From the article:
Categories are controversial. Mormons consider themselves Christian, but most Christian groups do not.Yup. Just like fundamentalist Mormons consider themselves Mormon, but the mainstream Mormon group does not.
What are the key underlying issues here?
TOP ISSUE:
In one word, "control."
Control of "image" -- what they deem as "negative coverage on the 10 o'clock news" -- flds encroachment. And then, moved the other way -- toward Christians -- control of the "brand name" to commandeer the "positive coverage on the 10 o'clock news" and especially the international good will extended toward Christians in certain continents and countries!
In both matters, it involves the Mormon top-heavy PR/Marketing department of Lds, Inc, which has become the most authoritative "buck stops here" public face of Mormonism. [The Mormon "prophet" is the most internal authoritative voice; and certainly could wield it publicly...but the Mormon hierarchy is delegating most of the "public" side to its (a) PR dept; and (b) apologists]
The Lds "corporate" facts are thus:
(1) ...in 1923, [Lds] church lawyers found The Holy Grail: a rare, little known, and hardly ever used mode of incorporation known as The Corporation Sole. Virtually unknown in America, and tracing its origins to ancient Roman law, the corporation sole was the way the vast riches of the Holy Catholic Church had been protected under Emperor Constantine. All financial power was vested in one man -in their case the pope, in our case, the prophet.
Source: The Vanishing LDS Church by Alan Rock Waterman
(2) Lds, Inc. doesn't pay a lot of its employees. Most of it is really "slave labor." But they pay the General Authorities -- the ones who really need the $ the least!
You see, Lds general authorities are already usually businessmen in their own right. It's their successful business acumen which has identified them as potential recruits to join the General Authorities. And their business success has to be to some degree that allows them enough freedom to assume a second job/career as a General Authority. Once on board as a General Authority, it usually opens yet a third venue of revenue: Serving as boardmembers for yet other corporations & businesses! Lds general authorities are known for serving on vast number of boards...and the "incestuous" G.A. relationships simply opens up those venues even more!
(3) As such, these businessmen-slash-G.A.s are heavily invested in PR & marketing in their own business efforts -- and carry over the same application to Lds, Inc.!
(4) This is confirmed by Alan Rock Waterman: ...the areas that the corporate Church tends to focus on are, by and large, the same things any corporation lends its attention to: Growth, Image, and Control. Especially damage control to its image. Notice that in the early LDS church, the spokesman for the church was called a Prophet. Today the press is continually quoting a “church spokesman” who turns out to be someone from the Public Relations Department. That is how a corporation works. It is not what we expect from a church that claims Jesus Christ as its head. If Jesus Christ was still the head of this church, He would have his spokesman speak for His church, not some flunky from the PR department whose job it is to act as a buffer to protect the prophet from embarrassment. The Vanishing LDS Church by Alan Rock Waterman
(5) So...given that in an Internet age, the Mormon leadership has become more besieged than ever in having to answer questions -- questions from the media; questions from critics; and questions from its own members, we see the Lds leadership has established a tri-prong approach to dealing with those questions:
* Answering Questions from the media: Lds Spokespeople trump what Lds "prophets" and "apostles" of old elaborated upon. The PR person has the final word! (Even if the statement is coming from a woman -- like Lds spokeswoman Kim Farah! Note: See chart below)
* Answering Questions from the public: Lds apologists trump what Lds general authorities of old elaborated upon. The apologist has the contemporary word -- and oft' the only word!
* Answering Questions from their own Lds members: According to Salt Lake Tribune columnist Robert Kirby, a Mormon, who was present when a world-wide circular letter was read at the Oct. 24, 2010 service, Kirby said with only partial tongue-in-cheek: "According to the First Presidency’s letter, members with real doctrinal concerns were to seek the counsel of our local leaders — stake president, bishop, Scoutmaster, building custodian, etc." Why?
Well, per Kirby: "The letter...told/counseled rank-and-file Mormons to stop pestering church headquarters for clarification of church doctrine. Apparently some members get so stressed about the finer points of doctrine that they’ll fire off a letter asking for the final word. Church HQ can’t handle the demand... Source for both quotes: Kirby: Wrestling with doctrine no match for me
So, you can see what kind of trouble the Mormon leadership is in if they are delegating doctrinal questions to "scoutmasters" and "church janitors" -- coupled with Paragon Defender's links to unofficial Mormon apologist Web sites!!! And when see female spokespeople being able to trump what generations of Lds general authorities said about the White Horse prophesy, well, all I can say is: We've entered a whole new era of Mormondom!!! [Note: Details of all of this is covered & documented in chart & explanations that follow below]
Who Trumps Who? Chart on Who is Really's Runnin' the Mormon Church!
