Posted on 04/28/2008 7:31:24 PM PDT by ricks_place
Under shower of questions sparked by FLDS raid, LDS members set differences, explain faith
SAN ANGELO, Texas - The Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Second Ward here, Jeffrey Bushman, is used to the quizzical looks and sometimes ludicrous questions directed at people of the Mormon faith.
As a missionary in New York 40 years ago, Bushman once was asked if he had devil's horns. He responded by offering to display the place on his head where he had had them sawed off.
“The only thing they knew about us were horns, polygamy and the Tabernacle Choir,” he said.
So when the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' Yearning for Zion Ranch was raided April 3, sparking a national media frenzy, he and other church members were prepared to field the inevitable questions that would arise.
Do they practice polygamy? Are their children sexually abused?
“I've had a lot of my neighbors come up” and make inquiries, said Bishop Bushman's First Counselor Jared Seegmiller, who explains to them that the FLDS splintered off from the mainstream LDS Church after the latter renounced polygamy and threatened to excommunicate practitioners of plural marriage.
“And that's really the only explanation I've had to give them,” he said. “And they say, 'OK, that makes sense.' ”
Even some of the newest members of the church have approached Bushman to get clear on whether polygamy is still practiced by the LDS.
“We've had to deal just a little bit with trying to make sure some of our members don't think we're part of the same [FLDS] church,” he said.
Texas officials have played a role in the confusion. Even while acknowledging the two religions are separate, Judge Barbara Walther, of the 51st District Court, asked FLDS attorneys on April 21 to find members of local LDS congregations to supervise the FLDS women and children while they prayed.
Bushman was among those who got a call to do it.
“I said, 'No thank you, that's not quite our job,' ” he said. “I would feel a little awkward. . . . I don't want to be a party to something that may or may not be right.”
While some members are upset by the media's lack of distinction between the two churches, most see it as an opportunity for a discussion about the true doctrine underlying their faith.
“Most of them, I think, believe that it has opened up the lines of communication about the church, probably more than anything else that has happened,” Bushman said. “Their friends and their neighbors ask questions.”
While the LDS don't condone polygamy or child abuse, the bishop said, the raid has in some ways forged a small connection between the two religions. The LDS, historically a persecuted group of people, can sympathize with a church under siege.
“Watching them [Texas Rangers] go into the temple down there, going through it, made me think of the Nauvoo era: just run them out and do what they want to with the building,” Bushman said. “Obviously we understand that a little bit. That's in the back of our heads.”
The FLDS, meanwhile, have turned to some LDS for support. One member, a San Angelo medical professional who asked that his name not be printed, said an FLDS client called him shortly after the raid.
The distressed woman didn't ask for help, he said. “[She just] wanted to know someone on the outside cared about them.”
“You sound like one of those conspiracy theory nuts. If you seriously think mormons are worshipping millions of gods, you are an idiot.”
Take a deep breath, and a step backwards. Now, start over
and actually read what I wrote.
I never said they “worship millions of gods”. I said that
mormonism (not mormons) “have” billions or even trillions
of gods.
And, FRiend, what I wrote is a fact.
I am pinging a mormon friend of mine, colorcountry,
to give you her take, having been born into mormonism.
CC, take it away...
best,
ampu
“When in fact you should have said:
“Every mormon MAN can potentially become a god with his own planet and a perpetually pregnant goddess WIVES to produce endless “spirit children”.
Thank you for correcting me. I hadn’t thought of celestial
polygamy when I wrote that post.
best,
ampu
Thank goodness you posted that. I’d lost my “clarifying document” somewhere and had forgotten my way back to planet Kolob.
She’s just trying her best to stick to the script ...
the Bible says in the latter days seven women will hold onto one man and be called by his name?
++
I think this is because there will be more Godly woman then of Godly men.
Freemasons -— a fraternity -— has no place on that link.
Smith, et al, were, indeed, members of the fraternity, and did, indeed, co-opt the handshakes, etc, and turn it into their “temple” practice -— in violation of their fraternal oaths -— turning the fraternity into a gnostic religion.
To this day, freemason fraternity is tarnished by people who think it is a religion because of those idiots.
OK, I’ll bite.
They are....?
1. Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior
2.Be under the age of accountability.
OK. I understand.
It almost seemed like the start of a Baptist joke of some kind but I wasn’t sure.
No, the Roman Catholic Church didn't fabricate anything about the Atonement in a garden.
