Sounds like CENSORSHIP to me

[irishgrl]

Originally Posted by DrummerDeanna

It's Pepsi the Mormon church either owns or has lots of stock in.....

you got that wrong, its Coca Cola. My father was mid level management at Coke for years and he told me. Btw, he was also Mormon. Do a background check of the shareholders of Coke, you'll see. Pepsi was once owned by Joan mommy dearest Crawford's husband.

edit: ok I did a search and here's what I found:
this info was from a Mormon FAQ site...

There's a common urban legend that has it that the Mormon church owns the Coca Cola company. A less common variant has it that the church owns the Pepsi Cola company. Both are false.

(NOTE: I am not saying the Church OWNS Coke, I am saying it owns STOCK in Coke. the very last sentence allows this "may be true" which is much different than the disavowal of Pepsi ownership)


Since PepsiCo, Inc. is a public company, anyone is welcome to buy shares in its stock. Theoretically, that could mean that there are some members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who own shares in PepsiCo, Inc., and ultimately own a portion of the company.

I have not seen an official statement—from the Church or otherwise—that says the Church itself owns shares in PepsiCo, Inc.


Coca-Cola Company is far too sizeable a business entity for any one person or group to own, even if that group were Bill Gates and Kerry Packer. Big Red is a publicly traded company (New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol KO), with 15% of the shares held by insiders (former and current executives plus the families of those who built up the company) and 9% by SunTrust Bank. The remaining 76% of the company is owned by various and sundry institutional and individual investors, some of whom may indeed be Mormon. you bet yer sweet bippy!

(NOTE: the above as taken from a FAQ website by a privat party. the info below is from an actual LDS website
LDS member named to oversight committe for Coke

ATLANTA, GEORGIA -- M. Anthony Burns, an LDS Church member and chairman of Ryder Systems, has been named to an oversight task force that will ensure Coca-Cola Co. compliance with a racial discrimination lawsuit settlement. Burns will serve a four-year term as one of seven members of the task force, which will issue annual reports to Coke, the court and the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. He resigned last November as CEO of Ryder Systems, but remains the company's Chairman.

I find it interesting that an LDS member is named to an oversight task force for Coke! Kinda like the Fox guarding the hen house!

edit: after an exhaustive search Im having a hard time finding any definitive info and so Im afraid Ill just have to rely on what my dad the Coke exec had to say..............but Ill be honest, Im a bit curious now.

[sunmaiden]

Originally Posted by sparky

Of course all churches should be taxed. They never will be, simply because they own too many politicians. And of course they have money. Organized religion exists to build power, exert power, and amass money to further those ends. That's no secret. The Catholic church is one of the wealthiest entities on earth. Although that may change as they continue to pay off all the molestation victims they have pimped out over the years.
As long as people think they are making a down payment on their own personal stairways to heaven with their church contributions, that dynamic will never change.

You are lumping us all together. We're not all the same people. I give to the Church and to many other charities, and not to buy my way into heaven! And it's not like I am rich. I give charity to whomever whenever I can.

There are a lot of people who need to practice what they preach...tolerance...

[sparky]

Originally Posted by sunmaiden

You are lumping us all together. We're not all the same people. I give to the Church and to many other charities, and not to buy my way into heaven! And it's not like I am rich. I give charity to whomever whenever I can.

There are a lot of people who need to practice what they preach...tolerance...

I certainly don't think everyone who contributes money to a church looks at the money they give as buying their way into heaven. However, many churches, and certainly the bulk of televangelists focus primarily on the money they can raise. It's all about lavish buildings and garish spectacle. Ever seen the Crystal Cathedral ? In my experience, the subtext of those messages about donations is definitely that you are "getting in the good graces" of the establishment by coughing up lots of cash. I don't think it's a stretch at all to say there are plenty of people who think that the more they give, the better the balance book looks on some faraway judgement day. There are many older people who are lonely and scared who fall right into this kind of thinking. Not everyone, but lots.

And by the way, I am tolerant as all get out. Even though I don't recall ever preaching about that. But I also don't pull any punches when it comes to expressing my opinions.

[irishgrl]

I think it is heinous the way those televangelists prey on older people. I dont think it is so much that they are buying their way into heaven as they are supporting a cause, I dont know for sure, but I think they get some sort of token "gift" like a book or something for their "donation" but older folks who can feel their mortality creeping (running?) up on them tend to focus on their relationship with God and many DO go overboard in an attempt to make up for slack times when they were younger.

