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Number of faithful Mormons rapidly declining
Salt Lake City ABC 4 News ^ | Jan. 31, 2012 | Brian Carlson

Posted on 02/01/2012 3:37:56 AM PST by Colofornian

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is losing a record number of its membership. A new report quotes an LDS general authority who said more members are falling away today than any time in the past 175 years.

At meetings like General Conference, Utahns may be used to seeing members of the LDS Church show up in record numbers. But according to a recent Reuters article citing LDS General Authority Marlin K. Jensen, for the church as a whole, the record in going in a different direction.

Elder Jensen told the news outlet times have changed, and "attrition has accelerated in the last five or 10 years." Some church members ABC 4 talked to said they see the faithful leaving.

"I'm from Chile and a lot of people just stop attending, they take it a little bit too casual," said Francisco Jerez, LDS Church member.

So how bad is it getting? Right now there are more than 14 million members of the church worldwide. But according to the article, sociologists estimate active membership may as few as only five million.

Elder Jensen told Reuters that's the biggest departure since before the days of Brigham Young.

"If people are leaving it's really a mark that maybe we need to get deeper into our faith," said Ross Booth, LDS Church member.

"When life is going good and we don't have as many challenges we don't turn to God," said Babbi Hill, LDS Church member.

These members said it doesn't worry them about the church.

"I know the church is going to continue to grow and develop," said Booth.

But it is a wake up call to be their brother's keeper.

"It does come down to us as members of the church to do our part," said Jerez.

And LDS leaders are hoping they bring their friends back.

The LDS church declined to comment on the article. But Elder Jensen told Reuters, the church is attempting to reach out to the less-active church members, update its manuals on sensitive church doctrines, and improve the amount of accurate information about the church on the internet.


TOPICS: Current Events; Other non-Christian; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: declining; inman; lds; membership; mormon
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From the news segment: A new report quotes an LDS general authority who said more members are falling away today than any time in the past 175 years...according to a recent Reuters article citing LDS General Authority Marlin K. Jensen, for the church as a whole, the record in going in a different direction. Elder Jensen told the news outlet times have changed, and "attrition has accelerated in the last five or 10 years." Some church members ABC 4 talked to said they see the faithful leaving. "I'm from Chile and a lot of people just stop attending, they take it a little bit too casual," said Francisco Jerez, LDS Church member. So how bad is it getting? Right now there are more than 14 million members of the church worldwide. But according to the article, sociologists estimate active membership may as few as only five million.

In the aftermath of a Romney Florida victory, we need good news like this.

The "bad news" contained in this, though, is that many Mormons aren't leaving to go a Christian church...disillusioned about having been so vulnerable to believing cult fables for so long...they turn to emptiness...

Pray that the Lord of the Harvest rounds up these lost and shepherdless Mormons.

1 posted on 02/01/2012 3:37:58 AM PST by Colofornian
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To: Colofornian

I stand in agreement with you.


2 posted on 02/01/2012 3:43:23 AM PST by DarthVader (Politicians govern out of self interest, Statesmen govern for a Vision greater than themselves)
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To: Colofornian

“If people are leaving it’s really a mark that maybe we need to get deeper into our faith,” said Ross Booth, LDS Church member.
____________________________________________

No, idiot

Its a sign you need to find out why...


3 posted on 02/01/2012 3:55:21 AM PST by Tennessee Nana (46 STATES TO GO)
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To: Colofornian

“When life is going good and we don’t have as many challenges we don’t turn to God,” said Babbi Hill, LDS Church member.
________________________________________

When life is going bad Mormons dont turn to God, either...

Joey Smith cant help them...


4 posted on 02/01/2012 3:57:47 AM PST by Tennessee Nana (46 STATES TO GO)
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To: Colofornian
The truth hurts!
5 posted on 02/01/2012 4:00:57 AM PST by Zakeet (If Obama had half a brain, his butt would be lopsided)
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To: Colofornian
update its manuals on sensitive church doctrines

A black "prophet" ???

a woman "prophet" ???

