In a recent piece by Fred Karger, called Mormon Church Bleeding Members Over Gay Marriage Karger hints that the Mormon Church has hemorrhaged members in the 7 figure range.
Insiders have indicated that over the last seven years the Mormon Church may have lost up to 1 million members because of all it did to end gay marriage. These formerly loyal Church members decided to side with their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) family members and friends instead of their Church. Because of the way the Mormon Church works, you're either with them 100 percent on everything or you're out. If you are LGB or T and act on it, then you will be excommunicated, your name will be removed from Church records and you're no longer a member. – huffingtonpost.com
Have you noticed a decline in your church's attendance?
Or are you receiving more people into your more accepting church due to their previous church's narrow minded ways?
Fred Karger goes on in his piece Mormon Church Bleeding Members Over Gay Marriage to cover A Proclamation to the World, Mormon Church Lied About All it did to Pass Prop 8, and Secret Mormon Documents. His full article is definitely worth a read. Another excerpt reads:
These documents proved that the Mormon Church's 1995 declaration of war against gay marriage and the LGBT community was a deliberate and well executed plan over a long period of time. It was also crystal clear that it had partnered with the Catholic Church in its fight. It also showed the extremes that the Mormon Church went through to avoid getting caught including setting up its last front group, the crooked National Organization for Marriage (NOM) in 2007 to help qualify and pass Prop 8. – huffingtonpost.com
Read more at huffingtonpost.com
I’d also like to point out
I'd also like to point out that I spent two years in Africa as an LDS missionary and we didn't just preach. We helped teach English classes at schools clear weeds in fields so people could plant food, dig whales for drinking water, we even helped clear out mud from a mudslide that happened at a school for the deaf. So we don't just preach. Also the LDS church was at the scene after hurricane Katrina before the red cross was there, helping not preaching. I'm saying all this out of sorrow not anger. I've seen how much love the people of the church have for their fellow man, not all of course. But I'm starting to see the same hatred that befell the LGBT community now falling upon the Mormons. Acceptance is different than beliefs.
I’m LDS and I’m homeless. I’m
I'm LDS and I'm homeless. I'm LDS and I have a close gay friend. Being LDS doesn't make you rich or a bigot. Too many people are generalizing and grouping. And I don't blame the church for my homelessness.
ved
Never trust a preacher with
Never trust a preacher with the nicest car in his church
The biggest threat to
The biggest threat to religion isn't activists, but Time. Time is the #1 killer of religions. Sure, they continue on in name, but for example, gay marriage. An issue that more and more young people are becoming more acceptant of. As more young people become more acceptant of it, the less likely they are to affiliate with a church that deems it a sin. Therefore, either the Mormon church has to adapt to the changing times (thus abandoning certain rules, which raises the question, is it still the Mormon church or a new version of it?), continue to oppose it or risk losing more and more members as the years go by.
So is it really still the the same Mormon church as it was 50 years ago? Same with Christianity. Some Christians, during the segregation era, believed that black and white marriage was the work of satan and that desegregation was the anti-christ. There was that "version" of Christianity and the "version" of Christianity that wasn't racist. All throughout history, there have been "versions" of religions, each of which claiming to be the one true version and the rest being fake. Ever heard the saying "not a true Christian". Every Christian thinks they're true Christians and other Christians with different ways of interpreting the bible are not. Same with what's going on here with the Mormons. There are more accepting Mormons and more conservative Mormons. The conservative Mormons will either have to adapt to the Times or continue to lose members.
Because this ball has already started rolling. Like anti-desegregation Christians, the number will only continue to decrease as the years go by until eventually there is no one left and that version of Christianity will be lost to Time. There's Christians who believe that Jesus was in favor of killing self-defense and other Christians believe that Jesus would have opposed killing no matter what because our ~70 years here on Earth are nothing compared to the eternity that is the afterlife. If we have all these different versions of the same religion today, Christianity from 800 years ago is probably radically different than it is today.
Time. Time is the #1 killer of religions. Time brings about new contexts which in turn reveal new interpretations of ancient texts.
No, it’s NOT worth the read
No, it's NOT worth the read because there's NO solid evidence to support such a pompous conclusion.
