In all the extensive media coverage of Mitt Romney... not a word have I seen about the secrets of Mormonism, the secrets of Romney's life-long beliefs and practices...

And why does Romney (and his church) want to keep people from knowing those secrets? Most Mormons will claim that they are not "secret," but merely..."sacred"...Mormons hold any number of other aspects...to be "sacred," and yet they don't hesitate to discuss them (for example: baptism, conferring the gift of the Holy Ghost, ordination to the priesthood, etc.)...

Part of the endowment ritual instructs the Mormons in the four "signs" and "tokens" of the Mormon priesthood. Each also has a "name" (or password)...The purpose of the signs and tokens, according to Mormon Prophet Brigham Young, is that they will be needed to pass the angels guarding the gates of heaven. The tokens are various handshakes, copied largely from the Masonic initiation rites of the 1830s, when church founder Joseph Smith was initiated into Freemasonry...

So Mitt Romney, and all other righteous Mormons, can be confident that they know the secret passwords and secret handshakes to get into heaven. Do you see why Romney and his church are reluctant for "unworthy" people (the rest of us, including Mrs. Romney's parents) to know about this?...

The actions that were going to guarantee my entrance at the gates...would have nothing to do with love or charity or the other teachings of Christ...I hadn't heard a single one of those words spoken today, the most primary day of religious instruction in my entire life. No, I was going to burst into heaven on the basis of mumbo-jumbo...Did all the white-suited glorifiers in the room unquestioningly accept a ritual of nutty gestures from the pseudo-occult as a sacrament?...

From the article: In all the extensive media coverage of Mitt Romney...not a word have I seen about the secrets of Mormonism, the secrets of Romney's life-long beliefs and practices...And why does Romney (and his church) want to keep people from knowing those secrets? Most Mormons will claim that they are not "secret," but merely..."sacred" ...Mormons hold any number of other aspects...to be "sacred," and yet they don't hesitate to discuss them (for example: baptism, conferring the gift of the Holy Ghost, ordination to the priesthood, etc.)...I am going reveal those secrets...

Well, one of the criteria of a "cult" is this one:

EVERY COERCIVE religious group harbors one telltale trait: UNTOWARD SECRECY.

Well what is secreted away by Mormon leaders & many grassroots Mormons?

(1) Click on the link and read the full Yahoo article by ex-Mormon Richard Packham;
(2) For more on bizarre temple oaths as depicted by Packham, see: Why the need for secret death oaths in the LDS Temple Endowment Ceremony? [Secretive Mormon church]
(3) Also, see Web headlines like: Mormonism's Real Secret Doctrine

Of course, when you have these kind of bizarre beliefs, mum's the word.

I've said before on FREEPER posts that when it comes to Mormonism...
Secret, secret, secret
Fulness of the gospel NOT in the Book of Mormon. Secret to prospects - they'd look in vain for the primary Mormon teachings to be taught there.
Original "old plates" Joseph supposedly found. Secreted away.
The founder, Joseph not telling wife Emma about women he had affairs with (Fanny & others) 1831 & beyond. Secret.
Mormons not putting the polygamy doctrine in writing until the 1850s. Secret.
Bloody victims' clothes & orphans from Mountain Meadows Massacre, 1857. Secret for two years.
Mountain Meadows Massacre culprits. Conspired amongst each other to never tell. Secret.
Mormonism openly false 19th century teachings like Adam-is-god and blood atonement. Unacknowledged as former teachings. They wish these were a secret.
Mormon polygamists hiding out from the feds in 1880s. Secret hideaways.
Lds Plural marriages 1890-1910. Secret.

Still today:
Lds temple ceremonies. Secret.
Lds weddings in temples. Secret.
Secret underwear power. Very secret.
Mormons believe thousands of deceased Mormons practicing polygamy in another realm. "Open" Secret.
History not "faith promoting" to Lds church and former leaders. Tendency to tuck away. Secreted away.
fLDS families -- the "living daguerreotype" of what 19th century Mainstream Mormon families were often like -- tucked away in out-of-the-way communities. Treated like the crazy aunt to lock away in the basement closet.

