Why so many LDS threads?

08-May-2008 | Grig

[Grig]

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.

[Elsie]

You got the NUMBER!!!

---

 

NIV Revelation 13:1-18
 1.  And the dragon  stood on the shore of the sea.   And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.
 2.  The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 
 3.  One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast .

 4.  Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, "Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?"
 5.  The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.
 6.  He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.
 7.  He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.
 8.  All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.
 9.  He who has an ear, let him hear.
 10.  If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.
 11.  Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon.
 12.  He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed.
 13.  And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men.
 14.  Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.
 15.  He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.
 16.  He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead,
 17.  so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.
 18.  This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.

 

And THOSE are ALL the Scriptures pertaining to 666.

[Invincibly Ignorant]

Even if only one soul was saved, that is enough to justify the effort.

Ya turn off 10 and gain one. great tradeoff.

[Elsie]

I did’nt get the way kewl aspostrophed name...

I do'nt know why you didnt'!

(Try the KLINGON name generator... if you d'ont get an astropoph; you may get your hyphen back!)

[Invincibly Ignorant]

PERSONAL or not?

I dunno. You taking it personally?

[Enosh]

1 Kings 10:14. ;)

[Enosh]

1 Kings 10:14. ;)

[Enosh]

I’m stuttering...

[Elsie]

Regardless of how many times they are exposed for their misrepresentations, falsehoods, misquotes, & statements taken out of context, they feel if the say the same things enough times, some will believe.

Ok; you DO realize how Mormonism works!

[Elsie]

 As you can tell by one of the conversations you're currently having, it's rarely about a reasoned discussion in a civil manner, but rather war.

 

Ok; let's be reasonable:    "Just what did Joseph Smith 'learn' to be UNTRUE about PRESBYTERIANISM?"

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!   18 My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.   19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”   20 He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home. And as I leaned up to the fireplace, mother inquired what the matter was. I replied, “Never mind, all is well—I am well enough off.” I then said to my mother, “I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.”

 

[Tennessee Nana]

Yeh, I’ve been posting since 1998, too. We should get some kind of an award or something.
___________________________________________________

I’m more intertested in the award I’ll get in Heaven...

The opportunity to worship Jesus, the Lamb of God, forever..

Wont it be wonderful to look upon the face of Jesus, Himself ????????????

[Elsie]

But they haven't.

We report: you decide.

It's not OUR responsibility to get you to see the light; but to tell you of it's existance.

It's then the Light's job.

[Elsie]

I mean, I can remember criticizing Mormons as Stepford wives because they were always so nice and sweet and compliant, and good housewives, too.

It's hard to explain the PROZAC sales in UTAH; given the high percentage of Mormon's there.

[restornu]

I am not making a 24/7 campaign on Presbyterian faith seem you bring up that subject all by your self!

[Tennessee Nana]

Hi Elsie

:)

Hey when the false prophet Joseph Smith said “I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.” what did he mean ???????????

He dissed my beliefs and I want to know why ????

and also, what did he have against Jesus ??????

[CharlesWayneCT]

I have to answer this again. I’m afraid my political point is getting way to wrapped up in the religious discussion.

My political point is this. There ARE beliefs that are so bizarre that I would be hard-pressed to vote for someone who held those beliefs. I would try to keep that reasoning to myself. I know that MY beliefs are bizarre to someone who doesn’t believe there is a God, and yet I hope that a person who believes like me and runs for office will not be summarily dismissed for a religious belief that is different from the voter.

I happen to believe that, for political purposes, the typical Mormon, at least those I know, are not outside the bounds of political acceptability.

I work in a field where everybody is college-educated, engineers and scientists, many masters and PHDs. And a few are Mormon.

I can’t fathom why they hold beliefs I “know” are wrong, and seem so strange, but I know it’s not because they are generally ignorant or foolish people. I further know that they value family and the conservative principles I espouse.

That’s all I meant to do in this thread — to argue that from a political perspective, we should be careful about judging people by their religious beliefs. Because many of our conservatives have religious beliefs that would be ridiculed by a lot of the people we need to vote for them.

For most people, the answer is to put “religious belief” in a box. Allow people who otherwise are rational to hold irrational beliefs, and put them off in the corner, and try not to think about it.

If I was speaking from a religious perspective, my argument would actually be much different, and more in line with what others do here.

But what I fear is that using someone’s desire to be politically joined with us as a license to attack them regularly for how stupid their religion is, that is a recipe for shrinking our “conservative tent” to where we have no members.

[Elsie]

I detect a pattern of self abuse occuring in your life.

Keep it up and YOU will need an audio monitor!

[Invincibly Ignorant]

We report: you decide. It's not OUR responsibility to get you to see the light; but to tell you of it's existance. It's then the Light's job.

You've reported allright. I've decided it has nothing to do with light. lol.

[Elsie]

Then there’s that old cow....

[CharlesWayneCT]

At least none of us are trying to say there are 60 states un the Union.

I’m not sure I require my politicians do believe there are 66 books that God decreed as His word. But I do think I want my politicians to know there are only 50 states.

This is a reference to Obama misspeaking and saying he had been to 57 states.

[Elsie]

I have been following the Texas case, and have for the most part not participated in the LDS threads—because frankly I know diddly about the LDS.

Hang around and you'll get an earful!