Stay N' Alive - Latest Comments in Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

Re: Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

Nathan — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:31:18 -0000

Dude--the Mormon church is just as much a business as it is a faith.

Re: Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

Jesse Stay — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:19:07 -0000

Jason, I sent an e-mail to the CIO of the church, a friend of mine.
He's also on Twitter, and anyone could have asked him there. You act
as though you want this news to be true - are you really serious that
you think this could actually happen?

Again, try to understand the perspective of a long-time member of the
Faith you're talking about. I'm someone that knows the history, knows
how they do things, and work on a regular basis with people that would
be close to the situation. I also wrote 2 books on Facebook and I
know the ins and outs of Facebook and many of the people over there.
I'm telling you this rumor is ludicrous and you keep coming back
acting as though it might be true. I suggest you trust me on this
one, then call me out if it is true. Now, what's the credibility of
the other guy where this all originated?

Re: Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

Guest — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:09:07 -0000

Jesse, what makes you any more authoritative in saying it has no basis than the original person who posted the rumor has in saying there's something to it? Do you have LDS batphones that let you know everything anyone in the LDS church is doing or something? Could it be that *gasp* something is going on with one part of the LDS church without you knowing about it?

Re: Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

jottos — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:00:58 -0000

I completely agree that the original post has the smallest amount of street "cred"
and I don't fault you for trusting your sources, but I've been in a situation where
a corporate sale was taking place and multiple folks that I trusted all were
able to say "nothing is going on" with a very convincing straight face. :-)

Re: Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

Jesse Stay — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:50:08 -0000

Thank you Gregory! I am a big believer in everyone having their own
right to believe as they will. I agree, it's fun to discuss these
things though.

Re: Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

gregorylent — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:42:52 -0000

hi jesse, i like your writing, and thinking... will offer that rumors are simply to be ignored, even seemingly innacurate (a given) or hurtful ones ...

and as for LDS..

like all religions, good values, ridiculously mythologized founding story, wonderful well-intentioned people, missionary agenda based on secret feeling of superiority, and machinations in the power structure ... no loss if you ignore them, communal benefit if you join them..... makes the mysteries of life seem embraceable. but belief is just a way-station, has to be left behind on the journey to direct experience ....

is my point of view, probably works for me, since i am more into the mystic sides of all religions .... happy you are grounded in yours... and even cooler, i think it is great to talk about this stuff, thanks for doing so

keep up the good blog work ... i always like to see your name on friendfeed, or mr. gray's site.

enjoy, gregory lent

Re: Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

Jesse Stay — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:18:21 -0000

The issue with these sites are that they are sites I would normally never expect to hear these types of rumors from. This is a rumor that started with someone with practically no background and was adopted by Valleywag. After that these sites started taking it - it's not the religion part that bugs me (although it is the reason I think it's a ridiculous rumor), it's the fact such reputable sites are sharing such rumors.

Regarding defending a religion, I'm not necessarily defending, but rather putting myself out there to answer such questions so this doesn't happen again. I don't think anyone (with the exception of a few commenters) has specifically attacked my faith. There has simply been some misunderstanding and I want to be sure people know where to come before further spreading such rumors in the future. My point of the post was to share that there's a lot of misunderstanding out there and I'd like to have other bloggers know where they can come if they have any question whatsoever.

Re: Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

madpotter — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:07:08 -0000

:-)

Re: Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

Jesse Stay — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:49:08 -0000

The answer I got was a pretty firm "no", from someone I consider a
friend, in fact 2 people I would consider a friend that would be at
the heart of such a deal. I would trust my sources much better than
that of the guy that originally started this whole rumor. Does anyone
even know who that guy was, anyway?

Re: Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

jottos — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:22:04 -0000

OK, so perhaps those who blogged this should have thought 'just a little' about whether it made
sense, but I have to ask... isn't is just a little improbable that if the LDS church were to try to make
a purchase of FaceBook that they would actually tell you? Deals like that are kept to the smallest
of circles regardless of whether it's a church or General Electric. You, or Phil could have asked
until you were blue in the face and you would have been told that "there's no deal" until the second
after it was announced

Re: Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

gregorylent — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:06:49 -0000

i think defending a religion is just as silly as attacking one, and for the same reason, they are both acts of ego. now, what can we talk about? rumors? big deal, gossip and rumor-love are almost the defining traits of being in a human community. and fuel some of the biggest sites on the internet. anything else important today?

Re: Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

The Other Drummer — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:34:38 -0000

Good points and a well-written post. I hadn't heard the rumor before this, but I admit I found it very amusing. :)

Re: Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

seansms — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:02:02 -0000

Yeah, that goes to show how unreliable some bloggers can be. If they choose not to be professional on this story then how can we trust them on other stories?