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.

As to the general claim, I think we get too sensitive when others claim our religion is false, because it seems so obvious to me that that must be what most people think.

Have a SPECIFIC claim then!

KJV 1 Corinthians 4:17
For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.

KJV 1 Corinthians 11:2
Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.

KJV 2 Thessalonians 2:15
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

KJV 2 Timothy 1:13
Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

KJV 2 Timothy 3:14-15
14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;
15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

NIV Galatians 1:6-9
6. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel--
7. which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
9. As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

ANYBODY???

Like this fine looking fellow???

2 Corinthians 11:12-15
12. And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about.
13. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
14. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
15. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

Like THESE guys??

http://scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1/19#19

17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!

Ephesians 2:1-2

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

“Joe Smith, peepstone divination fraud” Too bad you say things like that about the founder of our Church.

I feel I have the best of both worlds. I was raised a Southern Baptist and I always loved Jesus, my Savior, and the Word of God, the Bible. Later in life I became a pentecostal and I enjoyed jumping up and down, clapping my hands, speaking in tongues, running all around and just having myself a rip roarin’ good time. I was a missionary with Youth With A Mission for about 5 years, even “served a mission” in Belize, Central America, where the Belizean Christians made me feel ashamed.

I started questioning the contradictions - one pastor prayed for healing, another does not believe in miracles, one believes in holiness, another believes we’re saved by grace, “once saved always saved”. Baptists believe speaking tongues is of the devil; pentecostals believe speaking in tongues is a manifestation of the Holy Ghost. One time the pentecostals tried to “cast out a demon” from my deaf friend and scared us half to death. She did not have a demon; she just could not hear. FOR GOD’S SAKE! That was so horrific and embarrassing.

My Mom lived in Anchorage Alaska and she was big in pro life up there. She was head of the pro life group and she told me they had lots of Mormons in their group. She told me one time this Mormon woman prayed with her in the car and Mom said she “felt the presence of the Holy Ghost right there in that car!”

Raised in the Baptist church (Southern Baptist, mind you), I was told all kinds of things about Mormons, things it turned out are not true at all. I was told that Joseph Smith was a fraud and liar and that he thought he was Jesus Christ. Stuff like that. Stuff the anti Mormons post on FR. You know. (They didn’t much like Catholics, either.)

Anyhoo, one day, I decided to listen to the LDS Missionaries. I would be afraid to put their names on this site for fear the Mormon haters would track them down and try to hurt them, those two sweet boys. That was 8 years ago. I remember telling the Elders at our first discussion, “Well, go ahead and give it your best shot but I can never be a Mormon!” I thought Mormons were weird, maybe evil, and you had to be perfect or something. I remember how they put these little paper cups out on the table (upside down) and said these little cups represent all the other churches and denominations. They all have some of the truth. The Baptists believe in baptism by immersion; we believe that, too. The Methodists believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins; we believe that, too. The pentecostals believe in miraculous healing; we believe that, too. They never put down any other faith; just the opposite.

I believed and was baptized in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

I did not know what a “Blessing” was when I was brand spankin’ new to the Church but one day after a botched colonoscopy, I woke up on my way to emergency surgery with a blow out in my colon. No fun and scary!!! Someone said I needed a “Priesthood Blessing” and I didn’t know what that meant. Sure enough, my Home Teacher and an Elder showed up and gave me a Blessing right there on the gurney in the hallway just a few minutes before I was to have the major surgery. I felt a wonderful peace come over me and I believe the Lord spoke through the Priesthood that I would be all right. All I can say is, the Church is real to me.

Your Church is real to you. Hooray! But why on earth you feel the need to endlessly put my faith down, what I believe sincerely, what I know to be true for me, I will never understand. I love my Church. I love my Jesus. And yes He is the same yesterday today and forever, my Jesus. I love Him with all my heart. When people tell me what they think I believe and they think I believe in another Jesus Christ, it hurts, because I love Him so much. He suffered and died for me so that I can return to my Heavenly Father some day by the power of the Holy Ghost.

I don’t like it when people make fun of the LDS Temples. Here is where we go to make covenants with our Father in Heaven. The Temple is a special place for us. It hurts me when people make fun of the Temple. It is a sacred place to me. It is peaceful, sweet, and I feel the Holy Ghost there speaking in a “still small voice”. I love my Church. You love your Church. You worship as you wish and let me.

And people on this site have made fun of our garments. Have they no shame? We are peculiar, I’ll grant you that. We are a peculiar people. The garments are sacred to us, representing we belong to Him; we are set apart. That’s how we believe. Why is that so horrible - and funny - to the anti Mormons? It is disgraceful and makes me feel very sad for those people who say those awful things.

The Book of Mormon, I guess you think it’s a crock, too. That OK; you believe as you will. To me, the Book of Mormon is a wonderful Testament of the Lord Jesus Christ. At first I was afraid to love the Book of Mormon because of the way I was raised - “You will go straight to hell if you alter the Holy Bible in any way!” The preachers used to pound us over the head with that Scripture in the Book of Revelation. Nevermind that an additional 25 books or so of the Bible were written after the Book of Revelation, and there’s a similar warning passage in Deuteronomy in the Old Testament. The Book of Mormon is full of love, warning, guidance, sweetness and goodness. To me. You may believe however you wish. That is your right.

I appreciate what Grig and the others are trying to do here. I hope it will help. If I have been guilty of getting mad and scolding the anti Mormons, I am sorry, please forgive me.

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.