Posted on 05/09/2012 5:44:28 AM PDT by Kaslin
Now that Mitt Romney is the presumptive Republican nominee for president, the left is increasing its attacks on his Mormon religion, hoping to distract voters into focusing on perceived negatives about Mormonism. The latest attack is shrewdly done. Instead of directly attacking Mormonism, which could look bad, the left is claiming that Mormonism is really socialist.
Last month, the far left website Salon ran an article entitled, “When Mormons Were Socialists.” It relied completely upon a deliberate misinterpretation of a few verses in the Book of Mormon. The author claimed that Mormon doctrine about events in the first century A.D. advocated for socialism. He declared that in the Third Book of Nephi, God punished a city because “the government disregarded the sick and poor.” Tellingly, the Salon article did not indicate where in the Book of Mormon the verses it relies upon are located, because they do not exist. At no time did the Nephite government ever give even a tiny amount of assistance to the poor.
The Book of Mormon is heavily critical of excessive government taxation. Wicked King Noah was criticized for taxing his people mercilessly to fund his extravagant building plan. Like the Bible, which Mormons follow, the Book of Mormon teaches the principle of asking others – not the government – to help the poor.
The Third Book of Nephi is about a city that was punished by God for greed, immorality and turning away from God. It is similar to Bible stories about God punishing the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the king of Babylon.
The Bible and the Third Book of Nephi both criticize the wealthy for their arrogance. Chapter 6, verses 12 & 15 of the Third Book of Nephi, state:
There began to be some disputings among the people; and some were lifted up unto pride and boastings because of their exceedingly great riches, yea, even unto great persecutions…..Satan had great power, unto the stirring up of the people to do all manner of iniquity, and to the puffing them up with pride, tempting them to seek for power, and authority, and riches, and the vain things of the world.
Similarly, the Bible rails against the greedy rich in James 5:1-4:
1 And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You'll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. 2 Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. 3 Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you've piled up is judgment. 4 All the workers you've exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger.
Another claim made by the Salon author is that the Third Book of Nephi condemned corporate greed and advocated for the Occupy movement. “God had called Samuel to essentially Occupy Zarahemla, to stand up and speak out against corporate greed and wealth accumulation,” he wrote. Yet contrary to his assertion, there were no corporations in 6 B.C. Samuel was merely instructed to denounce greed and selfishness, which the Bible has always condemned. This has nothing in common with the Occupy movement, which seeks to use the government to redistribute wealth. This is the same kind of accusation the left makes about mainstream Christianity, claiming Jesus “occupied” the Temple.
The communitarian living of Mormons in the 1800’s is held up as more evidence that Mormons used to advocate for socialism. However, communal living is not socialism; it is voluntary agreements among private parties. A quote by Brigham Young stating that the streams and timber belong to the people and are not for private ownership is also offered as evidence of socialism. This is not accurate, since most capitalist countries, including the United States, treat rivers and most timber forests as federal or state property.
This latest attack is just a variation on the left’s claim that the Bible and Jesus advocated for socialism. If Mormons are socialists, then evangelicals are too. It is odd the left is suddenly so interested in Mormonism now. Harry Reid, a Mormon Democrat, has been the Senate Majority leader since 2007. Mo Udall, also a Mormon Democrat, ran for President against Jimmy Carter in 1976. The left has never had a problem with their Mormonism.
Later on his trusty sidekick Squanto came to assist them ~ BUT that was after about 1/3 of them had died of disease in the winter.
I think entirely too much credit is given to the political ideas behind their organization and not enough to the plague.
 This group explores our Divine right to establish Deseret. It was our religious destiny establish the Promise Land of Deseret. The diverse people of Deseret, be they Native American or Mormon, should retain the right to create a autonomous and self sufficant nation-state. Deseret as any Mormon knows means beehive and we have managed to create a social system that help and supports its community. We believe it is time that Deseret shine like the star that the Divine wanted to be. The United States has always been anti-Mormon and has made our steps in creating Deseret lame. The very name "Deseret" was never allowed to be used as a state government or regional identity. The US under Lincoln persecuted the Mormons on the grounds of polygamy. Much of this persecution may have had its origions in the Masonic hostility towards Mormonism. Deseret nation is not exclusivelly Mormon, but is open to all people in Deseret. This group encourages new members and requests that everyone new at least invite two others interested in Deseret.