No extra "wives" for Willie Mitty ???

and improve the amount of accurate information about the church on the internet

Oh I would think theres just the right amount there now

Thats your problem, guys...

HELLO ???

6 posted on 02/01/2012 4:03:34 AM PST by Tennessee Nana (46 STATES TO GO)
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To: Colofornian
My great great great great aunt Cynthia Jones Tackett and over a 100 others were killed by a Mormon hoard in 1857 at the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

That's all I ever need to know about Mormonism.

7 posted on 02/01/2012 4:12:31 AM PST by catfish1957 (Save a Pretzel for the Gas Jets!!!)
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To: Colofornian

I guess that’s what happens to a cult when the personality wears off. They don’t have the Holy Spirit wooing them!


8 posted on 02/01/2012 4:22:02 AM PST by bjorn14 (Woe to those who call good evil and evil good. Isaiah 5:20)
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: catfish1957

I recall once driving through Utah and stopping at a state or county park campground late at night ... it was a very creepy place and we were awake all night and left just at daybreak...and as we pulled out, we saw that it was on the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

A truly horrible, horrible thing. Settlers on their way West were justifiably afraid of the Mormons, who had already left a trail of fear behind them on their way to Utah. They would move into small towns and attempt to take them over, violently if need be,to carry out the “prophecies” giving them other people’s land and resources.

My favorite is when Mormons describe the attempts of the townspeople to fight back as “anti-Mormon predjudice.” Hah. The Muslims see it the same way in their religion.


10 posted on 02/01/2012 4:40:27 AM PST by livius
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To: Colofornian
But it is a wake up call to be their brother's keeper.

Is there not a single Bible concept these people get correct? Beyond that what are they talking about, stalking people who leave? Brow beating them to come back?

11 posted on 02/01/2012 4:44:23 AM PST by svcw (For the new year: you better toughen You up, if you are going to continue to be stupid.)
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To: All
Two similar articles also posted today...with distinct details...
* Mormons opening up in an Internet world [& Losing members accordingly]
* Special report -Mormonism besieged by the modern age [Lds church is hemorrhaging in member losses]
12 posted on 02/01/2012 4:59:42 AM PST by Colofornian
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To: livius
My favorite is when Mormons describe the attempts of the townspeople to fight back as "anti-Mormon predjudice." Hah. The Muslims see it the same way in their religion.

It does not appear that Mormons do that tactic anymore, whereas Muslims still do today. More importantly, Mormons do not want to replace the Constitution with Sharia.

13 posted on 02/01/2012 5:15:45 AM PST by palmer (Before reading this post, please send me $2.50)
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To: Colofornian
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is losing a record number of its membership. A new report quotes an LDS general authority who said more members are falling away today than any time in the past 175 years.

Freedom of Information Act.
l          n
y          m
i          e
n          n
g          !

14 posted on 02/01/2012 5:38:18 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: DarthVader
One more can't hurt!!

Matthew 18:19
"I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask...

15 posted on 02/01/2012 5:40:00 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: palmer

Mormons are being killed by their own success. They have lost the spark that inspired people. They need to get back to where they were 75 years ago. Fewer temples, more faith. What I see is that they are morally bankrupt. Even those poor polygamous neo-Mormon cultist at least have faith in what they were doing. They would go to jail for their views—How many LDS today would do that? How many Christians would face death if confronted by evil? Many are dying for Christ each day in Egypt, and the Middle east and even Europe? I heard a sermon once where the priest asked—If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence
to convict you?


16 posted on 02/01/2012 5:42:15 AM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll)
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To: Tennessee Nana
“If people are leaving it’s really a mark that maybe we need to get deeper into our faith,” said Ross Booth, LDS Church member.

That's what we Inmen DO for you guys!

Show you the DEEPER things of MORMONism!!

17 posted on 02/01/2012 5:45:09 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Tennessee Nana

18 posted on 02/01/2012 5:46:02 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: catfish1957
My great great great great aunt Cynthia Jones Tackett and over a 100 others were killed by a Mormon hoard in 1857 at the Mountain Meadows Massacre.


