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Why Mitt Romney’s Mormonism Might Matter
The Catholic Review ^ | Jan. 16, 2011 | Matt Palmer

Posted on 01/16/2012 11:13:52 AM PST by MDJohnPaul

Most Christians across the world believe Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead. Mormons believe that Jesus did come again already… to America.

And that, to me, is what’s interesting about Romney as a candidate.

A Mormon’s account of North American history is fundamentally different from most Christians, but virtually every other faith and anyone else. In Mormon history, North America was the site of an appearance of Jesus Christ, which is no small thing. It differs from historians’ and archeologists’ own research.

Jesus came here to create his church and it was restored by, as Mormons see it, prophet Joseph Smith. America is an exceptional place because of this unique historical event, according to Mormons.

Of course, many people will point out that many Catholics in North America and beyond believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary has appeared in Mexico, Lourdes and Fatima. There are also several other unconfirmed sightings. That’s always worthy of discussion.

Romney isn’t running for Historian in Chief. He’s running to be President of the United States. The land’s history is taught to children in classrooms across the country. Does it matter that Romney, as a Mormon, believes in a history that includes the assertion that Jesus Christ lived here and continued his teachings? That, without question, is different from the mainstream. Does he need to disavow it? No. Should he explain why these historical events are true if he believes them. Possibly.

(Excerpt) Read more at reviewpalmer.wordpress.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; General Discusssion; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: religion; romney; wehatemormons
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To: SENTINEL
They teach that he who tries and fails to convert gets the eternal spoils of failure.

Reference, please.

41 posted on 01/16/2012 2:42:47 PM PST by T. P. Pole
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To: T. P. Pole

The question is you show me the evidence, not me showing you.


42 posted on 01/16/2012 2:48:31 PM 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: CainConservative
Find out about a cult
43 posted on 01/16/2012 2:48:31 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: svcw
Utah Results, 1992 presidential election.
Bill Clinton 183,429 votes, 24.65%
George H.W. Bush 322,632 votes, 43.36%
Ross Perot 203,400 votes, 27.34%

44 posted on 01/16/2012 2:52:28 PM PST by T. P. Pole
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To: CainConservative

Besides that I have two other reasons:

Romney broke the State Of Massachusetts with RomneyCare.

RomneyCare pays for abortions — got that? Pays to have babies killed.

Romney is no better than Obama.


45 posted on 01/16/2012 2:53:07 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: T. P. Pole
"So, tell me about the 1992 presidental election results in Utah? Of course, many will say that Bush sr wasn't conservative (and I would agree with them), but Clinton getting third would suggest something, wouldn't it?"

You're right pole, in 92 Mormons WERE overwhelmingly conservative. 20 years later we have Reid telling BYU that E.T. Benson "led the church down the wrong path" WITH SALT LAKE'S BLESSING !....Heck at this rate Salt Lake will be giving women the priesthood and telling folks to disarm within a decade !

46 posted on 01/16/2012 2:55:02 PM PST by SENTINEL (Romney is to Conservatism what Mormonism is to Christianity.)
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To: alloysteel

If Romney were truly moral he would have never had RomenyCare pay for abortions.

I hope you are being facetious in your remarks. I’m not. Babies died because of Romney.


47 posted on 01/16/2012 2:55:25 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: mc5cents

I agree whole heartedly!

HELLish theology: Heavenly music!


48 posted on 01/16/2012 2:58:00 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: T. P. Pole

Ok? And who won the election.
What is your point here, that one of 50 states voted for GHW Bush?
Wasn’t Reid elected then?
Name any federally elected mormon who is conservative, even at the state level they are hard to find.
The point being is moromns do not vote as conservatively as the PR machine portends that they do, otherwise Romney would not garner 94% of the lds vote, or people like the mormon senators would be elected. These men are propelled by the lds vote and none are conservative.


49 posted on 01/16/2012 2:59:35 PM 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: reaganaut
Because their THEOLOGY says they are a non-Christian cult.

So do their WORDS!!



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).

50 posted on 01/16/2012 3:00:32 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: reaganaut

Really folks!

With all of the ABOVE on the record; they NOW want to be known as CHRISTIANs, too?

What’s wrong with THIS picture??


51 posted on 01/16/2012 3:01:35 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: azishot
They do teach that a resurrected Christ appeared in Central America and preached the sermon on the mount to the native peoples, who came here from Isreal on a boat.

With a HOLE in the bottom!

52 posted on 01/16/2012 3:03:59 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: azishot
Then they got in a big fight and completely exterminated one another.


 
MORMON
Chapter 6

The Nephites gather to the land of Cumorah for the final battles—Mormon hides the sacred records in the hill Cumorah—The Lamanites are victorious, and the Nephite nation is destroyed—Hundreds of thousands are slain with the sword. About A.D. 385.

1 And now I finish my record concerning the destruction of my people, the Nephites. And it came to pass that we did march forth before the Lamanites.

