I understand why Christians don’t believe the title is true; it is a statement of mormon belief, one that is well-known to anybody who knows something about the LDS religion. In their belief system, Jesus appeared to Joseph Smith. Most Christian denominations do not believe this happened.
I even understand the reason some people believe that this difference of opinion is more important than other differences of opinion that show up in Caucus thread titles. First, those differences are of a different degree than this difference, and second, it is actually rare for the title of a caucus thread to contain enough information to call out a disagreement.
The mormons aren’t the only faith which feels put upon either. There is a perception of anti-catholic postings, which lead to a caucus thread titled “Catholic Apologetics Thread”, which discussed how to handle such attacks, and had an interesting set of ideas of how religion could be handled more charitably in these forums, in a more protective manner to avoid people being abused or feeling attacked for their questions and discussions.
I’d like to see a more charitable application; however, I understand that this is at cross-purposes with those who feel part of the use of Free REpublic is to save souls, to proselytize, to convert. Obviously there are those who believe that is the LDS poster’s purpose. More clearly, that is the stated purpose of the anti-mormon posters, to convert mormons to christianity.
As to this thread, it could easily have been handled by reposting the original article as open, and letting christians have a go at arguing the point. There was in fact very little arguing the points made in the article.
I also found it funny that a lot of the first 100 posts were attacks on the original poster for “failing” to post as caucus, for thinking his thread deserved breaking news, and for forcing it down people’s throats. It wasn’t until the news spread that this was not the poster’s fault that people stopped attacking, and instead praised the move.
You should start a “that thread should have been caucused” caucus.
It's an assumption on the part of mormons or anyone for that matter, to believe that. JS never recorded that he was speaking to God or that Jesus was speaking to him. He used the word "personages".
The use of the word "Personages" is in no way an adequate description of God and Jesus, I don't care how anyone tries to spin that.
1 John:
4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.
6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
First off, the warning about testing the spirits and the fact that false prophets would be known by their worldliness. Well, JS was quite worldly. He was a lecher, a thief, a con-man, etc. Many of the things JS did while he was the "prophet" were the behaviors that are in direct contradiction of a Godly man. There were a lot of "convenient" "revelations" that "permitted" him a great deal of latitude.
Secondly, the "personages" description and the failure of the spirits to clearly identify and confess Jesus during the purported 1st vision.
The narrative (1st vision, [pick a version]) is ambiguous, it does not clearly state that God and Jesus, came down, nor does he claim to have heard the name of Jesus, just "this is my beloved son..." (That IS NOT "confessing" Jesus). It's implied through the use of descriptive language. But at no time does the personage(spirit) state absolutely that it was Jesus who was going to "speak" to JS.
Wishing something to be true doesn't make it true.
Also there's a huge difference between the debates with catholics and those with Mormons. Besides Protestants and others get their fair share of bashing as well...so you're barking up the wrong tree there.
As for you wanting to see a more “charitable application” on the threads...FR offers other options for the softer side of discussion. It;s a choice to post or not...or for that matter scan by what one isn't interested in. We all do so at our choosing.....
Concerning those who oppose Mormonism's teachings....when Jesus cleansed the temple he used a whip....Christians can and will speak strongly against false teachings, especially when these are used to deceive and trap the unsuspecting....and further discredit our savior. He's our King...we are loyal to Him.