Instead, they made up their own rules about....
an infallible Deified Pope as head of the Church?
And about Purgatory? Where is THAT found in the Bible.... and which verse in Scripture tells us who is supposed to go there and for how long?
Furthermore, which book in the New Testament tells us to pray with Rosary Beads?
Where in the New or Old Testament does it say to worship or pray to the Virgin Mary, or any Saints for that matter?
Did Jesus tell his followers to say repeated Hail Mary prayers? And didn't Jesus admonish his followers NOT to conduct “repeated” prayers like the “gentile unbelievers”
Which Bible verse explains the process of being Cannonized? Where in the Bible did it OK torturing nonbelievers in order to get them to convert to Christianity, like occurred repeatedly in the Middle Ages.
And how many Saints are too many Saints? And which Bible verse sets the rules for becoming a Saint?
What about the statues which the Catholic Church has reportedly verified bleeds real blood or tears?
And doesn’t the Bible strictly forbid worshiping statues?
Where in the Bible does it authorize the use of Holy Water?
Why do Priests have to be Celibate?
Why are we only supposed to confess our sins to a virginal male Priest in a Confession Booth?
What about eating fish on Friday, and why is eating meat on Friday a sin?
================================
Please don't get me wrong. I truly love my Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ.
I married a Catholic, and greatly love and admire the Pope and everything Catholic.
I even attend Mass frequently with my best friend, and he occasionally comes to my Protestant church.
But to an outsider, the quirky things in the Catholic church are no different than the quirky things in the Mormon Church.
Seven to eight years ago.
That would be 2000-2001.
Some 3-4 years before you signed up?
And you know so much about what went on 3-4 years before your sign up date, eh?
That’s interesting........
I said :
rev911: they didnt fabricate thier own scripture which is a cornerstone of the mormon faith, nor do they practice celestial marriage / sealing, baptism for the dead, or claim the Atonement of Christ occurred in the garden instead of the Cross, claim God lives on planet kolob - etc etc - all things mormons presently do
If you are going to insert words into my quote by adding "(Catholic)" please be more careful and indicate that fact.
-youve not addressed the issues I raised and have instead brought another issue into the discussion.
I lurked here for some time, and haven’t been around much of late.
But if you read my about me page you will notice that I posted over 50 artilces from my reading the 12,000 pages of the FBI files on John Kerry and the VVAW and posted them on this site.
I also sent them to the news media to no avail.
So I signed up in July of 2004, and was a lurker for about a year, sue me, it is no big deal.
The point is what I post, and I am no Socialist.
OK, so you lurked for a year before you signed up. That still leaves a 2-3 year difference in which you claim to have knowledge about FR's goings on.
IOW, you claim to know about what went on 2-3 years before you even started lurking on FR.
How would that be?
I never said you were a socialist. Why are you putting words in my mouth?
You didn't.
My point is that all religions have things they do which aren't necessarily straight out of the Bible.
Traditions. Customs. Additions to the Scriptures.
And members of each particular religion are certain that their particular way is the "Truth"....
I know I do.
My only point being that if you want to slam on the Mormon Church, why don't you be an equal opportunity slammer and go after the big one.
Why pick on the puny ol' Mormon Church when you have a billion or so Catholics out there worldwide.
This is a moron conversation.
My statement was about when I first was here and from there. That I didn’t memorize my signup date isn’t that important.
So what, that doesn’t invalidate what I ask or post.
Are of the people you are pining in some kind of cult?
I didn’t memorize mine either but I do know what year I signed up in.
So you lurked since about July of 2003 and claim to have knowledge of what happened in 2000-2001.
Curiouser and curiouser....
I guessed at when I started here, and I was incorrect. And the reason I stayed away for a while is I became tired of whining RINO’s wanting to rant on about stutpid crap.
Like when I signed up.
Catholics don't regard the Pope as a deity. How about Mormons? Did Joseph Smith make it to godhood?
"And about Purgatory?"
Please take a number.
"pray with Rosary Beads?"
A tool to aid memory, nothing more.
"worship or pray to the Virgin Mary, or any Saints for that matter?"
Catholics don't worship Mary or saints. Intercessory prayer can be glimpsed in 2 Maccabees 12:40-46, but that's prayer to God for the dead.
"NOT to conduct “repeated” prayers"
He also talks about the persistent widow. Luke 18:1-5
...
And on and on. Your questions have answers.
Where is planet Kolob?
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