No wonder a BYU history prof wrote a book, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View. "Magic" is a sub-category of the occult. And what does the word "occult" mean? (Yup, Latin for "hidden" -- as in secret).

[Note how BYU even conceded the occultic worldview Mormon foundational premise of Quinn's book here: BYU Review of Early Mormonism and the Magic World View]

From the excerpted article: Part of the endowment ritual instructs the Mormons in the four "signs" and "tokens" of the Mormon priesthood. Each also has a "name" (or password)...The purpose of the signs and tokens, according to Mormon Prophet Brigham Young, is that they will be needed to pass the angels guarding the gates of heaven. The tokens are various handshakes, copied largely from the Masonic initiation rites of the 1830s, when church founder Joseph Smith was initiated into Freemasonry...

Sorry...but imported Freemasonry and 'mumbo-jumbo' isn't "Christianity." More on this:

From the article: So Mitt Romney, and all other righteous Mormons, can be confident that they know the secret passwords and secret handshakes to get into heaven. Do you see why Romney and his church are reluctant for "unworthy" people (the rest of us, including Mrs. Romney's parents) to know about this?...The actions that were going to guarantee my entrance at the gates...would have nothing to do with love or charity or the other teachings of Christ...I hadn't heard a single one of those words spoken today, the most primary day of religious instruction in my entire life. No, I was going to burst into heaven on the basis of mumbo-jumbo...Did all the white-suited glorifiers in the room unquestioningly accept a ritual of nutty gestures from the pseudo-occult as a sacrament?...

This leads to my next post:

ANOTHER CRITERIA OF A CULT

Its doctrine need not be conventional—but it SHOULD BE KNOWABLE TO OUTSIDERS. Absent those qualities, an unorthodox religion can descend into something darker.

ANOTHER CRITERIA OF A CULT

Its doctrine need not be conventional—but it SHOULD BE KNOWABLE TO OUTSIDERS. Absent those qualities, an unorthodox religion can descend into something darker.

Well, did you know Mormonism claims...
...Never-married people can never live with Heavenly Father forever?
...That all people are as eternal as their god is -- that all started as an "intelligence" somewhere -- with no beginning? (see D&C 93:29,33)
...But then they ALSO teach each of us had a sort of spirit-babe beginning born to a goddess mom (or goddess harem) on Kolob?
...Brigham Young taught there are many earths and each earth has its redeemer (Jesus Christ cloned?)?
...All the worship in the universe doesn't go to a single God? (It's split up according to however many gods there are)
...The way you can discern a false spirit is by shaking their hand? (D&C 129)
...That the dead have regularly visited Mormons in Mormon temples?
...And that Mormons emphasize the dead visiting Mormons in Sunday School lessons, BYU genealogy courses, and even packet handouts-for-members prior to temple openings?
...It doesn't matter what kind of life you led on earth -- ALL of us, per Mormonism, are going to same "Spirit World" (initially) upon death?
...That a Mormon widow in good standing with the church, if she had more than one husband, can be sealed eternally to each and every husband she had on earth? (Thereby, if Mormons are right, becoming a polyanderer post-death...imagine all those men sleeping with the same woman!!!)
...That Joseph Smith's "prophet"-nephew taught that the way they received new wives in a late 19th-century polygamous marriage was for both man AND wife to go into the temple to receive another wife -- and that the "worthiness" of the already-existing wife was of import as well as the man!
...That the Mormon jesus will re-institute polygamy when he returns, per a Mormon "apostle"?

And if Mormonism wanted to make itself "knowable to outsiders," why are MANY key doctrines NOT to be found in the book they FIRST distribute to "contacts" they're trying to proselytize?

