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Posted on 05/08/2008 5:04:47 PM PDT by Grig
I am posting this on behalf of many LDS freepers. They will post their own 'signature' to this in the comments below. --- Some of you have noticed lately a lot of LDS (ie: Mormon) threads here on FR. I'm going to tell you why.
For many years there have been several active LDS freepers here. We post to all the forums on relevant issues, and were happy to have a site where conservative values were so openly welcomed.
Those conservative values include faith in God, and freedom of religion. We fully respect the rights of all posters to express their opinions and views on religious matters, even when people choose to use those rights to express criticism of our own faith. We also support the ideas embodied in FR rules against religion bashing. There is no need for hostility and there should be no room for bigotry on FR. Every religion has it's miracles and mysteries. Every faith has things in it that are not or can not be proven, and things that run contrary to what secular science would have us believe. Someone mature and confident in their own faith generally doesn't feel the need to belittle the faith of others.
We have, to the best of our ability, conducted ourselves with civility and dignity. We do not feel that that respect has been returned by some posters (putting it mildly).
When Mormon missionaries were murdered, the moderators were kept busy pulling jubilant posts off the thread. When Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her home, we contended for months with posters who appeared to be motivated by religious bigotry doing all they could to smear the family and accuse the father. Several posters openly admitted their religious motivation in opposing Mitt Romney and confessed that no matter how conservative any Mormon was, they would never vote for one for President of the USA. When the Pope died, I don't think any Mormon poster posted anything unkind, yet the thread about the passing of our President recently needed many comments removed.
Nearly every thread having any connection with Mormons, or Utah winds up being hijacked by anti-Mormon activists who copy and paste the same false accusations over and over even when it has been clearly and factually pointed out to them on multiple occasions that they are bearing false witness against our faith. Everything possible is done by these activists to make FR a hostile place for Mormons, and for at least some of them, bashing Mormonism is all they do here. Their most recent project is trying to blur the fact that the polygamous FLDS is a separate and distinct religion from ours, just as Lutherans are a separate and distinct religion from Catholicism.
In our opinion, such poster do a great disservice to FR and to their fellow freepers by spreading disinformation and promoting hostility towards a people known for walking the walk of conservative values.
Why the moderators here don't see the behavior of these anti-Mormon activists as religion bashing is a mystery to us, but it is the moderators call to make and we respect their right to do so. That doesn't mean we have to be passive however. We have all spent many hours refuting the accusations leveled at our faith, but these wind up buried deep in a flood of comments, effectively shouting us down.
Recently some of us have decided to take a more proactive approach. Rather than try to wrestle the pig into taking a bath, we are just going to hose it down. We will actively define our faith here rather than just respond to accusations.
So expect to see lots of Mormon threads, now and for as long as we see fit to keep posting them (although probably not as many as there are Catholic threads). They will be about our basic doctrines and responses to common accusations. If you want to know what our faith is about, read the articles we post. We will post them as open threads and I encourage you to compare the difference in tone and spirit between what we post and what our critics say.
I suspect you are a real joy to live with.
I gotta hand it to you: your tenacity is (almost) admirable. Once you get an idea in your head, you want to beat us all with it. Every post of yours that I have read has made reference to the “pig.”
Are you always so cranky? Or just miserably stubborn?
I dunno. I think I’ll have to pretend you don’t exist and just ignore your ugly words.
But, that takes a big person.
Yup....he could have meant sheep, or kittens, or puppies......same as pigs. Mmmm hmmmmm.
As I stated earlier in the post, there is NOTHING wrong with NOT voting for someone because of their religion.
If a voter wants to lay the Crusades of the Middle ages at the feet of a Christian candidate and vote against them on THAT alone, that’s fine. It’s also PERFECTLY FINE for them to voice their opinion and attempt to sway others to vote the same way.
You have the right to be disgusted as well, but the fact remains that for MANY, MANY denominations Mormonism is a cult, the doctrinal differences are TOO wide for reconciliation with MOST churches. It’s a natural byproduct of religion.
Granted, Mormons often vote for candidates of other religions. But that’s mainly because, outside of Utah and a few pockets in the west, there are very few Mormons involved in politics. HOWEVER that river goes both ways, Non-Mormons of any stripe are at a disadvantage in a district heavily populated by Mormons when one is on the ticket.
IMO, the Mormon Freepers are doing themselves a great disservice by playing the anti-mormon bigot card. The simple fact is that NO ONE can run for office and have ANY expectation that every peccadillo, private matter, and personal oddity to not be towed into the open and flaunted for political gain of their opponent. No one likes it, but in reality, Dirty Politics, is the only part where real TRUTHS come to the surface. Left up to the individual candidate alone they would all be seen as the Second Coming of Christ Himself if that is what would get them elected.
In short, GET OVER IT and live your lives as you see fit. If you want to proselytize in public, which FR is, you have to expect disagreement of varying types. I for one, want every subject argued from every point of view so I can make a decision from ALL available data. To shut out and ban points of view because you disagree with them is the opposite of what a FORUM is. If you want sunshine piped up your butt 24/7 spend time somewhere else.
I have many close family members who are Mormon, and yes, they can be nice people, but they can be un-nice people, and they can sin -and do- like all human beings, and they can not want to sin because they are sincere, and they can struggle with the fact that they do, or deny to themselves that they do.
The ones caught in their carnal sins, whom I know, were ousted, at least in the past, as a friend of mine was, when she was PG as a teen, and not supported in the Church -which grieved her to bitterness and she left the Church; but her Mormon boyfriend was not, and he remains today as a respected Mormon in our community [he teaches in the HS, the child is grown and he did support her].
