Romney: Attacks On Mormon Religion Troubling

(AP) SALT LAKE CITY -- Mitt Romney said Saturday that criticism of his Mormon religion by rival GOP presidential campaigns is happening too frequently.

“Clearly, any derogatory comments about anyone’s faith—those comments are troubling. The fact they keep on coming up is even more troubling,” Romney said during a fundraising trip in the home state of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Mormon church is one of the fastest-growing religions and claims about 12.5 million members worldwide. But many evangelical Christians in crucial primary states such as Iowa and South Carolina consider the faith a cult.

Romney’s remarks follow an apology from GOP rival John McCain’s campaign for comments about the Mormon church allegedly made this year by a volunteer.

Also recently, Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, issued a similar apology for a campaign worker’s e-mail to Iowa Republican leaders that was an apparent attempt to draw unfavorable scrutiny of Romney’s religion. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani apologized after the New York Sun noted that a campaign aide had forwarded to a blogger a story about unofficial Mormon lore. Legend has it that a Mormon would save the Constitution, the story said. The campaign aide passed the story along with a note: “Thought you’d find this interesting.”

Romney said in a large presidential race there always will be some volunteers or workers who cannot be controlled. But he said the difference between derogatory comments that originated from the McCain campaign and others is that the Arizona senator has not personally apologized to him.

“In the case of Senator Brownback and Mayor Giuliani ... they called immediately. They each spoke with me personally. I don’t have any issue with that at all,” Romney said.

He said McCain “can do whatever he feels is the right thing. There’s no need for me to suggest how people respond to things that go on in the campaign.”

Tucker Bounds, a McCain campaign spokesman, said the McCain campaign has already apologized.

“It’s a very sincere apology. There is absolutely no place for those type of comments in our campaign,” he said.

Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, said he had not spoken with McCain since the last presidential debate, on June 5.

Romney used a fundraiser hosted by Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller to criticize the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. It banned unregulated, unlimited contributions from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals to national political parties and federal candidates.

“The bill ought to be repealed,” he said. “It’s been the wrong course for American campaigns.”

Romney said he favors unlimited donations as long as they are immediately disclosed on the Internet.

Yah, of course. My point was that Mormons don’t understand the Bible, they take single verses and build whole theologies upon them that contradict verse after plain verse, and chapter after chapter of plain scripture. The Bible must be read in whole, not in part. Salvation does not lie in just obeying the laws Christ mentioned to the rich man; it is not lost if you disobey one of those laws, and it does not lie in selling all you have and giving it to the poor. But this is the way Mormons treat scripture. A single verse and off they go galloping.

Mormons, you don’t have to wear special underwear or tithe to get into heaven. To see if that is the Mormon theology, just stop tithing and wearing the garments and see if they say that it is ok, you’ll still be in the highest heaven and your fellow Mormon’s will love you anyway . . .

And if they don’t say that it’s ok, well, then you know what your church actually believes instead of this nonsense sparring that you do here, pretense piled on word parsing, piled on avoidance, piled on . . . go ahead parse my words guys and gals. But then let everybody know that you won’t tithe or wear the garments and let me know if you are still saved and headed for heaven with your Mormon brethren.

The Nicean creed upon wich you pin many of your beliefs, was brought about by a bunch of men who argued for days & came up w/ what they believed was truth.

Now the LDS members claim that WE 'tell them what they believe' and they do have a point; but here you've said that MANY 'believe' in some creed.

This is not true. Any 'creed' is merely a boiled down summary of the 'important' ideas of Christianity, that various groups of folks who are trusting Christ for their salvation, hold in common as the basics.

No more - no less. (Kinda like your 13 Articles of Faith)

As to 'truth'; we ALL want that.

When JS started out, it seems he was searching for TRUTH.

When Paul was evangelizing, he came across some folks who wanted TRUTH.
As you can see from the Scripture, Paul used the EXISTING documents from the Jewish religion: the Old Testement, to backup the claims of Jesus.

NIV Acts 17:16-34
16. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.
17. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
18. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
19. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
20. You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean."
21. (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22. Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
23. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
24. "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
25. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
26. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
27. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
28. `For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, `We are his offspring.'
29. "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill.
30. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
31. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."
32. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject."
33. At that, Paul left the Council.
34. A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

The 'gentiles' of this world have heard the claims of JS and say, "What is this babbler trying to say?" and "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." - some sneer, and others want to hear more.

No where does Paul say, "Look at all the good works we 'Christ followers do" - he uses EXISTING Scripture to make his claim.

He does not tell any of those who 'want to hear more' to seek some kind of an internal reassurance that his words are true. For he warns later...

1 Corinthians 1:21-22a

21. For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
22. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom...

So when someone comes along and says things that do NOT line up with existing Scripture, then produces 'evidence' to back up his claims, and then, rewrites the existing time-tested Scriptures to further reinforce his claims, it's no WONDER that many folks will not believe what is claimed by this new fellow.

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