My child is being pulled into Mormonism, I need help

13,152 Views | 123 Replies | Last: 8 days ago by AGC
Smart_Ag
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PabloSerna said:

" I know you are catholic, but your kid has certainly seen you not take religion seriously. That will be her lifelong memory of you with respect to religion, but you put her in a place that taught her enough about religion that she values and seeks out a man who is taking religion seriously."

A couple of thoughts on this tough love take:

1. There is still time. One only needs to read about the mother of St. Augustine to understand how long it took for his conversion.

2. I don't quite understand the second half of your comment, but it seems to me that religion IS important and a "man of faith" just as much for her. So it seems to me that the OP gave a good enough example.

3. You have set this up as a battle for her soul and while some of us do not see our LDS brothers and sisters as sharing the Christian gospel on every point- I believe them to be people of good will. That is the starting point.

In the end, each of us will have to choose a path. For some the choice is not too different than the path they were on while they were children. For others, they will follow another along a path. Sadly for some, like the seeds sowed on rocky soil, they will receive the word with joy but lack the deep roots for commitment.

Praying for y'all!

One Meen Ag was banned indefinitely after posting in this thread earlier this week. They're still trying to get answers from staff.

Some mod is most likely very sensitive to theological critiques about mormonism.
UTExan
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Just take her to spend a day walking around the BYU campus. She'll probably pick up on the Stepford Wives vibe really quick. Not to mention their belief that polygamy still attains in the hereafter. Or read Fawn Brodie's book "No Man Knows My History"- a historical biography of Joseph Smith. Mormonism has so many embarrassing "duh" moments. That's what happens when one's identity is in an institutional church and not the Lord Jesus Christ.
Another helpful site is Ex-Mormons for Jesus:
https://exmormonsforjesus.org/
“If you’re going to have crime it should at least be organized crime”
-Havelock Vetinari
Maximus of Tejas
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Have her watch any Mormon debate on YouTube with Jay Dyer.
AggieRain
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AG
One Meen Ag was banned??? What the heck for? Never observed them to be a disrespectful or vicious poster. Especially not something that would ever draw a permaban.
dermdoc
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AG
AggieRain said:

One Meen Ag was banned??? What the heck for? Never observed them to be a disrespectful or vicious poster. Especially not something that would ever draw a permaban.

Agree. One meen ag is a good poster.
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Mark Fairchild
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AG
Cannot believe One Meen Ag has been banned. He's always been a solid poster. I haven't ever read anything he's posted that would be considered worth a perma ban. Hope that gets straightened out soon, and he's back!
Gig'em, Ole Army Class of '70
whatthehey78
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AG
Prayer in Jesus' name...lots of it! + Fatherly Love...every opportunity!

Emphasis - John 14:6
"I am the way, the truth and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father, except through me."

Eternity is REAL ...and you want to spend it WITH HER in His presence! ...because YOU LOVE HER!

SHOW HER, YOU CARE!
Mark Fairchild
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AG
Prayers continue for your daughter and your entire family.
Gig'em, Ole Army Class of '70
Maximus of Tejas
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dermdoc said:

AggieRain said:

One Meen Ag was banned??? What the heck for? Never observed them to be a disrespectful or vicious poster. Especially not something that would ever draw a permaban.

Agree. One meen ag is a good poster.
Lol the mods are basically the ADL. Going through some of these threads you won't offend them. Zobel will eventually be banned.
one MEEN Ag
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AG


All,

I have returned from Mormon outer darkness.

It was an interesting experience going to the ends of Texags daily and replying 'test' to random threads to check to see if my ban was still in effect these last few days. I never received word from mods as to what exactly triggered my ban but I after my petition I was downgraded from indefinite to 'after this week's football game is over and everyone has settled down.' Which in all honesty is a good policy to keep as many trouble makers off the live game threads. The last time I was actually banned was for spamming Fire Spav way back when.

I believe there are three potential avenues for me receiving a ban:

-My unflinching views on the Amanda Atwell Texags product. But that is a little late as it was nearly three weeks old and I basically just stated what everyone generally believes. https://texags.com/forums/25/topics/3568151

-Someone who is a mod got a bit too upset about me stating in plain english what mormon beliefs actually are, or an evangelical who bristled at the fact I said mormons do the cultural trappings of evangelicalism better than evangelicals.

- A new mod, once receiving the ring of power, test fired my account to see if the new button they have actually works (it does).

We will never know.

I do think we are due for a good mormon discussion thread. There are a few posters on this thread eager to defend mormonism. I'm happy to engage in good faith.
Catag94
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AG
Glad you're back. Nice Gif!
Maximus of Tejas
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dermdoc
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AG
Also glad you are back.
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one MEEN Ag
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dermdoc said:

Also glad you are back.

Glad to be back Derm, I've enjoyed our discussions. I almost had to get work done last week while banned. It was terrible.
UTExan
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Let me say I have met that French guy who is a new apostle in your church, Gerald Causse. He's a very approachable person. First non-native speaker Anglophone in the hierarchy, isn't he?
“If you’re going to have crime it should at least be organized crime”
-Havelock Vetinari
one MEEN Ag
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AG
UTExan said:

Let me say I have met that French guy who is a new apostle in your church, Gerald Causse. He's a very approachable person. First non-native speaker Anglophone in the hierarchy, isn't he?


I think you replied to the wrong person. I am Church of Jesus Christ of the Earliest Day Saints.
UTExan
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Mea culpa!
“If you’re going to have crime it should at least be organized crime”
-Havelock Vetinari
whatthehey78
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AG
IF ONLY she could have met Charlie Kirk. You and she are in my prayers. Keep the Faith.
one MEEN Ag
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AG
Maximus,

You can't just drop a 40 minute video with no context or summary. Even Spyderman is required to summarize his crazy UFO videos when he youtube link drops.
Maximus of Tejas
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I'm lazy. The girl should go to St Paraskevi's Monastery outside Navasota for the weekend. It would do her wonders to be around those woman and Papa Demetrios. He's one of the most insightful living Christians in America.

"It is very rare that an ex-Mormon converts to Christianity, let alone Orthodoxy. In this episode, I had the incredible opportunity to speak with my friend Drew, one such ex-Mormon now Orthodox Christian. In this podcast episode, we explore the dark occult history of Mormonism, including Joseph Smith's involvement in treasure digging, blood rituals, and Freemasonry.

Drew provides fascinating firsthand insights into Mormon temple ceremonies, doctrine, and how the church has evolved to maintain relevance despite its controversial past. We also discuss the similarities between Mormon beliefs and ancient Gnosticism, their connections to intelligence agencies, and Drew's journey to Orthodoxy."
Maximus of Tejas
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Do people not know about Smith's legal troubles and his seer stones? The dude was an obvious fraud and their movement fractured like all the other Protestant movements. I'm not trying to be rude but it's not hard to see the obvious and glaring issues with that group.
one MEEN Ag
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AG
See that wasn't so hard. Now I might actually listen to that video. But just blank posting an AI backgrounded, 40 minute long youtube video detailing secrets isn't how you win friends and influence people.

And we have probably crossed paths if you've been to St. Paraskevi. We were there for her feast day this last year. I have sat in on Papa Demetrios's post liturgy lessons as well. They are incredible.

But of course, OP has no context to any of this. His wife is catholic, he is protestant. Just saying send his daughter to St. Paraskevi falls flat even though its a great recommendation because its a monastery run by the Greek Orthodox church, venerating a Saint that catholics don't venerate. Most americans don't even know about the incredible monasteries established by Father Ephraim. I didn't before I became orthodox.

At the end of the day, the reason visiting St. Paraskevi 'works' is because being around such an authentic expression of the ancient faith of Christianity shows just how counterfeit Mormonism is.

How do you train counterfeit detection? You know what the real thing is so well you can spot counterfeits instantly.