I have a Mormon niece who is married to a Mormon man. They both do drugs, but I do not think it is known in their Church, or else I would hope that they would not be tolerated to claim the name.
I have a Mormon niece [sister to the above] who got PG [on purpose, to have a child because she was told she must have a hysterectomy, and she wanted children] by her Mormon boyfriend [a cousin through her own adoption into the family], but she did not marry him, and she is a Mormon, so I do not know if the differences in the two cases are because of parts of the country they live in. One is WA, and the niece is FLA. The child is now 5, and the wedding is planned this year, in the Mormon Church. That nieces mother has long been a born again in Christ Believer, and her two sons are both also born again in Christ and walk with the LORD. My brother, the father of this family, is now a confessing born again in Christ Believer, since miracles of deliverance from complications of fatal diseases in his body began, over two years ago. He was a baptized Mormon, but he was not practicing. He is a Vietnam vet, a patriot, and had many diseases because of agent orange. His lungs, heart kidneys, and liver are diseased -and he has diabetes.
They all but had his funeral arrangements made when my sis began serious prayers of intercession for him, and several of us in the family joined in.
He was taken off oxygen after that and the DR admitted that it was a miracle, as he was never to be off oxygen after they began it for him. He was on it four months. He will not have to have dialysis, and now they say his kidneys are functioning and he will not. He is not cured of all his diseases, but he has had his life miraculously extended, and he gives all the praise to Jesus Christ, and has been born again in Christ for almost two years, and attends Church with his born again in Christ son -when he can get there.
.
“we are nice because we are Mormon” does not cut it. On examination, it is a claim, is it not, of superiority?.
Shows how little you really DO know.
Bears repeating and a HUGH ROTFL!
The definition of “god’ is the wall of separation between born again in Christ Believers and all other people’s religions. Who is the “god” you worship?
That is the difference separating those who have been born again in Christ from all other followers of all other religions.
Though there is an ecummenical movement that wants all gods to be the same and equal, it is not Bible doctrine to state such, and the definition of God, who is One and alone, One eternal Spirit/Life/Breath, existing in three Persons, and one and only One Similitude Seen, follows the coming into His knowledge by being born into His One Living Spirit.
The Bible is filled with miracles done by people following gods of pretensions and deceits, who do those miracles by the aid of demons, who have much power, and whose job it is is to seduce those who will not receive the love of the Truth. The conversions of many people to many gods other than the One True YHWH is included within the pages of the Bible -and the results of those deceptions is laid out in plain terms.
The miracles of the magicians at Pharaohs court were done by the powers they falsely followed and exalted and sang songs of glory to. One can get the words to those ancient hymns online, that the Egyptians sang to their gods. They sound the same as the hymns Believers sing to the One True God, who is YHWH and who is come in flesh as Redeemer/Kinsman to Adamkind, and who alone gets the Glory and gives the Glory to His adopted sons, in the regeneration of all things.
To whosoever will receive Him, He becomes the One True God of their adoration and praise.
Thanks for standing up for us and our faith, Grig. Here’s my signature:
rscully
:-)
You mention that "The child is now 5, and the wedding is planned this year, in the Mormon Church." Does this mean your niece is planning a mormon temple wedding? If so, are you are aware that most, if not all, of your niece's family will be excluded from attending the wedding ceremony?
No, no temple.
Of all my Mormon relatives I have only one nephew and his wife, and my brother’s widow and her husband, who are “temple worthy”.
“I actually agree with the Mormons on some aspects of church life. I think they do those things better than most Protestant churchs. It’s just simply a better system.”
All cults have a “system” or they wouldn’t last long. Hare Krishnah’s and the Jehovah’s Witnesses also have a system to hold on to their followers.
It is largely the “system” that many of these ex-Mormons are describing for us, you don’t hear many ex-Methodists having much to say about how they simply drifted into another church.
POST OF THE YEAR!
Thanks for the ping grey. Shout it from the rooftops!
I’m sure your niece will have a beautiful wedding, and I’ll bet the 5-year-old will be the flower girl.
The absurdity of your assertion is instantly revealed when you but look at yourself ... you are not a jew yet you can be ‘as a son of Abraham’ by spiritual adoption through the Grace of God in Christ. THAT makes you one of the lost sheep to be brought into the sheepfold, seven. Joe Smith was not a Jew, not a bloodline descendant of Abraham, yet you would claim he was chosen as an apostle and the Gospel of Jesus Christ (by the Spirit of Him) IS Jesus speaking to you to offer deliverance. Priro to His crucifixion, He was come only to the House of Israel. After His resurrection and Ascension He has been coming to the lost sheep like you and me.
Yep, the parents of those sweet-cheeked mormon boys have to pay for their two-year missions out of their own pockets.
"Why is payment for missions sent to the LDS Church in Utah?"
This was done to streamline payments to missionaries and for federal tax purposes as well. When the payment was sent directly to each missionary, at times it was difficult to assure the receipt of the money depending on where the missionary was. Also, a missionary is encouraged to save for his or her own mission. That was difficult before the current arrangement when the prospective missionary had no idea where he or she was going and how much it would cost.
Also, the family could not receive any tax benefit in the form of a charitable deduction since the money was sent directly to a person, not a charitable organization. Under the current payment process, the payment is sent to the church (which is a qualified charitable organization) to distribute. This not only streamlines payment, but allows the family to receive the tax benefit.
Pretty cool system...and then the LDS church can include those payments to missionaries as part of their famed "charitable contributions" in their PR propaganda.
Reality check bounce?
OK. Show me. Admit you were wrong.
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