What Mormonism teaches me about religion

[RainDog]

17. if they were not written by god, then why do they have any more validity than any other text?

so, basically, you are agreeing that dogma is a human invention. So humans run these institutions... to benefit themselves and to accrue power on this earth, not on any spiritual plane, it seems, or, perhaps, no god is involved in the way these institutions make decisions since they are obviously wrong... so... the dogma is wrong, results in repression for women, but that's just the way it is?

The comparison to the U.S. doesn't hold. I was born in this nation. I vote, along with others, for the way in which this nation is run. The church does not offer that and, more importantly, no one has citizenship in a church. It is a choice to attend a particular church. It's not a nationality with restrictions on immigration from one entity to another.

The church, on the other hand, claims its leadership has a divine mandate and inspiration. If you don't believe that - what is it about the dogma that compels you to defend it?

I have not made the claim that I have the right to tell someone else what they should or shouldn't believe. However, I am saying I find no logic in the beliefs and wonder how someone can defend association with an entity that will not allow women to have positions of leadership, for example, or a group that excommunicates the doctor and mother of a 9 year old who was raped and then had an abortion but not her rapist because, the church said, the rapist sin wasn't as bad.

How in the name of all that is ethical does anyone continue an association with an institution that makes such a claim?

It used to be considered impolite to discuss religion and politics (but here we are on a forum for that express purpose.) But when that religion works to oppress an entire gender - well, it's like abolitionists speaking out against slavery - such religious belief violates the very philosophical foundations of this nation. Such beliefs are in opposition to the best practices of any nation anywhere in the world.

I don't get why anyone would want to be associated with such a group.