DISQUS

Jesse Stay · 1 year ago

Man, not sure if I can out-do that post Louis. Great share, I agree with you 100%. (And dang it - now I can't use that quote!) ;) (and for your readers, no, that quote was not me)

ontarioemperor · 1 year ago

I think there's a misunderstanding about the businesses that the LDS Church owns. It owns businesses, but not as many as some people think (no, the LDS Church does not own Marriott). When I first read the Facebook speculation, my first thought was, "I don't think this fits in with Bonneville."

PurpleCar · 1 year ago

Louis Gray: Darn I thought that link to the Mormonism-is-a-cult site was going to link to a real cult-watching site instead of a tongue-in-cheek mockery of people who are truly concerned about the religion. Although the openness of the Mormon church that you mention in your post is admirable, all religions have mysterious, non-transparent, extremely esoteric parts. This is undeniably the essence of religion and authority. Do you have any links where the Mormon church addresses directly the more respected cult-watching outlets? I'd like to read something like that, because I've read quite a bit from many different sources over the years about Mormonism, including many personal accounts of former Mormons, and I have to say, it seems just as bad as my childhood religion, Roman Catholicism, even worse in some ways. I'm not trying to be offensive. I just have to say I was very impressed that you would link to a detractor until I realized it was pro-mormon satire. I hate to say it, but that crushed your credibility with me. Can you fix?

Louis Gray · 1 year ago

Sorry if you think I crushed my credibility with linking to the "Are Mormons a Cult" site. When I wrote that story at the end of last year, I definitely thought it was one of the many anti-Mormon sites that do exist out there, unfortunately.

Rather than dig them up, a quick Google Search on the subject brings up a number of points of view.
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=...

As for "are they a cult", the fact they have very open meetings and open curriculum and documentation and are clear about their beliefs should end that discussion immediately. There's no hidden agenda. The church is a Christian faith that shares 90+% of its beliefs with other similar religions, and it's become very attractive to people who are looking to find a family-centered religion that has answers and doesn't always threaten its members with hellfire and damnation.

adamclyde · 1 year ago

Louis - wow. I mean wow. I hadn't heard that one yet. I'm glad you brought it to my attention - no doubt I'm going to get lots of questions at work tomorrow (BYU grad, etc. here). So this is a good heads up.

If folks are interested in understanding the family history designs of the Church, it's worth taking a look at familysearch.org. People will see the existing resources available to the public and see that the unstructured nature of random relationships in Facebook really isn't related to anything the Church is interested in.

That said, there could be some interesting value in more people using facebook or other social networks to connect with distant relatives who are also doing research on the same family lines. What if you had facebook "fan" pages for some prominent 19th century relative. It could be used as a place to coordinate and share research among distant relatives.

OK, now I'm just riffing on a tangent. Nice post. Thanks.

Colby Olson · 1 year ago

What's your take on Steve Hodson's post about the same event, though it seemed his post was more directed at you.

Louis Gray · 1 year ago

Colby, Steven posted a note this morning responding to my story, and he didn't like my phrasing of the word "nonsense", which is fine. I've got a great relationship with Steven and really like his writing. It's just that this specific story didn't hold water. I commented the same on his blog.

dean_genlighten · 1 year ago

Louis:

Thanks for your cogent take on this amusing rumor. Your LDS background gave this post credibility and context that has been hard to find elsewhere in the blogosphere.

Louis Gray · 1 year ago

Dean, thanks for the note. In addition to your comments, I've received a number of positive e-mails from people in the church and not in the church who were pleased to see someone not stoking the flames. Jesse Stay also added some great points:

http://staynalive.com/articles/2008/08/21/faceb...

Mark Dykeman · 1 year ago

Louis, I've been turning this around and around in my brain all morning.

The only thing that I can come up with is that the bloggers that you note above either noted that the story was a rumor or felt that there was some kind of credible source confirming that something was going on. But this sort of thing happens a lot with many people. It's unfortunate that this type of story involved something that you (and a number of other people) obviously care about a lot.

