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What 2012 means to Mormons
The Washington Post's On Faith ^ | January 11, 2012 | Joanna Brooks

Posted on 01/11/2012 11:06:16 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Every Mormon I know has been watching Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign with close interest because of the kinship we feel with him. And, for his part, Romney has used Mormon social and business networks to enlist bundlers, donors, and volunteers. Those networks may play a role in key campaign states like Nevada. But it would be a mistake to believe that all Mormons plan to vote for Romney this fall. Some Mormon conservatives feel strongly about Ron Paul’s economic message, and a substantial minority of us-about 15 to 20 percent--are Democrats and will vote for Barack Obama this November.

However we vote and whatever happens to Mitt Romney, Mormons across the political spectrum are riveted by the kind of attention our faith is getting in the national media. Mormons know that our religion seems exotic and even esoteric, and we chuckle when we compare sensationalistic media depictions of Mormonism to our everyday lives. Surveys show that most Americans still have little to no understanding of what Mormons believe. Mormon habits of social insularity may inadvertently contribute to this understanding: like many religious minorities, LDS people often prefer to socialize and marry within our own communities.

But 2012 will challenge Latter-day Saints to retool their relationship to the American public and public scrutiny. Demand for information about Romney and his background will build as he marches towards the GOP nomination. Certainly there will be thoughtful, in-depth reporting on Mormon history, belief, and culture. Many Mormons are also nervous that media outlets will try to “expose” LDS temple ceremonies that the community honors in private....

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Current Events; Other Christian; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: inman; lds; mittromney; mormons; romney
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Surveys show that most Americans still have little to no understanding of what Mormons believe.

Yup; even us ANTIs on FR are left wondering what you guys BELIEVE from reading what MORMONs on FR post.

But; we CAN show quite plainly what your chosen religious organization has written, taught, now prints, teaches and it's checkered history as well as it's sources.


Hopefully this effort will be rewarded by the dissemination of this data by the larger info outlets.

21 posted on 01/12/2012 4:24:29 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Pan_Yans Wife
BARF alert!!!

We can use our awareness of how it feels to be misunderstood and mistreated...


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 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).
 
 
 
Orson 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).

22 posted on 01/12/2012 4:27:30 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: ansel12
Of course, Bishop Romney has already come out against having a Muslim in his cabinet.

Of course, this is subject to change...

23 posted on 01/12/2012 4:28:32 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton
What worries me is that this religion is easy to paint as racist, and this has been a GREAT strategy for the ‘RATs of late.

While Mormon’s themselves are great, the church didn’t allow blacks to join until 1978.

I guess it took their god(s) a while to get another council together...




"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.



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.'



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.)



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."



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.



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).



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."



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)





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)

 



 

24 posted on 01/12/2012 4:30:46 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton
What worries me is that this religion is easy to paint as racist,

Watch this video on www.youtube.com
…and I'm a MormonWife, mother, and Mayor. My name
is Mia Love, and I'm a Mormon.
YouTube.com/Mormon
Oh oh!


They would NOT have been smiling so a hundred years ago!



25 posted on 01/12/2012 4:32:58 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: svcw

PLEASE!!!

Says it’s MORMONs you are referring to!


26 posted on 01/12/2012 4:33:56 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Colofornian
That's true both doctrinally (Doctrine & Covenants 132 is STILL on the books)...


The Doctrine and Covenants

Section 132

Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Nauvoo, Illinois, recorded 12 July 1843, relating to the new and everlasting covenant, including the eternity of the marriage covenant, and also the plurality of wives (see History of the Church, 5:501–7). Although the revelation was recorded in 1843, it is evident from the historical records that the doctrines and principles involved in this revelation had been known by the Prophet since 1831.
.
.
.
58–66, Laws governing the plurality of wives are set forth.


 

58 Now, as touching the law of the apriesthood, there are many things pertaining thereunto.

59 Verily, if a man be called of my Father, as was aAaron, by mine own voice, and by the voice of him that bsent me, and I have endowed him with the ckeys of the power of this priesthood, if he do anything in my name, and according to my law and by my word, he will not commit dsin, and I will justify him.

60 Let no one, therefore, set on my servant Joseph; for I will justify him; for he shall do the sacrifice which I require at his hands for his transgressions, saith the Lord your God.

61 And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood—if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse aanother, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to no one else.

62 And if he have aten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore is he justified.

63 But if one or either of the ten virgins, after she is espoused, shall be with another man, she has committed adultery, and shall be destroyed; for they are given unto him to amultiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfil the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my Father continued, that he may be bglorified.

64 And again, verily, verily, I say unto you, if any man have a wife, who holds the keys of this power, and he teaches unto her the law of my priesthood, as pertaining to these things, then shall she believe and administer unto him, or she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord your God; for I will destroy her; for I will magnify my name upon all those who receive and abide in my law.

