#something something mormons

[vrgssmncht]

Great Mormon butterfly from my last roadtrip!

Pics below

I ❤️ InverteFest

[elflikesfrogs]

I love Minecraft youtubers they have such nonbinary names. Hi everybody welcome to my Minecraft let's play YouTube video my name is Pinky Blorbo. We are joined today by my buddy Dr Sauce 11. Today we will be killing god

[reel-by-reel]

*Twirls hair ominously*

Lee and angel Religious motifs pleaseeeee pleaseeee 🙏🙏🙏👻👻👻

angelito

[chemicalarospec]

Scary Christmas

okay scary christmas. i wanna get on this early because I'll be disappointed if Scary Christmas happens but it's just Christmas But Make It Children's Horror Game and/or The Nightmare Before Christmas. Warning: I'm literally making up all of this as I go along.

I respect the scary but as a scaredy-cat, I would rather not go full horror. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention, we're throwing the Christmas part out the door. Vintage goth might be a good starting place for the aesthetic? Blood accents encouraged. Potential Scary Christmas colors:

idk i'm not an artist...

I'm imaging making old-web style "happy scary christmas" glitter graphics...

Scary Christmas iconography: spiderwebs are a good place to start. But more cobweb-y than spider-y. A line with a moon on top and a sun on the bottom, to represent the respective seasons of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The painting The Scream. Snowflakes? (Sorry Southern Hemisphere) My first concept art looks too much like Halloween.

Scary Christmas concept art:

Scary Christmas greetings: "Happy Scary Christmas!" "We're almost through January!" "May you face February unafraid." just "Face February unafraid!" in the cadence of an NPC. "Boo!"

Scary Christmas activities:

watching horror movies (with friends)

but if, like me, you are afraid of horror movies, then watching comedic kid's Halloween movies (The Nightmare Before Christmas included! I just want this to be MORE than that) or black and white films, particularly Alfred Hitchcock films, are encouraged substitutes.

gather around and sing SCARY songs or recite SCARY chants

or the Dune litany against fear

set a goal of doing something that makes you scared.

almost all holidays have traditional food so uh... okay apparently January is National Soup Month?? idk for which nation but soup it is. tumblr users love soup.

if there is no soup, there still should be a main dish in a bowl.

Scary Christmas goals are often (sorry my brain thinks it'd be really fun to write this like it's real but I don't want to confuse people) to live more authentically. Traditional Scary Christmas stories remind the listener that as scary as opening up as your true self is, the joy it brings is worth it. (transition. Scary Christmas is pro-trans.)

The meaning of Scary Christmas: Scary Christmas is a holiday that recognizes how scary life is. It is a day to acknowledge fear so we don't let it control the rest of our year. Celebrants are encouraged to share their seemingly-silly fears and realize they're not alone in them.

Scary Christmas recognizes that facing our fears helps us grow. On Scary Christmas, everyone is encouraged to take one step out of their comfort zone, whether it's trying a scary new food, watching a scary movie, or talking to a person (scary) -- but no one is forced to, because the Scary Christmas ideology also acknowledges that growth best happens under support.

Scary Christmas celebrates uniqueness and deviance. Catchphrase: stay scary, not scared!

Looking forward to celebrating Scary Christmas with you all on January 25th!

[inbabylontheywept]

All that remains: Part I

In the land just past the Decapolis, by the tombs of the city's most ancient forebears, there lived a man called Legion. Some days, he howled like a beast, laughing as he savaged his own flesh with the jagged edges of stones. Other days he wept like a child, teeth chattering even as the sun blazed overhead. But more days still, he lingered in the quiet spaces, haunted but lucid: A stranger to the land and a stranger to himself.

He called himself Legion because he was made of many parts. Memories without attachments, stories without endings. Fragments. Worse, he felt like he could only hold a few of the pieces at a time. Trying to assemble himself felt like an endless effort of cupping his hands together tight, filling them with details, reaching up to his mouth, and realizing they had already slipped through his fingers. An endless thirst for which he had no cure. 

