Posted on 10/10/2007 5:54:42 AM PDT by Utah Binger
PROVO — Some past prominent LDS Church leaders wrongly pressed conservatism on church members, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday during a press conference at Brigham Young University.
The Nevada senator attacked President Bush and evangelical Christians while saying members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints need to worry less about abortion and gay marriage and more about health care, global warming, education and jobs.
Reid first spent 40 minutes delivering a well-received and sometimes tender BYU forum speech in the Marriott Center to 4,091 students, faculty, staff and visitors. He described a journey from an underprivileged, non-religious childhood in tiny Searchlight, Nev., to his position as the highest-ranking Mormon in American government.
"Democrats have not always been in the (church's) minority, and I believe we won't be for too long," he said.
He elaborated during a harder-hitting, 12-minute press conference. "The best missionary we have for that is George Bush," he said. "People are switching parties all over the country."
Reid said Ezra Taft Benson, active in very conservative politics before he became a president of the LDS Church, and Ernest L. Wilkinson, the president of BYU from 1951-71, were among past church leaders "who were very right-wing people politically."
(Excerpt) Read more at deseretnews.com ...
I didn't know there were 4,091 people in Searchlight, NV, much less that many that would make the trip to Utah.
Counts best if you add all of Harry’s friends that he introduces to the locals. He knows how to get people screwed in more ways than one.
Joseph says this "revelation" took place around 1820...well before any Mormons set foot in Missouri or Nauvoo.
So we have Harry Reid, 2007, at a BYU-sanctioned event: "They [Evangelical Christians] are the most anti-Christian people I can imagine, the people from the Christian far right." Joseph Smith, 1820ish: "...all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt."
Smith and Brigham Young weren't exactly spinning in their graves upon Reid continuing the Mormon acrimonious tradition of open bigotry, hostility, villification, and misjudgment.
If Mormons want to continue to this day of calling Evangelicals anti-christs, much to the standing ovation and applause of its student body and faculty, so be it. We can't stop Mormons from maligning Christians; but I would appeal to Mormons to stop maligning God's Word by saying that all Christian creeds are an "abomination" (a modern-day word for that would be "putrid").
So indirectly, the johns put bread on the Reid table?
(And if they were LDS, at the time, then twice-removed "john" money was tithed to the LDS coffers?)
Given enough rope, he could hang himself. I just wonder why it is taking so much rope.
“Are the voters of Nevada going to support Reid for another term?”
Even the people of Nevada are embarrassed by/for Harry Reid. Those who voted for him last time have said “Never again”.
I expect that the Church leadership used this as a "focus group" to confirm what many have perceived as the sad, sheep-like state of too many LDS youngsters who have been educated in the liberal cesspools that we refer to as "public schools" and whose admiration of Dirty Hairy is about as much as they are able to muster by way of youthful rebellion.
I also expect that there soon will be a house-cleaning at the increasing liberal, albeit Church-owned, Deseret News and at BYU itself.
I take the Deseret News account with a grain of salt, having already heard conflicting reports from several BYU students concerning the level of enthusiasm and worship accorded to Dirty Harry the Red as reported by the Deserted News.
The Church cleaned out its KSL radio and television operation a few years back after it started feeling its liberal oats and its married news director was excommunicated after having an affair with a subordinate who also was married.
Finally, Dirty Harry fell into a neat little trap when he dissed the memory of Ezra Taft Benson and other revered past and present Church leaders and smeared many things that even relatively sane Democrats value.
I suspect that his sizeable base of "Mormon" and a lot of non-LDS voters in "Nirvada" is now swirling down the porcelain throne as we speak.
To paraphrase Reid's intellectual and moral superior, the fictional Forrest Gump, "Effrontery, arrogance, apostacy, and rudeness to one's host is as effrontery, arrogance, apostacy, and rudeness to one's host.
Good show, Hairy. You just shot yourself in the family jewels, such as they are...
