOM site because we are your neighbors and we know someday you may be stuck in the middle of Mormonism like we are.

[Red Ryder]

You think we get Klingons hanging around Uranus?

[Not Buying It]

and...we welcome you to our NOM site because we are your neighbors and we know someday you may be stuck in the middle of Mormonism like we are.

I second that. Welcome to the site!

P.S. If you captured the posts from the old site, there are some people here you could make really happy if you were willing to share!

[jfro18]

You must have some serious mental abilities to listen to the 'critical' podcasts or read the critical sites and maintain a testimony.

I know there are some who truly know everything and maintain their faith, but that is a small minority at least in what I've seen.

And of those who claim that, when you press them on some of the issues they have no awareness of them... it would be like skimming the CES Letter and then reading the FAIR response and saying you've seen everything and your testimony is good.

The CES Letter is a great overview but it leaves out some things and also can't go as deep on each issue for the obvious reasons... and most people have no idea of the rebuttal material that Runnels posted in the years following it... and most people who read the CES Letter and dismiss it have spent no time researching it beyond church-approved rebuttals.

I don't know if the CoB actually lurks here or not, but please shoot me a message if you do as I have some questions.

[Mackman]

I would like to add and reiterate that the Pain here is Real I know also I live it !!!!!! Someday you may understand and join us . Until that day God Bless you that you may see the light and have compassion on us .

[Red Ryder]

What if someone here is actually a COB spy?

Planted among us to pick our brains, package our emotional pains, and hauled up to the 26th Floor to be converted into General Cobference talks?

What if Dallin H Oaks was among us this whole time? Hagoth, is that you?

What if Sherri Dew was among us this whole time? Mopag, is that you?

What if kishkumen was actually David Bednar? That would explain why he's wound tight like into a dish!

What if the COB didn't even know our little internet ward here exists?

We're just a bunch of pansies who can't figure out how to leave the church! Why would they waste their time here?

[MoPag]

What if Sherri Dew was among us this whole time? Mopag, is that you?

Oh sh!t how did you find out?
Did you hear that COB? I'm really Sheri and my girlfriend is married to Rusty. So you can't get me in trouble.

[Not Buying It]

What if the COB didn't even know our little internet ward here exists?

We're just a bunch of pansies who can't figure out how to leave the church! Why would they waste their time here?

Oh, it’s possible. But we know for a fact they are monitoring RFM. I really don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to think they are monitoring us also.

[2bizE]

What if someone here is actually a COB spy?

Planted among us to pick our brains, package our emotional pains, and hauled up to the 26th Floor to be converted into General Cobference talks?

What if Dallin H Oaks was among us this whole time? Hagoth, is that you?

What if Sherri Dew was among us this whole time? Mopag, is that you?

What if kishkumen was actually David Bednar? That would explain why he's wound tight like into a dish!

What if the COB didn't even know our little internet ward here exists?

We're just a bunch of pansies who can't figure out how to leave the church! Why would they waste their time here?

Whoa! Sort of like a cylon in battlestar galactica.

[græy]

We're just a bunch of pansies who can't figure out how to leave the church! Why would they waste their time here?

Hey! I resemble that remark!

[Not Buying It]

Forgive the cross posting from another thread:

I do wonder if LDS Inc does the actual monitoring themselves or if they contract it out?

If they did it in house, it would be the most cost effective way, but they run a high risk of anyone assigned to the job of monitoring things online will eventually have their testimony challenged which cold result in faith crisis and loosing said member.

If they contract it out, then some 3rd party who doesn't care about the doctrine just simply submits a report and they really have no concern about the actual topics that are discussed. It's more expansive to hire someone, but the members are insulated from someone loosing their faith.

Mary Snap's story (medium.com)

I don’t share this to hurt the Church in any way, but I do think it’s important for others to know that the LDS Church *does* track security threats, and they have some of the most talented individuals in the world working for them to do so. So even if you’re in a private or secret group, always remember there are likely people watching, either from the COB, or members going rogue and trying to report it to the COB.

[slavereeno]

We're just a bunch of pansies who can't figure out how to leave the church! Why would they waste their time here?

Hey! I resemble that remark!

Same.

[wtfluff]

Planted among us to pick our brains, package our emotional pains, and hauled up to the 26th Floor to be converted into General Cobference talks?

Uh... That's not what happens on the 26th floor dude. (Just so you know...)

[DPRoberts]

Planted among us to pick our brains, package our emotional pains, and hauled up to the 26th Floor to be converted into General Cobference talks?

Uh... That's not what happens on the 26th floor dude. (Just so you know...)

Okay, I'll bite. What does happen on the 26th floor?

[wtfluff]

Planted among us to pick our brains, package our emotional pains, and hauled up to the 26th Floor to be converted into General Cobference talks?

Uh... That's not what happens on the 26th floor dude. (Just so you know...)

Okay, I'll bite. What does happen on the 26th floor?

Well... Back in the day, a long, long time ago, in a land far away, when I had "contacts" on the inside... The 26th floor of the COB belonged to LD$-Inc. "security." They'd never give the penthouse suite to a bunch of lowly "speech writers."

[CaptainSalty]

Consiglieri got to actually talk to someone in the SCMC. Part of that conversation involved the Seventy wanting to confirm Consiglieri's identity before they got too much more information on their file. So, SCMC, let me know who I need to call to get hold of my file. I will be far more forthcoming of my own identity.

[Red Ryder]

Consiglieri got to actually talk to someone in the SCMC. Part of that conversation involved the Seventy wanting to confirm Consiglieri's identity before they got too much more information on their file. So, SCMC, let me know who I need to call to get hold of my file. I will be far more forthcoming of my own identity.

I thought you would have popped in to tell us you scanned the logs to see if the SCMC at least reads the site?

[Corsair]

I thought you would have popped in to tell us you scanned the logs to see if the SCMC at least reads the site?

It's hard to pull them out of the logs. Plenty of other connections come from the Salt Lake Area.