The complete uneducated bias of such a distorted article is in fact further proof of the religious and unfounded prejudice this author- whom failed in the GOP primary as a publicity stunt against Mitt Romney over Mitt's religious affiliation, and has made repeated false and inaccurate claims against the LDS church over the years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Karger#LDS_Church
In fact if anything, the LDS Church keeps INCREASING and expanding in membership numbers and temple building since 2008.
http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/2015/04/membership-by-country-statistics.html
Regardless of how Fred and his ilk want to spin the facts & beliefs of the LDS Church, they are in fact nothing but vile bigots that can't accurately present the facts and hold a level of hatred against the LDS church that's comparable to that of any southern Klansmen.
Sorry but the LDS and its
Sorry but the LDS and its flowers themselves are more like the "southern Klansmen." The LDS is nothing but a vessel of hate, and they lost the gay marriage fight.
Do you see the LDS Church
Do you see the LDS Church behaving like the WBC, or encouraging it’s members to attack or violently harass LBGT people?Do you see them even calling for the recriminalization of homosexually or passing laws that take away their right to privacy? Do you see LDS members firebombing or vandalizing LBGT bars or meeting places? Oh and if marriage is a civil right and not a privilege, then polygamists, polyandrists, and those wanting to legally marry animals should have their ‘civil rights’ legalized too.
The LDS Church has made a lot of good, christ-like strides with LBGT folks in the legal and political arena the last few years. Yet Fred Karger ignores that and soils his public image and viability as a sincere LBGT activist by making highly biased, ad hominem claims with evidence that is lacking in truth, or lacking, period.
Really? I must have missed
Really? I must have missed that part where the church used its tithing funds to help LGBT homeless kids and and build shelters, or to stop its therapists from using debunked methods of exgay (conversion) therapy, or retract the hateful rhetoric that has been said over the pulpit for decades (including this one, stating same sex marriages are counterfeit marriages, are against gods plan, and will harm children and the economy). Sure, they're playing nicer, but other than the tone, NOTHING has changed as far as their doctrine, their policies, and their stance. And the legal protections for employment and housing discrimination that was passed in Utah? That ONLY happened because the church got its way with a second bill that the governor signed a day after.. Allowing religious AFFILIATED businesses to discriminate (including landlords). So now you can legally discriminate against gays and lesbians in Utah if you can show your contracts and business affiliation with the church. A kid just got evicted in Provo for being gay, because he lived in a building owned by an LDS member who has BYU students living there. Since the owner has a contract from BYU, he was able to legally get away with evicting him.
I’m sure you’d take your
I'm sure you'd take your church's own version of its history as you do their own statistics. Unfortunately for your arguments sake, it's actually a verified FACT that your church had as many members officially RESIGN from it last year as it had baptisms. And that doesn't include the members who just stopped going and stopped paying tithing (the church still counts them as members). It's also FACT that the church pled guilty of election fraud in a case in California over prop 8. So I'm not sure what you're talking about specifically since your generalized response was pretty broad and unsupported by facts.
Proud to be a born again
Proud to be a born again hypocrite who worships money and power
they probably had more gay
they probably had more gay members in the Morman church than they had straight people.we dont go out of our way to shove our beliefs down their throats but every day you have them knocking on ya door wanting to shove their church down ya throat.I have my own beliefs about the bible i keep that between GOD and myself i dot go our finding a mormans house and try and shove my beliefs down their throats and as a gay man i believe that the deserv to be loosinbg people they habe had it good for so long now ad the money they rip people of for just gets them a bigger house a better car than any one else they never help poor people out or there would not be vetrans in need or homeless people in the states .stop worring about loosing people and get out there and help the needy you santamonious people
AMEN BROTHER!
AMEN BROTHER!
MORE CHURCHES AND ALL OF US NEED TO DO THIS!
Let's Stop Picking on EVERYONE and Help EVERYONE!
Wow, John. I’m not sure
Wow, John. I'm not sure where you're from, but it sure was difficult to read your comments. You think that one church can help all the poor people, people in need or homeless people in the entire United States? By the way, Mormons aren't the only church who send out missionaries – Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. You spell dot = don't, deserv = deserve, vetrans = veterans, worring = worrying, loosing = losing (in this case) and santamonious = sanctimonious, mormans = mormons, habe = have. By the way, how does the Mormon church "rip people off"? If you pay tithing, it's because you choose to – no one forces you. I think you'd better look some things up before you start spewing things like the Mormon church never helps poor people. Check out their welfare system and their system to respond to natural disasters – ALL OVER THE WORLD. You are sorely lacking in credibility when 1) you can barely spell, and 2) you don't do the research to support your teetering and ill-founded accusations. Go on, I dare you to look these things up from a legitimate source and then maybe you can try again.