Posted on 01/11/2012 11:06:16 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Every Mormon I know has been watching Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign with close interest because of the kinship we feel with him. And, for his part, Romney has used Mormon social and business networks to enlist bundlers, donors, and volunteers. Those networks may play a role in key campaign states like Nevada. But it would be a mistake to believe that all Mormons plan to vote for Romney this fall. Some Mormon conservatives feel strongly about Ron Paul’s economic message, and a substantial minority of us-about 15 to 20 percent--are Democrats and will vote for Barack Obama this November.
However we vote and whatever happens to Mitt Romney, Mormons across the political spectrum are riveted by the kind of attention our faith is getting in the national media. Mormons know that our religion seems exotic and even esoteric, and we chuckle when we compare sensationalistic media depictions of Mormonism to our everyday lives. Surveys show that most Americans still have little to no understanding of what Mormons believe. Mormon habits of social insularity may inadvertently contribute to this understanding: like many religious minorities, LDS people often prefer to socialize and marry within our own communities.
But 2012 will challenge Latter-day Saints to retool their relationship to the American public and public scrutiny. Demand for information about Romney and his background will build as he marches towards the GOP nomination. Certainly there will be thoughtful, in-depth reporting on Mormon history, belief, and culture. Many Mormons are also nervous that media outlets will try to “expose” LDS temple ceremonies that the community honors in private....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
94%+ of mormons voted for Romney
49% of (so called evangelicals) voted for Romney.
All the (so called evangelicals) I know are not voting for Romney because he is a liberal.
pro-abortion
pro-homosexual agenda
anti-gun
(Hey you know his liberal list of positions, why are you denying it?)
The real question is why would a so called group of conservatives (lds) vote for this liberal.
(We all know the answer, lds trumps everything else.)
It always has and always will, to a tune of 94%+.
Well lets see, you are a Mormon who supports Romney, I am an Evangelical who will never vote for Romney...
That sample gives us 100%.
The Mormons were founded on polygamy, and many of their branch offs still practice that. That's going to be another problem for them to face. The liberals will love it because after gay marriages will come polygamy and other forms of perversions.
~ Wilford Woodruff, 4th LDS President
I don't know if being a HOMOSEXUAL will get you EXCOMMUNICATED though.
She DOES NOT represent the LDS church. This is clear if you know what LDS issues she also campaigns for:
Despite clearly not representing SLC, she's picked to speak for Mormons. From her website:
[Joanna Brooks} has also been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, BBC’s Americana, Interfaith Voices, and Radio West. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Huffington Post, the Michigan Quarterly Review, and Killing the Buddha, and she has been utilized as a source on contemporary Mormonism by the New York Times, Reuters, Salt Lake Tribune, Washington Post, Salon, BBC Sky News, New America Media, Pittsburgh Gazette-Post, The Tennessean, Headline News Network, Fox News, the Boston Globe, Newsweek, and the Deseret News.
Jeff? Saundra? Would you say Joanna speaks for you and the LDS Church? She's a long-time promoter of LGBT equality in the LDS Church. People are excommunicated for that, aren't they? I've read "no,' but Egnew, Pingree, Fales? Others?
One of the September Six, Maxine Hanks, was excommunicated for promoting feminism in the LDS church back in 1993. Wasn't she?
There's a lot of pressure to tithe. And you can't get or keep your Temple Recommend unless you tithe; and you can't enter the Celestial Kingdom (the highest of the three levels of heaven) without the Temple Recommend and tithing.
And the church invests in shopping malls, beef cattle ranches, radio stations and many business ventures. Almost all members of the First Presidency are very successful businessmen.
And it's clergy (under the First Presidency) are unpaid, and members are "called" to clean the toilets and such.
One criticism of the church is that the books are not open, even to members, and that the LDS church spends almost nothing on charitable giving other than aid to other Mormons. According to some LDS-issued reports, the church gave $750 million in aid over 22 years (the church is estimated to be worth about $80 billion). It's spent more that four times that much building the City Creek Mall in SLC. So the mall cost four times as much as the church spent on charitable spending in 22 years.
