In Joseph Smith's day prominent Americans were disgusted with the creeds of Christendom. (excerpt)

[restornu]

In Joseph Smith's day some of the most prominent Americans were disgusted with the creeds of Christendom. Thomas Jefferson said:

I [Jefferson] am a real Christian, that is to say a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the preachers . . of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said or did.

They have compounded from the heathen mysteries a system beyond the comprehension of man of which Jesus, were he to return on earth, would not recognize one feature. . . . It is the speculations of crazy theologians which have made a Babel out of religion (Saul K. Padover, Thomas Jefferson on Democracy, 1939, pp. 122-123).

Writing to S. Hales in 1818, Jefferson wrote: "The truth is that Calvinism has introduced into the Christian religion more new absurdities than its leaders had purged it of old ones" (Ibid., p. 219).

On Jefferson's monument in Washington, D.C., is inscribed: "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." If his complete quotation were on the monument it would bring out the fact that Jefferson was speaking against the dergy of his day (Ibid., p. 119).

Benjamin Franklin, replying to a letter from Ezra Styles, president of Yale, said shortly before his death:

As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left it to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes (Carl Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin, 1941, p. 777).

The first great work expressing the deistic feeling in America was Thomas Paine's Age of Reason, considered to have generated the greatest stir of any book of its day. It made clear that Paine was not an atheist as some claimed, but a deist because of the tyranny and bigotry he found in the existing churches (Thomas Paine, Age of Reason, 1793, p. 287).

Speaking of the period in America between 1670 and 1830, renowned theologian Paul Tillich has said, "First among the educated classes, then increasingly in the mass of industrial workers, religion lost its 'immediacy,' and it ceased to offer an unquestioned sense of direction and relevance to human living" (Roland N. Stromberg, Religious Liberalism, 1954, p. 1).

Carlyle has said of the Colonial Period: "An age fallen languid and destitute of faith and terrified of skepticism" (Ibid., p. ix).

Of this time Carl L. Becker has said, "What we have to realize is that in those years God was on trial" (Ibid., p. 1).

On another occasion, Thomas Jefferson said:

The impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, have established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the earth (Peter H. Odegard, Religion and Politics, 1960, p. 110).

It is also true that in Colonial America only about 5 percent of the population belonged to any church and that those who did come to America for religious reasons did not come here initially to seek freedom of religion except for themselves. This is certainly an indictment against religion in Joseph Smith's day.

Peter Odegard also maintains this position:

Nowhere in the old world at the beginning of American colonization was there anything like religious toleration. . . . It is sad but not surprising to recall that even the religious dissenters who found refuge in America were, with notable exceptions, no more disposed toward toleration than the oppressors of the old world Obid., p. 9).

Historian William Warren Sweet says, "The rise of an intense anticlericalism was another cause of opposition to the churches." Further he relates: "The United States began as a free and independent nation with organized religion at a low ebb" (William Warren Sweet, Religion in the Development of American Culture, 1952, p. 92.).

[Godzilla]

the moon is made of green cheese

[ckilmer]

people generally say that mormons have a genius for organization.

People said that Mussolini made the trains run on time.

..................

I don’t think it fair to compare mormons to Mussolini. Mormons are fine people. and good neighbors.

[Elsie]

It seems what you’re trying to do is overwhelm me with quotes, trying to prove something I already know.

YOU might know it; but OTHERS sure do not exhibit that they do.

[Elsie]

I don’t think it fair to compare mormons to Mussolini.

I was comparing what PEOPLE say...

Are you trying to say that PEOPLE, on a whole, do NOT know what they are talking about?

[Monkey Face]

True. But this is a case of me knowing what you want me to know. And since I can’t control “others,” I’m a firm believer in catching more people with cinnamon rolls than vinegar and baking soda... ;o]

[stfassisi]

Clem-”Folks like YOU are the reason so many of our founders, and the American people in general, mistrusted Catholics as un-American statists.”

The founding fathers had no idea what True freedom actually means. True freedom is freedom from error that leads to truth and freedom from sinfulness.True freedom is not the right to do whatever one pleases

You know,”The Truth shall set you free”

The proof the US has failed as a self professing Christian nation is reveled because america accepts abortion,pornography,homosexuality etc..

The Catholic teaching calls these things GRAVE sin.

Don't try posting me individual Catholic's who do not follow the teaching of the Church either.Many of them have fell into americanism and pluralism and ignore actual teachings of the Church

The Church also understood that many of the FF”S were freemasons-a pagan group?

Church teaching On Freemasonry
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2154325/posts?
page=161#161

[stfassisi]

Correct link to Church teaching on freemasonry

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2154325/posts?page=161#161

[Tennessee Nana]

BTTT

[svcw]

Thought I'd give you a few days to think about all this.
See you asked for evidence, I provided evidence then you dismissed the evidence and still validated the evidence that I gave.
Now you appear to be irritated that I pointed out what you said.
So Russel, it appears you either need to remember what you ask or remember what you wrote or actually read what your leaders current and past have said, so you can keep your arguments straight.

[Tennessee Nana]

BTTT

[Tennessee Nana]

BTTT