I have met a few people who live in College Station and make the trip to St. Paraskevi every sunday for Divine Liturgy. I recommend everyone go out there at least once.
Martin Q. Blank
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Maximus of Tejas said:

Do people not know about Smith's legal troubles and his seer stones? The dude was an obvious fraud

I agree he is obviously a fraud and he made up this religion to benefit himself.

But don't most of God's chosen prophets have a troubled past?

Ex. 2:14 He answered, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid, and thought, "Surely the thing is known."
one MEEN Ag
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AG
If anyone would actually like to go to St. Paraskevi one sunday and wants a host, I am happy to do so with my family. I'm sure maximus is as well.

I know things like this can be intimidating, but they are incredibly gracious hosts and incredible people. It does help to have someone who knows the lay of the land first to explain the liturgy, where to stand, and convince you to take up the weekly open invitation for lunch and teachings from Father Demetrios. Our first time we enjoyed having a common visitor introduce us around.
Quo Vadis?
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one MEEN Ag said:

If anyone would actually like to go to St. Paraskevi one sunday and wants a host, I am happy to do so with my family. I'm sure maximus is as well.

I know things like this can be intimidating, but they are incredibly gracious hosts and incredible people. It does help to have someone who knows the lay of the land first to explain the liturgy, where to stand, and convince you to take up the weekly open invitation for lunch and teachings from Father Demetrios. Our first time we enjoyed having a common visitor introduce us around.


I am a Mount Athos only enjoyer. I don't want fellowship, I want to talk to a 95 year old lay mystic who has spoken only the name of Jesus to a wall of stones since he was 12.
Maximus of Tejas
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I'll be going within a month or two but I'm much closer to Holy Archangels which I was just at last week for their feast.
Maximus of Tejas
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Martin Q. Blank said:

Maximus of Tejas said:

Do people not know about Smith's legal troubles and his seer stones? The dude was an obvious fraud

I agree he is obviously a fraud and he made up this religion to benefit himself.

But don't most of God's chosen prophets have a troubled past?

Ex. 2:14 He answered, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid, and thought, "Surely the thing is known."
Ya but they show repentance and either enter the Church or were already part of it. There's really no difference between Smith and anyone who else who starts their own church. Some are more successful in terms of influence and power.
one MEEN Ag
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Maximus of Tejas said:

I'll be going within a month or two but I'm much closer to Holy Archangels which I was just at last week for their feast.

Nice. Holy Archangels is another great monastery.

Its a small world after all.
Mark Fairchild
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AG
Welcome back!
Gig'em, Ole Army Class of '70
dermdoc
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AG
Still praying for y'all.
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ATXAggieMom
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Oh my goodness, you are in for a battle and I hope so much that I can help you with what I learned from our own experience. This is a long post but it's an overview of the strategies that helped us save our daughter when she went through this several years ago.