And THIS fellow was the ONE who did it ALL!!!


"I am a true believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ, I do not believe everything that is now being taught and practiced by Brigham Young.

 I do not care who hears it. It is my last word - it is so.

 I believe he is lead­ing the people astray, downward to destruction.

 But I believe in the gospel that was taught in its purity by Joseph Smith, in former days.

 I have my reasons for it.

 

"I studied to make this man's [Brigham Young] will my pleasure for thirty years.

See, now, what I have come to this day!

 

"I have been sacrificed in a cowardly, dastardly manner." (Lee enun­ciated this sentence with marked emphasis.)

 

 

Excerpted from -->  http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mountainmeadows/leeexecution.html


He must have been a REALLY fast reloader!

19 posted on 02/01/2012 5:47:50 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: livius
...to carry out the “prophecies” giving them other people’s land and resources.

Oh?

You GOTTA be KIDDING us!!!


The Doctrine and Covenants

 

Section 98

Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Kirtland, Ohio, 6 August 1833 (see History of the Church, 1:403–6). This revelation came in consequence of the persecution upon the Saints in Missouri. It was natural that the Saints in Missouri, having suffered physically and also having lost property, would feel an inclination toward retaliation and revenge. Therefore, the Lord gave this revelation. Although some news of the problems in Missouri had no doubt reached the Prophet in Kirtland (nine hundred miles away), the seriousness of the situation could have been known to him at this date only by revelation.

1–3, The afflictions of the Saints will be for their good; 4–8, The Saints are to befriend the constitutional law of the land; 9–10, Honest, wise, and good men should be supported for secular government; 11–15, Those who lay down their lives in the Lord’s cause will have eternal life; 16–18, Renounce war and proclaim peace; 19–22, The Saints in Kirtland are reproved and commanded to repent; 23–32, The Lord reveals his laws governing the persecutions and afflictions imposed on his people; 33–38, War is justified only when the Lord commands it; 39–48, The Saints are to forgive their enemies, who, if they repent, will also escape the Lord’s vengeance.

1 Verily I say unto you my friends, afear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give bthanks;

2 aWaiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.

3 Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been aafflicted shall work together for your bgood, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord.

4 And now, verily I say unto you concerning the alaws of the land, it is my will that my people should observe to do all things whatsoever I command them.

5 And that alaw of the land which is bconstitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me.

6 Therefore, I, the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, in befriending that law which is the aconstitutional law of the land;

7 And as pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is more or less than this, cometh of evil.

8 I, the Lord God, make you afree, therefore ye are free indeed; and the law also maketh you free.

9 Nevertheless, when the awicked brule the people mourn.

10 Wherefore, ahonest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil.

11 And I give unto you a commandment, that ye shall forsake all evil and cleave unto all agood, that ye shall live by every bword which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God.

12 For he will agive unto the faithful line upon line, precept upon precept; and I will btry you and prove you herewith.

13 And whoso alayeth down his life in my cause, for my name’s sake, shall find it again, even life eternal.

14 Therefore, be not aafraid of your enemies, for I have decreed in my heart, saith the Lord, that I will bprove you in all things, whether you will abide in my covenant, ceven unto death, that you may be found worthy.

15 For if ye will not abide in my covenant ye are not worthy of me.

16 Therefore, arenounce war and proclaim peace, and seek diligently to bturn the hearts of the children to their fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children;

17 And again, the hearts of the aJews unto the prophets, and the prophets unto the Jews; lest I come and smite the whole earth with a curse, and all flesh be consumed before me.

18 Let not your hearts be troubled; for in my Father’s house are amany mansions, and I have prepared a place for you; and where my Father and I am, there ye shall be also.

19 Behold, I, the Lord, am not well apleased with many who are in the church at Kirtland;

20 For they do not aforsake their sins, and their wicked ways, the pride of their hearts, and their covetousness, and all their detestable things, and observe the words of wisdom and eternal life which I have given unto them.

21 Verily I say unto you, that I, the Lord, will achasten them and will do whatsoever I list, if they do not repent and observe all things whatsoever I have said unto them.

