Shelley Long Plans A Mormon Comeback

Lol.
This isn`t about Mormons, they are not any worse then any other religion. All religions are off the real truth of God in some sort of twisted way. Just grin and bare it, Jesus will put us on a straight path when he returns. Just believe Christianity is not what man does, Christianity is what God has done through Christ. We don`t listen to different mens opinions and different ideas. We are listening to one thing only and that is Gods Word.
Can`t wait to see this movie Shelly is starring in. She is one of the most talented actresses in the movie business. Glad she is back, i miss her pretty smile.
Love You Shelly!
Take Care.

Is the LDS church set up as a corporation or are corporations set up as churches? What's been around longer? Do you have a better way to manage 13 million members of a church, to teach the same lessons in 150+ languages, and in as many countries? The idea is sound and it is why it is universally used. As for the great distain for the lack of funding for charity help, the church even has a mission statement: Proclaim the gospel, perfect the saints, redeem the dead. As most here are not members and have no desire to learn, I won't elaborate (casting pearls before swine). You're right a lot of money is spent on building chapels and temples, but they are central to the church’s mission, 13 million people need a place to worship. As for builds being expensive in building, it is the house of the Lord, should it be made from straw? Even before the LDS church had money back when it was first founded, members donated their fine china, gold and jewelry to make the Kirtland, OH temple out of only the best materials. Just as in olden days only the best live stock was chosen for sacrifice. All we have comes from God, shouldn't he be given the best of our fruits in return?

What you are seeing is the direct funding from the church to people in need, what you don't see are the other countless hours of service and money donated personally from each member that aren't accounted for on the churches record books. It isn't a publicity stunt, but as the Bible tells of the last days, the wicked with take good for evil and evil for good. So no matter what amount of good people do, antagonists will always find fault.

As for Shelly Long, I wish her luck, she isn't one of my favorite actresses but I have to give her props for not being one of those people that would change and contort ones body to better suit pop cultures image.

Wow, seems that the topic of Mormonism is quite volatile here; and on a movie website no less. I would think that the place for any doctrinal discussion/disputation would be on one of the seemingly endless other websites devoted to such things.

This short review of a possible Shelley Long "comeback" movie really has very little to do with Mormon doctrinal issues anyway. Unraveling "the darkest secrets of the Mormon church's hierarchy" sounds quite titillating doesn't it? I'll put my money on the fact that it will have about as much to do with actual Mormon doctrine (or 'dark secrets') as The DaVinci Code had to do with actual Catholic doctrine, which was virtually not at all. If you are going to a movie to learn about a church, you're looking in the wrong place; it's called 'entertainment' for a reason.

If I want to find out if Crest is better than Colgate, I shouldn't go to EITHER of them exclusively. I'd better talk to both of them - Crest to find out what their product is and how it may be better than Colgate, and Colgate to find out the same thing. Then I can make an educated decision. And, regardless of the facts, if I just happen to like the flavor of Crest more than Colgate, then I can choose Crest solely for that fact alone, BUT, I have at least weighed both sides.

Seems like most folks who have a negative opinion of the Mormon Church have only listened to one side of the argument (albeit from many sources). For example, I have yet to hear someone form an objective, cogent, factual argument against the Mormon Church without exclusively using information from either former members (whose level of knowledge about the doctrine could be anything, but whose feelings are almost always hostile) or people who are passionately “anti-Mormon” for whatever reason. I haven’t found the one person who has considered both sides and then become vocally negative. If you study the whole issue from all angles and decide it’s not for you, fine, but you don’t need to then attack users of Crest because you don’t like the taste and prefer Colgate. Just be quiet and keep using Colgate; if Crest is really the inferior product, it will eventually go away. Just be the best [Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist, etc] that you can; if Mormonism is really the inferior product, it will eventually go away.

It's amazing to me how ‘Christians’ can be so hateful toward others, especially others who claim the same (or even similar) belief. Also amazing how Atheists, Agnostics, and others who may profess no God or no religion, can be so hateful toward other humans with which they share this planet.

As long as you do not deprive me, or others, of their life, liberty, or property, you can believe whatever you would like, I have no problem with it; just let me do the same...

Movies like this are not going to stop the box office slump. Why not put some time and energy into something good?

Jared's obviously a Mormon with a severe persecution complex. Nothing religios love more than to feel persecuted. Christians, Muslim, they all try to make themselves out to be somehow persecuted so they can get their members to circle the wagons.

A religious man is never happier than when he's being beaten for his faith. Ha.

