Five Myths about Mormonism

Washington Post ^ | Aug. 5, 2011 | Joanna Brooks

[Colofornian]

The campaigns by Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman Jr. for the GOP presidential nomination, along with the popular and profane Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon,” are putting Mormons in the public eye.

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1. Mormons practice polygamy.

Mainstream Mormons do not practice polygamy today, but it remains part of our history and theology. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion, married at least 33 women (often without the consent of his first wife, Emma) and preached that polygamy was divinely sanctioned...

Polygamy remains a source of tension for mainstream Mormons. Mormon public figures routinely play down our polygamous history, saying that only a tiny percentage of 19th-century Mormon families were polygamous. (Historians say it was 20 to 30 percent.) But the LDS Church, which teaches that marriages — or “sealings” — performed in its temples are eternal, has never disavowed elements of Mormon theology suggesting that polygamy will be practiced in heaven. Church policy permits widowed and some divorced men to be sealed for all eternity to more than one wife, while Mormon women may not be sealed to more than one husband...some mainstream LDS Church members anticipate polygamy as part of eternity, while others reject it.

2. Mormons aren’t Christians.

A few weeks ago, an anchor on Fox News stated that Mitt Romney is “obviously not a Christian.”

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Growing up in California, I frequently heard that I belonged to a cult...Some people will never see Mormons as Christians...

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4. Mormon women are second-class citizens.

Mormon women are sometimes perceived as voiceless, mindless members of our faith; LDS Church spokespeople portray us as uniformly happy with our situation. Neither perspective is accurate.

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...We believe in a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother...

5. A Mormon president would blur the line between church and state.

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[BlueMoose]

http://www.blacklds.org/black_myth

[SZonian]

I see that he didn’t mention ‘ole Joe coming right out of the gate calling all other faiths, apostate, whores of Babylon, corrupt, etc.

Just mentions that this so called “hostility” was about converts.

Deceptive.

On two parts.

[Colofornian]

Wait!! This is premature. Mittens hasn’t been nominated yet! The Mormon stuff is supposed to be published after he’s nominated. Somebody didn’t get the memo????

This is the warning shot over the bow to all "moderates" in the GOP who might be tempted to vote for Romney in the primaries. They'll get avalanched by the MSM on this 24/7.

It'll become the "perfect storm" for liberal MSMers: A referendum on racism vs. the candidate who dared to belong to a racist organization as a full-grown-up (30 yo) "country clubber" who had the audacity to belong to an organization that had a sign on its temple doors, "No blacks allowed."

[Colofornian]

[Mormon BlueMoose links to Richard Mouw piece about "hostility" between Mormons & Evangelicals going back to 1830s]

I see that he didn’t mention ‘ole Joe coming right out of the gate calling all other faiths, apostate, whores of Babylon, corrupt, etc. Just mentions that this so called “hostility” was about converts. Deceptive. On two parts. [Szonian]

Szonian, I wouldn't say that Mouw was 100% off-base in focusing on "converts" as a key issue; but certainly he wouldn't filter this "converts" issue the way Jesus did. (See Matthew 23:15 below)

Certainly, though, you're right that Mouw is guilty of reductionism...making it only an issue of wrestling for "converts." Indeed, 'ole Joe came right out of the gate calling all other faiths, apostate, whores of Babylon, corrupt, etc. -- and somehow this fails to be recognized by Mormon and MSM alike.

The reason why I think wrestling for "converts" was -- and still is -- a relevant issue is what Jesus said about the pre-Mormons -- the Pharisees:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are." (Matt. 23:15)

Jesus indeed filtered it as a match-up between His compassionate blood being shed for future Christ-ones vs. legalists who would send over 25,000 new missionaries out o'er land and see to make others 'twice' the 'child of hell' they are.

