Ex-Mormon harassed for Nauvoo witness

Townhall ^ | February 28, 2008 | Jerry Higgins

[Zakeet]

NAUVOO, Ill. (BP)--Nestled along the banks of the Mississippi River about 270 miles southwest of Chicago, the Illinois town of Nauvoo is just a dot on the map for most people.

Nauvoo had seen better days as a thriving producer of cheese and wine until the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built a $30 million temple in the community that was founded by Mormon patriarch Joseph Smith in 1939.

Now an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 visitors come to Nauvoo each year. Many of them pass the stucco storefront of the Christian Visitors Center, where Rocky Hulse and his wife Helen stand ready to tell anyone who will listen the differences between Mormonism and authentic Christian faith.

Hulse, 52, is a former Mormon and a retired U.S. Navy chief warrant officer who served in the Persian Gulf. Instead of using his Navy skills to land a high-paying job in San Diego or Dallas, however, the Hulses settled in Nauvoo to focus on sharing the truth about Jesus Christ with the town's 1,000 residents and the influx of tourists visiting the Mormon "mecca."

According to Mormon history, Joseph Smith received his last revelations in Nauvoo, where he served as mayor and built a temple. He was murdered in 1844 by a mob while awaiting trial on charges of destroying an opposition Mormon newspaper. The Mormon migration to Utah came a couple of years later.

Hulse has a weekly television show called "Truth Proclaimed" and is the author of a new book, "When Salt Lake City Calls: Is There a Conflict Between Mormonism and the Public Trust?" dealing largely with Mormon temple ceremonies. He says all he is doing is comparing Mormon teachings to the Bible and exposing the true history of Mormonism.

Not everyone welcomes his message.

Bishop David Wright, a Mormon leader in Nauvoo, described Hulse's ministry to The Chicago Tribune as "a non-Christian center or anti-Mormon center," saying, "I don't see anything Christian about it."

Hulse said his home office above the visitors center has been trashed and he has received several threatening e-mails. One e-mail, received a couple of days before Christmas 2006, read: "I'd love to watch you all die, then witness the looks on your faces when you realize how stupid and counterproductive your fight really was."

Hulse reported that threat to police in Nauvoo, who passed it on to Illinois and Utah authorities. The e-mail was traced to the computer of Phil Rogers, a Mormon who works as a court officer in Farmington, Utah, near Salt Lake City. An April 15, 2007, article in The Chicago Tribune quoted Rogers as saying that someone hacked into his Internet account while he was using an open router. The Tribune interviewed Internet security experts who said such tampering could have easily occurred.

Nauvoo Chief of Police Don Faulkner said Utah authorities refused to prosecute because they didn't have enough evidence. Faulkner, who is not a Mormon, said, "It's up to the state, the county and the attorney in the jurisdiction. It's up to the attorney whether he thinks the case is winnable. Opinions bear no weight. He won't take a case to court if he doesn't have enough evidence regardless of what anyone thinks."

Hulse said he wasn't surprised at the decision not to prosecute.

"In the Mormon world, the absolute worst thing you can be is an apostate ," Hulse said. "In their doctrine, on Judgment Day Hitler will go to a better place than someone who leaves the Mormon Church."

After the death threat, the Hulses increased security around the visitors center and were much more careful in their daily routines. Faulkner said he believes they have nothing to worry about from the locals. Police investigations have not come up with any suspects in the ransacking of his office.

"He spent time in the Navy protecting everyone's rights," Faulkner said. "He protected Mormons' religious beliefs, whether he agrees or not, along with Islam, Catholic, Baptist, Jewish … whatever religious beliefs."

But, Faulkner said, "When you have radio and TV programs and a storefront establishment preaching against a religion, people of that faith look at you and will make comments about you."

Hulse's straightforward evangelistic technique obviously rubs people the wrong way, said Jane Langford, editor of the local weekly newspaper, The Nauvoo New Independent. She said Hulse's expertise gives him credibility and rankles the Mormons.

"Rocky has done his research," said Langford, a Catholic who has published several of Hulse's articles. "I've given him a platform and he took it. At times maybe he took it too far. I've had a backlash, but I've tried to keep the tradition of the newspaper. I'm sure if I folded up, the Mormon Church would finance and start a newspaper which would have their slant to it."

Hulse was a Mormon for 31 years before he heard a "cowboy preacher" at a rodeo on Jan. 1, 1986. He was saved on the spot and felt God leading him to evangelize Mormons and tell Christians about Mormonism. In 1999, while stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Chicago, Hulse and his wife started an outreach to Mormons. Their first taste of Nauvoo, according to the Tribune news story, came in 2002 when Hulse was barred from an open house at the new Mormon temple because he was deemed "disruptive."

The Nauvoo Christian Visitors Center is one of three visitors centers in the community. One is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the other by the reorganized Community of Christ, an offshoot of the main Mormon body. The other visitors centers, Hulse said, claim the only true church is the one started by Joseph Smith.

The visitors center the Hulses operate existed before they arrived in Nauvoo in 2005.

"No one ever challenges the Mormon Church at the level we do it," Hulse said. "Our TV show has us in many markets. They have rewritten doctrines that they don't tell anyone.

