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.

Re: talk of "Mormon names" (#461, #475, etc.)

The Flying Inmans claim the "Saintly name" [Mormons do NOT have a corner on the name "Saints"] of...[drum roll, please]...

...the "Anti-Nephi-Lehies" from the Book of Alma, in the Book of Mormon (Alma 23:17-18; 24:3). [Would that make us the "Anti-Nephi-Lehies Flying Inmans who fly the Ilky Way John 14:6???"]

And the Top Ten reasons the Flying Inmans have selected this name are...[need some Flying Inman help from the Letterman-like writers among you]...

Reason #10: "Fill-in-the-blank" name was already taken.

Reason #9: Like the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, those in Christ truly have been set free from a curse!!! [While skin color is no curse, as the Book of Mormon claims, sin is indeed a curse...the BoM pretends God's curse of the Lamanites was lifted off of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, even tho it gets it badly wrong--our curse goes much deeper than skin color...but still, in Jesus Christ, have a curse that's been lifted off of believers! Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." (Galatians 3:13)]

Reason #8: Although the Book of Mormon gets it wrong about which king we're the son of in Alma 24:3, we are, as "Anti-Nephi-Lehi," the son of a KING!!! The King of Kings!

Reason #7: The Mormon FReeper threaders have permanently assigned to us the brand & copyright of anything having to do with "Anti..." titles!

Reason #6: Alma 23:18 proves that Michael Jackson was not a fluke! (Skin tone can change!) (Actually, I'm kind of surprised that the multi-cultural fanatics haven't latched on to Alma 23:18 as their "Religious Verse of the Year"...I mean here you can be just one person with a mono-cultural background and poof! You become "multi-cultural" virtually overnight!) [For those of you who don't "get it," according to Alma 23:18, The Anti-Nephi-Lehies supposedly had a darker skin before the curse was lifted, allowing them to become "white and delightsome" again!]

Reason #5 (Fill in the blank)

Reason #4 (Fill in the blank)

Reason #3: It's as good of a "fantasy" name as any and I was too lazy to page-turn a fantasy name from L.Ron Hubbard's sci-fi books like "Battlefield Earth" or "Dianetics" or other fanciful fantasy works like the BoM.

Reason #2 (Fill in the blank)

Reason #1 (Fill in the blank)

I enjoyed reading your testimony...Now, I will provide my own...I have told it before on FR, I guess I will tell it once again..

I am not Mormon, nor is anyone in my family...I was raised as a Methodist, was the church organist, and mom was extremely active in the Methodist church, being a Sunday School teacher, choir member, member of the ladies group, helped run the outreach programs, ran bake sales, and did all she could to be an active member of the church, that she loved...all that occurred in Chicago...

In time I and my hubby and two boys wound up living in Washington State, due to a military move, and my parents wound up retired in California, about 750 miles from us...

After my older son had died of leukemia, it was my parents fondest wish to come up to Washington State, and each summer, take my younger boy back with them to California, so that he could spend a great deal of his summer vacation with them...it was good for him to spend so much time with them, and it was wonderful for them to have him with them, as they were so greatly grieved, when my older son died...

One summer they came up, got my son and went back to California...a few days later, I got a frantic phone call from my mother, that my father had been taken seriously ill, and I needed to come down to California, as soon as possible to get my son...they thought my dad had cancer...

Dad was scheduled to be going into the hospital in a couple days for tests...and my younger son was still with my parents, so mom had to care for dad, and my son at the same time...it was quite hard on her, surely, as she was in the middle stages of Alzheimers...dads sister, who lived close by, said she would drop everything, as soon as he could in order to move in with mom and dad and help out...but dads sister was elderly, so I did not want her to put herself out too much...

After mom and dad had returned from the doctors office, with the grim news, they were at their wits end, but tried to remain positive...my husband and I were going to be down to California, in 2-3 days, and mom said, she could hold on until then, just knowing that we were coming..

As soon as mom finished talking to me, on the phone, the door bell rang...two young fellas stood at her door, told her that they were from the Church of Latter Day Saints, and wanted to know if they could have a few minutes of her time, to speak...well, mom told them that she was a Methodist, and that she had no intention of changing her religion, and was about to close the dooor...but these two fellas seemed to sense that mom was on the verge of tears and was extremely upset...so they asked her, if they could help her in any way, as they said they noticed her distress...

And with that, mom just poured out her heart, about dad and his diagnosis...and I think once she got going, she just poured out her heart again, about how my son had died from leukemia, and how that had affected everyone...well, these two fellas, took mom into their care...literally...