[NOTE: Documentation for chart is found in linkages below the chart!]
| Movers & Shakers in the Mormon church: |
(What do they do?) |
Give me Examples [Links found below chart] |
| What do Lds "prophets" do? |
(They supposedly "prophesy") |
Joseph Smith & others on 'White Horse prophesy' |
| What do Lds "apostles" do? |
(They also @ times "prophesy") |
Orson Hyde, Jedediah Grant, Orson Whitney |
| How oft' don't Lds "prophets" prophesy? |
(@ "Bible-level" anyway: Most - Never!) |
5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 13th-->16th Lds "prophets" |
| What do Lds PR "spokespeople" do? |
(They "officialize" or "re-officialize" spin statements) |
Lds spokeswoman Kim Farah & Lds spokesman Dale Bills |
| What does Lds "First Presidency" do re: theology questions? |
(They delegate to local bishops & maybe even the local janitors!) |
Oct 24 2010 letter from Lds "First Presidency" circulated to be read worldwide |
| Who do FR Lds apologists sometimes look to as ultimate authorities? |
(PR spokespeople & Lds apologists) |
Freepers Restornu re: Kim Farah; Normandy re: Dale Bills; Paragon Defender re: Lds apologists |
| What do Lds apologists do? |
(They apologize for what their previous leaders say -- "apologize" as in the contemporary meaning - not the historical meaning) |
Dr. Gregory L. Smith going to extreme spin to explain why Lds leaders lied |
Links for Examples above:
Example #1: See Lds Church Issues Statement on Rammell [See post #12 by Reaganaut]
Example #2: See Thread: Text Of The Nauvoo Expositor That Got Joe And Hyrum Killed [See post #134 by MHGinTN for Lds general authority quotes]
Example #3: This is an "example" from silence! No "Bible-level" "prophecies" were issued by the 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th or 16th Lds "prophets!" Even when you add in the supposed "single" "revelations" made by the 4th, 6th, and 12th Lds "prophets," what exactly did those "revelations" entail? To summarize them: (1) "Cut back on the new extra wives" [Lds 4th "prophet"] (2) "I'm 92...my son and his wife have just died...I'm in ill health...and I had a dream about seeing dead people...go dunk more dead people!" [Lds 6th "prophet" -- what is now "D&C 138"] and (3) "Don't discriminate against blacks." [Lds "12th" "prophet"...What? It took a 1978 "revelation" for Mormons to finally comprehend that? Wow! Good thing to know that Mormons are "in" on the "cutting edge" of things...maybe Kimball got that "revelation" by cosmic snail mail or something]
Example #4a: See Lds Church Issues Statement on Rammell [See article statement by Lds spokeswoman Kim Farah -- showing proof once and for all that even an Lds female spokeswoman carries more weight than gobs of statements made by Lds "prophets" & general authorities over several generations! Compare Kim's statement to Reaganaut's quotes in post #12!]
Example #4b: See reference to Lds spokesman Dale Bills by this Lds poster: I’m just explaining that Jesus being married isn’t an official doctrine of the LDS church. This issue came up a few years ago when the Da Vinci Code was published. Dale Bills, a spokesman for the church said, “The belief that Christ was married has never been official church doctrine. It is neither sanctioned nor taught by the church. While it is true that a few church leaders in the mid-1800s expressed their opinions on the matter, it was not then, and is not now, church doctrine.” [Normandy, Lds poster, Dec. 2, 2010] Source: Lds PR Spokesman are the True 'Final Filters' of the Mormon Church [Note how FREEPER Lds poster Normandy cites Lds spokesman Dale Bills in post #139 as having the "final word"]
Examples #5: See Quit pestering us, church leaders tell membership in letter and Kirby: Wrestling with doctrine no match for me
Example #6a: (Restornu, thread poster of Lds Church Issues Statement on Rammell )
Example #6b: (Normandy, poster Lds PR Spokesman are the True 'Final Filters' of the Mormon Church )
Example #6c: (Paragon Defender w/his legion of 2010 spam linkage posts)
Example #7: Lds apologist Gregory L. Smith: Polygamy, Prophets, and Prevarication
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.
Some of them claim being some sort of special witness to you as being supposedly former Mormons. So someone who is an ex-member of any organization would never have an axe to grind or have reason to try to justify their actions by any means? Perhaps not but perhaps so. The LDS Church gains members from other denominations as well as others faiths all the time. This doesn't make them an expert on anything and you certainly won't hear them attacking their forner Church.
Frequently 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 or answer 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? They often state that these sites provide no answer. They just don't want you looking. It is as simple as that.
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.
BTW, what I didn't mention in the chart re: exactly
what those Lds "apostles" like Orson Hyde, Jedediah Grant, and Orson Whitney were "revelating" about -- was the Mormon "revelation" that Jesus was married!
If you look for MHGinTN's name being referenced in post #2, you'll see the link where he cited Hyde & Grant in this regard.
That's where Lds poster Normandy stepped in -- and rather than let Lds apostles speak for themselves -- Normandy cited Lds spokesman Dale Bills has having the final filtered authoritative response!
Could you imagine the apostle Paul making a few statements on some key theological point...and then enters off of stage left, a man-in-a-tie with an ID badge bumping the apostle out of the way and saying, "Excuse me, what Paul really meant was..." -- and the WHOLE of the church listens to the PR dude vs. Paul as to what's authoritative?
Well, that's the Morg -- the Mormon Corporate Org -- in a nutshell!