On the other hand, I could be typecast as a beer drinking, hockey loving person who says "Eh?" more than normal. And only about 1.5 of those things are true.

That being said, it is interesting to know that there is a lot of LDS information available on the Web. To be honest, at this point I'd be more likely to ask you if I have a question about the LDS faith than to look it up on the Web. Why? Because I have a tendency to be skeptical about the information that large organizations put out on the Web, but I put more trust in what someone I know will tell me.

BTW, I never seriously believed that the LDS church organization was bidding for Facebook. In fact, I forgot about the rumor until I saw your and Steven's posts. That shows you how much I believed it.

Louis Gray · 1 year ago

Mark, it's common to trust an individual you know over a big corporation or religion. I don't profess to be an expert on the many other religions out there, but in this case, had somebody started a rumor that the Presbyterians or Methodists or even the Scientologists were going to buy Facebook, or Digg, or some other property, it would clearly be false, and I wouldn't have blogged on it. E-mailed it to friends? Probably. But not blogged it as a rumor or potential news.

Feel free to ask me or Jesse Stay any questions on this. I know I'll probably get some small nits wrong every once and again, but I try to be transparent without beating anyone over the head.

Duncan Riley · 1 year ago

Apologies Louis, and of course you are right, it was always BS from the moment it surfaced. I believe it's the result of the news vacuum we appear to be in at the moment

Louis Gray · 1 year ago

Duncan, I don't fault you for having some fun with the rumor. I had some thoughts in my head along the same lines of "10 changes for Facebook if the Church bought them", but of course, you were first. As for the comments on the church having a bias against non-whites, or hatred of gays, that's not true. It'll take more than a Disqus comment to wrap that one up, but suffice it to say we have a fairly diverse congregation where I attend each Sunday, and my two best friends, who came out in college, have attended church with me on more than one occasion. Should they ever marry their boyfriends, I'll be there, and not to object. :-)

Matt Shaulis · 1 year ago

I don't really tend to respond to Facebook rumors around the blogosphere so I'd like to respond to the angle about preconceived notions and rumors that people have towards various religious groups because religion as a facet of culture is a topic that I take a lot of interest in...so as long as the religion floodgates are open let's be honest... those whack-job Scientology fruitcakes are not doing much to help the mainstream perspective of Mormons. :-D

(with both religions having defining pieces of their doctrine/scripture written recently (when compared to say Egyptian tomb hieroglyphics or even the dead sea scrolls) ... although with as many translations of The Holy Bible that inch into existence every couple/few decades most of the Judeo-Christian branch of religion should probably be considered modern day doctrine as well... hehehe... but anyway...) I was born and raised in a pretty strict religious household also, and it's certainly a non-tech topic that gets me very... conversational... let's just say. ;) (disclosure: "born and raised" was then, this is now... now i attend services approximately zero days a year and I pray about as often, maybe just a tad less. My tithe is offered up to the gods "red meat" and "beer".)

Had I read anything in passing before having seen this post I probably would have given the rumor a very brief moment of merit... I'm not an über-fan of Facebook by any stretch of the imagination but, to me, it would instantly become the coolest holding of DMC. hehehe... :-) (no offense to Louis there, you might even agree, hehehe, more of a response to some of the sillier rumors like cola companies and what not that people believe the LDS has any interest in owning wholly or "controlling what you drink"... hehehe. (The uninformed rumor-spreaders tend to come across as much bigger fear-mongering nut-jobs than the one's they are trying to make the devout appear to be. which is not to address any of the blog posts or comments on this facebook thing, i'm just saying in general... )

Me · 1 year ago

The only thing I think of when you say you are mormon is what a sucker you are to believe all that Joseph Smith nonsense.

Kate · 1 year ago

SWEET you smart!!!!100% SMART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!