interesting mark hoffman article.....

[UteStar]

I feel significant hatred for him because I knew his victims and my family knew their families. I feel significant hatred for the effect that his forgeries had on the Mormon church. I am bothered by the fact that his forgeries were created to rob people of their money, make him money and do damage to the church.

You are comparing Hoffman to "people off the top of my head that do significant damage to the church everyday yet dont feel such strong negative feelings towards them..."? Who are these other people that do significant damage to the church on an every day basis?...let me put it this way, they don't hold a candle to what Hoffman tried to do and accomplished in some measure.

With all that said, I have interest in seeing him put on death row...I am happy to have him live in prison for the rest of his life. Just my thoughts.

[MikeWaters]

I have extremely little respect for anyone who lives by murder and deception.

Carefully planned, meditated, cold-blooded murder for gain.

The day people aren't outraged about such things is the day we fall (actually it is already happening). People don't give a damn about murder and crime unless it's in their backyard.

[fusnik11]

well there you go.....

you knew people personally who he hurt physically, emotionally and financially....thus your hatred towards him is very personal.

i dont know if i agree with your contention that what he did caused significant damage. i first heard of hoffman and his actions when i was in my first year of college. being a college bum i watched an a & e special on him and his salamander letter and the subsequent bombings. i asked a return missionary in my apartment building who served stateside, in the bible belt, if he encountered people who brought up hoffman and he said only one time was he confronted about hoffman, but was confronted weekly about the movie godmakers.

hoffmans actions arent anywhere close to the far reaching effects the internet, film-makers, and others who give access to mormon fodder used to cause doubt.

[MikeWaters]

Hoffman is more an asterisk in church history.

His only signifance is really to faithful members, who ponder the relationship between Hoffman and the general authorities. It brings to mind the fallability of humans.

My mindset doesn't really have a problem with GBH being duped. But it bothered(s) some.

[fusnik11]

mike you are a healthcare professional....

why is it difficult for me to feel loss, pain, understanding, emotional sympathy for horrible things that i do not experience?

for example 9/11 to me is not a heart wrenching event. ive never watched footage, was out of the country at the time it happened, and am emotioanlly detached from the situation.

katrina though is a different story, oh how i feel for those people...

am i morally bankrupt?

[WJCougar]

I felt horrible for 9/11, but not for Katrina, so I guess I am the opposite of what you feel. With 9/11, nobody knew it was going to happen, and when the towers fell there was complete shock. With Katrina, they saw it coming, knew it would happen, and understood the destruction to come. I do not feel sorry for a lot of New Orleans, because they created their own disaster. They knew those levees could break, and the people in town knew the risks. I do not think it it the Federal Governments fault that New Orleans got flooded. If feel bad for those in Mississippi and Alabama that got hit, but the flooding in New Orleans was man's fault, not the weather.

[bluegoose]

I live in a town downstream from a major dam in northern california. while it is remote, there is a chance it may somehow break in my lifetime. Will you feel bad for my family if it does?

There is a huge fault line through the Wasatch front, yet people insist on living there. Will you feel bad for them if it ever goes?

Don't get me wrong, I would never live in New Orleans for more reasons than one, and I'm sure that the population of the town will likely shrink to half its size. But to say you don't feel sorry for them because the levee broke is not right. Sure they should have left town, and that would have certainly saved some lives. But that wouldn't save their house and possessions from being totally ruined.

Perhaps try just a shred of compassion for those people that lost it all.

[MikeWaters]

to answer Fusnik's question, there are many factors going to what someone experiences in reaction to a traumatic event.

Of course distance from the event is an important factor. You weren't there, you heard about after the fact, you didn't know anyone, you weren't as exposed to the images and the uncertainty.

Another example: our reaction to trauma can be related to the cause. If you child dies due to natural disaster, manslaughter, or murder, your reactions will be different even though the end was the same.

That is why for some people something like a terrorist act may be more traumatic than an earthquake.

[fusnik11]

weird how i seem to feel more sympathy, empathy towards someone who suffers at the hands of nature than at the hands of another human....

maybe because im bitter against the lord for leaving me on this planet for 25 years now without the companionship of a hot lady to temper my spirit and give sustenance to my physical body...

[creekster]

It seems that perhaps the thin border between introspection and self-absorbtion may have been crossed. But, that's just me. . . .