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Fanatic?

Is it possible to be a fanatic of the Gospel to the point that you are difficult to live with?

An example of this is... imagine a person not wanting to play the game Monopoly because it teaches you to gamble or not eat meat on Sundays because it takes too long to heat in the oven. I have seen people that find 25 cents on the floor and ensure they pay tithing on it. Others fast with a stop watch.

What are your thoughts?

Fanatic

Religious fanatism is a very dangerous thing. I personally believe it's associated with a psychological problem that need to be resolved. Think about all those religious fanatics in the world that kill, torture and do all kind of bad stuff in the name of God!. It must be a balance between normal life and religion.
Sometimes people who act this way think that God will listen to them more than others, you know...just like the pharisees in Jesus's time. But they're wrong. God doesn't want us to be blind and be like robots following everything, he wants us to be leaders, to think, to reason..to obey BUT with knowledge, not like blind followers. 'More Holy than Thou' attitute is definetly not good.

Fanatic? Studies Doctrine Mormon

We've been told to be wary of accumulating gospel hobbies. Having a gospel hobby, for those not associated with the term, is the act of focusing on one specific aspect or doctrine in a very unbalanced way. I think it's a matter of pride- our family is better because we don't watch TV; our family is better because we've got all our family history done, color coded, alphabatized, and sorted by height and hair color, we're so righteous because we have nine children... you know the drill (and down here sometimes we hear nothing but "Well in Utah we... (did this that or the other because it's simply holier there"))  And truely there is nothing wrong with enjoying family history, and I think it's great to have nine kids or what ever... but I think it seems to be a growing trend among Latter Day Saints to try to out- humble each other. Pride isn't always about earthly posessions or physical beauty or ability. It could be that "my ancestors crossed the plains" or even "Well I baptized 20 people on my mission..." These things are okay to feel good about, but when we begin to project these things on others, to force it down their throats as if to say "We don't have a TV, and you shouldn't either" it is judgemental, prideful and wrong. That's when fanaticsm becomes a bit scary, when you are expected to conform or forever live as a lesser being in another human's eyes.
I wonder what Christ thinks of these who seek to take another's free agency in such a way. And what he thinks about those who presume to judge another based on things like food storage, geneology, missionary work, enrichment attendance, or any other side street of the gospel. These things are all important, but they all must be looked at with all the other principles of the gosple in mind. My family has been judged before because we generally don't attend ward socials. There are several small children in my family and it would be like bringing a small circus into the gym. Not only that but our family time is precious, we don't get too much. A ward social is not a good place for family time- Ashley the single goes to flirt with John the RM, Thomas and Chris go hang out with their scout buddies, Celeste and Shannon have little play mates with whom they go tearing about the building with... So though ward socials are good, they aren't like sacrament meeting or anything. We feel like we are giving up precious family time because it is so scarce. But some families like the socials and have a fun time, more power to them, I think it's great to be able to do that if you enjoy it. Just don't expect me to do it because YOU think it's key to your eternal progress. Don't get me wrong, I love my ward, but I am not sealed to my ward, the ward is not the basic unit of the church. I am not going to the Celestial Kingdom with my ward!! If I'm missing sacrament, then I could understand why a few people would get up tight... but a social? or a TV? or Geneology? I think fanatics (from the mild to severe to the point of mental illness) are people who have their priorities out of line

ooh fanatics wind me tight... don't get me  :bossy: started...

Fanatic

[quote]We've been told to be wary of accumulating gospel hobbies. [/quote]
I like your response - very true. We have a thread on this board called, 'Too Mormony?' Maybe you can express your thoughts there too.

Fanatic

Monkeygirl, you're soooo right!. Everything you said it's so right. Look at me for instance, I have a 3 years old son at home who is a 'high-need child and hyperactive'. I can hardly make it to Church and stay in Sacrament without leaving because of my son. The rest of time, I'm in the nursery and thanks God that I have a loving and caring husband he comes over to take turns with me, he also have a calling in the District which makes the whole thing harder. But people always keep asking me why I don't attend this or that meeting and I'm TIRED to be replying the same thing, sometimes I wonder if they ask it a purpose, you know, to make you feel bad. I don't see other way because I have been answering the same thing for the past 2 years.
Where I live here in Trinidad the Church is not that big and the members are most of them converts. We don't have the problems you mentioned but when I lived in the States I heard it all the time. I think as members is very important to encourage each other you know, to read the scriptures or family history but it must be done in a loving way not forcing nobody...
To be honest, sometimes when I heard people making statements like the ones you mentioned,  I deeply feel that the reason they said it's just to show off, not really because it's working for them and they would love you can give it a try. You know what I mean?. That's so sad.
Those people in my point of view are religious fanatics and they don't even realize it!. I know people that they would not play 'Uno' cards because they say the First Presidency say we are not supposed to play cards : hello? did the First Presidency was refering to UNO cards?. LOL Hear this one, there was a member in my ward back in Argentina that he didn't even wanted to eat chocolate because that was against the Word of Wisdom : nor even try a coffee sweet (candy)! :
*Shacking head* and you know what's the funniest thing about all this? that after, you hear that people who thinks that way left the family for another woman or they did something worst, etc. Now, I'm not trying to be mean, but how you can care so much about such a silly thing and the big commandment right there you're breaking?. It doesn't make sense at all.

Fanatic?

Well if you step outside of the whole genral LDS frame of mind, and see how the rest of the world views us, to them we are fanatics.  Think about it .  We go to church for three hours on Sunday.  We follow an old man who says he speaks to God on our behalf, etc...  To someone not of the faith that's pretty weird.  

I know what you mean about being a religious fanatic though.  I can't say I don't fall into that category sometimes.  I think that at some point we all do because we see that the way we as LDS see things and do things, makes us happy so we automatically think it is the only way to be happy and we think that for sure others will be happy with our ways so we kind of push ourselves on each other instead of letting each other develop and figure out what works for them.  

I try to not make comments on stuff like "I'm living more righteous than you"  because that's not for me to say.  That's for the Lord to say.  

But I think that all people fall under the category of a fanatic sometimes but I don't think it's right to be one all of the time.  There needs to be a balance between religion and the life outside of the church.  

I've heard of people being so fanatical as to contradict themselves and apostasize because even the church isn't good enough anymore.  Groups who persecute those who are not of the church, who smoke and drink and stuff like that.   Church history is full of stories like that. 

It's very strange.  Fanatacism can definitely get way too out of control.  I don't agree with it.  

There must be a balance.

Fanatic

As a true life example of this we had users come on here and tell us we were not good LDS members because we had an online 'Raffle' (referring to the raffle where you can earn FP and not money) and lottery and RPGs. If we go this far then we can start to pick on ALL games of chance and then state that makes to think about gambling. There must be some measure of common sense in these things otherwise we will not be able to detect when it is possible to take our donkey out of the pit during the Sabbath.

Fanatic Mormon Doctrine Studies

I remember a member of the Church in Argentina who would not eat a coffee "sweet" because "it is against the word of wisdom" and another member who chastised a group of Young Women (me included) for playing cards...(They were Uno cards!) because "the Brethren say we should not play cards". Of course, I tried to explain to him what kind of cards they refer to, but he did not listen...the same brother chastised a group of Church members who kneel down to pray during a choir meeting because "we are not evanagelists". Go figure.