[Tennessee Nana]

Some people will never see Mormons as Christians...
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Oh I dunno

There hope for all unbelievers that one day before they die they will be seen as Christians

Even Mormon can get saved and become Christians

[Colofornian]

What the author calls technicalities, I call the essence of the Gospel. In Christianity God becomes man to be a propitiation; Mormons think that men become Gods. Joseph Smith was a false prophet with a fake gospel

Bingo! (To use a late-Saturday night commonly heard term)

To Mormons like Joanna Brooks, she fails to mention the "Grand Canyons" & as you said, focuses on so-called "technicalities." One of those "Grand Canyons" are that in true Christianity, men don't join the ranks of godhood to the tune of billions...like Lds "apostle" Orson Pratt taught. [Orson Pratt was the brother of Mitt Romney's original Mormon ancestor]

Another is that Christianity reveres, respects, worships, honors, glorifies and fears the Ultimate God who has always been God. Mormonism doesn't. In fact, Mormonism militates vs. such a God by trying to pretend that the average man or woman is as eternal as God is.

[See Lds Doctrine & Covenants 93:29,33...which teaches that before any "spirit" baby was born near Kolob to a mom-god and a daddy-god, everybody...including all the gods...were "hangin' out" as intelligences in goo soup somewhere]

[Tennessee Nana]

Some people will never see Mormons as Christians...
____________________________________________________

If it really worries you so much

you need to take it up with God

Hes the one who set the criteria for Christianity

And being a Mormon doesnt cut it

You need to complain to Him...

[Tennessee Nana]

4. Mormon women are second-class citizens.

Mormon women are sometimes perceived as voiceless, mindless members of our faith
__________________________________________

For this you need to get with the males in your religion

This was their idea

Crying to the readers of a secular newspaper just wont do it for you...

Take some Prozac and call your bishop in the morning..

[Colofornian]

Brooks: Some people will never see Mormons as Christians...

Oh I dunno There hope for all unbelievers that one day before they die they will be seen as Christians Even Mormon can get saved and become Christians [Tennessee Nana]

Amen to that TN!

Oh, & btw, I think it'd be good if we defined the term, "Christian." To some, they think if you read the New Testament & celebrate Christmas, that somehow qualifies you!

I'd like to go back to the earliest year when the term "Christian" was first used...and describe what they were like even in those interchanges where derisive people accused them of being "Christians."

Where do we find that? (The book of Acts):

Two of the earliest recorded usages were highlighted by Dr. Luke, whom God used to write Acts:
* 25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians FIRST at Antioch. (Acts 11:25-26)

And again, in Acts 26:
* 28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?”

In the most simplest of terms, "Christian" = Christ-one. One devoted to the true Christ of the Bible.

Obviously, we could let the entire New Testament thoroughly and comprehensively provide even a greater/more detailed contextual definition of "Christian." But I am even willing to just look at the most immediate contexts for how that word was used: Acts 11 and Acts 26.

From Acts 11, we see in vv. 23-24 before the usage of "Christian" in v. 26 is: When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

These early "Christians"...
...acknowledged foremost God's grace (Acts 11:23) [Mormons heavily focus on "good works" & earning/meriting...grace = "gifts" which can't be worked for]
...had a single "Lord" (Acts 11:23-24) (not multiple gods like Mormons do),
...and sought to be filled with both the Holy Spirit and faith (Acts 11:24)[not simply ritualistic legalistic good works' checklist; many Mormons refer to the Holy Ghost as an "it" -- not even recognizing His personality]

This single "Lord" mentioned twice in Acts 11:23-24 is interesting when compared to Acts 26:15 (see below).

When we look @ what rulers Agrippa and Festus reacted to in Acts 26 -- Paul's message -- that evoked Agrippa labeling Paul a "Christian" (Acts 26:28)...what was Paul's message to them?

Christians are
(a) those who advocate that the world...
...open(s) their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ (Acts 26:18)
(b) Furthermore, they preach that others "should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds." (Acts 26:19)
(c) They proclaim that Christianity is compatible with Judaism as a Judeo-Christian movement: "I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen— 23 that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.” (Acts 26:22-23)

Therefore, both the resurrection of Jesus and the Jesus as the in-context awaited Messiah are part of parcel of what/who a Christian embraces.

