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.

Reno911 (silly TV show my son has watched at times...),

“Yet I think you’ll agree w/ me that many of the opinions set forth in those creeds (especially the Athanasian creed that gets much more specific about the Trinity)are absolutely nowhere to be found in the bible, anywhere!”

No, I do not agree with you Reno.

“I would challenge you to recite scripture that talks about even half of what is found in that creed. “

Though voluminous, that is not a difficult task, friend. The
difficult task rested on those church leaders who had to
synthesize it into a creed in order to fight the heresies that
were raging and threatening the unity of the Church.

“The fact that those who where called of man to put that document together claimed absolutely no inspiration or revelation in doing so could.”

I would refer you to the definition of a “creed”.

“these men were not unanimous in their decision”

Think about what you have written here Reno. Historically,
there arose men who were teaching new doctrines that distorted
the beliefs of the Church. Many were starting to follow them
into error. The leaders of the church got together to state
what the Church believed. Do you think that those promoting
heresy would agree? Of course, the vote would not be
unanimous. Have you ever read about the first Church council
in Acts 15??? Did that strike you as a unanimous get together?

“The Apostles were long gone by then & the fundemental organization as set up by the Lord & continued by the Apostles long since compromised.”

Now, you are giving me line and verse from mormonism - not
from history. So no, having studied too much church history,
I do not agree with your statement.

“The leaders at approx. 300 & 500 a.d. when these creeds were developed could have called upon the Lord for direction but instead chose to believe that the heavens were closed & that they had no choice but to go it alone.”

And you know for a fact that these leaders did not pray???
That strikes me as bizarre, given that every church leader
I’ve ever met, prays. Again, I think you’ve slipped into
Smithville - not history.

“I believe that back then as we do now, one can call upon the Lord for answers to those kind of questions, & then actually receive answers!”

I agree we should pray and ask God for wisdom. Where I part
ways with young smith is when the “answers” conflict with
God’s revealed Word. At that point, the “answers” did not
come from God.

“You intimate that the LDS faith is a new one & you state a lot of other things associated w/ that. Christ’s church was somewhat of a new thing according to many of the Jews of the time. They said many of the same things back then. We need no more scripture, we need no prophet, we are learned & know much & we will teach you what is needed. Christ was called a heretic as well. I’ll count that as being in good company!”

You flatter yourself. Christ didn’t come to reject scripture,
He came to fulfill it - and He did. To believe the smithville
cult, you have to believe that Christ was incapable of
keeping His promise to be with the Church until the end of
the age. That His promise that even the gates of Hell could
not stand against it. That His death and resurrection is
inadequate for salvation. Not a chance.

have a great weekend,
ampu

tant,

you wrote, “Because of my faith in Christ, I have hope of obtaining Eternal Life “

Biblical Christianity teaches that entrusting ourselves to
the completed work of Christ gives us certainty of eternal
life IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

And this is what I specifically asked you...

“Did your experience result in you KNOWING FOR SURE, THAT
IF YOU WERE TO DIE TONIGHT, YOU WOULD SPEND ETERNITY IN
THE PRESENCE OF GOD?”

You missed that part. Would you answer it?

Tonight, if you tragically died from Global Warming
in Denver, or were killed by raving environmentalists,
or heart attack, would you awake in heaven in the PRESENCE
OF GOD?

Again, if you’d prefer to pm me instead of answering here,
that’s fine.

You also wrote, ““Don’t feed me that Book of Mormon rubbish! The whole book is false!” I don’t think you are one such.”

Actually, the parts of the Bible that young smith copied
without changing are still true.

I’ll look at the passage though. I love fiction. And speaking
of fiction, I was just looking for books I’d finished to
pass along to my mom and I found a book I’d not read yet!
Just in time for vacation next weekend! Somehow, I overlooked
a Vince Flynn novel one of my kids gave me for my birthday.
What a treat.

best,
ampu

“Joseph Smith loved Heavenly Father...”

Sure he did! A god who used to be a man! Who isn’t
the Heavenly Father of the Bible, who has always
been God.

Don’t you all believe in a Heavenly Mother too? Doesn’t
mormonism believe in “breeding” pairs of gods that create
the spirits that will someday be people to populate their
new worlds? and of course, some on earth who were fortunate
enough to be here during the polygamy days will also
have multiple heavenly mothers to reproduce with? Right?

And the Holy Ghost that Joseph Smith loved, wasn’t he also
a regular guy who became a god too?

The Bible presents the Holy Ghost as having always been
God and never created.

“Again, Jesus Christ died for me, and I thank Heavenly Father for sending Him. We’d all be lost without Jesus.”

Which one? the Bible one that was always God, or the Joseph
Smith one that used to be a man???

pardon me, but keeping these things straight is a chore,

ampu

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