In the April 2011 General Conference, Apostle Russell M Nelson teaches that one must pay tithing to the church in order to receive certain blessings and that if you do not pay tithing, then you will not be counted among the Lord's people and you will not be protected at the day of "Vengeance and burning" ----------------------- People wondering why Mormons would continue to pay tithing to a church that already has a till with over $100,000,000,000 in it probably don't understand how strong the messaging about tithing is for members of the church. In this brief segment from a 2011 talk given by then Apostle Russell M Nelson (who is now the Prophet), you can see a typical example. In less than a minute the following concepts are conveyed on the subject of tithing: 1. Faith can only be fully developed if you pay a full tithing. 2. If you are faithful, you will see tithing as a *privilege* - implying that those who consider it a challenge or a burden are inherently less faithful. 3. Tithing is an ancient law from God - which belies the reality that modern Mormon Prophets have defined and proscribed tithing in their own manner. 4. The payment of tithes is mandatory if you want to be considered among the people of God 5. Payment of tithing will protect you from being burnt in the day of vengeance - a physical threat of death revealing the coercive nature of the Mormon implementation of tithing. All of these factors are taken seriously and literally by believing members of the church, who trust their leaders to convey God's will and truth. This is why, no matter how many hundreds of billions of dollars the church stuffs away in interest-bearing, tax-exempt accounts, kept secret from any external oversight - members of the church will continue to pay tithing. They will even be proud of their ability to do so without holding leaders to any measure of accountability for the ethical and productive use of those funds. If Mormons saw the governing body of the JW or Scientology continue to issue spiritual threats to their members, coercing them to pay money to the church, while they sat on hundreds of billions of dollars - they would have no hesitation to raise a critical voice. Not so with their own leaders. This is what it means to sustain the leaders of the church. Original Source here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcbstjA_9YY ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv8XiItDWaw

Clipped excerpt from a long form interview where detransitioner Michelle Alleva describes the extent to which several methods of "undue influence" played a role in her experience in the Trans Activist Community. "Undue Influence" describes the phenomena that take place in high demand groups which hold powerful sway over their members thoughts, beliefs and choices. These types of influence can be found in cults, controlling relationships, social movements or even self help groups. In this clip the phenomenon of "No Honorable Exit" is described with examples and its presence and intensity in Michelle's experience with the Trans Activist community are rated using the "Is It Culty?" web assessment. See the full interview on this playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLevx2DAlF-YC0lx23jJTnLyqOIkSVziYW ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAvCKxYoMX0

[Original Episode has been edited to remove technical glitches and broken into more digestible parts. This is the first hour of discussion Where Zina updates us on her past years progress and evolution on thinking about Joseph Smith and religious sexual predation.] In February 2020 I invited anyone who could to come on the show and defend Joseph Smith from the accusation of being a sexual predator by providing an explanation for seeing his proposals and actions in polygamy as different from other religious sexual predators. After that invitation in part 1, I was contacted by "Zina" - an active and believing member of the church who appeared as an anonymous guest for Part 2 where she laid out her faithful perspective on Joseph Smith's polygamy. She did not shy away from difficult topics and graciously answered several important questions, expressing her desire to continue her own study of this controversial chapter of Mormon history. I was recently contacted again by Zina and invited her to return to the show to give an update on her journey working through and understanding Joseph Smith and his doctrine and practice of polygamy. Learning about the details of Joseph's practice of plural marriage is one thing - doing it armed with a familiarity with the manipulations and abuses of other admitted religious sexual predators is something altogether different. With this in mind I am pleased to welcome Zina back for this episode! If you would like to catch up in this series: Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb4Ik...​ Part 2: https://youtu.be/dyg81M-2Eiw ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p7n-xfV2nY

What could be more evil than loud laughter? ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rofE_Nz4wc