Finally, look @ the beginning of the apostle Paul's testimony as to how he and Jesus interacted. 13 verses before we see Agrippa calling Paul a "Christian," Paul says:

15 “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. (Acts 26:15)

Sorry, Joanna Brooks. Christians don't have two or multiple "lords." We regard Jesus as the very same LORD, Yahweh -- God, Himself.

[Elsie]

Black FACTS

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"You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind.

The first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren will be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam. Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings.

This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another curse is pronounced upon the same race--that they should be the 'servant of servants', and they will be, until that curse is removed."

Brigham Young-President and second 'Prophet' of the Mormon Church, 1844-1877- Extract from Journal of Discourses.

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Here are two examples from their 'other testament', the Book of Mormon.

2 Nephi 5: 21 'And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people, the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.'

Alma 3: 6 'And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren, who consisted of Nephi, Jacob and Joseph, and Sam, who were just and holy men.'

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August 27, 1954 in an address at Brigham Young University (BYU), Mormon Elder, Mark E Peterson, in speaking to a convention of teachers of religion at the college level, said:

"The discussion on civil rights, especially over the last 20 years, has drawn some very sharp lines. It has blinded the thinking of some of our own people, I believe. They have allowed their political affiliations to color their thinking to some extent.I think I have read enough to give you an idea of what the Negro is after."

"He is not just seeking the opportunity of sitting down in a cafe where white people eat. He isn't just trying to ride on the same streetcar or the same Pullman car with white people. It isn't that he just desires to go to the same theater as the white people. From this, and other interviews I have read, it appears that the Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage."

"That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away, nor must we feel so sorry for Negroes that we will open our arms and embrace them with everything we have. Remember the little statement that we used to say about sin, 'First we pity, then endure, then embrace'...."

(Rosa Parks would have probably told Petersen under which wheel of the bus he should go sit.)

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1967, (then) Mormon President Ezra Taft Benson said,

"The Communist program for revolution in America has been in progress for many years and is far advanced. First of all, we must not place the blame upon Negroes. They are merely the unfortunate group that has been selected by professional Communist agitators to be used as the primary source of cannon fodder."

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We are told that on June 8, 1978, it was 'revealed' to the then president, Spencer Kimball, that people of color could now gain entry into the priesthood.

According to the church, Kimball spent many long hours petitioning God, begging him to give worthy black people the priesthood. God finally relented.

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Sometime before the 'revelation' came to chief 'Prophet' Spencer Kimball in June 1978, General Authority, Bruce R McConkie had said:

"The Blacks are denied the Priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty.

The Negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain blessings are concerned, particularly the priesthood and the temple blessings that flow there from, but this inequality is not of man's origin, it is the Lord's doings."

(Mormon Doctrine, pp. 526-527).

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When Mormon 'Apostle' Mark E Petersen spoke on 'Race Problems- As they affect the Church' at the BYU campus in 1954, the following was also said:

"...if the negro accepts the gospel with real, sincere faith, and is really converted, to give him the blessings of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get celestial glory."

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When Mormon 'Prophet' and second President of the Church, Brigham Young, spoke in 1863 the following was also said:

"Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God is death on the spot. This will always be so."

(Journal of Discourses, Vo. 10, p. 110)

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Yeah; Native Americans are althroughout the Book of MORMON; too.

 

“I saw a striking contrast in the progress of the Indian people today ... they are fast becoming a white and delightsome people.... For years they have been growing delightsome, and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were promised.... The children in the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation.

At one meeting a father and mother and their sixteen-year-old daughter were present, the little member girl-sixteen-sitting between the dark father and mother, and it was evident she was several shades lighter than her parents—on the same reservation, in the same hogan, subject to the same sun and wind and weather.... These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness.

