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Some good old NOM quotes
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 9:58 am
by Newme
Some old NOM forum quotes that I want to remember to help in navigating the most healthy middle way, most of these are from SPG (I made another thread in Mixed-faith):
*The Mormon religion is fairly new, even Jesus wasn’t Mormon.
*It is my VERY humble opinion that Women don’t need the Priesthood. Women, by their nature are more like God then men are…The concepts of the Priesthood are pretty cool – such as binding families together forever… But if you think about it, a woman does or undoes automatically what Priesthood claims the power to do. A mother’s love is eternal – where’s the need to bind? A mother’s touch will always have more healing power than an army of Priesthood holders. Priesthood is awesome for men. It makes them feel special, makes them try harder… “Unrighteous dominion” disqualifies people for it. And thinking that you have something to rule over… is actually very unrighteous.
*(Suggested response to considering breaking up marriage because of differing beliefs:)… There was a time I would have felt that way. However, I’ve come to the opinion that I value human relationships more than I value religious philosophies and I deplore any justification that would break up a perfectly good relationship to gain a membership. Joseph Smith himself said that salvation without your friends is no fun. Besides, salvation is based on relationships. Any church that would care about my membership over my relationships with friends and family doesn’t have the power to save me.
*Evil is created automatically by our fear. When we fear it, we push it away. That effort of pushing away is e-veil. Churches, in their own way, are e-veil, but we simply can’t handle the whole truth. But note the spirit of rejection that happens to NOM members when they lose the faith... We all have pain and we all fear, but evil separates us from our pain and our fear. What most/all churches call good, is actually evil. By rejecting pain and suffering and pushing it away, we actually promote it. Pain and suffering is a consequence to an action, whether the sin is in ourselves our culture, our universe, we cannot always tell. But the pain and suffering would ‘teach’ a better way. By finding ways to push it away, we don’t learn the lesson that it would teach.
*Churches: Hell’s Assisted Living Program
*To wonder if it was a ‘true church’ is sort of like wondering if I am a ‘true human.’ (The question is is it a good church? - yes and no - it's not all or nothing.)
Re: Some good old NOM quotes
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 9:59 am
by Newme
SEEKING TRUTH
*I think that NOM’s are a level of conscious responsibility that they must discern what is truth and not rely on human authorities to define it.
*It’s OK to be lost. It’s the first state of being, before you find yourself.
*Most of us NOM types are sort of loners, willing to believe differently and accept the rejection of the majority. But Organized Religion is organized belief. It’s about relating. Right now, many of us suffer from a broken relationship because our ‘belief’ was no longer organized like theirs.
*One of the most enduring features about Jesus, and perhaps most of the other great thinkers is their ability to set aside the rules. Jesus broke about every rule there was – which is probably the ONLY reason he made it into the history books. That he had a cool message was a good reason to keep him there.
*When I was 8, my mother said it was my responsibility to seek and know truth, and that just because she or my father might lose their faith, it was still my job to seek the truth. My commitment to God and truth is stronger than it ever was in the church. Knowing that people are not perfect gave me the strength to see and endure weakness without judging people to be stupid or wrong.
*Just as your father and mother made you feel special, loved, and created illusions of safety around you to grow in, so do churches. Reality to humans, is such a harsh reality. Our life here is so fragile. The consciousness is even more fragile, in certain ways.
*Every time I hit a wall of truth, I find a secret door. Pretty soon, you just begin to assume that every wall of truth has one.
HEALING
*For me, healing from religion is a process of recognizing self-punishment and stopping it.
*More and more, I realize the real treasure of Life is in the spirit. Material things, education, looks, etc., are not as important as functionality of the soul/spirit. A functioning spirit can do stuff, while someone struggling with guilt, blame, depression, etc are crippled and dysfunctional.
HUMILITY
*Once you think you “know something’ you close your mind to other possibilities. And when those possibilities begin to invade your consciousness, it seems like an act of violence. I wonder if the painful experiences could have been avoided if people had taken more responsibility for their thoughts and beliefs. Granted, I know the church doesn’t exactly encourage that, but still.
