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.

This is the point I least understand about the cabal, the insatiable desire to trust the “arm of the flesh”, in other words, man, & his precepts, creeds, & understanding. The Lord has encouraged us through the Bible to ask Him & we would receive answers. It's the only sure way & the one that would leave no doubt.

I certainly don't begrudge those that say they have prayed sincerely & come up w/ a different answer than mine. At least they're following the scriptures. But those that say we should trust their judgment just b/c they've been trained better or because they feel they understand better, I have little respect for.

If it weren't for us, they would be hammering other Christians due to their lack of “understanding” of what THEY believe. Just look at the Catholic threads or other religious ones. Even though they have received no answer directly from God, they feel everyone should believe as they do. Amazing!

For those that claim that they have received an answer to prayer that we were not the true church of God, I would ask, did they receive confirmation that their church was the church of God, & if so, what church would that be? The argument that all Christian churches are true as long as they believe in Christ is foolish imho & certainly not based in scripture.

When Christ was here, there was one church & one doctrine, not thousands. When Paul went to preach to the saints in Corinth, he needed to set them straight on certain doctrines. He never said, as long as you believe in Christ, the rest of your beliefs don't matter much & it's o.k. if you all don't believe in the same thing.

Anyway, you're absolutely correct about going to the author of all this & receiving an answer from Him. I've done that & thank the Lord every day for the answer received. What's there to lose? Nothing. What's there to gain? Knowing, & Eternity. Pretty important stuff here.

For those that claim that they have received an answer to prayer that we were not the true church of God, I would ask, did they receive confirmation that their church was the church of God, & if so, what church would that be? The argument that all Christian churches are true as long as they believe in Christ is foolish imho & certainly not based in scripture.

Oh, sure...NOW we see "THE CHALLENGE" changed...from the challenge to read the bom and pray for an answer if IT is true, now we hear the NEW caveat...

Frankly, IMO it doesn't matter what we say was the "answer", either on the bom or our own faith....the mormons are going to claim that "if you don't get the CORRECT ANSWER. namely that Joseph Smith is a true "prophet", and the bom is revealed truth, then YOU didn't pray in the correct manner, YOU didn't read with an open mind...and so on and so on and so on...there is something wrong with YOU!"....now you are "challenged" to take the mormon challenge to your own faith...more mormon obsfucation.

Another post in which the appropriate reply is HOGWASH X10!

This is the point I least understand about the cabal, the insatiable desire to trust the “arm of the flesh”, in other words, man, & his precepts, creeds, & understanding. This is the point I least understand about the cabal, the insatiable desire to trust the “arm of the flesh”, in other words, man, & his precepts, creeds, & understanding.

when you haven't the faith to get an answer you are left to kick against the pricks and call for peer review of scripture.

The Lord has encouraged us through the Bible to ask Him & we would receive answers. It's the only sure way & the one that would leave no doubt.

I talk about this all the Time inviting people to Put our religion to "The Test" And I am constantly told it has already flunked the test which proves theose saying that do not understand "the Test" is to ask God, they can't answer for God any more than I can write checks on their checking accounts.

I certainly don't begrudge those that say they have prayed sincerely & come up w/ a different answer than mine. At least they're following the scriptures. But those that say we should trust their judgment just b/c they've been trained better or because they feel they understand better, I have little respect for.

LOL! You hit the Nail right smack dab on the head!

If it weren't for us, they would be hammering other Christians due to their lack of “understanding” of what THEY believe. Just look at the Catholic threads or other religious ones. Even though they have received no answer directly from God, they feel everyone should believe as they do. Amazing!

I have only participated on a couple of religion threads outside Mormonism (It's like sword fighting with an unarmed man...) I was invited to one on what it took to be saved, that was fun, watching all the "Christians" damning each other to Hell, so I know what you mean.

For those that claim that they have received an answer to prayer that we were not the true church of God, I would ask, did they receive confirmation that their church was the church of God, & if so, what church would that be? The argument that all Christian churches are true as long as they believe in Christ is foolish imho & certainly not based in scripture.

