“It isn’t up to you whether I am a prophet or not.”
Of course it’s not up to me. That’s why the Lord helps us to discern truth.
“You don’t seem to care what I think of Joseph Smith as a prophet...”
This is true.
“...yet you want me to respect the Mormon church which stands on the foundation of whether he was inspired or merely a grifter.”
I couldn’t care less about your respect. I only request the same tolerance that I extend toward you.
“So, applying your logic...”
Nope, sorry, I’m afraid you missed the point.
[“It isn’t up to you whether I am a prophet or not.”
Of course it’s not up to me. That’s why the Lord helps us to discern truth.
“You don’t seem to care what I think of Joseph Smith as a prophet...”
This is true.
“...yet you want me to respect the Mormon church which stands on the foundation of whether he was inspired or merely a grifter.”
I couldn’t care less about your respect. I only request the same tolerance that I extend toward you.]
But, you have shown repeatedly that you are intolerant of my view (as a prophet of the God FastCoyote) that Joseph Smith was a grifter. So, you neither respect me nor are you tolerant, yet you expect respect and tolerance.
This is the chaos that results when you become so invested in proving the holy status of a man about whom there are reams of evidence of fraud. You have to beg for tolerance to avoid being held to the truth, while at the same time you have to be intolerant of those who provide the evidence.
It is this battle between evidence and conviction that I propose makes Mitt undesireable as a presidential candidate.