RESPECT
*Spirit gives a respect, a reference to things that I believe is necessary to understand truth. You can have all of the facts in the world, but if you are bitter and nasty and don’t give spirit due respect, life will always seem wanting.
*Respect your teachers, your school, and your fellow students. And when you leave the school, if you can bow in respect to the lessons you have learned, to the teachers you had, your fellow students, even to the school – life will line up a better school next time. But if you fail to respect the lessons and investments, I find that Life is not as giving. In fact, Life may not let you graduate from the lessons and make them stick until you can learn to at least respect something.
BELIEVE
*I say that believing is necessary. To call it a disorder is misleading and a lack of recognition of what life really is – Consciousness.
*A path is an important thing to have. Others have gone before you and already hacked out small paths, some small paths have been turned into super highways. Hacking your own path can be fun or lonely. But having that vision of where you are going to be in the after life, I find, to be one of the greatest motivations known to man. To simply die and be gone – just sort of leaves me unmotivated, afraid, overwhelmed, tired and bored.
Re: Some good old NOM quotes
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 10:01 am
by Newme
RELATIONSHIPS
*Maintaining family spirit should be your first concern.
*Thinking that anyone is a schmuck will inhibit your ability to find truth or peace in this universe.
*Accepting that we are all lost in this god-forsaken delusion will inspire compassion and acceptance of others. As Mormons, we are tempered to avoid the site of evil, that when it seems to arise, we turn and run. But even the best organizations in the world have their flaws. We should honor the goodness in people and not judge them because of their doctrine. As souls trying to mature we must resist the urge to run from our foolishness, for at some point we are all fools. I tip my hat to LDSman (founder of NOM).
*Don’t let the fact that people are afraid of a truth discourage you. You will learn that being afraid of truth is a reality of life on this planet. FOR EVERYONE.
*In the spirit of taking responsibility, is the healing of the relationship our responsibility or must we wait until they “evolve”? I often imagine the Great Masters as beings that could meet me on the street, make me trust them, (because they know where I am coming from) and create a feeling of ‘relationship’ with them. They would not need to correct me, or point me the right way, because they would trust that I would eventually find it. They could and would answer questions if I asked. They would be happy to see me. They would make me wish I could be more like them. And I would believe they loved me.
*An informed friend-maker has to know this and take responsibility for the risk. When hurt, you have to take a look at your own attitude, your own expectations, and adjust them. You cannot control other people’s actions, so you have to work with yourself and allow for other people’s weakness in your relationships. I’m not saying that you can avoid the pain, but I’m suggesting that you can still love the relationships and try to improve it in spite of the pain. We have a pretty good pain tolerance, use it to improve your relationships.
*As one who sort of lost his tribe, I worry about which tribe my daughter will join. I want to present the entire human race as her tribe… There is a part of us that is hungry to believe, and it is such a powerful part. To ignore it could limit her mind and power. But to put her on a frustrating and fruitless path isn’t my intent either.
*Reveal the idea that churches can hold the minds of people (as in Martin Luther and the Catholic church).
*I use affirmations sometimes to add clarity and truth to my relationships: “I cannot help how I feel, but relationships are important.” I allow the truth to flow where it might in that concept. What I find is that my feelings are a result of my attitude. A bad, selfish, or otherwise unhealthy or narcissistic attitude will produce unpleasant feelings. By working on the relationship, letting my feelings be my gauge, I adjust my attitude. By working directly with the relationship and not external principles such as religion, friendship marriage, etc., you slowly add more ‘truth’ to the relationship and thereby make deeper relationships . But in order to work directly with a relationship, one must tree it as if the other part is a foreign sovereign power. You have to want the relationship, but know that bad feelings are a luxury you cannot afford to express. As your attitude approaches the truth of relationships, the good feelings will follow.
Re: Some good old NOM quotes
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 10:26 am
by FiveFingerMnemonic
That was a nice Sunday devotional to read through, thanks for posting.
Re: Some good old NOM quotes
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 4:48 pm
by Newme
FiveFingerMnemonic wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2017 10:26 am
That was a nice Sunday devotional to read through, thanks for posting.
I'm glad you liked it.