The town called him Legion, because they remembered what he often forgot: That he was a Roman, as well as a former soldier. If he’d been anything less, they’d have driven him away. Instead, they fussed over him endlessly, all too aware that to harm a single hair upon his head was to invoke the wrath of the largest army the world had ever seen.

(Which was a problem, because he was all too willing to harm himself.)

On Legion’s good days they simply gave him space. He’d tried describing once, all the things that could bring his demons out: The clash of metal, the twang of a bowstring. A scream of pain. Those were easy enough to remember and avoid, but others were not. Certain phrases in Latin, ones related to marching, used for giving directions. Certain smells - the roasting of pork, the burning of sulfur. The way some men from distant lands braided their hair. 

So many little things. 

They were a lot to keep track of, and the cost of failure was high. It seemed easier for the people of the town to simply avoid him altogether. That it let them ignore his suffering was simply a pleasant side effect. 

On his bad days, they had to intervene more directly. He was strong when he was well, but his sickness could make him almost invincible. Whole teams of men would be sent into the tombs while he screamed and roared, and it could take them hours to tie him down and pry the rocks from his trembling fingers. To put a rolled up rag into his mouth and silence the phrase he shouted over and over, summoning more demons into himself with each incantation: TORNA MIRA, TALIS EST COMODUM MILES BARBATI. 

Sometimes, it took more than a day of being restrained that way for him to find himself again. They’d send children out to the edge of the town to listen, and when he finally went silent they’d travel back to free him from his chains. It was a beastly, shameful task every time, and Legion made it worse by never being angry. Without fail, the first thing he said every time the rag was removed was:

Συγγνώμη, δεν ήθελα να σε τρομάξω.

Forgive me, I did not mean to scare you. 

Everyone knew that the way things were being handled wasn’t enough. Everyone, even Legion, knew how things would end. They just weren’t sure when. 

It turned out that it was longer than six years.

[boogflake]

me after liking posts from 10 years ago because the fandom dead af

[cozylittleartblog]

me omw to scare mormons out of a wendys!! 🍂🖤🍟

ootd from like 2 weeks ago and yes that really happened

[bookish-bi-mormon]

hey! hope this isn’t offensive, but i was wondering what it’s like to be NB and bi in the Mormon church. Are you out? Does your community respect your identity? I’ve heard about Mormons sometimes being pretty bigoted so I was curious what that’s like for you.

Hey buddy!

Thanks for the question, definitely not offensive but boy howdy is this a complicated question to answer.

So, I've been out as bi since 2016, and out as nonbinary since 2020. I served a mission for my church and was very open about being bi the whole time, and I attended BYU (a religious LDS university) as a nonbinary person.

I wouldn't say either one was easy, but there were a lot of really cool people I met who made it easier.

I have had bishops who were very understanding, one in particular was a trained therapist and was well informed about queer issues, and hopes that gay marriage will be allowed in the temple one day. I had a lovely ministering sister (kinda like assigned friends???), an older lady who took me under her wing and watched queer eye with me and listened to me when I had to cry or vent about homophobia in the religion as a whole.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting (in front of an apostle!?!!!!) where I talked about being queer and the pain I feel because of unfair church policies and I was hearing from people for months how touching and meaningful my talk was.

There was a lovely family who hosted gatherings once a month for queer latter-day saints to meet and find community and belonging. I'm now part of a small group of trans Mormons who meet up every other week to have our own Sunday school. There are so many queer Mormons on this website who have given me support and community when I've needed it. I'm part of an leftist organization called Mormons With Hope for a Better World, and many of the members are queer in some way.

I guess in conclusion: yeah, as an institution the LDS church is homophobic and transphobic and they keep instituting policies that aim to keep it that way. But there are many many individuals who are fighting for change, some in little ways and others loudly. There are many people who are willing to learn and be inclusive they just don't know where to start. I love my religion and I want to practice it in community. I know it's not everyone's fight, but for me it's worth it to keep pushing back and carving out spaces for queer Mormons. I won't let the cishets forget I exist. I have just as much right to sit in the pews on Sunday as they do.

