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That figure of $120K doesn’t include fees they “earn” as board members on the various for-profit entities the LDS Church runs. They can also earn substantial amounts of money through preferential business deals they transact as private individuals: everything from books deals to real estate opportunities. nibbler wrote:
I’ve heard we use the intimate language, thee, thou, etc. in prayers and the like because we want to show that our relationship with god is at an intimate level… except I don’t talk to any of my best of friends in that language. I talk normal to them. I let my guard down with them, which sometimes includes some mild swearing. Perhaps I should start including some mild swearing in my prayers, show god that I’m keepin’ it real and that we’re buds.That’s another quirk of modern culture, and especially modern English language. “Thee” and “Thou” sound formal, stuffy or honorific to us now. I grew up understanding those were terms of respect, not intimacy. The Germanic roots of those words go back to intimate versus formal modes of speech that still exist in other languages, but are no longer used in modern English. Our generic “You” pronoun is from the formal speech roots, and “thou” is the intimate or familiar used with close friends, peers or younger (less social status) persons.
Really, the only reason it still exists for Mormons is due to the LDS Church’s fundamentalist attachment to the old King James Bible, and that the Book of Mormon has ties to that specific translation for important theological truth claim support.
This newer version of the forum software also seems to format itself much better for mobile viewing just through the browser. Tapatalk seems like it is working now. I received a troubleshooting response from their tech support, and tweaked a couple of things. Post here if you see problems.
I installed the Tapatalk extension and went to their site to update the “site owner” information. They are reporting a problem detecting the connection from their end. I can’t find a lot of information for troubleshooting this error online, so I submitted a support ticket. I will keep working on it over the next couple days. Update: Open Stories Foundation is funding the site this year. Let’s talk about it again next year and see what the community wants to do.
Thank you to everyone who has financially supported the site over the years. Even more important than that though is the GREAT work everyone does here to reach out and help our sisters and brothers in their time of need — during that tough tough time of faith transition. You all continue to inspire me. You help keep people on a positive journey and help keep families together.
Thank You.
I’m waiting on a response from the new guy who handles the finances for the Open Stories group. I will see how things go this year. No reason to think that anything is different, but it’s a topic I ask John Dehlin about each year. For now, feel free to donate to the Open Stories Foundation to support their many support projects. StayLDS.com doesn’t take much money to run. The hosting fees are about all there is now, which cost around $140 per year. I paid it out of pocket a couple weeks so there wouldn’t be any interruption. It’s a busy time of year for me at work, so I didn’t get around to ironing everything out until the other day. We can always switch to a crowd funding model too, if we ever needed to. The only thing that would do is lose the small tax-deduction advantage. Roy wrote:This seems to be the case with all religions. After the fiery eruption of creative spiritualistic force, the lava flows almost immediately begin to harden and calcify into hierarchy and policy. There are both good things and bad things about modern corporate church conformity … at least it is dependable.
🙂 An old parable:
“God and the devil were walking down a path one day when God spotted something sparkling by the side of the path. He picked it up and held it in the palm of his hand.
“Ah, Truth,” he said.
“Here, give it to me,” the devil said. “I’ll organize it.”
Ann wrote:I agree. I’ve wondered if more distance would help, but you seem to be saying it doesn’t. Thanks for watching over us.
The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.
Can’t really escape from problems. Mostly just have to dig in and solve them … or let go of our attachment, let them drift away on the winds.
Distance away isn’t really a help or a hindrance, although we all need to step outside our routine and comfort zone from time to time just to keep things in perspective. I’m doing really good though. I was happy before, and I am happy now. My family is doing good. I am closer to my wife and we have a great relationship (just celebrated out 25th anniversary). I’ve been actively focusing on being healthy. Life is busy. Life is good.
Hi everyone, I don’t really participate in Mormon discussions anymore, not online or in real life. My heart will always love this community though, and love the compassion and faith you all show for each other. Whatever God and Christ are, they are a part of you all, and you are a part of them. Thank you for continuing to do that work to make the world we live in a better, more loving place to experience life. You can’t fix it all, but you can leave it at least a little better than you found it, wherever you leave your footprints along the journey.
This policy change … it breaks my heart.
I didn’t think I could be shocked anymore. I was wrong. I don’t even know why I should care, but I can’t not care. I still have many friends and family in the LDS Church, many who are already struggling to stay in and be a part of it. They are such good people, trying so hard to live a good life and love others — and they make a positive difference in the lives others. They make the world a better place.
People in a same-sex marriage are apostates and must be excommunicated? Fine. I don’t personally agree at all … but fine. I get it. That isn’t really even a change on any level. That truly is a policy clarification, a standardization of interpretation and implementation.
But children? [sigh…] Children need to be protected
fromthe Church by being excluded from any meaningful level of participation? We all know what it means socially and spiritually to be excluded. The only reason any of us are here or have been here is because we have felt that way deeply (for whatever reasons) and/or have spent great personal energy ministering to those who have felt this way. I instantly flash in my memory to the thousands of times I have told someone on the margins or the fringes (for whatever reason) that they are loved and we can find a way to include them. I think of the people I used to home teach who didn’t fit the mold in one way or another, who felt like they couldn’t be a part of the congregation, who desperately NEEDED to be a part of the ward and faith community. I didn’t care what anyone else thought, they could always come and sit with me in the pews, or go with me to Sunday School. We can find a place for them. Or was I always mistaken? Did I just make it worse by giving false hope? This is what races through my mind and my soul.
So this is a policy to protect children? The deep sucker punch baked right into it: this policy change is made to protect these children from what the church knows it will do to them. They must be excluded to protect them from the church, from the people at church. That’s the social and spiritual reason given.
The legal worries? Lawsuits? What is the LDS Church worried about losing in a lawsuit? Money? This is what my former religion worries the most about? But it takes money to run such a big, worldwide organization. We have to protect the assets of the church.
I didn’t grow up in the Mormon corridor. My fondest memories of church are as a child, living in the midwest, where we met in a local elementary school. Cub Scouts was held at one of the member’s houses that had a farm. Or when I was serving in the Army, and we held church in an unused building on base, or literally in a tent in the wilderness, because we all wanted to just be together and commune spiritually for a little while, to take rest and renewal in each others company. God, Christ, The Church, the religion is an idea in the hearts and minds of people. It takes almost no money at all. If there even were enemies, they can’t sue an abstract concept. They can’t get a legal injunction against being nice to people and helping others in need.
Anyways … I could ramble on and on.
I’m just popping back on here to say that I love you all. My heart goes out to you all having to deal with this and pick up the shattered pieces. Thank you for putting love out into the world, and for being there for others who come here needing to talk with others who can just listen and not freak out.
The listed address is: Open Stories Foundation
2754 N. 920 E.
N. Logan, UT 84341
You could probably mail a check there. Put a note in it saying it’s for StayLDS.com so we get “credit” for the funds.
PayPal can also accept credit cards, btw. I don’t think you have to setup a full Paypal account to send someone money who is in the Paypal system.
Costs for StayLDS.com
It only costs about $200 per year right now to run things. We also host the FacesEast.org forums from our servers. That amount covers the server space rental, bandwidth and miscellaneous small fees like domain registrations, etc.
The admins and moderators are not paid. That is all volunteer. I still take care of the technical stuff on the back end: monitoring the server, updating software, approving new users, and solving tech problems as they come up. So we don’t have to pay for tech support or content generation services. We’ve added several new moderators recently to help keep our community focused on the support goals. Their time and energy is GREATLY appreciated (thank you!).
What’s a good donation? Really, if a dozen or more people can donate $20, that would do it. I think it would be nice to contribute some to the larger organization. But that is up to everyone who feels they can give of their resources.
In any case, so much love to all of you! Thank you for being here for others and participating. Thank you for continuing to be a positive community, and supportive of people who come here looking for help, looking for people who understand and are just willing to listen without freaking out. Just a few years ago, nothing like this existed.
LOL. I don’t know ANYTHING much about professional public relations. But I can tell you ** that** is just about the WORST POSSIBLE tactic to take: schooling journalists and newspaper editors on how to write appropriate article titles. I can’t think of a worse way to poke the sleeping bear. Nice update. Glad to hear you are sorting things out for yourself and figuring out what is important. Power to you my old friend!
