Rocky provided his General Conference summaries.
Elder Gong: “Go temple. Bring ancestors. Family reunion logistics—amaze.”
Sister Runia: “God sculpt human. Human complain about chisel.”
Elder Caussé: “Have testimony, question? Share. No hoard.”
Elder Sikahema: “Prophet in pocket. Human still scroll past. Why, question?”
Elder Hathaway: “Jesus rescue. Human want tracking number.”
Elder Soares: “Skip food. Add prayer. Help others. Hunger with mission.”
Bishop Douglas: “Go mission. Help save humans. Excellent use of feet.”
President Christofferson: “Gambling bad math. Worse morals. Close app.”
Evangelical: Mormons believe human beings can become like God.
Mormon: Yes.
Evangelical: That’s blasphemy.
Mormon: Okay. What happens to Christians after the resurrection?
Evangelical: We receive glorified, immortal bodies.
Mormon: Like God?
Evangelical: No. Not like that.
Mormon: Will we still sin?
Evangelical: No. We’ll be perfected.
Mormon: So immortal and sinless.
Evangelical: Yes.
Mormon: Will we live eternally in God’s presence?
Evangelical: Of course.
Mormon: Will we see God?
Evangelical: Yes. “We shall see him as he is.”
Mormon: And John says that when Christ appears, “we shall be like him,” right?
Evangelical: Yes, but that doesn’t mean we become God.
Mormon: I didn’t say we replace God.
Evangelical: Still. We remain creatures.
Mormon: Sure. What does Peter mean when he says we become “partakers of the divine nature”?
Evangelical: It means we share in God’s holiness.
Mormon: So we become more like God.
Evangelical: In a limited sense.
Mormon: Paul says Christians are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.”
What do we inherit?
Evangelical: Eternal life and the kingdom of God.
Mormon: Revelation says the faithful will “inherit all things.”
Evangelical: Yes.
Mormon: It also says they sit with Christ on His throne.
Evangelical: Symbolically.
Mormon: And they “reign for ever and ever.”
Evangelical: Yes.
Mormon: So let me make sure I understand.
Christians become immortal.
Sinless.
Glorified.
Live eternally with God.
See God as He is.
Become like Christ.
Partake of the divine nature.
Become heirs of God.
Inherit all things.
Sit with Christ on His throne.
And reign forever.
Evangelical: Correct.
Mormon: But saying God intends His children to become like Him is blasphemy.
Evangelical: Exactly.
Mormon: What phrase would you prefer?
Evangelical: “Glorification.”
Mormon: Ah.
So we believe essentially the same list of things, but you become uncomfortable when I summarize the list.
Evangelical: YOU BELIEVE MEN BECOME GODS.
Mormon: There it is.
I was wondering when we were going to abandon the biblical language and switch back to the anti-Mormon tract.
Evangelical: There is only one God.
Mormon: And I worship Him.
Evangelical: Then stop saying humans can become like God.
Mormon: Fine.
“We shall be like him.”
—1 John 3:2
Evangelical: …
Mormon: Would you like to argue with John, or should I give you Peter next?
Fascinating finds:
Until 1950 women often prepared the sacrament & young men not ordained to any priesthood would help pass.
Bearing testimony replaced speaking in tongues.
Wards were initially created not to create congregations, but to collect & distribute tithes/offerings.
Important announcement: I am upping my offer, $10 million dollars for a head-to-head basketball game between the defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces and a boy's high school state title team of my choice. If the Aces beat my team, I will give them $10 million.
@WallStreetApes The rent, the light bill, the employees, the location, all the overhead plus the service is worth whatever people will pay, just like a beer at the baseball game, this is a moronic take
Michael Knowles today on Mormon controversy:
"But I have to come out here in defense of the Mormons, because if trinitarian theology is the criterion [to be Christian], why are the Jehovah's Witnesses listed as Christian? Why are the Christian Scientists who deny the Trinity?
I'm not changing my views about the Trinity or the essential aspects of the Creed, but it does seem to me that the Mormons are being unfairly singled out here.
Everybody beats up on the Mormons all the time. Mormons are very reliable Republican voters. They live very, very good family lives. They're model citizens in many, many ways. And I do think this would be an example of them being unfairly singled out."
@michaeljknowles@BasedMikeLee
India is the great natural experiment in plant-based eating, and almost nobody wants to run the numbers on it.
