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Posted on 05/08/2008 5:04:47 PM PDT by 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.
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 otherThis 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 wellI am well enough off. I then said to my mother, I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true. |
Flds IS the same as LDS was...
(Well; maybe not the kiddie porn stuff..,.)
Aye Aye!!
thankfully, most LDS Organization® members are a LOT better behaved than him!
Ya and you're certainly an expert on behavior. lol.
The Unitarians sure will!
Or not... who cares!
Getting all noodley on us?
I want my LIFE back!
or a rebate; whatever...
What is worth repeating once, is worth repeating many times. Excellent post, tomkat.
Helps to have the Religion Mod in your pocket, evidently.
Legitimate questions, framed within forum guidelines, were recently deleted from one of your threads, questions as to the inordinate numbers of doctrinal harangues appearing under the News/Activism banner.
Kept in the Religion forum where they belong, y’all can obviously post all the 50,000 word nonsense the Robinsons and/or your ISP will tolerate.
But the deluge of this stuff in the ‘News/Activism’ forums seems to me not only to be a flagrant disregard for the very same forum guidelines the rest of us are supposed to operate under, but also diminishes the credibility and integrity of FreeRepublic as one of the few legitimate forums for the conservative political thoughts/views of the average joe.
If this post gets me banned from the site, so be it.
I’ve been around this site since ‘98 under a long forgotten login, and since ‘00 under this one.
I’ve logged a couple thousand miles and a couple dozen hours helping man the barricades against the marxist scum in DC.
I’ve also contributed financially to this site over the years.
I’ve never aspired to be one of prolific pens of FR because frankly my other interests and work keep my time too limited to allow it, but this is where I’ve chosen to get my NEWS for some time, posting random thoughts as they struck me, most often in a (hopefully) humorous vein, as God knows we’ve needed some smiles the past couple decades for sanity maintenance.
Having been a loyal and supportive FReeper for a long time, it’s my considered opinion that the tacit policy decision to allow so much religion spamming in the News/Activism section works to the detriment of this site in particular, and conservatism in general.
If I had any inclination to find out more about LDS, there’s a whole Internet out there and I can do my own damned research.
But if I’d had no previous exposure to FR and got here by whatever circuitous route and saw 14 threads about mormon stuff on my first visit, it’d be a real good bet I’d think I’d stumbled into a big mistake and would NOT be back.
If the Robinsons have chosen to take a different tack re the religious/secular, it is of course their site and their right; I do however find oddly ‘coincidental’ the timing of this apparent policy shift in the midst of Jim’s recent hospitalization/recovery.
(which I hope is quickly better, Jim :)
This wasn’t/isn’t intended to be an opus, but if that’s the way it plays out, life will go on and I’ll find something else to take it’s place and/or just burrow deeper into the ol’ bunker.
Cuz in the end I’m just one old guy who works with his hands out here in flyover; and folks like me have gotten kinda used to being ignored, and I’ve never been under any delusion that FR or the RightFight in this country can’t manage without me.
And not that it’s anybody’s business, but I do believe in a God, but certainly not the one represented by these LDS threads/adherents.
/10yrs ?
Let's cut to the chase:
John 6:28-30
28. Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
29. Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
If it weren’t for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, we’d all be lost forever. Yes, I want to see Him face to face, and because of His Atoning Sacrifice, I will. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am a Mormon.
No just you cuz I think you're sexy. :-)
Don't feel bad; these guys didn't do any better!!!
I'm just trying to turn off ONE!
I hardly think it is a word trick. If you look back at my previous statements, I have consistantly said that my argument was that a person who was a Mormon could be a Christian. I have never claimed a status for the Mormon Church.
When people are careful to say exactly what they mean, it hardly seems honest to attack them for insisting that words matter.
I don’t think tricking people with words is a useful thing if you just want to have an honest discussion of issues.
Oh trust me its more than that. I've been to your church and the ushers are ice skating up and down the isles. lol.
It is the FOUNDATION of your faith.
YOU are the one who has to deal with either NOT knowing what the UNTRUTH supposedly was, or with the FACT that you have SOME reason for NOT want to explain it here.
That is correct. The word “polygamy” is not in the Bible.
I’m not discussing religion any more here. My points are political.
Or 616. :-)
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