Actually I think Jared's story kind of makes me agree with AJ... it illustrates pretty well why all religion is junk.

I thought I was done . . . but I just can't pass this one up. A post above reads the following:

"religion should crawl in a hole and leave the world well enough alone. It's our only hope for a decent future. Every religion is full of crap, and nobody's more full of crap than the person defending them.

Bunch of oversensitive pricks who'd be perfectly happy to slaughter anyone who won't share their beliefs if they thought they could get away with it. I'm not talking just Mormons, I'm talking anyone with a religious ax to grind"

And who do my christian/Bible supporting brothers attack, the guy defending the Mormons, not the guy shooting down all religion and being much more insulting.

I live near Idaho State University. A religious open-house debate was given and representatives were sent from various local religions, including Mormons and Muslims. The Mormon rep spent his time talking about the commonalities of all religions and where we could try to find common ground, and then quickly gave a testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ. The Muslim representative spent his entire presentation debunking the divinity of Jesus Christ, and portraying him as a nobody.

When they opened up the floor for questions, guess who the Christian representatives in the crowd attacked? No, not the Muslim who questioned the very divinity of Christ, but the peacable Mormon who testified of him.

I learned that day, that at least for THOSE christians, their hate for mormons was stronger than their love for Christ.

To American:

Now that was an intellectual response!

. . . I rest my case

Mormons are not evil, and in fact do many good works. They are just fundamentally deceived with respect to the path to God and eternal life as explained by Jesus in the Bible and expounded by Christian theologians over the past two millennia. Mormons wish to place more emphasis on the good works that they do and the wholesome way they live their lives and treat others, than on specific unbiblical Mormon doctrines that aren't even well understood by most LDS members. This is wonderful for building esteem among themselves and with their fellow men, but devastating when it comes to building a true relationship with God. I pray that Mormons would honestly investigate Jesus' own words in the New Testament and the ways that the Bible contradicts the LDS scriptures.

B,

I have done my homework. It was in fact through studying the LDS church's sustainable development programmes as part of my own work in this field that I became familiar with the organisation. The programme itself is intelligent and I agree that MILLIONS are put into it, as well as into humanitarian relief during emergency situations.

Through studying these programmes I eventually wound up invited to LDS church meetings, and went willingly, quite curious about the whole thing. But it was there that I got so turned off. It was all so plastic and fake-friendly - anything to get a new convert. You bleat about how much the lds church donates and gives to the poor and destitute but I'm telling you that compared to the resources the church has and squanders on evangelism this is a pittance and makes a mockery of its claim to be the true church of Christ, who's attitude was one of share all you have with your brothers and sisters in need. Christ himself didn't go around 'converting' people, investing in vast tracts of cattle ranch land and building luxurious, expensive buildings. He lived as simply as he could and spent ALL his time doing good work among the poor and the sick and advocating this as a way of life.

I reiterate that the LDS humanitarian programme is ultimately a cosmetic, political PR exercise on the part of the corporate and corporate-minded leadership of the church - although there are a few wonderful individuals doing the actual work on the ground.

Do you honestly think that as a supposed church of Jesus Christ you can donate your spare change to the poor, the sick and the dying and that your duty is done? While you spend the rest - the majority - of your money on consumer goods for luxury and pleasure, putting MOST of your money into a system - through investments, businesses and fat and comfortable living - that ultimately depends on the exploitation of developing countries, depends on the plunder of their resources?

These issues matter but the Mormons merely go through token gestures so they're able to say, 'Well see how much good we do and you know what, gosh, we don't even brag about it that's how humble we are.'

But in reality they're doing nothing relative to what needs to be done, despite having the resources to do so.

Again, funding an international empire of buildings, temples, missions is where the vast LDS wealth goes.

Again, that is not the boldness of a church that truly takes part of the spirit of Jesus Christ. It is simply pussyfooting, taking 'safe' options and refusing to face full on issues of poverty, the environment and the relationship of high-consumption Mormon living - and rich nation living in general - to the problems the world faces.

You're a church of arrogant hypocrites - living so deeply in your own arrogance and hypocrisy that you're incapable of seeing it. You think that all criticisms of your religion are based on ignorance - or that somehow it's a spirit of hatred. But you might do well to realise that a lot of criticism of you may be in fact based on moral revulsion and might in fact be based on a genuine Christian disgust at your arrogance, at what you claim versus your largely indifferent attitude to the real world.

