Alan Rock Waterman, author of the blog Pure Mormonism ( PureMormonism.blogspot.com ), has been given an ultimatum by the LDS Church to either stop blogging, resign from the church, or face excommunication. See this story from the New York Times for more details: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/us/critical-online-comments-put-church-status-at-risk-mormons-say.html
Here are a few must read posts from the blog:
- Who You Callin’ Apostate? http://puremormonism.blogspot.com/2012/06/who-you-callin-apostate.html
- Who Is Changing The Doctrine? http://puremormonism.blogspot.com/2014/06/who-is-changing-doctrine.html
- How Corporatism Has Undermined and Subverted The Church of Jesus Christ: http://puremormonism.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-corporatism-has-undermined-and.html
There are a couple of salient issues at hand:
- The LDS Church is struggling to deal effectively with members who have publicly published points of view that differ with established church practices
- The LDS Church claims that it is not sending edicts out from Church Headquarters regarding the discipline of indifidual members. It claims that disciplinary matters are wholly the prerogative of the individual’s local church leaders. Rock Waterman’s experience is proof that this claim is a lie, as his ultimatum has come down from the upper echelons of LDS Church leadership.
While on the air, we got word that Kate Kelly, the leader of OrdainWomen.org, has been excommunicated from the church. My response:
Kate Kelly, to the extent that your church membership means so much to you, I send you my deepest condolences. As one who was once in full fellowship of the church, and is now on “the other side”, I am very excited for you, because only now will you realize that ‘the still small voice’ is real, potent, was never patented by any one religion, and is likely to become even more powerful in your soul. You will now discover, experientially, the fullness of a truth that you have always known – that the power of manifestation and healing they call “priesthood” is a feature of the human condition that is universally available to all. You will discover the TRUE order of prayer. You will discover what the tale of Joseph Smith was meant to teach: that God is no respecter of persons, that God is a personal God that will commune with you personally, without any need for intermediaries to convey his will to you. It is only through the complete dissolution of the paradigm that one can finally realize that the paradigm was entirely unnecessary. May your powers of discernment become even more potent & clear, may your powers of manifestation become accelerated and larger in scope, may your heart finally find the peace that it knew existed all along.
Check out the recording below of my interview with Alan Rock Waterman:
