My first experience with "anti-Mormon" propaganda was around age 19ish, when I was watching general conference, and after one of the sessions and they showed a live shot of people attending the conference I saw a man holding up a sign that said

josephlied.com

Being the curious type of person I am, and wanting to see what this brave individual could actually have to say about JS, I ventured to the website with a very closed mind.

The things I read on this website made me angry, and before reading even a full page worth, I found the contact me section of the website. I emailed him and immediately scolded him for bashing the church, and the great JS. Of course, I didn't believe anything that I read at the time, and I traded 3-4 emails with the site's founder about how the priesthood is great, and how could he question a patriarchal blessing, etc etc, but at that point I think the first seeds of my doubt were implanted.

I tucked them away deeply, and they were not re-awakened until almost 10 years later, I found the site mormon curtain and the rest is history. Anyway, I made this post becuase I was wondering if anyone knows of this site, or what happened to it. I would like to have been able to contact the founder again, and thank him for planting those small seeds of doubt, without being forceful or angry about it.

As far as I know, the site was discontinued. I missed it, because I really liked it too. It was there when I was making those first startling discoveries about the Church.

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"A mind stretched by a new idea can never go back to its original dimensions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Why is there such an emphasis on patriarchal blessings?
Our mother's early death proved her patriarchal blessing was 100% false in four very specific parts.

Good question. My guess is that it is a singular point in a Mormon persons life where they feel that God gives them a special blessing just for them. They don't ever stop to think that the pre-interview process gives them the generalized direction that their blessing will go.

What's even worse, is when the things don't come true, you are just being an awful person, or they aren't meant to happen yet. Such bologna, don't know how so many are duped.

It is a very strong point that mormons use though. It was one of my first defense stances, it was my wifes first, and her mother recently brought it up as well. The thing is, they are so generalized, that of course you could use them to help you in everyday life. Kinda like a "mormon fortune cookie".

Do you know if the founder of the site is involved in any other sites now? Maybe josephlied was too strong of a phrase, so he changed it to something less threatening?

When our mum got her patriarchal blessing it was given by the patriarch of the Mormon church in Salt Lake City.
Two parts of it went on at length and were not "generalized". They were very specific and detailed in their predictions.
Now that her life is over it is clear these things were completely wrong.
Near the end of her life we would talk late at night at length and she knew she didn't have much time left.
She also recognized that things she'd been told/promised in her patriarchal blessing and other priesthood blessings were wrong. She was afraid and she told me so.
I told her "Mum, you're in the Lord's hands now and there's not a better place to be".
The next day she told me she went to sleep that night and wasn't afraid.
Not because of anything I said from myself but because of what we read.
Just as birth is a spiritual time of life so is death.
And in those moments things that are false fall away and have no power.
Things that are true come shining through and nothing else can touch them.

When the blessings come true, they are prophecy.
When the blessings don't happen ...
- be patient, it might happen in the next life
- or they are dependant on your righteousness.

And every Mormon fails at the "All you can do" bit. Nobody does all they can do because you can always do a little more geneology, temple work, fast offerings, magnify your callings a bit more, volunteer more disaster-rolls, go on splits more often, serve your family a bit more, etc.

peace

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I resigned from the Church of THE Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Feb 2011)

"For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad." - Luke 8:17

The guy who ran the site is Mike Norton, it think. You might be able to google him and find an active blog or some other contact information. His site was already closed down before I started to investigate the church, so I don't know anything about him.

Googled Mike Norton and found his testimonial at http://mormoninfo.org/testimonies/mike-norton
At the end of the testimonial there's a link to josephlied.com which actually redirects to www.mormoninfo.org so apparently the josephlied.com has been merged with the latter one.

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“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Thanks for the link. There is also an archived josephlied.com site on exmormon.org.

I think I like the structure of MormonCurtain better, but whatever leads people to the truth if you ask me....