Posted on 01/08/2008 4:09:13 PM PST by tantiboh
Mitt Romney is facing an unexpected challenge in Iowa from rival Mike Huckabee, who has enjoyed a groundswell of support from religious voters, particularly evangelical Christians wary of the clean-cut former Massachusetts governor because of his Mormon religion.
The common worry among evangelicals is that if Romney were to capture the White House, his presidency would give legitimacy to a religion they believe is a cult. Since the LDS church places heavy emphasis on proselytizing -- there are 53,000 LDS missionaries worldwide -- many mainstream Christians are afraid that Mormon recruiting efforts would increase and that LDS membership rolls would swell.
...
THE ONLY PROBLEM with those fears is that they don't add up. Evangelicals may be surprised to learn that the growth of church membership in Massachusetts slowed substantially during Romney's tenure as governor. In fact, one could make the absurdly simplistic argument that Romney was bad for Mormonism.
...
ONE WAY TO GAUGE what might happen under a President Romney would be to look at what happened during the period of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Held in Salt Lake City, they were dubbed the "Mormon Olympics."
...
Despite all the increased attention, worldwide the Church grew only slightly, and in fact in the year leading up to the games the total number of congregations fell. Overall, from 2000 to 2004, there was a 10.9 percent increase in memberships and a 3.6 percent increase in congregations.
...
The LDS church is likely to continue its current modest-but-impressive growth whether or not Romney wins the White House. Perhaps the only real worry for evangelicals is that, if elected, the former Massachusetts governor will demonstrate to Americans that Mormons don't have horns.
Carrie Sheffield, a member of the LDS Church, is a writer living in Washington, D.C.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
A Minister once told me that he could kill me and he would still go to heaven, because he was born again. He believed that everything he did was GODS will and if he killed me he was simply doing GODS will. He believed it to the bottom of his soul. Scary
Oooh, very nice. New tagline!
All I want is a President who will stand up to the Global Jihad, protect the 2nd Amendment along with the rest of the Bill of Rights, and work to reduce government.
If I got that, I quite literally would not care if the guy sacrificed small furry creatures to the Immortal Cthulhu in his off hours
That is scary. It’s the kind of person that ran the Taliban, just with a different style of excuse.
I don’t think we can remotely generalize that to Evangelicals as a whole, but it is disturbing that their theology is leading to the development of this kind of thinking in a few.
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
-CS Lewis
That CS Lewis... Made so much sense he coulda been a Mormon!
Of such people were the minions of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and Pol Pot recruited
Now you think there is a message in the Junk DNA from GOD? LOL you crack me up sometimes : )
Information is not material though the carrier is.
Tanty, are you & "Ryan Bell" consistent on this?
Here, let me adjust Bell's comments as a parallel to Mormonism & let me see if you would agree if I wrote the following (which I didn't, since I'm shamelessly stealing--and tweaking a bit to fit the parallel):
“For most people, seeing a person give testimony that Joseph Smith is a prophet is more than enough basis to call that person a Mormon. Not so with Salt Lake City & other Utah Mormons north of Hildale, Utah, for whom 'Mormon' has become more a signifier of Zion purity than adoration of Christ. In their attempts to exclude polygamous, fundamentalist Mormons and even Mormon members who have a second wife from the club, the Utah Mormons have had to do all kinds of gymnastics to tell us what 'Mormon' really means, and have ended up throwing Joseph Smith right out of the analysis. Reliance solely on the standard works, but also adherence to certain extra-standard works' creeds (like God is an exalted man), and emphasis on this standard works' passage (but not this one like D&C 132 where it talks about polygamy being an "eternal covenant"!) and historical unity with other Book of Mormon-based churches (except for all the disunity all the Mormon offshoots have had with one another) are all more important than a testimony of Joseph Christ as prophet.”
He brings up a good point: Are Evangelicals who harbor this philosophy worshiping the -doctrine- in lieu of the -Lord-? Has their dogma, in being raised to an importance above that of following Christ Himself, become their idol?
So you would likewise then say that I have brought up a good point: Are Mormons who harbor this philosophy of one man & one woman worshiping that doctrine in lieu of the Lord? Has their marriage-for-time dogma (I mean they already believe in plural marriage-for-eternity...so what's the big deal about plural marriage-for-time?), in being raised to an importance above that of following Christ Himself--to the point where Mormons will ex-communicate polygamists from their midst, has the need to maintain a law-abiding image become an idol? (despite having broken the law of the land for 50 years at one point in direct contraction to an article in faith)
Don't forget the suicide bombers : (
You lost me there : ( Are you trying to say that you are the spiritual manifestation of a Retro Virus?
As you might say, nice spin.
I note with gratification that you didn’t refute the point.
~”Are you trying to say that you are the spiritual manifestation of a Retro Virus?”~
He does get under my skin, from time to time...
“Well said. The MSM conspiracists seem to run rampant through here.”
Nice we can agree on something. :-)
I think I got your mail.
Only because we've down that trail before, and since you think I like to argue for argument's sake, I didn't want to retrace the same trail. I wanted to try something fresher. But other than a brief comment, you didn't tell me if you agree with my impersonation of Ryan Bell as applied to Mormonism.
Do you? I can't help but think if you so readily agreed with Ryan Bell's portrayal of take-it-or-leave-it understandings of the identity of Christ, that you would have to simultaneously buy into my Bell impersonation's portrayal of the take-it-or-leave-it tenets of what makes a Mormon a Mormon.
So I ask you directly: Do you likewise buy into the "Bell parallel" (has a nice RING to it, doesn't it? :) )
Here’s the rub: You don’t have a clear understanding of what makes a Mormon a Mormon. For example, you vastly overestimate the importance to us of Joseph Smith. As we’ve gone down this road before, I despair of you actually listening to my explanations, so I’m not going to elucidate further.
If you are curious, though, here’s a good primer on what actually does make a Mormon a Mormon:
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/a_of_f/1
Why should I be tolerant of religious bigots?
It's NOT?
This is NOT the 'religious' area.
So, you admit you have the right to be intolerant?
There are countless posters on FR, and only a handful of Mods.
I would imagine that live and let live is the attitude of the Mods until someone goes whining to them over something, and then their attention gets turned our way.
An assumption of yours that has been debunked.
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.