BYU students who were present and with whom I spoke state that the BYU student body and faculty did not cheer such remarks and that the number of the brain-dead ho gave Hairy the Red a "standing ovation" was quite small.
The Deseret News is an increasingly liberal rag containing a few editorial staffers who have trips to the woodshed and unemployment office in their future, having exercised their free agency in a foolish and destructive manner...
Your take on the BYU response (first sentence) isn't really all that much different than what I said the Deseret News reported in post #41: At the end of his speech, Reid earned a standing ovation from a small percentage of the crowd and applause from the rest.
So don't try to write off BYU's sanctioning of Reid just because both your sources & Deseret's sources agree that a "small" percentage of students rose to provide a standing ovation.
The fact is that probably for every Mormon student who gave a standing ovation, 19 more were applauding Harry Reid. And ya wanna explain exactly why BYU is providing a indoctrination platform to anti-Christ labeling politicians like Harry Reid? (I don't suppose BYU takes no responsibility for that, either)
"I expect that the Church leadership used this as a "focus group" to confirm what many have perceived as the sad, sheep-like state of too many LDS youngsters who have been educated in the liberal cesspools that we refer to as "public schools" and whose admiration of Dirty Hairy is about as much as they are able to muster by way of youthful rebellion.
I also expect that there soon will be a house-cleaning at the increasing liberal, albeit Church-owned, Deseret News and at BYU itself.
I take the Deseret News account with a grain of salt, having already heard conflicting reports from several BYU students concerning the level of enthusiasm and worship accorded to Dirty Harry the Red as reported by the Deserted News.
The Church cleaned out its KSL radio and television operation a few years back after it started feeling its liberal oats and its married news director was excommunicated after having an affair with a subordinate who also was married.
Finally, Dirty Harry fell into a neat little trap when he dissed the memory of Ezra Taft Benson and other revered past and present Church leaders and smeared many things that even relatively sane Democrats value.
I suspect that his sizeable base of "Mormon" and a lot of non-LDS voters in "Nirvada" is now swirling down the porcelain throne as we speak.
To paraphrase Reid's intellectual and moral superior, the fictional Forrest Gump, "Effrontery, arrogance, apostacy, and rudeness to one's host is as effrontery, arrogance, apostacy, and rudeness to one's host.
Good show, Hairy. You just shot yourself in the family jewels, such as they are..."
Do you think I have called this correctly? Honest and friendly question....
Again, you don't have to take anybody's report of the speech, salt or no salt. (Reid's pre-speech text is already online--although his caustic "evangelical" remark was apparently an afterthought of his and is not in the text) One blogger said that "maybe half" of the student stood up for the ovation...now while that could be an overestimate, it sounds like your "quite small" guess is "quite" an underestimate.
I also expect that there soon will be a house-cleaning at the increasing liberal, albeit Church-owned, Deseret News and at BYU itself.
Hey, Harry Reid's "testimony" is part of the Deseret Book published, "Why I Believe" from 2002. Deseret's been pushing Reid for 5 years (doesn't sound like there's any rush to house-cleaning).
As for BYU, would that include the dean of the College of Family, Home and Sciences, David Magleby. (I don't think so). How did Magleby recently describe Reid's forthcoming campus forum? Allow me to quote Magleby:
Senator Harry Reid...will be speaking at Tuesday's forum assembly. As Senate Majority Leader, he is the first member of the LDS Church to lead his party in either the House or the Senate. He is a convert to the church who is frequently described as a committed member of the church. Whether we do or do not agree with Senator Reid on any particular policy matter, he deserves our respect and appreciation for his long career in public service. Within the church there can be and should be room for disagreement about political matters. At the 1968 Commencement exercises President Hugh B. Brown encouraged students to "strive to develop a maturity of mind and emotion, and a depth of spirit which will enable you to differ with others on matters of politics without calling into question the integrity of those with whom you differ. Allow within the bounds of our definition of religious orthodoxy a variation in political belief. Do not have the temerity to dogmatize on issues where the Lord has seen fit to be silent."