The Book of Mormon has ZILCHO content/teachings about all the "later" developments of Joseph Smith...such as...
* God is a lower-level god who god assigned the "god job" for the Kolob-Earth district
* He was a man who earned his way to godhood; therefore, you can, too
* Temples are for baptizing dead people -- which Mormons hear from time-to-time in those temples (necro-immersing & necromancy)
* Any kind of "pre-existence"
* 3 degrees of glory
* Hell isn't eternal -- damnation just means "damned up"
* Marriage & families are for eternity [imagine the Book of Mormon missing out on that one]
* Sealings & endowments & temple recommends & temple ritual language
* A mom-god or 2 or 3 or a harem of them

Anyway, no wonder there's "misunderstandings" of what Mormonism is! Here they do a bait-and-switch, asking people to pray about stuff that doesn't even record many of their primary teachings!!! It's downright deceptive.

Delacoert posted this: 21 facts everyone should know about Mormon teaching [Mormonism/Anti-Christian]

Let's review a sampling from that list...and as you read them, ask yourself: Are these readily "knowable to outsiders"? Or are they covered up close to the Mormon HQ's chest -- like the cult this author hints it to be!
2. Mormon goddesses will spend eternity in full submission to their god-husband.
3. Mormon's teach that women will give birth “forever and ever” to spirit-babies.
4. Mormon's teach men can have multiple wives in heaven—eternal polygamy. They intend to have many wives in heaven, carrying on multiple sex relations throughout eternity, until they have enough children to populate their own earth, so they can be "Heavenly Father" over their own planet!
6. American Indians are descendants of the wicked Lamanites, who were Israelites that God cursed with dark skin.
9. Mormons teach that they need 4 secret handshakes to get into the Celestial heaven.
10. Joseph Smith revealed that the actual Garden of Eden is in Jackson County, Missouri.
21. Mormons also teach that there is no salvation without Joseph Smith. They teach that Joseph Smith holds the keys to the Kingdom of God. They teach that Jesus' death on the cross only partially saves the believer. They also teach that people will stand before God, Jesus and Joseph Smith on Judgement Day.

Due to having to excerpt this article, I couldn't address the last eight paragraphs...where Packham asks some real relevant stewardship questions of Mitt Romney.

Let's just say I've tried to already address these in a chart I've posted numerous times...

