What This Is and The Rules

I've decided to start this forum of sorts because there is not many good places to turn to, in my opinion, for questions regarding Mormon doctrine that is critical or controversial. I think that a lot of people are afraid to discuss things that rock the boat, so to speak, because they are worried about potential backlash for their ideas or questions. I wanted somewhere to air my own thoughts, as well as to hear what others had to say about the topics in question.

The rules to this are simple.
1. Be respectful. This is intended to be a forum for people to air their concerns. This includes unpopular ideas that don't always agree with everyone. While everyone is entitled to disagree, everyone is also entitled to be respected.
2. Feel free to submit a question for discussion to me, but please do not do it in the comments section, thereby creating a mass conglomeration of various topics under one heading. I'd like to have this be archivable, which means one topic, one at a time. If you have a topic you want to discuss, shoot it to me at mellancollyeyes@earthlink.net with the heading "Mormon Discussion Topic" and I will post it for discussion. I'd just like to keep things on topic and also orderly, so later, people can find what they want or newcomers to the forum can easily search topics they want to look at/discuss.
3. Please come to the table having thought about your response/discussion. This forum is intended to be an very in-depth, critical look at Mormon doctrine and how it relates to other areas of life. Please, no "canned answers" that we can all hear on Sunday: "Read the scriptures," "pray," etc. We all know this for the most part. Instead of saying, "read the scriptures," please do a bit of legwork and direct the group to which scriptures you think pertain to the topic. Research a bit and find talks from the Ensign, etc, that are relevant. This is a forum in which to learn and think in a way that we may not have thought before. Therefore, it requires a bit of time to analyze and consider.
4. While I will answer some basic questions about Mormons/LDS/BoM/etc, this is not meant to be an investigator's website. Its intention is to be a website for in-depth analysis of Mormon doctrine, which means, if you are 100% clueless about basic Mormon doctrine, you may be confused and you may not understand what is being talked about. This is not the forum in which to get basic answers. That forum is http://www.lds.org/ or http://www.mormon.org/, both of which are good resources for those investigating the church, researching, or generally just looking for answers on what Mormons are and/or do. This is a more advanced discussion area, in that you should have some groundwork about the doctrines already under your belt in order to understand the questions/topics being discussed. This, however, does not bar someone from asking to have a particular doctrine/topic explained a bit more in depth. If more information is needed, then feel free to ask.
5. This is not meant to be a forum to bash the church, its leaders, or LDS people. The remarks/comments/discussions are not intended to be offensive or harmful. This is a questioning forum. It is a safe place to disagree with things in the church and then find out what other people think about it. Please do not comment on the church in a fashion that bad mouths it or tries to insult it. While disagreeing or questioning is perfectly acceptable, and encouraged to act as a topic of discussion, it is not meant to be a forum to talk about how much Mormons suck, the church sucks, etc. This is related to rule #1, regarding respect. That goes for the church and its leaders, too.

Also, when you first comment, please make a short note about who you are and how long you've been a member. Please also let us know if you are active, mildly active, mildly inactive, inactive, etc. I find that this brief background information lets everyone understand other's perspectives better.

This is also meant to be a place to have fun, so please, have fun!