22 And again I say unto you, if ye observe to ado whatsoever I command you, I, the Lord, will turn away all bwrath and indignation from you, and the cgates of hell shall not prevail against you.

23 Now, I speak unto you concerning your families—if men will asmite you, or your families, once, and ye bbear it patiently and crevile not against them, neither seek drevenge, ye shall be erewarded;

24 But if ye bear it not patiently, it shall be accounted unto you as being ameted out as a just measure unto you.

25 And again, if your enemy shall smite you the second time, and you revile not against your enemy, and bear it patiently, your reward shall be an ahundred fold.

26 And again, if he shall smite you the third time, and ye bear it apatiently, your reward shall be doubled unto you four-fold;

27 And these three atestimonies shall stand against your enemy if he repent not, and shall not be blotted out.

28 And now, verily I say unto you, if that enemy shall escape my vengeance, that he be not brought into judgment before me, then ye shall see to it that ye awarn him in my name, that he come no more upon you, neither upon your family, even your children’s children unto the third and fourth generation.

29 And then, if he shall come upon you or your children, or your children’s children unto the third and fourth generation, I have delivered thine aenemy into thine hands;

30 And then if thou wilt spare him, thou shalt be rewarded for thy arighteousness; and also thy children and thy children’s children unto the third and fourth generation.

31 Nevertheless, thine enemy is in thine hands; and if thou rewardest him according to his works thou art justified; if he has sought thy life, and thy life is endangered by him, thine enemy is in thine hands and thou art justified.

32 Behold, this is the law I gave unto my servant Nephi, and thy afathers, Joseph, and Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham, and all mine ancient prophets and apostles.

33 And again, this is the alaw that I gave unto mine ancients, that they should not go out unto battle against any nation, kindred, tongue, or people, save I, the Lord, commanded them.

34 And if any nation, tongue, or people should proclaim war against them, they should first lift a standard of apeace unto that people, nation, or tongue;

35 And if that people did not accept the offering of peace, neither the second nor the third time, they should bring these testimonies before the Lord;

36 Then I, the Lord, would give unto them a commandment, and justify them in going out to battle against that nation, tongue, or people.

37 And I, the Lord, would afight their battles, and their children’s battles, and their children’s children’s, until they had avenged themselves on all their enemies, to the third and fourth generation.

38 Behold, this is an aensample unto all people, saith the Lord your God, for justification before me.

39 And again, verily I say unto you, if after thine aenemy has come upon thee the first time, he repent and come unto thee praying thy forgiveness, thou shalt forgive him, and shalt hold it no more as a testimony against thine enemy—

40 And so on unto the second and third time; and as oft as thine enemy repenteth of the trespass wherewith he has trespassed against thee, thou shalt aforgive him, until seventy times seven.

41 And if he trespass against thee and repent not the first time, nevertheless thou shalt forgive him.

42 And if he trespass against thee the second time, and repent not, nevertheless thou shalt forgive him.

43 And if he trespass against thee the third time, and repent not, thou shalt also forgive him.

44 But if he trespass against thee the fourth time thou shalt not forgive him, but shalt bring these testimonies before the Lord; and they shall not be blotted out until he repent and areward thee four-fold in all things wherewith he has trespassed against thee.

45 And if he do this, thou shalt forgive him with all thine heart; and if he do not this, I, the Lord, will aavenge thee of thine enemy an hundred-fold;

46 And upon his children, and upon his children’s achildren of all them that bhate me, unto the cthird and fourth generation.

47 But if the achildren shall repent, or the children’s children, and bturn to the Lord their God, with all their hearts and with all their might, mind, and strength, and crestore four-fold for all their trespasses wherewith they have trespassed, or wherewith their fathers have trespassed, or their fathers’ fathers, then thine indignation shall be turned away;

48 And vengeance shall ano more come upon them, saith the Lord thy God, and their trespasses shall never be brought any more as a testimony before the Lord against them. Amen.


20 posted on 02/01/2012 5:49:27 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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