Posted on 04/28/2008 7:31:24 PM PDT by ricks_place
Under shower of questions sparked by FLDS raid, LDS members set differences, explain faith
SAN ANGELO, Texas - The Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Second Ward here, Jeffrey Bushman, is used to the quizzical looks and sometimes ludicrous questions directed at people of the Mormon faith.
As a missionary in New York 40 years ago, Bushman once was asked if he had devil's horns. He responded by offering to display the place on his head where he had had them sawed off.
“The only thing they knew about us were horns, polygamy and the Tabernacle Choir,” he said.
So when the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' Yearning for Zion Ranch was raided April 3, sparking a national media frenzy, he and other church members were prepared to field the inevitable questions that would arise.
Do they practice polygamy? Are their children sexually abused?
“I've had a lot of my neighbors come up” and make inquiries, said Bishop Bushman's First Counselor Jared Seegmiller, who explains to them that the FLDS splintered off from the mainstream LDS Church after the latter renounced polygamy and threatened to excommunicate practitioners of plural marriage.
“And that's really the only explanation I've had to give them,” he said. “And they say, 'OK, that makes sense.' ”
Even some of the newest members of the church have approached Bushman to get clear on whether polygamy is still practiced by the LDS.
“We've had to deal just a little bit with trying to make sure some of our members don't think we're part of the same [FLDS] church,” he said.
Texas officials have played a role in the confusion. Even while acknowledging the two religions are separate, Judge Barbara Walther, of the 51st District Court, asked FLDS attorneys on April 21 to find members of local LDS congregations to supervise the FLDS women and children while they prayed.
Bushman was among those who got a call to do it.
“I said, 'No thank you, that's not quite our job,' ” he said. “I would feel a little awkward. . . . I don't want to be a party to something that may or may not be right.”
While some members are upset by the media's lack of distinction between the two churches, most see it as an opportunity for a discussion about the true doctrine underlying their faith.
“Most of them, I think, believe that it has opened up the lines of communication about the church, probably more than anything else that has happened,” Bushman said. “Their friends and their neighbors ask questions.”
While the LDS don't condone polygamy or child abuse, the bishop said, the raid has in some ways forged a small connection between the two religions. The LDS, historically a persecuted group of people, can sympathize with a church under siege.
“Watching them [Texas Rangers] go into the temple down there, going through it, made me think of the Nauvoo era: just run them out and do what they want to with the building,” Bushman said. “Obviously we understand that a little bit. That's in the back of our heads.”
The FLDS, meanwhile, have turned to some LDS for support. One member, a San Angelo medical professional who asked that his name not be printed, said an FLDS client called him shortly after the raid.
The distressed woman didn't ask for help, he said. “[She just] wanted to know someone on the outside cared about them.”
I don’t think mormons consider jesus a god. Jesus’s daddy is a god, jesus isn’t. So there is only one god in mormonism. At least this is my understanding.
Its right there in the story. Did you read it?
I read the article that started this thread. What story are you talking about?
“I don’t think mormons consider jesus a god. Jesus’s daddy is a god, jesus isn’t. So there is only one god in mormonism. At least this is my understanding.”
Oh, no. You’ve got it all wrong. You have vastly underestimated
the teachings of this cultic religion.
Brace yourself: MORMONS HAVE BILLIONS, IF NOT TRILLIONS OF
GODS.
OK, relax and I’ll take off the caps lock...
Every mormon MAN can potentially become a god with his own
planet and a perpetually pregnant goddess wife to produce endless
“spirit children”.
Hindus only have 300 million gods. Mormon theology makes them
look like laggards!
You sound like one of those conspiracy theory nuts. If you seriously think mormons are worshipping millions of gods, you are an idiot.
Every mormon MAN can potentially become a god with his own planet and a perpetually pregnant goddess wife to produce endless “spirit children”.
When in fact you should have said:
Every mormon MAN can potentially become a god with his own planet and a perpetually pregnant goddess WIVES to produce endless “spirit children”.
