I have no day to day contact with Mormon folks but have met and dealt with several. I have found them to be good , even excellent, people.
For instance.......
I spent a week in a youth training seminar at Philmont and there were several Mormon Scouters from Utah. The Utah Mormons have made major contributions (organizationally and theoretically) to the development of the Venture Scouting program. They were all outstanding men. They practice what they preach, solid family life for God and country.
In October I traveled the Great River Road from Minnesota to the Gulf, down the Mississippi river through the very heart and soul of America. We visited the town of Nauvoo Illinois where the Mormons have created a living museum and visitor center. I met an wonderfully gracious gentlemen volunteer from Alabama who knowing I was not of his faith led us through the history of the movement west. They have made a great effort to preserve the heritage of that westward movement. It seems those intolerant souls who murdered Joseph Smith are still alive and well in America today.
My objection is to the strident, bigoted self righteousness here that masks a political view. We should be better than that on Free Republic and once were. It is in my view unAmerican to trash good people in the name of one’s own very narrow minded belief. To trash them for a trivial political point is even worse. It is uncalled for and should cease.
I have many Lds relatives whom I love...Yet I can tell you that even Jesus questioned somebody who called him "good"...Jesus questioned the assumption that He was good (not the actuality or factuality of it).
I can also tell you that when you're auditioning for godhood like temple Mormons are, of course you're going to be on your best public behavior.
Even Jesus, in His sermon on the mount, highly complimented the outward behavior of the Pharisees, saying that unless one displayed the same outward righteousness as the Pharisees, they would IN NO WAY inherit the kingdom of God. But Jesus didn't stop there...
In Matthew 23, He labeled the inward nature of the Pharisees like whitewashed tombstones...and in John 8, labeled them children of the devil. Perhaps the closest contemporary legalists we have to the Pharisees are the Mormons.
Well...let's see...you've just trashed good people as being...
...strident
...bigoted
...self-righteous
...ill-motivated
...UN-American
...etc.
...Care to add to that list???
Tell us, something, Bert...Are you "trying" to teach some class here on "How to be tolerant in 6 or 7 easy steps" or something?
Your labeling...your name-calling...your bashing...your trashing here...Are these earmarks of some great "enlightened" level of tolerance here?
You actually trash others for what you perceive to be trashing others...and you expect to get away with this kind of absurd hypocrisy???
What? You can't even put two sentences together without contradicting yourself? Without refuting yourself???
Is it your message that we're supposed to be hearing...???
Or your practice???
Seems to me that you're pretty intolerant -- "bigoted" if you will -- toward certain religious worldviews that happen to object to Mormonism...
Ha ha!
You should talk to those on the RECEIVING end of Mitt's political rhetoric!
Romney's spending was on NOTHING but trash talk!
Did you know, Bert, that Joseph Smith went down in a gun battle??? (Did your tour hosts forget to mention that wee little fact???)
He used up one gun -- and had another loaded gun...
Are you consistent then?
If a prisoner were to today -- in your local jail -- get ahold of two loaded weapons...and he was to die in proximity to 200 armed men (non-prisoners)...all as he fires at least 6 shots...that's not a gun battle either...just because the ratio is 200:1?
Whatever your squeamishness about it, ya gotta understand it that it's usually portrayed as a martyrdom. I'm sorry, but sacrificial lambs don't go down shooting & killing people as did Joseph Smith.
Yes, smith was murdered - but you leave out the 'rest of the story' don't you. Why was he jailed? He was jailed because he illegally ordered the destruction of a newspaper that exposed his polygamy and other less religious dealings as the 'general' of Nauvoo. Now how "tolerant" was that bert? smith also sent his danite raiders out to harass and kill those who left the mormon church in light of his extravagant living and dictatorial leadership - sounds real tolerant as well eh bert? Nauvoo was a dictatorship, nothing less, by smith. His jailing for treason was just the tip of the iceberg.
And since you mentioned scouting - until 1978 black boys in lds sponsored boy scout troops were not allowed to hold positions of leadership in the troop, such as patrol leader, sr. patrol leader, etc simply because they were black. How outstanding was that bert, wonderful contribution huh.
Finally, much of that 'westward movement' though interesting has been severly whitewashed. Gone is young's boondoggle 'handcart' escapade where he forced them to buy cheaply made carts and participate in poorly organized groups by "god's direction" as the prophet. Or his direction to slaughter a wagon train passing through southern Utah headed for Oregon as well as harassing several others.
Excellent people - right - as how nice they were to the flds who asked them for books of mormon a couple of years ago.