I have also asked those who claim Joseph was answered by Satan and that my answer was from Satan how they know their answer was not from Satan.

I have pointed out that The Bible in First John 4:1-3 give a way to know:

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.
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.

My answer specifically meets with These tests set forth by John. I suspect he knew a thing or two more about God and Christianity than our attackers do.

When Christ was here, there was one church & one doctrine, not thousands. When Paul went to preach to the saints in Corinth, he needed to set them straight on certain doctrines. He never said, as long as you believe in Christ, the rest of your beliefs don't matter much & it's o.k. if you all don't believe in the same thing.

The Chinese had an interesting saying that they used on most "Christian" Missionaries, they would say "All churches teach people to do Good Right?" (meaning all churches are the same) I would always respond "One mountain is always higher" which means one is always better than the others, then I would tell them there was a way to find out which is best, and they'd be interested (at least enough to let us come and visit.)

Anyway, you're absolutely correct about going to the author of all this & receiving an answer from Him. I've done that & thank the Lord every day for the answer received. What's there to lose? Nothing. What's there to gain? Knowing, & Eternity. Pretty important stuff here.

Not only that, But why would God lie to you , or allow Satan to do so?

The Lord has encouraged us through the Bible to ask Him & we would receive answers. It's the only sure way & the one that would leave no doubt.

But wait, That might be subjective, and all truth should not be subjective (like those arguments that reality is just a figment of our imaginations...)

I have actually had people propose to me that Satan answered my prayer to God, Which has so many problems with it as a theory (what God couldn't stop Satan / Keep his word / Lied when he promised to answer / isn't able to answer / I was praying to the wrong Jesus? These have all been proposed to me and I am sometimes scared that these people are allowed to vote.

One Guy on another thread said that the world would be in chaos if that were true, I pointed out that we had McCain as a Republican party candidate...

These guys are just not in touch with reality, and it's sad.

I’m not sure I get your point. There are those that are part of your cabal that have stated that they prayed & received an answer that the LDS church, BOM, etc. was not true. As I stated earlier, I can respect someone not getting the same answer as I. My very logical question was that if they were able to get the Lord to answer that our church was not true, then certainly they would be able to pray & receive an answer as to whether their church was His. I’m just curious as to what church that was. Obviously, the Lord wouldn’t answer a prayer that a church was false but not answer which was His.

So, you can see very clearly. The challenge hasn’t changed at all. We still invite all to pray to God for guidance & answers as to whether these things are true. I know those answers can come having experienced it myself.

Having been a member of many mainstream Christian churches for years, I struggled w/ some of the doctrines but also the teachings that the Lord didn’t answer prayers any more about truth except through study of the Bible & our ability to ascertain what truth was contained therein w/o direct revelation. That’s not what the Bible taught.

All these thousands of Christian churches that read the same exact Bible in most cases, yet come up w/ vastly different interpretations of what’s contained therein. Every church claimed they were right. Didn’t make sense to me that the Lord would be the author of such confusion. He certainly didn’t create that confusion while He was here.

As I said earlier, one true church, one true set of doctrines. Period. Not what man thought the doctrines meant. He had prophets throughout the Bible who spoke on the Lord’s behalf so that there wouldn’t be confusion. Why would He love them so much as to give them prophets, & yet seemingly turn His back on US now. Now, when we probably need a prophet more than ever if just b/c of all the confusion about His gospel.

Clearly, the Bible isn’t nearly clear enough or there wouldn’t be as much confusion by so many bright, well intentioned people.

Anyways, perhaps your confusion about the challenge being changed was really nothing more than an additional challenge to those who claimed to have had a response. Again, I don’t begrudge their response, but surely having received that response & seen that prayers really are answered, they would have sought answers as to whether their church was the true one. I don’t see why that is such a challenge for you to understand.

That being said, have a great weekend ole’ Grey.

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