It appears that the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not amused. Mormon Chad Hardy has been summoned to a Church disciplinary hearing for possible excommunication after he produced a popular “Men on a Mission” calendar showing Mormon hunks without shirts. The new missionary position is that such photos are completely unacceptable — even if they do help with door-to-door outreach programs.
Hardy must appear before a council of elders to discuss his “conduct unbecoming a member of the church.” The 2008 calendar features 12 returned church missionaries without shirts — a take off on the fireman and police calendars. In biographical sketches each of the men (who are on missionary duty) talks about his beliefs.
Hardy was told that the call for discipline came directly from Salt Lake City. Someone marked this week for the hearing — just under hunky Mr. July.
Really though, don’t you think the Mormon church benefits either way? They are “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” in this situation. If they say nothing, they come under criticism for letting such a “racy” calender be pubished and we all see what happened when they did protest. Either way they still make $$$$$$ and as a good friend of mine always says, “Mormonism is BIG business!”
Yea, I’m sure he does.
😐
You two should get a room.
russ:
LOL. It gets me every time!
I don’t think I shall ever see…..
anyone as dumb as bartlebee…….
Freedom to worship does not mean freedom to worship as others think they should. Freedom to worship means live and let live. It means letting others worship God, Gods, or Frosty the Snowman, if they so choose, in whatever way they see fit, as long as that worship does not include violating the law, or injuring or causing harm to others.
Sects and divisions of Christianty, like the notorious “Elohim City” group, who no doubt helped Timothy McVeigh commit acts of terrorsim in this country, or sects of Islam, which incite murder, violence, oppression, and acts of terrorism, are not to be tolerated in the least. These belief systems are corrupted and fouled, and their members decieving themselves as to the nature of spirituality and worship.
But anything short of that, is beyond the input of outsiders to the relgion. People must be free to worship as they see fit, and voluntarily submitting oneself to a strict code of conduct, and then chosing to violate that code of conduct, does not constitute being oppressed.
It constitutes being fickle.
In all fairness to the Mormons, you can’t really blame them here.
Mormon missionaries are forbidden by the Missionary code from ever being seen in public without bare-chested. It’s actually part of the missionary policy a missionary agrees to when accepting the call to service in the Mormon church.
Additionally, they are also forbidden from removing their “garment” which is essentially a T-Shirt and Boxer shorts, specially blessed with the intent of protecting them from evil, as well as reminding them of their covenant with God, made when they received the garment in a sacred temple ritual.
Any missionary doing this, that is, removing the garment, and showing himself bare-chested in public, hence is just looking to be excommunicated, so bashing the church for following their own laws, seems somewhat disingenuous.
If the intent of the thread is to mock their religious beliefs, then ok, then it is what it is. But if the intent is to criticize the church for being too hard on this young man or something, then the reality is they are simply following their own established guidelines and bylaws, and the missionary obviously knew that when he decided to violate them.
Excuse me, Mormon Church, not Moron Church.
Good for the Moron Church. They have every right to police their private beliefs. I am just waiting for the criticism here regarding this policy of the Church to be re-directed at the Islamic faith – I won’t hold my breath.
It is sad when people aren’t allowed to have a littel fun. In my Catholic experience, the Nuns and Priests loved to dish out the guilt trip on us. I found myself at age 40 at my daughters orientation before her Freshman year in the Catholic high school in town watching the hands of the Nun who was in charge of registration. All these years and I was still watching out for the yard stick or the pointer in the Nun’s hands for self protection.
Was this the peep stone edition?
Seriously,
It is signigicant that religions spend a great deal of time worried about: 1. what people are wearing and 2. if people are sufficiently obedient to the religious hierarchy.
Our bodies are how we experience this world. Rules governing them are rules attempting to govern our experience.
It is possible to believe in a god that is the prime fasionista. It is also possible to know that there are people who set themselves up as god/dess chosen authority on earth. It is not necessary to follow either.