The LDS humanitarian and development programmes are applaudable on their own grounds, and I'm very happy to see the programme and the spending of funds this way.

But Mormon culture and religious hubris itself turns my stomach. And the boast - again a 'quietly arrogant' boast so characteristic of the majority of Mormons I met - that this is the true - the 'only true' no less - church of Jesus Christ is clearly - to many of the rest of us - FALSE.

And it would indeed be laughable if it wasn't so tragic.

Jared, if you're really an anthropoligist, then you're pretty much the worst one in history.

You're certainly not biased (sarcasm).

Seriously, don't you love the way losers hop on websites and make these grandiose claims about their credentials in order to make whatever their dumb ass point seem more credible, when in fact it's a load of crap.

Crap detected.

Not that it matters. This is a movie site, nobody cares. Mormons, and every other religion should crawl in a hole and leave the world well enough alone. It's our only hope for a decent future. Every religion is full of crap, and nobody's more full of crap than the person defending them.

Bunch of oversensitive pricks who'd be perfectly happy to slaughter anyone who won't share their beliefs if they thought they could get away with it. I'm not talking just Mormons, I'm talking anyone with a religious ax to grind.

Sad.

Hey, good for Shelley Long by the way. Maybe she'll become relevant again. Great article Cinema Blend.

Bigotry = stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own (dictionary.com)

As an anthropologist, I have seen bigotry in nearly every shape and form. I have seen it among every color of people, and among every creed that I've had the privilege of interacting with, but I have never seen it raise it's head as strongly as when the Mormons are discussed. It reminds me of how Christ was treated by his contemporary Jews. If you think Mormons are not very good christians, perhaps they should take comfort from the fact that Jesus Christ was not considered a very good Jew.

If there were a true church on the earth today, they certainly would be one of the most unpopular.

mormon.org is the church website, but also, if you want a decent ACADEMIC look at many of these arguments against mormons, try fairlds.org.

Be paitent though, these aren't the quick quipps and bigoted one liners that you see on this page. They actually require some intellect to understand.

Wow, some interesting comments here. Some obviously showing more signs of ignorance then others. Your right Josh, if I want to know the best brand of toothpaste I should go to BOTH Crest AND Colgate THEN make a decision based on my own understanding and bring it to the Lord to find out what He would have me do, but I wouldn't go to a Pipe-fitter? I think for the most part we tend to listen to people who obviously know nothing about the lds church. And the ones who are "claiming" bad things about the church are obviously the ones who have been offended or upset and have so much hatred in their hearts they want to destroy the church for what ever reason. Do you listen to both sides before making judgment or do you immediatly feel sympothy for those crying without listening to both sides?

Also obvioulsy "kirkovich" knows absolutly nothing at how much the lds church donates and serves to the poor and destitute. If he would of done his homework and actually talk to someone in public affairs they will tell you. They will also give you $ amounts and names of their many programs and organizations that they give out annually, it's in the MILLIONS! The lds church probally does as much if not more aid then the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and others. The only DIFFERENCE is they don't go on TV BOASTING about it. They prefer to seek the blessings and rewards that come from unselfish and unrecognized service rather then seeking the praise of man.

I've been in several disiplinary councils as a role of a clerk where I had no voice in the matter. And I can tell you peronally, EVERY case where a member was excommunicated, he or she was quick to publish to the world "their side" of the story which was always FALSE and untrue and unfair toward the leadership. The leadership however, just took the blackeyes and turned their head not wanting to further embarrase these people. Truth be known, there were several times I wished the leaders would argue back and defend themselves. THEY WOULD CRUSH these hateful individuals who spread false lies and make them feel stupid in front of their families and friends. But they don't and they won't, Hmm I wonder who's being more Christian like?

I don't think Mormons are evil or even necessarily deviant from Christian tradition; I don't think it would be too much to suggest though that there could be rogue elements with in the Mormon church. Which is all I did. I'm not ingornant enough to believe everything I read though; as someone who was raised as a pentecostal I know from first hand experience that people have a tendecy to exaggerate the actions of minority groups because a lot of the times it's easier to believe something interesting than something true. Never the less there are some pretty nasty rumors about the LDS most of which are probably false.

I find it interesting that people with no knowledge of the church seem to think that they know everything by reading a few articles they find online. Obviously there are tons of members of the LDS church who have internet connection and have access to the same anti literature you do. Knowing both sides of the story it is easy to discern what is truth and what is not. So before one assumes to know what truth is... they should know the whole story and both sides of it. "By their fruits ye shall know them." Can a bad tree produce good fruit? Only thing that doesn't make sense is the narrow minded logic that would condemn a people because of the actions of a few. Do pedophile priests make all Catholics bad? Do the Salem witch trials make all Protestants bad? Think about it before you spout ignorance as truth.