[byjove]

what do you mean you were “very lonely” you had 4 wives and 9+ kids

[youraveragemiscellanyenjoyer]

Anyone from tbom?? 🙏

It's him it's Elder Price

[craigularory-joe]

Day 6

[slimetutorialanalysis]

Hey y'all, I’m conducting research on the musical bootleg community on tumblr and would SUPER appreciate if you would vote in this poll and reblog/share it!

I’d also love if you could tag what you answered, along with any extra details about your personal bootleg/slime tutorial experience! What are your favourite parts of being on bootleg tumblr?

Feel free to send me asks as well if you wanna chat about musicals or ask any other questions! I’d be happy to include you in my research and would be suuuuper grateful for your help

[nataliekalen]

"I locked you in a room like an animal, Mark. As an unserved man, I'll carry that knowledge the rest of my life." vs. "I'm tightening the leash."

[rickktish]

A generic response to people who call Mormonism "a cult":

your desire to help others is very admirable and greatly appreciated! Unfortunately, calling someone's beliefs a "cult" without doing enough research to understand the real harm that cults do to individuals or examining whether the beliefs they hold to actually qualify under those harmful practices, beliefs, and methods of control is likely to be more damaging both to that individual and to their willingness to consider your point of view than just expressing concern for them as a human being. Please consider using your words more carefully and perhaps not applying the concept of something defined by "isolation from the outside world and a high degree of control over members' lives" to a church where you can literally just stop showing up any time you want! (That's what it means to become inactive in the LDS church-- you decided to stop going. Many people do it for years or decades at a time, or even the rest of their lives! It is not hard to do.) It is so minimizing to actual victims of cults when this comparison is made and it's very important that if you care enough to want someone to change their perspective on a thing that they value, you need to keep in mind that using insulting or degrading language toward that thing is in fact more likely to result in that person deciding to value it even harder!

[anghraine]

jenndoesnotcare replied to this post:

Every time LDS kids come to my neighborhood I am so so nice to them. I hope they remember the blue haired lady who was kind, when people try to convince them the outside world is bad and scary. (Also they are always so young! I want to feed them cookies and give them Diana Wynne Jones books or something)

Thank you! Honestly, this sort of kindness can go a really long way, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time.

LDS children and missionaries (and the majority of the latter are barely of age) are often the people who interact the most with non-Mormons on a daily basis, and thus are kind of the "face" of the Church to non-Mormons a lot of the time. As a result, they're frequently the ones who actually experience the brunt of antagonism towards the Church, which only reinforces the distrust they've already been taught to feel towards the rest of the world.

It's not that the Church doesn't deserve this antagonism, but a lot of people seem to take this enormous pride in showing up Mormon teenagers who have spent most of their lives under intense social pressure, instruction, expectation, and close observation from both their peers and from older authorities in the Church (it largely operates on seniority, so young unmarried people in particular tend to have very little power within its hierarchies). Being "owned" for clout by non-Mormons doesn't prove anything to most of them except that their leaders and parents are right and they can't trust people outside the Church.

The fact that the Church usually does provide a tightly-knit community, a distinct and familiar culture, and a well-developed infrastructure for supporting its members' needs as long as they do [xyz] means that there can be very concrete benefits to staying in the Church, staying closeted, whatever. So if, additionally, a Mormon kid has every reason to think that nobody outside the Church is going to extend compassion or kindness towards them, that the rest of the world really is as hostile and dangerous as they've been told, the stakes for leaving are all the higher, despite the costs of staying.

So people from "outside" who disrupt this narrative of a hostile, threatening world that cannot conceivably understand their experiences or perspectives can be really important. It's important for them to know that there are communities and reliable support systems outside the Church, that leaving the Church does not have to mean being a pariah in every context, that there are concrete resources outside the Church, that compassion and decency in ordinary day-to-day life is not the province of any particular religion or sect and can be found anywhere. This kind of information can be really important evidence for people to have when they are deciding how much they're willing to risk losing.

So yeah, all of this is to say that you're doing a good thing that may well provide a lifeline for very vulnerable people, even if you don't personally see results at the time.

[cowardlycowboys]

I wasn't raised catholic but I practice their beliefs (burdened by guilt)