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https://www.google.com/search?q=communism+in+Utah&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=&oe=&rlz=1I7ADRA_enUS475
What “material” is that? The stuff posted here that comes verbatim from Mormon websites available to anyone with an internet connection? Yeah, I’m sure they need FR to dig that up for them :P
1 Corinthians 7:21
Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you--although if you can gain your freedom, do so.
Dang!
I betcha one could almost see Russia from there!
Thanks!
Know I know what plein air means!
Amen brother...and ditto.
For the benefit of the theological illiterate here at FR, Romney's Mormon faith informs his politics. It is not irrelevant.
The Mormon faith is a convoluted form of humanism. There is no recognition of absolute truth in the Mormon faith. It is all predicated on spiritual ascension to godhood, a distinctly atavistic concept.
God is merely a higher form of human evolution in the Mormon view. And, as we should understand by now ALL humanism leads to socialism.
A google search for communism in Utah? Come on. Please post something substantive about how Mormon government leads to socialism. For example, show statistics that more people in Utah go on the dole than elsewhere, or unions have more power in Utah or something else concrete and relevant.
I have the same question for you and everyone else. How has Mormonism contributed to the growth of socialism. How has Mormonism benefited socialists or communists? I am looking for concrete answers not theory.
I fail to see the connection between a criminal organization of perverts and a voluntary arrangement by like-thinking individuals, whose activities affect only themselves. The Amish, for example, choose that lifestyle. But they don't try to force it upon others.
By irrelevant I mean that It doesn’t matter WHY he is a socialist. All that matters to me is that he is...
Be it religion, a cult, head trauma, etc... It doesn’t really matter. ALL that matters is that he wants to further enslave us to the state and collective.
Ha... lose my freedom... If I ever truly had freedom it was gone DECADES ago.
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But you voted in those decades, right?
Agree!
See my tagline
The rank and file have the most conservative voting habits in America, even without even filtering out those who do not attend church regularly.
By contrast, if you poll only the church attending Evangelicals, you still get around 30% of them voting Democrat. I would wager that most of that 30% shares the same visceral hatred of Mormons as the moonbats which infest this forum.
The only thing which makes voting for a RINO like Romney palatable is knowing how it is going to p*ss off these bigoted lowlifers.
Romney is a “progressive” and neither the “progressive” Democrats nor the “progressive” Republicans have the slightest regard for the Constitution.
So did the folks in Sadams Iraq, the old USSR, etc...
Not sure what your point is.
If you mean I had a hand in this. Well, maybe you have a point. The first vote I was old enough to cast was for Bush ver1.0 right after Regan. And since then I have voted for every GOP candidate they threw at me.
But that’s over. It is apparent to me now that voting for increasingly leftist DH’s in the GOP is a LOSING strategy. More than that, its a SUICIDAL strategy.
I used to think my enemy was the democrats, just because they were democrats and some nebulous stuff about being hippy idiots. My experience and knowledge has expanded and transformed over the years to understand that forced collectivism (socialism, communism, authoritarian capitalism, etc) is the enemy. WHEREVER IT EXISTS.
So what to do about it? Who to fight? Well... I guess, Like any army, we need a base of operation free form the molestation of enemy and a leadership structure free from the influence of the enemy. Once we have that we can then begin to launch an offensive against the enemy everywhere else according to an aggressive strategy that has the eventual extermination of the collectivist -isms in mind.
Well, guess what? We have yet to achieve the first F’ing step of that. We still do not have a party and party leadership free of the molestation and influence of the socialists.
So...
Primary target = Socialists within leadership positions in the political party we need as a base of operation. Once that party is purged we can move on to phase 2.
Secondary targets = all other socialists that infest our ranks and throw grenades in our tents while we sleep.
Im making up for what part (unintentional as it may have been) I played in helping the socialists take control of the GOP. I do not intend to quit nor do I intend to compromise.
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