I actually do have a very specific problem with the Mormons.

But before I throw it in I feel like I have to say that: Of course they're 'nice people'. Of course LDS culture is clean-living and wholesome. Of course most critics of the LDS church are indeed unaware of what Mormons actually believe. And of course the polygamy thing is unfairly milked by the media when the LDS church's position on it - that they believe it to be a divinely ordained institution which the Lord has decided it is not yet appropriate to practice under current historical circumstances - has been made perfectly clear.

My problem with the Mormons is that they like to connect themselves with the historical Jesus and their leaders with the Old Testament prophets, but that this is nothing more than arrant hypocrisy and arrogance. That 'quiet, calm' arrogance that has become such a signature of Mormon culture.

Jesus' message was pretty clear: take the shirt off your back and give it to your neighbours. The Old Testament prophets railed against corruption and injustice. They all emphasised the poor.

The Mormons claim to be the literal church of Jesus Christ but this church manages billions of dollars worth of real estate while Mormons themselves live largely affluent lives, driving their piles of children round in high carbon emitting vehicles and the Mormon evangelical ethos is largely indistinguisable from the sales ethos of a typically American-style corporation. Build more buildings. Build more temples. Convert more people. All of this an expensive business. All of it supposedly about people's salvation.

I've been to Mormon services. You don't hear about poverty in Africa, the extremely serious global environmental crisis, or the injustice of 10s of thousands of children starving everyday while the people of the latter day church of Jesus Christ sit at good old Utah barbeques stuffing their faces on unsustainable livestock meat which comes from land that could be much better used to grow less water-intensive food, food that could be shared with people who need it.


In fact you don't hear much from the Mormons but an almost autistic, insular 'perfecting of their sainthood' as they go down a checklist of things they need to do to get to heaven and wait excitedly for Armageddon, which of course they expect to be able to watch on their plasma screen TVs, before the Lord comes to reward them with Godhood - Godhood, no less - for all this revolting selfishness.

The Mormon presidency's refusal to comment on political matters such as climate change or world poverty is nothing more than cowardice and a need to accomdate themselves well to mammon, the corporate and political powers they are so keen to be seen as 'safe and respectable' by. The Mormon membership by and large cares very little about the suffering of the poor and vulnerable in other countries - a suffering directly attributable to the greed and selfishness and wilfull blindness of all of us in the rich world. The LDS church's largely cosmetic humanitarian programme - despite the money it is rich enough to put into this - does not disguise a church which cares only about saving itself, and very little about saving the world in any way.

So 'nice people', yeah. Cleanliving and wholesome, sure.

But the Church of Jesus Christ?

Don't make me laugh.

Let's think about what you're suggesting for just a minute "not given".

If you wanted to find out what the best brand of toothpaste was, how would you do it? Would you go and ask Crest or Colgate? Of course not. If you ask Crest they're going to tell you Crest is the best. If you ask Colgate, they'll tell you Colgate.

If you wanted to find out if a politican is corrupt or not, how would you do it? Would you simply go ask the politician if he was corrupt, and then take his word for it? No, of course not. He'll obviously insist he's innocent, no matter what the truth is.

Personally, I don't have any feelings one way or another on LDS, and plan to keep it that way. Every Mormon I've ever met has been very nice. But then that's also true of every Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist that I've ever met too.

Sorry Baptists, I can't say the same for you. But then there's more of you. I have to wade through you to get to work in the morning. The odds of meeting a bad Baptist are much higher.

Wow, it is always interesting to see what others think about my religion. This upcoming movie sounds like yet another completey skewed and untrue depiction. If Sam or Josh really want to find out the truth about the Mormon religion, just email me back or visit www.mormon.org.

So god just up and changed his mind on the polygamy thing did he?

He's so fickle!

I haven't killed anyone for over a decade by the way.

Be specific Sam. What crazystuff have your heard about? I have a father who held a prominent position in the LDS church and never saw anything crazy in his behavior. You do know that Mormons regard Christ as their savior do you not and they have not practiced polygamy for over a century. Gary

Interesting I've studied a little bit about the mormon church hierarchy and apparently there's some pretty crazy stuff that goes on among the latter day saints even though most mormons are kept in the dark about it