Lds Leader	Chronological 'Prophet' or Fundamental # (or Other Title)	Overlap Areas: Could the President of the U.S. become a 'puppet' to an Lds 'Prophet?' (The Lds Prophets -- in their own words)
John Taylor	Lds 'Prophet' #3	“The Almighty has established this kingdom with order and laws and every thing pertaining thereto…[so] that when the nations shall be convulsed, we may stand forth as saviours…and finally redeem a ruined world, not only in a religious but in a political point of view.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 9, p. 342, April 13, 1862)
Orson Hyde	President of the Lds Quorum of the 12 Apostles for 28 years (1847-1875)	“What the world calls ‘Mormonism’ will rule every nation...God has decreed it, and his own right arm will accomplish it. This will make the heathen rage.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 53)
Heber J. Grant	Lds 'Prophet' #7	"Elder Marion G. Romney recalled the counsel of President Heber J. Grant: 'My boy, you always keep your eye on the President of the Church, and if he ever tells you to do anything, and it is wrong, and you do it, the Lord will bless you for it.' Then with a twinkle in his eye, he said, 'But you don't need to worry. The Lord will never let his mouthpiece lead the people astray'" (in Conference Report, Oct. 1960, p. 78)." Cited in Official Lds publication Search the Commandments: Melchizedek Priesthood Personal Study Guide, p. 209 (1984)
Harold B. Lee	Lds 'Prophet' #11	...President Harold B. Lee said: 'We must learn to give heed to the words and commandments that the Lord shall give through his prophet, '...as if from mine own mouth...(D&C 21:4-5)...You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may contradict your political views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life. But if you listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord himself..." Cited in official Lds publication Remember Me: Relief Society Personal Study Guide I, p. 27 (1989)
Spencer Kimball	Lds 'Prophet' #12	"President Spencer W. Kimball said: '...We deal with many things which are thought to be not so spiritual; but all things are spiritual with the Lord, and he expects us to listen, and to obey..." (In Conference Report, Apr. 1977, p. 8; or Ensign, May 1977, p. 7) Cited in official Lds publication Come, Follow Me: Melchizedek Priesthood Personal Study Guide 1983, p.12 (1983)
What about Marion G. Romney, cousin to Mitt's father?	Who was he in Lds hierarchy? (Title: 'President' - Top 3 of church as 2nd counselor to both #11 & #12 Lds 'prophets')	"Elder Neal A. Maxwell has said: 'Following the living prophets is something that must be done in all seasons and circumstances. We must be like President Marion G. Romney, who humbly said, '..I have never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional, and political life' (Conference Report, April 1941, p. 123). There are, or will be moments when prophetic declarations collide with our pride or our seeming personal interests...Do I believe in the living prophet even when he speaks on matters affecting me and my specialty directly? Or do I stop sustaining the prophet when his words fall in my territory? if the latter, the prophet is without honor in our country! (Things As They Really Are, p. 73). Cited in official Lds publication, Search the Commandments: Melchizedek Priesthood Personal Study Guide, pp. 275-276 (1984)
Ezra Taft Benson	Lds 'Prophet' #13	Benson speech given 2/26/80 @BYU. Summary: “…remember, if there is ever a conflict between earthly knowledge and the words of the prophet, you stand with the prophet…” (See excerpts re: 3 of 14 'fundamentals' below) Source: Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet
Benson (cont'd)	Fundamental #5	5. The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time. (My Q: Ya hear that Mitt Romney?)
Benson (cont'd)	Fundamental #9	9. The prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal* or spiritual.* (My Q: Still listening, Mitt?)
Benson (cont'd)	Fundamental #10	10. The prophet may advise on civic matters. (My Q: What say ye Mitt?)
B.H. Roberts	LDS Historian and Seventy. Note: Roberts was an elected Democratic Congressman from Utah in 1898 -- but was NEVER seated by Congress because of grass roots uproar vs. Roberts, who took a THIRD simultaneous wife in the early 1890s. Grass roots America collected 7 MILLION signatures on 28 banners and presented them to Congress...in pre-mass media 1800s!	“[T]he kingdom of God... is to be a POLITICAL INSTITUTION THAT SHALL HOLD SWAY OVER ALL THE EARTH; TO WHICH ALL OTHER GOVERNMENTS WILL BE SUBORDINATE AND BY WHICH THEY WILL BE DOMINATED.” The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo, 1900, p. 180
Mitt Romney as POTUS???	Aside from above prophetic impositions, why would Mitt not only honor what these 'prophets' have spoken, but what a future Lds 'prophet' may tell him to do?	The Law of Consecration Oath Mitt Romney has sworn in the Mormon temple (done before marriage/sealing in temple): "You and each of you covenant and promise before God, angels, and these witnesses at this altar, that you do accept the law of consecration as contained in this, the book of Doctrine and Covenants [he displays the book], in that you do consecrate yourselves, your time, talents, and EVERYTHING with which the Lord has blessed you, or WITH which he MAY bless you, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth and for the establishment of Zion." Source: What is an LDS Church/Mormon temple marriage/sealing? [Q: Please define 'Zion': The LDS PR Web site (lds.org) defines its primary meaning: "membership in the [LDS] church."]

Have any of these concerns ever been raised with Harry Reid? This is BS and has no place in any campaighn. I hope Romney loses but on the issues, not religion

As long as you've been consistent on this...which I doubt...
...I have yet to EVER find a FREEPER object to the FREEPER-posted religious rantings of Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright...
...Or the possibility that Obama is a Muslim...
...IOW, if what you say here was a true conviction -- which seems to be shared by many FREEPERS -- then we would have had DOZENS if not HUNDREDS of FREEPERS come onto those threads...especially in 2008...and scold the rest of us for actually having the gall to not keep religion "hermetically sealed..."
...But strangely...I've haven't seen those preached messages...
...Which tells me that FREEPERS like you tend to be two-faced on this...

May I suggest then...that anytime anybody raises Rev. Jeremiah Wright...
...or anytime anybody raises the possibility that Obama is a Muslim...
...that you wag your finger at them and tell them to keep religion out of it.

Because until I see that from FREEPERS, I'm going to continue to assume that hypocrisy rears its ugly head.

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