Posted on 02/15/2011 12:07:41 PM PST by Colofornian
SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) Amid the prospect of presidential runs by Jon Huntsman Jr. and Mitt Romney, reporters are bombarding the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with calls about the potential candidates and their Mormon faith.
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The novelty of two high-profile Mormons possibly competing for the nations highest office guarantees the 14 million-member faith a place in the national spotlight. But experts are divided about whether that would help or hurt the church and how much of a factor Mormonism would be in either potential campaign.
In the long run, it would be good for the church, said David Campbell, a political scientist at the University Notre Dame and a Mormon.
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Romneys first run at the White House did not change attitudes toward Mormons, either among those who liked him or didnt, Campbell said. Attitudes about Mormonism were fixed.
John Green, an expert in religion and politics at the University of Akron in Ohio, agreed.
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Mormonism continues to be among the least popular religions in America, Green said, and white evangelical Protestantsa force in the GOPview the faiths doctrines with suspicion and its missionaries as competitors for converts.
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Kelly Patterson, a Brigham Young University political scientist, is more optimistic about his church and possible Mormon candidates.
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Politicians such as Romney can be very adaptive, he said...
(Excerpt) Read more at religionnews.com ...
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 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,
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).
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If these Political “scientists”...don’t realize the Left will crush the mormonism of each of these guys...they aren’t thinking..or they are leftists themselves.
And I will bet that MOST of them still VOTED for him!
And what is Jesus of Nazareth (known popularly as the Christ) to Judism?
Did SOMEone say BLACK???
The first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren will be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam. Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings.
This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another curse is pronounced upon the same race--that they should be the 'servant of servants', and they will be, until that curse is removed."
Brigham Young - President and second 'Prophet' of the Mormon Church, 1844-1877- Extract from Journal of Discourses.
Here are two examples from their 'other testament', the Book of Mormon.
2 Nephi 5: 21 'And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people, the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.'
Alma 3: 6 'And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren, who consisted of Nephi, Jacob and Joseph, and Sam, who were just and holy men.'
August 27, 1954 in an address at Brigham Young University (BYU), Mormon Elder, Mark E Peterson, in speaking to a convention of teachers of religion at the college level, said: "The discussion on civil rights, especially over the last 20 years, has drawn some very sharp lines. It has blinded the thinking of some of our own people, I believe. They have allowed their political affiliations to color their thinking to some extent.I think I have read enough to give you an idea of what the Negro is after." "He is not just seeking the opportunity of sitting down in a cafe where white people eat. He isn't just trying to ride on the same streetcar or the same Pullman car with white people. It isn't that he just desires to go to the same theater as the white people. From this, and other interviews I have read, it appears that the Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage." "That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away, nor must we feel so sorry for Negroes that we will open our arms and embrace them with everything we have. Remember the little statement that we used to say about sin, 'First we pity, then endure, then embrace'...." (Rosa Parks would have probably told Petersen under which wheel of the bus he should go sit.)
1967, (then) Mormon President Ezra Taft Benson said, "The Communist program for revolution in America has been in progress for many years and is far advanced. First of all, we must not place the blame upon Negroes. They are merely the unfortunate group that has been selected by professional Communist agitators to be used as the primary source of cannon fodder."
We are told that on June 8, 1978, it was 'revealed' to the then president, Spencer Kimball, that people of color could now gain entry into the priesthood. According to the church, Kimball spent many long hours petitioning God, begging him to give worthy black people the priesthood. God finally relented.
Sometime before the 'revelation' came to chief 'Prophet' Spencer Kimball in June 1978, General Authority, Bruce R McConkie had said:
"The Blacks are denied the Priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty.
The Negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain blessings are concerned, particularly the priesthood and the temple blessings that flow there from, but this inequality is not of man's origin, it is the Lord's doings."
(Mormon Doctrine, pp. 526-527).
When Mormon 'Apostle' Mark E Petersen spoke on 'Race Problems- As they affect the Church' at the BYU campus in 1954, the following was also said:
"...if the negro accepts the gospel with real, sincere faith, and is really converted, to give him the blessings of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get celestial glory."
When Mormon 'Prophet' and second President of the Church, Brigham Young, spoke in 1863 the following was also said:
"Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God is death on the spot. This will always be so."
(Journal of Discourses, Vo. 10, p. 110)
Bingo!
And here Blasater's used the line how many times now?
All it took was one little Elsie pin to pop Blasater's over-inflated non-sequitor analogy.
I will mock the magic underwear. Hopefully they don’t get the nomination, so the media won’t be mocking our candidate in the fall of 2012 for that.
Why would anyone be a follower of Islam?
I am the light of the world; he who fallows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12
I am the gate; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. John 10:9
I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. John 10:11
I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies. John 11:25
I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me. John 14:6
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. John 15:1
Truly, Truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am. John 8:58.
Expose.
http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s07e12-all-about-the-mormons
here’s a link to the south park mormon episode.
OK just for you...
I cant imagine anything more evil than polygamy...Willard Mitt Romney
To keep it simple, not a messiah.
You quoting the Greek Testament to me is like Mormons quoting the Book of Mormon to you.
You are both in error.
In the Bible where God said polygamy is wickedness.. and put both evil sins on the same line... Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10
and in the Bible where God condemned polygamy and never mentioned homosexuality...
The Ten Commandments...
Thou shalt not commit adultery Exodus 20:14
PS I love the Christian Bible
I prefer to use the Word of God and what He has to say about any subject...
Wow! Truthfreedom your math is distorted. Polygamy = FEWER husbands. Have you ever pondered China's "sociology" -- where they abort females & commit female infanticide [happens in India, too]...resulting in millions of men who have no hope of getting married? What about India, where it compounds of the problem of child prostitution? Girls who are kept in cages like animals?
Also, your base division is wrong. You are dividing the # of children by the # of fathers. While Brigham Young wasn't your "average" polygamist, the fact was he had 55 wives and 57 children. You need to divide the # of children by the # of moms -- in this case it barely came out to over 1 child per wife. (Even subtracting those wives he married who weren't of childbearing age didn't make it up to even 2 children per mom).
So here you think with a 57-baby family, you are adding to rampant pop growth -- when it fact Brigham Young lowered the child-bearing rate of his wives compared to other women of that era!
Policy-wise, you also apparently haven't investigated the socio-legality & its cultural consequences. Go check out Hildale, UT, & Colorado City, AZ, where most of these extra wives are on welfare as "single" women.
Gay Marriage is extinctionary. If everyone did that, there would be no humans in 120 years.
Well, if China goes on long enough killing off their next generation of female babies, guess what? They'll start raiding other countries for females, perhaps even declaring war for that very purpose.
A good public policy argument can be made in favor of Polygamy. Cant be done for gay marriage.
Polygamy leading to marriageless men is a good thing? Are you kidding? George Gilder called single men "barbarians." Look @ all or almost all of the worst social pathologies & who are behind them? (Single men)
Hey it is good to remind you guys now and then as well as new thread people. non-sequitur pftftft. It is an exact analogy. You make a man into god. Mormons make man into a god. The result is the same. Both are heretical.
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