The sad thing is, their hard earned cash (or dearly parted with pension or ssi payments) is not put to worthy use, but rather the further buildup of the televangelistic ministry. Many of those organizations have been found to be corrupt, the front men driving fancy cars, living in estates with pools and tennis courts all bought and paid for with those poor souls' money....It is just a shame.

[estranged4life]

Originally Posted by irishgrl

I think it is heinous the way those televangelists prey on older people. I dont think it is so much that they are buying their way into heaven as they are supporting a cause, I dont know for sure, but I think they get some sort of token "gift" like a book or something for their "donation" but older folks who can feel their mortality creeping (running?) up on them tend to focus on their relationship with God and many DO go overboard in an attempt to make up for slack times when they were younger.

The sad thing is, their hard earned cash (or dearly parted with pension or ssi payments) is not put to worthy use, but rather the further buildup of the televangelistic ministry. Many of those organizations have been found to be corrupt, the front men driving fancy cars, living in estates with pools and tennis courts all bought and paid for with those poor souls' money....It is just a shame.

when I read your post.

Robert Tilton used to be a big nationally known Tulsa based (con-artist) televangelist, Who preyed exclusively on the elderly. He would get up on his pulpit and nearly BEG the elderly to send him money, In exchange for payments of over $100 a month (Or you could just send $$$$ in via snail-mail and he would pray over envelope), He would prey for your soul, Your loved one's illness, etc. and it was disgusting to see how many fell for it.

Tilton was making over a million dollars, every few months via his 'televangelism' and without a care that the $$$$ being sent in might be the only money the elderly had left.

I loved when his 'kingdom' came crashing down though, It started innocently with an elderly woman who wanted Tilton to pray for her sick/dying husband...Which Tilton did, For $100 a month. But a problem arose when workers at the Bank, where the elderly woman did business, discovered that her account was being hit for that monthly $100 amount SIX MONTHS after her husband had already passed from this life! So when the Bank called local investigators to explain this major problem with how this elderly woman's bank account was nearly wiped out by "Tilton Ministries", they (Tulsa Police dept) finally had a ossible clue they were longing for, After a lengthy investigation into how Tilton was possibly running his 'con' and past reports of saying he has done this 'con' time-and-time again.

Tilton & his money grubbing/lusting flock of morons tried to deny any wrong doing, and said the money received was legally retained in exchanged for being blessed, and that each letter (Received with $$$$) was personally blessed by Rev.Tilton himself...But that was to be found not true (Keep readin' it gets interestin')

The investigators soon discovered that the address for letters with money that were to be sent to Tilton's "ministries" was instead being forwarded to a local bank, Where they proved that he never blessed anything when they discovered letter-after-letter that those elderly folk sent to him to be blessed, Still in their original envelopes folded up & never read, Only missing the money and worse of all was the letters were found in the dumpster behind the Bank!!

A Bank teller was questioned about the letters found in the trash, And she said that she was instructed by the person who wanted the letters forwarded to the Bank to remove ANY $$$$ from the letters and to dispose of the letters immediately after removing the money, That she was not to read the letters what-so-ever...That person (Who she later identified) was Robert Tilton! Among the letter's discovered in the trash bin, Was a letter from the elderly woman asking why she was still being requested to send $100 a month for her husband even though he had already passed away months earlier.

His jig was up and he was FINALLY busted and later sent to prison after being found guilty of mail fraud (Among other things). After a bit of time had gone by he played the overused 'con' of "I found religion and God will forgive me" ruse which is popular among convicts in prison. Last I heard is that he is starting to do the whole tele-evangelist BS again...

I lived in Tulsa for a few years as I attended Tech School...I would never live there EVER again, There's a church on EVERY street corner of Tulsa, Matter-of-fact, according to an TV news segment about Robert Tilton's downfall, Tulsa has the highest amount of churches per capita of ANY city in the United States of America!

Let's put it like this, Have you ever had an extremely attractive person of the opposite sex, flirt with you endlessly, Taking "NO for an answer" to only find out this person was just flirting with you to get you to attend her church because that's was asked of her by those running the church? I have...And in Tulsa that is no frikkin' surprise to me