Posted on 03/26/2010 4:27:43 PM PDT by Colofornian
A group of more than 100 prominent Christians ranging from evangelical minister Jim Wallis on the political left to...Chuck Colson on the right released a document Thursday calling for an end to the fight club tone of the national political discourse.
...the "Civility Covenant"...says...churches have too often "reflected the political divisions of our culture rather than the unity we have in the body of Christ."
SNIP
...the covenant...has 114 signatories from a broad swath of Christian traditions, including the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and the general superintendent of the Assemblies of God...
The list...includes...conservative Christian leaders like Harry Jackson -- who led the unsuccessful fight against gay marriage in Washington -- to Morna Murray, president of the progressive Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, which is close to the Obama White House.
SNIP
Quoting the New Testament, the new covenant urges Christians to "put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you."
"We owe a certain responsibility to each other as believers," said Colson, an influential evangelical Christian voice. "This doesn't mean I haven't challenged some people's theology. But the document says we're not going to challenge each other's motives or engage in ad hominem attacks."
SNIP
...Wallis organized a boycott of Beck's show but says the timing of the covenant's release is incidental.
Colson said the document "wouldn't apply to Glenn Beck because we're talking about the conversation in the family of believers ... Glenn Beck is a Mormon."
Many Christians don't consider Mormons...to be Christians, though Mormons consider themselves Christian...
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Like I said, to each his own.
Is Christianity based upon theology or politics?
I can tell you of one Christian who fought back.....
George Washington....and God’s divine providence is what saved him in battle time after time....
Had THAT “christian” not stood up to evil (along w/many many other christians and yes, preachers....You and I wouldn’t be debating and scrambling right now trying to hold on to our freedoms....b/c they wouldn’t exist in the first place....
Amen! (Well put)
I think Hoagy is referring to those who were persecuted for their faith, meaning martyrs. Martyrs do not fight back.
Shhhh, don’t bring up George Washington. He was one of those “evil” Masons.
That will not go over too well with the typical anti Mormon crowd here.
Not all of us ‘anti-mormons’ are anti-Masonic or anti-Catholic.
Smith stole the temple rituals from the Masons and one of my ancestors was part of the Masonic Grand Lodge that kicked Smith out of the Masons (found that out while doing my genealogy at BYU for temple work).
What? Am I the arbiter of divining who relates to Christ? (Or who will relate to Christ?)
Example on this last Q...I copied ex-Mormons all on this post...these are people who will tell you the Christ they now relate to is quite distinct from the former "Christ" they "related" to as Mormons...
But that's also just it...if somebody were to make a statement, for example, that a given Mormon doesn't relate to the real Christ...well, who's to say that God won't open up that venue tonight???
Relating to Christ or not relating to Him is never in concrete...our God is a dynamic God Who opens up new relations with people all the time!!!
One other note: Let me ask you: Why did Lds apostle Bruce R. McConkie come on to the BYU campus and give a 1982 devotional to BYU students, instructing them not to seek a special relationship with Jesus?
What? (Are you telling us that Mormons deem Christians as their "fellow believers" and we get to share the Father-God with Lds eternally in His presence??? NOT!!! Lds say that's only reserved for members of the Mormon church who keep their temple recommend by continuing their tithe!!! Talk about modern indulgences of the type that Martin Luther railed against!!!)
Go look up your D&C 1:30, Saundra...Joseph Smith excluded the rest of us in his exclusive statement that the Lds church was the "only true church on the face of the earth." Have you ever complained about that statement, Saundra? (If not, why start now???)
Then why do you care what Beck thinks? The basis of Mormonism is self-righteousness, not humility. They even down play the idea of ‘sin’.
Mormonism as a fan club placemarker.
but this thread and the article wasn’t referring to martyrs....it was about christians and politics.... that’s the track my brain is on....
“I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.”
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,
Joseph Smith continues: "for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible" (from Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith-History 1:12). "What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.270).Questions put to Joseph Smith: "'Do you believe the Bible?' [Smith:]'If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does, for there are none of the religious sects of the day that do'. When asked 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons'? [Smith replied] 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119).Brigham Young stated this repeatedly: "When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Journal of Discourses 5:73); "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171); "With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world" (Journal of Discourses 8:199); "And who is there that acknowledges [God's] hand? ...You may wander east, west, north, and south, and you cannot find it in any church or government on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p.24); "Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity" (Journal of Discourses 10:230).Orson Pratt proclaimed: "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent" (The Seer, p. 255).Pratt also said: "This great apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now" (Journal of Discourses, vol.18, p.44) and: "But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be ...But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance" (Journal of Discourses, 18:172).President John Taylor stated: "Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p.167); "Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom." (Journal of Discourses, 10:127).James Talmage said: "A self-suggesting interpretation of history indicates that there has been a great departure from the way of salvation as laid down by the Savior, a universal apostasy from the Church of Christ". (A Study of the Articles of Faith, p.182).President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "Doctrines were corrupted, authority lost, and a false order of religion took the place of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it had been the case in former dispensations, and the people were left in spiritual darkness." (Doctrines of Salvation, p.266). "For hundreds of years the world was wrapped in a veil of spiritual darkness, until there was not one fundamental truth belonging to the place of salvation ...Joseph Smith declared that in the year 1820 the Lord revealed to him that all the 'Christian' churches were in error, teaching for commandments the doctrines of men" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.282).More recent statements by apostle Bruce McConkie are also very clear: "Apostasy was universal...And this darkness still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol 3, p.265); "Thus the signs of the times include the prevailing apostate darkness in the sects of Christendom and in the religious world in general" (The Millennial Messiah, p.403); "a perverted Christianity holds sway among the so-called Christians of apostate Christendom" (Mormon Doctrine, p.132); "virtually all the millions of apostate Christendom have abased themselves before the mythical throne of a mythical Christ whom they vainly suppose to be a spirit essence who is incorporeal uncreated, immaterial and three-in-one with the Father and Holy Spirit" (Mormon Doctrine, p.269); "Gnosticism is one of the great pagan philosophies which antedated Christ and the Christian Era and which was later commingled with pure Christianity to form the apostate religion that has prevailed in the world since the early days of that era." (Mormon Doctrine, p.316).President George Q. Cannon said: "After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon" (Gospel Truth, p.324).President Wilford Woodruff stated: "the Gospel of modern Christendom shuts up the Lord, and stops all communication with Him. I want nothing to do with such a Gospel, I would rather prefer the Gospel of the dark ages, so called" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 2, p.196).
Salt Lake City MORMONs are HYPOCRITs!
They claim exclusive use of the 'mormon' label and send out press releases to that effect.
They consider the Flds folks to NOT be MORMON; yet, the FLDS folks are the ones who follow gods word of D&C 132 - NOT the fearful slc bunch!
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:)
[Yeah. It's like the Scientologist practitioners who have "collared" a white collar to try to capture the "We're a non-profit religious entity, too."]
UO bump
one day, years ago- Glenn shared a bit about his journey in faith and how he came to Mormonism...
if you listen or watch Glenn, you know he is an avid researcher and an avid reader....
he searched and researched and researched all kinds of religions, and came to Mormonism...
he spent years researching and learning about all kinds of faiths....
UMmmm...
Not quite...
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