Why Mitt Romney Is Hobbled by His Mormon Faith [Lds prophet's son calls Christians 'corrupt']

The answer...: Yes, they can. Among the main objectors are Baptists and Evangelical Christians...as well as members of the Tea Party...Together, they form a majority within the Republican Party, and they are all suspicious of Romney because he's...Mormon. Traditionalists hold that Mormons like him are not Christians because they claim that God was a human being and that human beings can be gods...

Romney is too cautious to confidently address the issue of his faith. Nevertheless, his friends are telling him that the only way to make peace with the religious wing of the Republican Party is to start talking about Mormonism, about his family's history in Mexico, about the once-common practice of polygamy and about the Mormons' relationship with America.

"Our forefathers had no Reformation, like that of Martin Luther, because they believed that all churches since the resurrection of Christ were corrupt. They wanted to re-establish Christianity in its original form. That was their Restoration," Richard Hinckley says with proud equanimity...polygamy became one of the customs of the new, syncretistic religion. Hinckley's great-grandfather had two wives, while Joseph Smith had many more -- between 33 and 44...

Richard's father, Gordon...was the president of the Mormons, the church's equivalent of the pope...

The church is indeed fixed and unmovable, a monument to its own self-focused nature, says Will Bagley, a historian who has discussed the legends of the Mormons in most of the two dozen books he has written...

...Bagley says that Joseph Smith was a religious genius because he "created the god of the Yankees," who permitted the faithful to become gods themselves. "What could be more American than the belief in eternal progress?" Bagley asks...

good grief someone show me where in the Bible its says Joseph Smith will sit at a table and help (lds) jesus decide who gets to go to heaven.

Well...

"He (Joseph Smith) is the man through whom God has spoken... yet I would not like to call him a savior, though in a certain capacity he was a god to us, and is to the nations of the earth, and will continue to be."

- Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:321

"You call us fools; but the day will be, gentlemen and ladies, whether you belong to this Church or not, when you will prize brother Joseph Smith as the Prophet of the Living God, and look upon him as a god..."

- Herber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 5:88

"If we get our salvation, we shall have to pass by him [Joseph Smith]; if we enter our glory, it will be through the authority he has received. We cannot get around him [Joseph Smith]"

- (as quoted in 1988 Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guide, p. 142)

There is "no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith. If Joseph Smith was verily a prophet, and if he told the truth...no man can reject that testimony without incurring the most dreadful consequences, for he cannot enter the kingdom of God"

- Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p.190

"I tell you, Joseph holds the keys, and none of us can get into the celestial kingdom without passing by him. We have not got rid of him, but he stands there as the sentinel, holding the keys of the kingdom of God; and there are many of them beside him. I tell you, if we get past those who have mingled with us, and know us best, and have a right to know us best, probably we can pass all other sentinels as far as it is necessary, or as far as we may desire. But I tell you, the pinch will be with those that have mingled with us, stood next to us, weighed our spirits, tried us, and proven us: there will be a pinch, in my view, to get past them. The others, perhaps, will say, If brother Joseph is satisfied with you, you may pass. If it is all right with him, it is all right with me. Then if Joseph shall say to a man, or if brother Brigham say to a man, I forgive you your sins, "Whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them;" if you who have suffered and felt the weight of transgression—if you have generosity enough to forgive the sinner, I will forgive him: you cannot have more generosity than I have. I have given you power to forgive sins, and when the Lord gives a gift, he does not take it back again."

- Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, p.154-155

"It is because the Lord called Joseph Smith that salvation is again available to mortal men.... If it had not been for Joseph Smith and the restoration, there would be no salvation,"

- Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 396, 670

They succeeded in killing Joseph, but he had finished his work.

He was a servant of God, and gave us the Book of Mormon.

He said the Bible was right in the main, but, through the translators and others, many precious portions were suppressed, and several other portions were wrongly translated; and now his testimony is in force, for he has sealed it with his blood.

As I have frequently told them, no man in this dispensation will enter the courts of heaven, without the approbation of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jun.

Who has made this so?

Have I?

Have this people?

Have the world?

No; but the Lord Jehovah has decreed it.

If I ever pass into the heavenly courts, it will be by the consent of the Prophet Joseph.

If you ever pass through the gates into the Holy City, you will do so upon his certificate that you are worthy to pass.

Can you pass without his inspection?

No; neither can any person in this dispensation, which is the dispensation of the fulness of times.

In this generation, and in all the generations that are to come, everyone will have to undergo the scrutiny of this Prophet.

They say that they killed Joseph, and they will yet come with their hats under their arms and bend to him; but what good will it do them, unless they repent?

They can come in a certain way and find favor, but will they?

Brigham Young,

--JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, vol. 8, p. 224

Willard isn't hobbled by his LDS faith. Willard is hobbled because he is an empty suit, like his clone man-child BHO. Mittens has no core values...

It's all inter-connected. If people want to understand how Mormonism's approach to the socio-political realm at the local level, people need to read these two articles (the first written by a Mormon; the second by an ex-Mormon):

* Mitt Romney mirrors his Mormon church [Lds writer says Romney flip-flops 'cause Lds church has/does]
* Who is Mitt Romney? [Ex-Lds author reveals why Mitt's wishy-washy culture waffles & flip-flops]

In the first linked article above, Mormon Neal Chandler highlights how in the 19th century... * Mormons forced communism upon its people -- and then not (United Order) * Adhered to theocracies under its first two "prophets" -- and then slowly drew back * Said polygamy was a condition of the highest degree of glory -- and then not * Encourage its Utah Territory voters to be Democrats -- and then told whole groups of people wholesale to "balance it out" as Republicans as statehood approached * Excluded blacks -- and then late in the 20th century not

From the second article linked above: What makes Mitt the kind of person he is — ruthlessly opportunistic, dishonest, insincere, willing to say anything for advantage, lacking in conscience, preoccupied with appearance, etc., on the one hand, yet squeaky clean, family-oriented, disciplined, boring, and predictable, on the other? My new e-book, A Mormon Story, sheds light on the culture that produced Mitt Romney.

Good question. (It's one I've raised -- and answered numerous times on various FR threads)

The answer, says this ex-Mormon in the book referenced above is: (From the article): The book reveals a value system that ultimately has no absolutes, other than the need to conform to deep-seated, highly-controlling authoritarianism that pervades LDS culture. That culture emphasizes a Mormon tradition known as "eternal progression" — undoctrinal spiritual evolution in which even God is changing. It also emphasizes the notion that the latest words of governing church leaders trump the Word of God found in the scriptures (including LDS scripture).

IOW, EVERYTHING in Mormonism -- from its theology to its social practices -- is up for potential change at the whim of the Mormon god. Bottom-line: There is no bottom-line in Mormonism! There is no bedrock doctrine that cannot be replaced!

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