So Magleby, who already knew Reid's position on protecting marriage (or rather as not protecting marriage), saw fit to toss in a quote, "Do not have the temerity to dogmatize on issues where the Lord has seen fit to be silent." [Well, Golly Gee Mr. BYU dean of College of Family, Home and Social Sciences, we just didn't know that the Lord was silent on matters like marriage]
expect that the Church leadership used this as a "focus group" to confirm what many have perceived as the sad, sheep-like state of too many LDS youngsters who have been educated in the liberal cesspools that we refer to as "public schools" and whose admiration of Dirty Hairy is about as much as they are able to muster by way of youthful rebellion. I also expect that there soon will be a house-cleaning at the increasing liberal, albeit Church-owned, Deseret News and at BYU itself.
And I suppose since BYU-TV is going repeat Reid's speech eral timesr the next few weeks is yet a further extension of applying a "focus group" test to TV audiences at-large, including the vast number of Mormon adults who watch the program (especially the ones not prominently involved in "youthful rebellions).
And I suppose your "ouse-cleaning" theory will apply to BYU-TV as well?
And, of course, while SLC HQ didn't want to put tape over a guest speaker's mouth...now that he has gone on record to call Evangelicals (the "far right" as being the most "anti-Christian" monsters there could possibly be, we don't see SLC HQ rush into weigh in on BYU-TV's programming staff, now do we?
I guess that truly shows what the LDS general authorities & SLC HQ bureaucrats think of Evangelicals. (Any chance of your "house-cleaning" theory applying to them as well?)
At least it wasn't Imadimnutjob!
But the Church has had to deal with faculty who have gone off the deep end by anyone's perspective, be they LDS or not. And deal with them it has.
I'm disappointed that the Deseret News has been leaning leftward on a few issues, but sooner or later,I predict, its editorial board, made up of members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve,will clean things up a bit while avoidiung throwing the baby out with the bath water.
I know a fair number of LDS educators and journalists and, like their non-LDS counterparts, often are Democrats or liberal Republicans at best.
Jack Anderson (D-The Spirit World) was one journalist that was not exactly admired by President or Elder Benson over the years. I knew and liked Jack Anderson, but he never met a POTUS he could stand, including, to his credit, Jimmuh Carter.
Re: Reid, I remember sitting in the Tabernacle waiting for General Conference (October, 1988) to start (good seats/up close/long story), and saw none other than Senator Orrin Hatch (R?-Utah) saunter in with someone in tow who was identified for me as then non-LDS Senator Harry Reid.
My faith in the Lord and in the leaders of the Church remains quite strong, but I marvel at how the Church moves on -- growing and growing around the world -- despite the frequent cow pies, living and inanimate, that it must avoid stepping in each and every hour.
Its phenomenal success is in and of itself a miracle...
Please don’t plant any ideas to that effect!! 8~)
Were the students influenced to vote DemocRAT by his talk? Puhleese! I rather doubt that many were. BYU is a stronghold of conservatism, regardless of Reid speaking there. By the way, he claimed he wasn’t going to talk about politics, but then he slipped into the usual, slime the Pubbies, RAT rants.
How do you know most BYU profs are liberal? I know several, and not one is a liberal. As for challenging profs, the students do very well at it and are not naive or malleable at all. It is very difficult to get into BYU now and they admit only the brightest candidates with the highest test scores.
You are wrong on all counts, and your dirt bag list is evidence enough. You have some seriously maladjusted opinions in my experience as a BYU graduate.
Ever hear of Hugh Nibley? On outward appearance he would seem to be an ultra-Mormon in (falsely) disbuting Fawn Brodie's expose about Joseph Smith...but he was an anti-war type lefty kook when it came to national politics.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.