Why so many LDS threads?

I am posting this on behalf of many LDS freepers. They will post their own 'signature' to this in the comments below. --- Some of you have noticed lately a lot of LDS (ie: Mormon) threads here on FR. I'm going to tell you why.

For many years there have been several active LDS freepers here. We post to all the forums on relevant issues, and were happy to have a site where conservative values were so openly welcomed.

Those conservative values include faith in God, and freedom of religion. We fully respect the rights of all posters to express their opinions and views on religious matters, even when people choose to use those rights to express criticism of our own faith. We also support the ideas embodied in FR rules against religion bashing. There is no need for hostility and there should be no room for bigotry on FR. Every religion has it's miracles and mysteries. Every faith has things in it that are not or can not be proven, and things that run contrary to what secular science would have us believe. Someone mature and confident in their own faith generally doesn't feel the need to belittle the faith of others.

We have, to the best of our ability, conducted ourselves with civility and dignity. We do not feel that that respect has been returned by some posters (putting it mildly).

When Mormon missionaries were murdered, the moderators were kept busy pulling jubilant posts off the thread. When Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her home, we contended for months with posters who appeared to be motivated by religious bigotry doing all they could to smear the family and accuse the father. Several posters openly admitted their religious motivation in opposing Mitt Romney and confessed that no matter how conservative any Mormon was, they would never vote for one for President of the USA. When the Pope died, I don't think any Mormon poster posted anything unkind, yet the thread about the passing of our President recently needed many comments removed.

Nearly every thread having any connection with Mormons, or Utah winds up being hijacked by anti-Mormon activists who copy and paste the same false accusations over and over even when it has been clearly and factually pointed out to them on multiple occasions that they are bearing false witness against our faith. Everything possible is done by these activists to make FR a hostile place for Mormons, and for at least some of them, bashing Mormonism is all they do here. Their most recent project is trying to blur the fact that the polygamous FLDS is a separate and distinct religion from ours, just as Lutherans are a separate and distinct religion from Catholicism.

In our opinion, such poster do a great disservice to FR and to their fellow freepers by spreading disinformation and promoting hostility towards a people known for walking the walk of conservative values.

Why the moderators here don't see the behavior of these anti-Mormon activists as religion bashing is a mystery to us, but it is the moderators call to make and we respect their right to do so. That doesn't mean we have to be passive however. We have all spent many hours refuting the accusations leveled at our faith, but these wind up buried deep in a flood of comments, effectively shouting us down.

Recently some of us have decided to take a more proactive approach. Rather than try to wrestle the pig into taking a bath, we are just going to hose it down. We will actively define our faith here rather than just respond to accusations.

So expect to see lots of Mormon threads, now and for as long as we see fit to keep posting them (although probably not as many as there are Catholic threads). They will be about our basic doctrines and responses to common accusations. If you want to know what our faith is about, read the articles we post. We will post them as open threads and I encourage you to compare the difference in tone and spirit between what we post and what our critics say.

Devotion time

The King Has Another Move!