"If we are being untruthful, they have every right to expose us. No one has come forth because there is nothing to expose."

The Nauvoo Christian Visitors Center may be found on the Internet at http://www.nauvoochristian.org/.

[Zakeet]

From the Nauvoo Christian Visitors Center Website:

The Nauvoo Christian Visitors Center (NCVC) is located in the heart of the downtown business district of Nauvoo, Illinois at 1340 Mulholland St. The mission of the Center is education, not only for those whose religion traces its foundation back to Joseph Smith, but also, to the Christian and non-Christian alike.

Unfortunately those religions whose origin begins with Joseph Smith do not provide to their membership an accurate picture of the person of Joseph Smith or an accurate recounting of their history and origins.

It is the mission of NCVC to provide that information, which clearly shows the various Mormon sects cannot be Christian and then to assist those caught up in these false religions to come to know the Jesus of the Bible as their Lord and Savior.

[Zakeet]

Ping.

[Free Vulcan]

Rocky and Helen are personal friends of my parents. What they say doesn’t make alot of people happy, but then again they don’t threaten, rob, intimidate, slander - to name a few - all things that have been done to them repeatedly.

Those who don’t like their message haven’t done themselves any favors with the antics they’ve perpetrated against the Hulses.

[Gamecock]

Bishop David Wright, a Mormon leader in Nauvoo, described Hulse's ministry to The Chicago Tribune as "a non-Christian center or anti-Mormon center," saying, "I don't see anything Christian about it."

Translation: How dare he! Only Mormons are allowed to "evangelize."

[Tennessee Nana]

Thanks for the PING

[Elsie]

Not everyone welcomes his message.

DUH!

[Elsie]

"No one ever challenges the Mormon Church at the level we do it," Hulse said. "Our TV show has us in many markets. They have rewritten doctrines that they don't tell anyone.

Preach it Brother!

We Flying Imams are trying, in our own small, bumbling way, to emulate what you do on FR.

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Jude 1:3

  Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

 

---

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Romans 6:17
   But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.

 

 Romans 15:4
   For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

 

 Romans 16:17
   I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.

 

1 Corinthians 4:17
   For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

 

1 Corinthians 11:1-2
 1.  Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
 2.  I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the teachings,  just as I passed them on to you.

 

Ephesians 4:14
   Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

 

2 Thessalonians 2:15
   So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings  we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

 

2 Thessalonians 3:6
   In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching  you received from us.

 

1 Timothy 1:3-4
 3.  As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer
 4.  nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God's work--which is by faith.

 

1 Timothy 2:7
   And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle--I am telling the truth, I am not lying--and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.

 

1 Timothy 4:6
   If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.

 

 2 Timothy 1:13
  What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.

 

2 Timothy 2:2
  And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

Hebrews 13:8-9
 8.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
 9.  Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them.

 

2 John 1:10
   If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him.

 

Titus 2:1
  You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.

[Elsie]

Hulse reported that threat to police in Nauvoo, who passed it on to Illinois and Utah authorities. The e-mail was traced to the computer of Phil Rogers, a Mormon who works as a court officer in Farmington, Utah, near Salt Lake City. An April 15, 2007, article in The Chicago Tribune quoted Rogers as saying that someone hacked into his Internet account while he was using an open router. The Tribune interviewed Internet security experts who said such tampering could have easily occurred.

---

[Godzilla]

I can feel the LDS love (/sarc)

Typical aggressive tactics, other ex organizations have had to put up with.

[Elsie]

 

It could HAPPEN!

[Elsie]

Is Hillary a MORMON??

 

 

...could be!

[Godzilla]

Baawwwhahhahahahwwhh

Now have to clean coffee off screen and keyboard.

[Utah Binger]

[colorcountry]

Mr. and Mrs Rocky Hulse are brave people. I thank them for their dedication to Christ! They will touch hearts and change people for Him.

God can do the miracles of making Rocky and even me, one of His, and He save us from the me-focused, earthly-bond-dominated, cult of Mormonism.

Praise God.

[Utah Binger]

Mr. and Mrs Rocky Hulse are brave people.

Very true. It is tough to stick your neck out publicly with some of the weird and crazy fundamental haters of "apostates". There might even be a few of them lurking here. Hard to tell though as they are all so special.

I like it when Elsie stirs up the pot though!

[Ottofire]

You mean there are idiots in the Mormon church too?

Score another one for total depravity.

[greyfoxx39]

Very true. It is tough to stick your neck out publicly with some of the weird and crazy fundamental haters of "apostates". There might even be a few of them lurking here. Hard to tell though as they are all so special.

THE NEW AND IMPROVED MORMON "GARMENT"....TEFLON! Allows the wearer to broadcast any kind of hate speech with impunity. Any rebuttal just slides right off. Those aren't really holes you see in that shirt...they are the leftovers from the "cannonized doctrine" after the words of the prophets are edited out!

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Domandred]

So this visitor center is more to preach against Mormons then it is to preach the Gospel? Sorry but that is not Christian, and neither are you.

[greyfoxx39]

Sorry but that is not Christian, and neither are you.

See #17