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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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 ...
~”Mormons are not Christians...”~
Yada, yada, yada.
You do realize, of course, that your opinion in the matter isn’t terribly important?
~”Dancing is not a problem. That is ultra-Christian fundamentalist legalism which is false teaching in the Christian church.”~
Ah, so anything not found in -your- denomination of Christianity is a false teaching.
Gotcha.
~”Mormon deceit will never prevail against the Truth.”~
Than you’ve nothing to worry about, do you? In this case, you may find Acts 5:38-39 to be wise counsel. I suggest you follow the Bible.
Thank you. Glad I could help.
~”if freeper Mormons would stop the constant “Mormons are nice people” threads and oh, how handsome his sons are, then maybe Mitt might be more acceptable...
but this thread proves my point precisely....”~
How, praytell, is the topic of this thread related in any way to “Mormons are nice people” or “how handsome his sons are?” How, precisely, does this thread prove your point?
~”They certainly don’t cause me to think differently about their professed relgions.”~
Me neither, because I have context that tells me that they are exceptions, and not the rule.
Many people have no such context about Mormons - a President Romney would be their first exposure. If they don’t like his politics, will they refuse to listen to the tenants of the faith he embraces? Some will, I think. That does concern me.
DarthVader, this post makes it clear you are a neophyte in anti-Mormon polemics. Better bone up on the origins of the Bible.
Have fun tearing this vapidness to pieces, DU!
Eisenhower was, in fact, a Jehovah’s Witness when he was elected. He converted shortly after his inauguration. It appears he was never a devoted JW.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower#Religion
I note that he cannot tell where his "Christian" teaching came from concerning the "Trinity".
His belief does not agree with the Christians of old.
Maybe they weren't "Christians" either.
I caught that part of Huckabee’s speech. It was fascinating, wasn’t it? He outright said that we needed to change the Constitution to bring it in line with the Bible.
Sounds like holy-roller Shari’a to me.
“Before Abraham was, I Am” ... Jesus defined Himself to be God and when He was about to leave He told the disciples He would send to them The Holy Spirit. ONLY God can make such claims, not ‘a god’, THE God.
14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;Laodicea was destroyed by a mighty earthquake in 60 B.C. Rome offered to rebuild it, but the Laodiceans wanted to do it themselves It was hit again in 65 AD it was never rebuilt. Thus, The Book of Revelations was written when Laodicea existed, it was before 65 AD. The Gospel of John is dated later (accounts vary from 81-100+ AD) Thus if you are serious, half of the books of the new testament are now to be excluded. The book of Deuteronomy includes a similar passage, is the rest of the Bible to be discarded?
1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.Since this is by John who's words you just used to damn me to hell, I hope you will listen to him and obey his command to try the spirits. He even tells you how to know if an answer to your prayer is of God, or of the Devil. You needn't be afraid to follow his advice, the Bible won't steer you wrong.
2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Not interested in your hell-bound cult
I believe the Bible you don’t.
You sound just like Jim Jones and David Koresh.
I provided references that were not from Mormon authors.
Provide some neutral references like I did.
Your spiritual leader wants Christians to sit down and shut up while he murders the souls of those being sucked into the cult of Mormonism's works before Grace 'to be worthy of Grace'. You do him service every time you try that ploy of citing Acts 5:38-39 and try to associate that to the advent of Mormonism arising to 'restore' that which was never lost from mankind.
The brashness of Mormonism apologists no longer surprises me. You peddle spiritual death as if it is enlightenment, just the way Satan peddled it to Eve ... 'after all, God told you you would die just to scare you from becoming like Him, knowing Good from evil'. Mormonism has rephrased that as 'after all that you can do, you will be worthy of Grace' for God will owe you, seeing that you did all that you could do to be righteous He will be obliged to add His Grace to your 'all that you could do'.
You dance all around it, but in the end you are promoting the same lie that worked with Eve. You even go so far as to intimate that 'God has not told us Orthodox Christians all that we need for Salvation, that we need Mormonism and Mormon baptism'. And further yet, you assert that God could not keep His promise and His Salvation disappeared from humankind until God could find the peepstone conman named Joseph Smith to restore Christ's Grace through 'all that you can do.'
If Mormonism was from God, He would not contradict Himself. Mormonism can't even keep from contradicting itself on several issues. But you apologists have become quite adept at spinning the lies and heresies in Mormonism to appear to be 'special dispensations'. Such boldness to lie for your spiritual master, to spin and deceive, then assert that your cult is a work of God that one should not oppose! A few months ago, it was astonishing to see it done so openly. Now, it is mundane, just spiritual death selling itself, the same deceit used by Satan with Eve.
'After all that you can do', if you do not repent while there is time for you, you will hear Him say 'Depart from me, workers of iniquity. I never knew you.' I'll see your Acts 5:39-39 and raise you Matthew 22:13-14. After all that you can do, you will still have no garment unless you FIRST come to Him and be made alive so that all that you can do is done by His creating work. Through Him are all things made, not through all that you can do.
13 ‘Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy* that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. 14For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
15 ‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus you will know them by their fruits.
21 ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” 23Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”
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