One white elder jokingly said that he and his companion were donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the process might be accelerated.

 

(Improvement Era, December 1960, pp.922-23). (p. 209)

 

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[Elsie]

Mormon women are sometimes perceived as voiceless, mindless members of our faith

How could ANYONE thing that?

Sincerely,

 

Molly

[BlueMoose]

oh man

[BlueMoose]

oh man

[BlueMoose]

oh man

[Elsie]

This one is a charm!

[Former Fetus]

One moment she claims that Mormons are Christians. Then, a couple of paragraphs later she writes “We believe in a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother”. What’s up?

[Elsie]

Then, a couple of paragraphs later she writes “We believe in a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother”. What’s up?

Why... ANYone knows that to have SPIRIT children in heaven just waiting to inhabit a HUMAN body, one MUST have a MOTHER who was, ahem, you know, by a Father!

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_cosmology

[Elsie]

We Mormons view ourselves as Christians.

Since WHEN???

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Questions put to Joseph Smith: "'Do you believe the Bible?' [Smith:]'If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does, for there are none of the religious sects of the day that do'. When asked 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons'? [Smith replied] 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119).

 

 

Joseph Smith: "for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible" (from Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith-History 1:12). "What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.270).

Brigham Young stated this repeatedly: "When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Journal of Discourses 5:73); "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171); "With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world" (Journal of Discourses 8:199); "And who is there that acknowledges [God's] hand? ...You may wander east, west, north, and south, and you cannot find it in any church or government on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p.24); "Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity" (Journal of Discourses 10:230).

Orson Pratt proclaimed: "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent" (The Seer, p. 255).

 

 

Pratt also said: "This great apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now" (Journal of Discourses, vol.18, p.44) and: "But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be ...But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance" (Journal of Discourses, 18:172).

President John Taylor stated: "Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p.167); "Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom." (Journal of Discourses, 10:127).

 

 

James Talmage said: "A self-suggesting interpretation of history indicates that there has been a great departure from the way of salvation as laid down by the Savior, a universal apostasy from the Church of Christ". (A Study of the Articles of Faith, p.182).

President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "Doctrines were corrupted, authority lost, and a false order of religion took the place of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it had been the case in former dispensations, and the people were left in spiritual darkness." (Doctrines of Salvation, p.266). "For hundreds of years the world was wrapped in a veil of spiritual darkness, until there was not one fundamental truth belonging to the place of salvation ...Joseph Smith declared that in the year 1820 the Lord revealed to him that all the 'Christian' churches were in error, teaching for commandments the doctrines of men" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.282).

More recent statements by apostle Bruce McConkie are also very clear: "Apostasy was universal...And this darkness still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol 3, p.265); "Thus the signs of the times include the prevailing apostate darkness in the sects of Christendom and in the religious world in general" (The Millennial Messiah, p.403); "a perverted Christianity holds sway among the so-called Christians of apostate Christendom" (Mormon Doctrine, p.132); "virtually all the millions of apostate Christendom have abased themselves before the mythical throne of a mythical Christ whom they vainly suppose to be a spirit essence who is incorporeal uncreated, immaterial and three-in-one with the Father and Holy Spirit" (Mormon Doctrine, p.269); "Gnosticism is one of the great pagan philosophies which antedated Christ and the Christian Era and which was later commingled with pure Christianity to form the apostate religion that has prevailed in the world since the early days of that era." (Mormon Doctrine, p.316).

 

 

President George Q. Cannon said: "After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon" (Gospel Truth, p.324).

President Wilford Woodruff stated: "the Gospel of modern Christendom shuts up the Lord, and stops all communication with Him. I want nothing to do with such a Gospel, I would rather prefer the Gospel of the dark ages, so called" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 2, p.196).

[BlueMoose]

Oh my

[ForAmerica]

That's why I can't understand why any black person would want to be a Mormon! They have a racist foundation.

I let every black Mormon that I talk to know about their racist history.