Two men are standing in front of a painting called Checkmate in an art
gallery. In the painting, a man is playing chess with the devil. The
devil is grinning ear-to-ear because he has the man cornered. The title
of the painting, Checkmate, indicates that the game is over. The devil
has won. His opponent has no more moves.
The first man looking at the painting wants to move on to other
paintings in the gallery. But the second man, an international chess
champion, wants to look at the painting longer, so he waves his friend
on and tells him he will catch up later. The chess champion stares and
stares at the chess board, then suddenly he steps back, flabbergasted.
“It’s wrong!” he exclaims. “There’s one more move.” He runs to his
friend and together they look at the painting. “We have to contact the
painter,” the chess champion says. “It’s not checkmate. The king has one
more move.”
When you look at Scripture, you will see that all through history, the
devil has had God’s people in what seemed like “checkmate.” But God had
another move.
In Exodus 14, with the Egyptians relentlessly chasing them, the
Israelites, finally released to journey to the Promised Land, came to
the shores of the Red Sea. They could see the dust from approaching
Egyptian chariots on the horizon and hear the war cries of their
pursuers. They had nowhere to turn. Their families would be killed;
their possessions would be taken. Checkmate, right?
The King had another move. God says to Moses, “Why are you crying out to
me? Tell the people to get moving! Pick up your staff and raise your
hand over the sea. Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through
the middle of the sea on dry ground” (Exodus 14:15-16). We know the rest
of the story. The Israelites get to the other side; the Egyptians drown
when God closes the water alley.
In 1 Samuel 17, the Israelites and their leader, Saul, were terrified.
The nine-foot-tall Philistine giant, Goliath, was taunting them and
making fun of their God. The Israelites were in checkmate.
But the King had one more move. An insignificant little boy too small to
fit into Saul’s armor knocked off Goliath and delivered the Israelites.
David, who knew a thing or two about being in checkmate, shows his deep
faith when he says, “The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion
and the bear with will rescue me from this Philistine!” (1 Samuel
17:37).
In Daniel 6:1-28, King Darius threw Daniel into a lions’ den because
Daniel ignored the new law to pray to King Darius and instead prayed to
God. In imagery reminiscent of the tomb of Jesus, a stone was rolled
over the mouth of the lions’ den and Daniel was left to be torn apart.
You can’t get much more “checkmate” than that situation!
But the King had another move. He sends an angel to close the lions’
mouths. When King Darius finds Daniel safe, he says: “I decree that
everyone throughout my kingdom should tremble with fear before the God
of Daniel. For he is the living God and he will endure forever. His
kingdom will never be destroyed, and his rule will never end” (Daniel
7:26).
Perhaps you feel like you are in checkmate in your life. You are in
debt. You’ve lost your job. Your marriage is in trouble. Someone you
love is dying. You have an addiction that is eating you with shame.
Whatever your situation, you have to remember that God always has
another move in your life. He can get you out of whatever you’re in. He
raised his own Son from death! Pray to Him. His love for you is
unconditional, and he never turns his back on you. You have another
move.
Even if your pain keeps you from finding the words to pray, the Holy
Spirit will pray for you. Paul says in Romans 8:26: “And the Holy Spirit
helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us
to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot
be expressed in words.”
When it seems as if you can’t move to the next square on the calendar,
remember, the King always has another move!

It’s a free country. People come to your door. You can ignore them, ask them to go away. You can live in a neighborhood that bans solicitors. As I’m discussing this site, I see no reason to post my opinion on people coming to my door.

But I do believe that organized activity should be focused on that activity. If a site is constructed to discuss conservative politics, that’s what it should do. We shouldn’t take advantage of other people’s organizing for our own purposes.

Which means that people shouldn’t look at FR, say “Hey, someone’s done a great job of making a place where people want to come and post and read — let’s abuse that to convert people to our religion.”

I think that’s true no matter what religion it is that is trying to do so.

If we all used FR to try to convert people to our denomination, it would be much less useful for it’s intended purpose.

SO far as I can tell, the purpose of this site is to advance conservative political principles.

If we all spend our time trying to convert each other to our religion, it will detract from the common goal of advancing conservative values.

You should not take advantage of other’s work to subvert it for your purpose, no matter how noble that purpose may be.

I have to believe you and others here belong to civic and other organizations not tied to your church. I also have to believe that you don’t go to those meetings and interrupt the proceedings to give the gospel message.

Maybe I am wrong. Maybe that is what you do.

As I explained elsewhere, we have denominations which disagree with each other, sometimes on major points of theology (like predestination vs free will, and the place of works in salvation).

So I fail to see why some people here are acting so shocked that the person who founded a brand new religion would have said that other denominations were “not true”. Why do you think he founded a new religion? I doubt he thought any of the existing denominations were correct.

And guess what — I don’t think the LDS church is correct either, and I’ve told my Mormon friends so to their face. Somehow, we all still get along, and we don’t spend every moment together attacking each other’s religions.

My belief is that we all can get along by being civil, regardless of our personal beliefs.

It appears to me that some here only can get along with people if they think their religious beliefs are “close enough” in principle.

Your group’s ARROGANCE reminds me of ...

So you choose to receive hard words as arrogance, yet ye choose to dismiss to obey the scriptures you have in your procession!

1 Ne. 15: 3-4

3 For he truly spake many great things unto them, which were hard to be understood, save a man should inquire of the Lord; and they being hard in their hearts, therefore they did not look unto the Lord as they ought.

4 And now I, Nephi, was grieved because of the hardness of their hearts, and also, because of the things which I had seen, and knew they must unavoidably come to pass because of the great wickedness of the children of men.

Heb. 5: 11
11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

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.