2 And I, Mormon, wrote an epistle unto the king of the Lamanites, and desired of him that he would grant unto us that we might gather together our people unto the land of Cumorah, by a hill which was called Cumorah, and there we could give them battle.

3 And it came to pass that the king of the Lamanites did grant unto me the thing which I desired. 

4 And it came to pass that we did march forth to the land of Cumorah, and we did pitch our tents around about the hill Cumorah; and it was in a land of many waters, rivers, and fountains; and here we had hope to gain advantage over the Lamanites.

5 And *when three hundred and eighty and four years had passed away, we had gathered in all the remainder of our people unto the land of Cumorah.

6 And it came to pass that when we had gathered in all our people in one to the land of Cumorah, behold I, Mormon, began to be old; and knowing it to be the last struggle of my people, and having been commanded of the Lord that I should not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were sacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would destroy them) therefore I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni.

7 And it came to pass that my people, with their wives and their children, did now behold the armies of the Lamanites marching towards them; and with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them.

8 And it came to pass that they came to battle against us, and every soul was filled with terror because of the greatness of their numbers.

9 And it came to pass that they did fall upon my people with the sword, and with the bow, and with the arrow, and with the ax, and with all manner of weapons of war.

10 And it came to pass that my men were hewn down, yea, even my ten thousand who were with me, and I fell wounded in the midst; and they passed by me that they did not put an end to my life.

11And when they had gone through and hewn down all my people save it were twenty and four of us, (among whom was my son Moroni) and we having survived the dead of our people, did behold on the morrow, when the Lamanites had returned unto their camps, from the top of the hill Cumorah, the ten thousand of my people who were hewn down, being led in the front by me.

12 And we also beheld the ten thousand of my people who were led by my son Moroni.

13 And behold, the ten thousand of Gidgiddonah had fallen, and he also in the midst.

14 And Lamah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Gilgal had fallen with his ten thousand; and Limhah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Jeneum had fallen with his ten thousand; and Cumenihah, and Moronihah, and Antionum, and Shiblom, and Shem, and Josh, had fallen with their ten thousand each.

15 And it came to pass that there were ten more who did fall by the sword, with their ten thousand each; yea, even all my people, save it were those twenty and four who were with me, and also a few who had escaped into the south countries, and a few who had deserted over unto the Lamanites, had fallen; and their flesh, and bones, and blood lay upon the face of the earth, being left by the hands of those who slew them to molder upon the land, and to crumble and to return to their mother earth.

16 And my soul was rent with anguish, because of the slain of my people, and I cried:

17 O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!

18 Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss.

19 O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen!

20 But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return.

21 And the day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality, and these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become incorruptible bodies; and then ye must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, to be judged according to your works; and if it so be that ye are righteous, then are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone before you.

22 O that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, knoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy.


 
 
Mormon 8:2
And now it came to pass that after the great and tremendous battle at Cumorah, behold, the Nephites who had escaped into the country southward were hunted by the Lamanites, until they were all destroyed.


53 posted on 01/16/2012 3:06:51 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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Comment #54 Removed by Moderator

To: italianquaker
In normal times maybe but mr obama being a muslim didnt hurt him

But THAT info was NOT broadcast from the rooftops; was it!

55 posted on 01/16/2012 3:09:30 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Salvation

I had a couple of ladies ask me this last week if Romney was a Christian. I answered, “No!” and they looked so stunned.

Then I explained that he was a Mormon and believe in many gods and a prophet that lived in the 1800s. They had no idea that Mormonism was not Christian.

They left convinced that they would not vote for him for President.


56 posted on 01/16/2012 3:11:40 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: DeerJerkyDave
What archaeological evidence is there that Jesus even existed in the old world?

The meteor that made THIS has not been found, either...


57 posted on 01/16/2012 3:12:47 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: greyfoxx39
The mishies also fail to report that according to mormonism, Jesus had to work his way up to Godhood.

 
 
Professor Robert Millet        teaching at the Mission Prep Club in 2004  http://newsnet.byu.edu/video/18773/  <-- Complete and uneditted

 
 
Timeline...    Subject...
 
0:59           "Anti-Mormons..."
1:16           "ATTACK the faith you have..."
2:02           "We really aren't obligated to answer everyone's questions..."
3:57           "You already know MORE about God and Christ and the plan of salvation than any who would ATTACK you."


58 posted on 01/16/2012 3:14:21 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Elsie

No McCain was too busy shutting it down and apologizing for mr obamas middle name


59 posted on 01/16/2012 3:15:35 PM PST by italianquaker ( Mr Obama inherited an AAA rating and made it AA, thnx Resident Zero)
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To: alloysteel
The Utes had a grudging admiration of the LDS as a whole, and sometimes spoke of them in a kidding manner (”Those Mormons can pray water into flowing uphill”), but there was no great underlying tension by either side.


 

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)

60 posted on 01/16/2012 3:16:40 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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