“I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods…lo and behold! We have three Gods anyhow…” (Joseph Smith History of the Church, vol. 6, p. 474 (1978 version) p. 370 of previous 1976 edition
Under “Plurality of Gods” sub-section: “Three separate personages—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—comprise the Godhead. As each of these persons is a god, it is evident, from this standpoint alone, that a plurality of Gods exists.” (LDS apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 576 McConkie, 1975 edition)
“There are three Gods…separate in personality, united in purpose, in plan, in all attributes of perfection.” (McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 270)
Just curious.
they didnt fabricate thier own scripture which is a cornerstone of the mormon faith, nor do they practice celestial marriage / sealing, baptism for the dead, or claim the Atonement of Christ occurred in the garden instead of the Cross, claim God lives on planet kolob - etc etc - all things mormons presently do -
Are you starting up with THAT again? It's totally irrelevant to the discussion and just an attempt at thread hijacking.
Where are the genealogical records of these Apostles and Prophets kept? Are they a closely guarded secret?
Mormons only worship One God, but they believe in millions. Why are you trying to distort that fact? Got an agenda?
All it means is that there will not be enough men to go around and they’ll have that many women requesting to be his wife.
It DOESN’T say that they’ll be practicing polygamy.
“There are three Gods…separate in personality, united in purpose, in plan, in all attributes of perfection.”
I'd call that the holy trinity, wouldn't you? It clearly states they are separate but also united. Although this is completely different from what I thought mormons believed, it does appear to be very similar to catholicism.
Here ya go.
Bringem Young http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/af/individual_record.asp?recid=3224057&lds=0&frompage=0
(click on the word “family” to the right of each woman’s name and you will see a list of children - you’ll have to add them up by yourself)
Heber C. Kimball http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/AF/individual_record.asp?recid=3282582&lds=0®ion=-1®ionfriendly=&frompage=99
Do you?
Are you starting up with THAT again? It’s totally irrelevant to the discussion and just an attempt at thread hijacking.
No I haven’t been following the news on this topic and while reading and posting I recalled this srcipture and just asked.
I recieved a good reply out of about 25 morons trying to hammer me for asking a question.
I am beginning to realize that it appears to be a lot of them here now as compared to several years ago.
Yes ma’am.
I seek to expose the lies of Mormonism. The ones like YOU just told.
You could teach twisting and obsfucation to the democrats, you are THAT good.
You claim I tell lies?
Well, here’s my agenda...I try to inject a little sanity into these threads in an attempt to offset some of the damage done to the credibility of FR by people like you.
Are you LDS. Do you only worship ONE God, the god of THIS world?
Let me give you a clue. Do you know who the Bible says is the god of this world?
I'd call that the holy trinity, wouldn't you? It clearly states they are separate but also united. Although this is completely different from what I thought mormons believed, it does appear to be very similar to catholicism.
No, because even what I cited you isn't a "complete" understanding of Mormonism's claim about the "gods." As aMorePerfectUnion said:
Every mormon MAN can potentially become a god...Hindus only have 300 million gods. Mormon theology makes them look like laggards!
Note this citation from a deceased LDS "prophet" from 33 years ago: "Brethren, 225,000 of you are here tonight. I suppose that 225,000 of you may become gods" (from a speech published in The Ensign, November 1975, 1980).
Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt: "there are more gods than there are particles of matter" (Journal of Discourses, vol.2, p.345).
Kimball is a descendent of an earlier LDS apostle, Heber C. Kimball: “We shall go back to our Father and God, who is connected with one who is still farther back; and this Father is connected with one still farther back, and so on.” Heber C. Kimball, JoD, vol. 5, p. 19
There ya go. Mormonism: The religion of the "so on" gods minus any ultimate God. LDS is "so on" gods progressing from eternity past, with no ultimate buck-stops-here authority, to "so on" gods progressing eternity forward.
As Mormon men now are--wannabe-gods, Lucifer once was
As Satan now is, man may be
None of this sounds anything remotely like "the holy trinity"
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