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To: greyfoxx39

I have not heard of one instance where the Mormon church was planning on forcibly taking over this country and killing all infidels and pagans. Comparing Mormonism to Muslim is absolutely asinine. We live in a somewhat free society where people can believe what they want.


54 posted on 07/31/2014 1:51:25 PM PDT by dirtymac (Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country)
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To: dirtymac
Comparing Mormonism to Muslim is absolutely asinine.

Not when you look at the list of comparisons that can be made against the horndog, pedophile, and would-be ruler of the United States Joseph Smith.

55 posted on 07/31/2014 1:53:39 PM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: dirtymac
I have not heard of one instance where the Mormon church was planning on forcibly taking over this country and killing all infidels and pagans.

HMMMmmm...





...the presidential campaign of Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith in 1844: “Challenging Democrat James Polk and Whig Henry Clay, Smith prophesied that if the U.S. Congress did not accede to his demands that ‘they shall be broken up as a government and God shall damn them.’

Smith viewed capturing the presidency as part of the mission of the church.


 

Blood Atonement and Oaths of Vengeance

In 1842, Joseph Smith received a series of revelations regarding the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. His goal was the establishment of a theocratic kingdom at Nauvoo, Illinois where he would be the King of Israel, and the Council of Fifty would be the governmental structure which would prepare the way for the millennial reign of Christ. As part of the elaboration for this theocratic plan, Smith presented what would come to be known as the doctrine of "Blood Atonement." The concept behind this doctrine was that people who committed particularly grievous acts against the Mormons would have to shed their blood to atone for the sins they had committed. The Mormons, especially the Danites, used the doctrine of blood atonement as justification for the depredations they committed during their war against the Missourians. Orrin Porter Rockwell also used the concept of blood atonement as justification for his assassination attempt on Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs.(52)

When Joseph Smith was killed on June 27, 1844, his assassins created the circumstances for what has become known as the "Oath of Vengeance." A corollary to the doctrine of blood atonement, the oath of vengeance was created on the first anniversary of Smith's death as a formal prayer for God's vengeance upon those who shed the blood of the prophet's. Six months later this oath of vengeance became a part of the Mormon temple endowment ceremony.(53) The specific oath stated the following:

" You and each of you do solemnly promise and vow that you will pray and never cease to pray and never cease to importune High Heaven to avenge the blood of the prophets on this nation and that you will teach this to your children and your children's children until the third and fourth generation."(54)

This oath of vengeance was used several times in 1845 as justification for killing people who had been involved in the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.(55)

When the doctrines of blood atonement and oath of vengeance were dropped as part of church doctrine, fundamentalists saw this as yet another instance of the church caving in to political pressure. They still believe firmly in these doctrines. Kraut remarks that "Today, the doctrine of blood atonement is never taught and rarely mentioned. The idea of capital punishment has almost become eradicated by communists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and liberal educators. The Oath of Vengeance is no longer a part of the temple ceremony."(56)



(52)D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994), 110-113.

(53)Quinn, 1994, 179.

(54)Kraut, 79.

(55)Quinn, 1994, 180-181.

(56)Kraut, 78-79.

164 posted on 07/31/2014 4:22:46 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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