It is the most vegetarian large country on earth, hundreds of millions of people, many vegetarian from birth. Grain at the base, pulses, vegetables, all cooked in vegetable oil: the government Eat Well plate, run as a national experiment for thousands of years.
The result. Around a third of its children are stunted, the largest share of the world's stunted children of any nation. The Indian Dietetic Association reports 84% of the country's vegetarians are protein deficient, against 65% of its meat eaters. And the nation that eats the least meat is the diabetes capital of the world, with over 100 million diabetics.
Before anyone blames poverty, a Journal of Nutrition study found a vegetarian mother predicted stunting across every wealth bracket, rich families included. The diet was carrying its own weight.
Bioavailable iron, zinc, B12 and complete protein build a child's skeleton. Strip them out and it comes out smaller. The animal fat, meanwhile, got swapped for refined grain, sugar and seed oil. India is now the world's biggest vegetable oil importer, per-person intake tripled since 2001.
The diet sold to the West as optimal human nutrition has been run here, at the scale of a billion people, for longer than the West has existed. It did not produce optimal humans. It produced the largest population of stunted, diabetic, protein-starved people on earth.
One of the greatest musical collabs of all time.
This is Alfie Boe, legendary Les Misérables actor, singing "Bring Him Home," accompanied by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Goosebumps every time. Get your headphones for this one:
Testosterone is made from cholesterol.
Oestrogen is made from cholesterol.
Cortisol is made from cholesterol.
Vitamin D is made from cholesterol.
Bile acids that digest fat are made from cholesterol.
Progesterone, which sustains pregnancy, is made from cholesterol.
Every cell membrane in your body contains cholesterol.
Every nerve is insulated by myelin, which is largely cholesterol.
Every memory you form requires cholesterol to build the synapse that holds it.
Your brain is 60% fat, mostly cholesterol.
Breast milk is rich in cholesterol because infant brains cannot develop without it.
Nature, given the job of designing the perfect first food, put cholesterol in it.
When you eat less of it, the liver makes more.
Because the body knows it cannot function without it.
We declared war on cholesterol in 1977.
Testosterone in men has dropped 25%.
Vitamin D deficiency is now endemic.
One in three adults over fifty is on a statin lowering the cholesterol the body is desperately trying to maintain.
Depression rates have tripled.
Infertility rates have doubled.
The war is going well.
"You are MORE likely to die from the VACCINE than from the DISEASE, this is true for EVERY single vaccine on the childhood schedule."
~Dr Paul Thomas, MD
There Is No Safe Vaccine On The Childhood Schedule...Period.
The statistical analysis of each vaccine...
The risk of death from Polio is 1 in 1 trillion
The risk of death from the Polio vaccine is 1 in 215K
The risk of death from Diphtheria is 1 in 42.5 million
The risk of death from the Diphtheria vaccine 1 in 76K
The risk of death from Tetanus is 1 in 1.5 million
The risk of death from the Tetanus Vaccine is 1 in 76K
The risk of death from Pertussis is 1 in 2.3 million
The risk of death from the Pertussis vaccine is 1 in 76K
The risk of death from Measles is 1 in 106.5 million
The risk of death from the Measles vaccine is 1 in 108K
The risk of death from Mumps is 1 in 40.3 million
The risk of death from the Mumps vaccine is 1 in 108K
The risk of death from Rubella is 1 in 0/negligible
The risk of death from the Rubella vaccine is 1 in 108K
The risk of death from Chickenpox is 1 in 32.3 million
The risk of death from Chickenpox vaccine is 1 in 202K
The risk of death from Hepatitis-A is 1 in 1.6 million
The risk of death from the Hep-A vaccine is 1 in 73K
The risk of death from Hepatitis-B is 1 in 305K
The risk of death from the Hep-B vaccine is 1 in 96K
The risk of death from HIB is 1 in 1.5 million
The risk of death from the HIB vaccine is 1 in 46K
The risk of death from Pneumonia is 1 in 236K
The risk of death from Pneumonia vaccine is 1 in 50K
The risk of death from Meningitis is 1 in 822K
The risk of death from Meningitis vaccine is 1 in 141K
The risk of death from Influenza is 1 in 136K
The risk of death from the Influenza Vaccine is 1 in 15K
**Statistical Facts From Dr. Paul Thomas' Book: "Vax Facts."**
It feels like it happened overnight, but after decades in the fashion wilderness, jean shorts are back. Every teenage boy in Nashville is wearing them, including my sons. Huge moment for Florida Gator fans everywhere. It’s your time.