Mom told them straight out, she was not about to become a Mormon, just to get help...you know, they never once tried to evangelize to her...all they were concerned with, was helping her get through this difficult time, until I and my hubby arrived to take over caring for mom and dad...

These two Mormon fellas, asked mom what she needed to have done, and they said they would do it for it...mom never learned how to drive, and she needed groceries from the store...these two fellas patiently waited for mom to make a shopping list, and they did the shopping for her...the grass needed mowing and the yard needed weeding...these two fellas did this as well...mom and dad needed their meds from the drugstore...they went and got their meds...

In fact, these two Mormon fellas, did everything possible to care for my mom and dad, in my absence...they checked in with mom and dad several times a day, did those things that needed to be done, and offered moral support to my parents, more as a should to cry on, than anything else...mom says, they never once tried to begin the process of converting her to being a Mormon...sometimes they would read the Bible together, but the Bible, mind you, not the Book of Mormon...they all just sat, and read encouraging verses from the Bible...

And so it went...for the few days, it took for me and the hubby to get down to California, these two Mormon fellas took care of my mom and dad, and kept a watchful eye on my younger son...they did not have to do any of this...they could have walked away, right from the first day, when my mom told them, thanks but no thanks, she was not interested in becoming a Mormon...but they sensed a family in dire need, right at that very moment, and they acted upon that...

Once the hubby and I arrived in California, we took over...but I could see, that mom and dad, worried as they were, had been well taken care of, by ‘strangers’...these two Mormon fellas did not know my parents at all, nor did my parents know them...and yet, I do believe, that God brought these two fellas together with my parents for a reason...

My parents needed help, and these two fellas were there to help...it is just as simple as that...once my hubby and I arrived, these two Mormon fellas made one last call on my parents, and mom told them that I and the hubby were there, and that they did not have to go out of their way, as they had been doing, calling on my parents several times a day...mom just was so grateful to these two fellas, who had been helpers for her, who had been shoulders for her to cry on...once these two fellas saw that I and my hubby were there to take care of things, they just disappeared...they did not attempt to convert any of us, they did not ask for thanks, they asked for nothing....they merely said, that they had been so glad to help someone who needed help...and that was the last we ever saw of them...

I have told this story before on FR...some folks enjoyed the story...other folks told me, so what, these two Mormons had nothing in mind, but to convert us, and it was their sneaky way of worming their way into my parents household...how so, since they never did evangelize in any way, nor did they return later to try to convert us...

My own thoughts on this are that these two fellas, felt a God given compassion for my parents, and acted on that compassion, with no thought of converting my parents at all...and their actions bear that out...they did not ‘sneak’ about, they did not try to ‘worm’ their way into our lives...they did for my parents, what any loving child would do for their parents...

And neither I, nor my hubby, nor my father, nor my mother, ever forgot their kindness, their willingness to put their own lives on hold, in order to help strangers, we never forgot their love that we felt, and most of all, we all felt that God had placed these two Mormon fellas on my parents porch, all those long years ago, because He knew, they would be the exact right persons, to put in that situation...

Neither my mom, nor my dad, nor my hubby, nor myself, ever contemplated becoming a Mormon...so for all those cynics out there, who think that these two fellas did what they did, in order to convert us, I say hogwash...I feel that they did as they did, because God had placed in their hearts to do exactly as they did....they gave help and comfort to two older people, at the exact time they needed it most...

My own feeling is that, most other people would have just walked away from my mom and dad, leaving them to fend on their own...thankfully, God placed before my parents, two wonderful Mormon fellas, who were there to help...and help they did...

Becoming a Mormon is something I have never contemplated..as has been said here on this thread before, every single religion has those aspects about it, that people of differing religions disagree vehemently with...and I disagree with much that I see concerning the Mormon religion...but I can say that about a lot of religions...

I truly do not understand the extreme vehemence with which some folks go after the Mormons...I also read the Catholic threads, and find the Catholics gone after with that very same vehemence...and sometimes I see the same posters going after both groups....

I enjoy reading the religious threads in the religion forum, but really only appreciate those posts where substantive discussion takes place...for me, anyway, the substantive discussion is where I learn things...when someone indulges himself/herself in half truths, name calling, generalizations, buzz words, and the like, I just skip over their posts completely, as I feel, their posts are not worth my time, since they have nothing substantive to say...

Sorry to be so long but just wanted to tell my own personal story of how two sweet, young Mormon gentlemen, were sent by God, as I believe, to help a couple of old people, who desperately needed help...

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