It took 2 years of our lives to get through a scenario very similar to your's, starting when our daughter was an 18-year old freshman at A&M. It was a very hard time for our family, it's even hard for me to dredge up the memories for this post, but we ultimately succeeded in preventing her from converting and today she is thriving and happy. You should know up front that the LDS church is a machine built for indoctrination, there is no group that is better at it than they are. The machine is well-oiled, secretive, and built to refute Christian theological arguments. As someone already said, on the surface, they do religion better than anyone else, they put forth a remarkably slick version of "perfect" families and communities. They are known for their tenacity with conversions and they often convert through romantic relationships. There is a reason they target 18 year old kids: These kids are legally adults and parents have no control over them, and secondly, they are able to isolate these young people because many are away at college. From our experience I can tell you that your daughter is the target and the objective is baptism. They will use multiple mechanisms to quickly and efficiently indoctrinate their target: Love-bombing from the boyfriend and his group of Mormon friends; missionaries will quite forcefully insinuate themselves into her daily life, and even elders of the church will reach out to serve a guiding "parental" role to reinforce the indoctrination material. The fact that your daughter is in this situation has nothing to do with the strength of the relationship you share (as someone suggested above) but as this process continues you should be aware that there will be a determined effort on their part to alienate your daughter from her family so that they can become her "new family". In Mormonism, only the members who hold temple cards and pay their tithe are the chosen ones who will go to Heaven, non-Mormons are seen as inferior and unworthy, so they will continuously try to prove to your daughter that she must accept the "true gospel" of the Mormon church and refute the "corruption" of mainstream Christianity. This principle inherently promotes the belief that non-Mormon friends and family are "flawed" because they have not accepted Mormonism, therefore she must surround herself with members of her new religion. It seems like you have a good grasp of the basics of Mormonism, but you should know that the Book of Mormon has none of their doctrine in it, you would need to refer to their "Doctrine and Covenants" and "Pearl of Great Price" to get information. I relied heavily on the non-profit group, "Utah Lighthouse Ministry", to get factual data, as well as the Mormonism Research Institute website. You will need many, many tools like this in your arsenal to win this battle because you are up against hormonal young love on top of everything else. The scripted and well-practiced indoctrination strategies being implemented by the missionaries will be putting loads of pressure on your daughter to convert, which is one of the saddest parts of the ordeal. Her boyfriend is most likely trying to get her to commit to a deadline for being baptized and will be adding daily stress to get her to agree. The stress and anxiety of all this took a huge physical and emotional toll on our daughter and it ruined her college experience for the two years that she was enmeshed in it. She had to be put on anti-anxiety meds near the end of the ordeal. We are very blessed that we ultimately got her back and have an even stronger bond with her as a result of the experience. She has said that our steadfast belief in her, even when our relationship got rocky, taught her the meaning of unconditional love.

If your daughter would be willing, I think our daughter would be happy to share her experience and I truly think this might be the most helpful thing you can do for her. Hearing a first-hand account from someone who went through it would likely open her eyes to what is happening. Our daughter is now 30 years old and has been happily married to a wonderful Christian man for the last 6 years. They are also Young Life leaders so I think she can help your daughter to see from the perspective of a young, Christian girl who has been there. Let me know if you would like to facilitate communication between them. I will pray for your family.
Mark Fairchild
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AG
Please read the post by ATXAGGIEMOM ON PAGE 3. It is specifically for you!!!
Gig'em, Ole Army Class of '70
one MEEN Ag
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AG
Great post. Thank you for sharing. God help the mormon missionary who knocks on your front door and didn't realize what trap they had sprung. Being put on the 'do not knock' list is a badge of honor in my book.
BrazosDog02
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AG
I don't know about heaven and salvation but I spend a great deal researching end times prepping and if anyone is worried about surviving a nuclear holocaust or EMP attack, the Mormons are where you want to be. Those guys got it going on in terms of self preservation. If their religious parts are as well curated as their prep parts, you do in fact have a hell of a fight on your hands that you aren't qualified to fight without AMPLE research as stated above. You'll need more than "thoughts and prayers". You'll actually have to handle it yourself.
UTExan
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BrazosDog02 said:

I don't know about heaven and salvation but I spend a great deal researching end times prepping and if anyone is worried about surviving a nuclear holocaust or EMP attack, the Mormons are where you want to be. Those guys got it going on in terms of self preservation. If their religious parts are as well curated as their prep parts, you do in fact have a hell of a fight on your hands that you aren't qualified to fight without AMPLE research as stated above. You'll need more than "thoughts and prayers". You'll actually have to handle it yourself.


Sorry, but I lived in Mormon country for 30 plus years. You ask them to: define their terms- "gospel", "grace", "salvation".

Ask for scriptural proof of a mother in heaven.

Ask about Joseph Smith's encounter with an angel and why Smith felt it imperative to take the wives of Mormons.

DNA linkages between Jews and the current Mormon population.

“If you’re going to have crime it should at least be organized crime”
-Havelock Vetinari
 
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