65 Therefore, it shall be lawful in me, if she receive not this law, for him to receive all things whatsoever I, the Lord his God, will give unto him, because she did not believe and administer unto him according to my word; and she then becomes the transgressor; and he is exempt from the law of Sarah, who administered unto Abraham according to the law when I commanded Abraham to take aHagar to wife.

66 And now, as pertaining to this law, verily, verily, I say unto you, I will reveal more unto you, hereafter; therefore, let this suffice for the present. Behold, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen.


27 posted on 01/12/2012 4:36:59 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Colofornian
Don't hold your breath waiting for Mormons to admit that to you!
28 posted on 01/12/2012 4:37:39 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Saundra Duffy
Hello.

Hello indeed, Sandy.

Are you up to answering ANY questions today?

29 posted on 01/12/2012 4:39:10 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: wolfcreek
Coincidence?

"I can barely get an ad on TV to sell cars to y'all these days!"


30 posted on 01/12/2012 4:42:12 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Saundra Duffy
#22 STILL requires you to either accept or to deny the sentiments shown there.


Please do NOT continue to make yourself look so petulant by IGNORING these facts like you have for SO many months.

31 posted on 01/12/2012 4:45:50 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Elsie
 

The Doctrine and Covenants

Section 132

Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Nauvoo, Illinois, recorded 12 July 1843, relating to the new and everlasting covenant, including the eternity of the marriage covenant, and also the plurality of wives (see History of the Church, 5:501–7). Although the revelation was recorded in 1843, it is evident from the historical records that the doctrines and principles involved in this revelation had been known by the Prophet since 1831.
 
 
I wish that GOD would make up HIS mind!!
 

Romans 7:1-2

Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives?  For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him

32 posted on 01/12/2012 4:50:07 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Colofornian
#1: 94% of Mormons in Utah voted for Romney in 2008:

Don't know if it was the same in '08 or not but Utah is listed as the very last primary this year. If it was the same in '08, they voted for the Mormon even though John McCain already had a lock on the nomination.

Religion above every thing for them. My two top candidates left running are both Catholic, I'm not.

33 posted on 01/12/2012 5:19:21 AM PST by Graybeard58 (Eccl 10 v. 19 A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.)
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To: FastCoyote
I am bigoted if I oppose Romney on religious grounds.I’m pretty sick of the hypocrisy.

Yesterday on another thread we were treated to yet another "Constitutionalist" telling us that we were applying an unconstitutional "religious test" to Romney. Mormon's and Mormons apologists will stoop to anything to get their Milty in the White House - even abject ignorance, or rather, assuming that the rest of us are as ignorant as they are.

34 posted on 01/12/2012 5:25:39 AM PST by Graybeard58 (Eccl 10 v. 19 A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.)
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To: Elsie

“I’m a Mormon”

Who gives a Chit?


35 posted on 01/12/2012 5:42:39 AM PST by wolfcreek (Perry to Obama: Adios, MOFO!)
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To: wolfcreek
I don't know about the rest of the country but, here in central Texas, we've been getting bombarded with Mormon commercials for months now.

Coincidence?


Not a coincidence. I think it's clearly designed to help Mittens out. I've seen this as well. Feels like a PR campaign through and through!
36 posted on 01/12/2012 6:38:32 AM PST by af_vet_rr
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To: Colofornian
And we think Obama and his cohorts won't notice this little historical fact why in 2012?

They'll notice all kinds of historical and current facts.

They'll make sure and point out things like that most Mormons think that the president of the Mormon church is a prophet of God.

That kind of stuff will not sit well with Christians.

The good news is, there are enough reasons to vote against Romney, that religion will probably not come into play.
37 posted on 01/12/2012 6:41:20 AM PST by af_vet_rr
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To: Pan_Yans Wife

Yep


38 posted on 01/12/2012 7:15:36 AM PST by reaganaut (If Romney is a conservative then IÂ’m the frickin Angel Moroni.)
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To: Elsie
Oh, yes.

I should have made that mush clearer.

94%+ of mormons WILL vote for Romney, as they always have and always will.

39 posted on 01/12/2012 7:19:30 AM PST by svcw (For the new year: you better toughen up, if you are going to continue to be stupid.)
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To: ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton

While Mormon’s themselves are great, the church didn’t allow blacks to join until 1978.

- - - - - -

Oh, they were allowed to join, and pay their tithing, they just weren’t allowed to get the priesthood (which every white male over the age of 12 could have and most did), thus they were not allowed to serve LDS missions, go through the LDS temple, get married for ‘eternity’ or get into the Celestial Kingdom (the only real Heaven for Mormons).

But they could be baptized and attend meetings and PAY THEIR TITHING (its all about the money).


40 posted on 01/12/2012 7:23:02 AM PST by reaganaut (If Romney is a conservative then IÂ’m the frickin Angel Moroni.)
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