The Wacky World of Joseph Smith: And the un-Christianity of Mormon Theology

CATHOLIC ANSWERS ^ | Brian Harrison

[Jedidah]

Sheesh. What irony.

Catholics criticizing Mormons, when neither one of their groups remotely resemble the church as Jesus founded it. Both rely on volumes of man-made rules and regs and doctrine, and neither use sacred scripture as their guiding document.

The mormons quote Joseph Smith and his mythical apparition Moroni and let their modern-day apostles evolve doctrine through “continuing revelation”. Catholics quote popes and saints and see visions of Mary making it up as they go.

Pot and kettle.

[NewCenturions]

Bookmarking.

[Paragon Defender]

Nothing new here. Old, tired and addressed a thousand times. Not a valid issue in sight. Just another day in the lair of the FR anti-Mormon gang.

[Paragon Defender]

Seekers of truth,

If you peruse the Free Republic religion forums you will notice a pattern. There's an anti-Mormon group of people here that spends a great deal of their time attacking the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They post regurgitated propaganda on an almost daily basis.

They have a misguided obsession. You can witness many different tactics employed that you might find quite interesting. The straw man argument is a big favorite and is frequently preceded by cherry-picking quotes or other material. After the "quotation" the attacker will misrepresent what has been said or what was meant and then attack their own interpretation.Later they will have the audacity to claim they were "only" quoting our own material.  

They will of course insist ad nauseum that they are merely using our sources and are therefore innocent of any deceptive practice. LDS persons have no issue whatsoever having our scriptures or leaders quoted as long as it is presented fairly and accurately. This is rarely (if ever) done.

Another favorite is posting scripture or statements which on their own really present no dilemma. They make something out of nothing while never bringing up a single objection that hasn't been addressed a hundred times before.

You might note a couple of other tactics used to try to antagonize is the use of disrespectful or insulting terms or language and/or pictures. That's a Christlike thing to do right? Yeah I don't think so either. It does speak volumes about them though.

Sometimes they cruise the headlines of the day seeking any story that might be twisted into making the Church look bad. Anything will do, just watch the progression of posts following it and see what I mean.

After reading their posts, I invite you to seek the truth about whatever "issue" they seem to be "revealing" or "exposing". I promise that if you do so with honest intent, the "ahah" moments you will have will be many and frequent. You will start to recognize the tactics employed to cleverly twist and attack and will likely chuckle the more you see. In actuality, there's nothing new here. It's all been addressed many times before.

The latest twist in the anti-Mormon propaganda machine is to actually go to the links provided, but then they cherry pick what they want, then quote and straw man attack that. Clever. It almost appears that they are helping you, the seeker of truth out by doing some footwork for you. Not so much. Don't be insulted, look for yourself. It's not the haystack they want you to think.

Here's a few links to get your started from a different viewpoint. I have found that the vast majority of the "issues" brought up can be found and addressed at http://www.fairlds.org/ but here's more:

http://scriptures.lds.org/
http://www.lds.org
http://www.fairlds.org/
http://www.mormonapologetics.org/
http://www.mormonwiki.com/Main_Page
http://www.lightplanet.com/response/index.html
http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDS_Intro.shtml
http://www.answeringantimormons.com/index.htm
http://promormon.blogspot.com/

Now you will likely notice the "you never address our points" posts pop up as usual. All after providing the answers just as you have here.

Sometimes it is claimed that these sites present a needle in a haystack. Far from it. But if you give up before you try you won't know will you?

Will you wear blinders too? Seek truth. Find out for yourself. Want to chat with someone on any topic? A few of these sites provide just that. So do your homework sincere seeker of truth. Listen and read from both "sides". Make up your own mind.

I witness to you of these truths and wish you the best, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

[humblegunner]

Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!

Awww.. that trick never works!

[KevinDavis]

The Catholic Church: The Church that protects pedophile priests and the Church that hates America...

[traderrob6]

Sorry but the orgins of Mormonism are truly silly. Faith is one thing but blindly believing nonsense is not faith it's obtuseness.

[CynicalBear]

Do you believe you can one day become like God is today?

[UCANSEE2]

[CynicalBear]

They certainly went off track somewhere around the time of and after the Council of Trent.

[elcid1970]

Excellent article from Catholic Answers.

Go to www.exmormon.org and search “Catholic Church”.

The Mormon sacred writings are full of references to “The Great and Abominable Church” and Whore of Babylon, etc.

Incidentally, the Protestant denominations are referred to in the D&C as the “lewd daughters” of Catholicism.

In fact, Mormon teachings are rife with hatred for all the Christian denominations.

[Outrance]

Divisive thread. I can only assume it was posted to cause division within the Conservative movement.

[randomhero97]

Post of the day!

Very well said.

[elcid1970]

The Catholic Church hates America? Please elaborate.

[TheZMan]

Well said.

[KevinDavis]

Well they where against the Iraq war...

[KevinDavis]

The Catholic Church: Supporters of the Spanish Inquisition. Funny I don't recall the Mormons having a inquisition.

[hosepipe]

Revelations from the alleged Angel "MORON-i"... Puuulllease..
Sounds like a story generated over some wacky weed smoking and a bit of red wine..

The Purgatory story must also have generated from a night of strong drink and lets call it "brotherly LOVE"..

Cargo Cults differ only in their cargoes.. and the vehicle that hauls them..

[EverOnward]

The staunch Catholics in my family find divisive articles such as this offensive. Ignorant bigotry is not spreading the gospel as Jesus taught. Many cloak themselves in religion merely to use it for their own ends. I don’t consider the author(s) of this article a true Catholic(s) nor Christlike — at least not the kind of Christlike Catholics I live with and love.