Cynics would also mention that early wealth of the church came from the Fancher wagon train in 1857. One of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest, wagon trains to head west.
Never heard of her.
To my knowledge, she has not been asked by, or called by the Church to be any kind of spokes person, and she does not hold any regional or church wide position.
I do not know if she is even a member.
She certainly does not speak for me.
As to homosexuals in the church, they are counciled by their bishop and leadership to not commit fornication or any other sexual sin, they are counciled to adopt normal sexual relations within the bounds of matrimony and cannot be “married” in any kind of homosexual ceremony within the church.
If they continue openly in such a life style, ultimately a church court will be held and they can be disfellowshipped or ex-communicated depending on exactly what they are doing and what their attitude is about it.
If they have these inclinations, but live a life of cellibacy, then they can be active and received in full fellowship as long as they do not try and convince others that such a life style is “ok”, as long as they do not actively live or promote it.
The same would be said for someone committing fornication with persons of the opposite sex, or adultry...they would receive similar council and similar reaction/council/discipline from the church.
Actaully having a religious group campaign for a candidate is pretty unheard of.
Wonder who is funding these commercials?
Is it legal?
When the PROPHET speaks; the thinking has been done.
But LOOK at all the good our help to Haiti has generated!
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700009383/LDS-Church-sending-temporary-housing-kits-to-Haiti.html
--MormonDude( http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/haiti-years-half-million-camps-15315367 )
Oh?
I had assumed you were talking about the "I am a MORMON" commercials...
http://mormon.org/people/
Peek at Journal of Discourses, Vol 3, P38, P39, P40. GG gramps Parley was pretty plain about who he favored. Mahometanism (sp?) hands down!
To my knowledge, she has not been asked by, or called by the Church to be any kind of spokes person, and she does not hold any regional or church wide position.
She certainly does not speak for me.
Thank you, Jeff. She also denies that LDS teach the doctrine of exaltation to the Celestial Kingdom.
Jeff, well.
I have two homosexual lds cousins.
One, the female was called out in the middle of ward and asked to leave that minute and excommunicated nearly immediately.(Although they (lds) still coming around asking for “tithes” every year.)
The other a male, lives with his partner goes to ward and participate in all the lds activities as though they are just another couple.
My college roommate married a mormon guy after she converted to mormonISM. They were even married in the temple.
One day she told me they were getting a divorce because she came home from work to find him in bed with another man.
She was asked to leave the ward and never mention what had happened. About a year later she told me that her ex-husband was remarrying and in the temple to boot.
I realize what you posted is the party line, however it is not the reality of lds and how they actually deal with these issues.
Look, I have been an active member of the LDS Church for 41 uears. I have lived in probably 15 different wards and visited many, many more.
I am sorry for the experiences you describe, but having served in Bishoprics, and numerous other callings, and having myself been all over the country attending various wards, what I told you is not just the “party line”...it is the way it works in the vast, vast majority of cases.
No one is trying to “trick” or “fool” anyone.
I am sorry you and yours had different experiences, but what you describe is a very small minority, and I have never witnessed anything like it, or heard of the types of abuse and misdirection you speak of.
I’m not saying it never happens...any organization composed of millions of people will have folks, even who get into leadership, who do wrong.
Understood. Yet she's speaking as @askmormongirl on Twitter enough, expressing the Mormon view on politics, that Politico recognizes her with with a Top 50 Politicos award. And her schtick is "this is what ordinary Mormons really believe" (hence the MormonGirl and AskMormonGirl) on NPR, BBC, Washington Post, Huffington Post, New York Times, Reuters, Washington Post, Salon, Headline News Network, Fox News, the Boston Globe, and Newsweek.
Isn't she just a one-woman MormonVoices.org? MV specifically says it doesn't speak for the LDS Church, yet it purports to tell the media what the LDS Church and Mormons really believe. And it invites ordinary Mormons to join and participate.
Am I missing something? To your knowledge, has MormonVoices been asked by, or called by the LDS Church to be any kind of spokesperson? Or they loose cannons like she is or does somebody or something rein them in?
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