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We hear it over and over again. "We never put down other churches. That's not Christian." Or, a variant on this theme is, "You have strengthened my testimony, because you are persecuting the Church!" Often LDS people interpret any disagreement with their beliefs as "persecution" or "bashing," and claim that theirChurch would never do that!Yet, in reality, disagreement and refutation is not persecution. If it is, then Paul was "persecuting" the Judaizers in Galatia when he wrote such a strong letter denouncing their beliefs (the book of Galatians). Christians are to stand for the truth, and "refute those who contradict"...

INTRODUCTION The provision provided by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most key and critical doctrine in the Bible. The death and resurrection of Christ is the culmination of the Biblical narrative and the heart of the gospel message It may come as a shock to Christians to be told that the Mormon church does not believe that the death of Christ provides for the salvation from sins as is taught in historic, traditional Christianity. It must be remembered that Mormon doctrine is not based on the doctrines and teachings of the Bible. Almost every traditional...

Dallin Oaks' Harvard appearance part of LDS drive to increase understanding, awareness of religion ... The tripartite structure of the Godhead is one of the central aspects of LDS theology that Elder Oaks stressed as critical to LDS beliefs. “We maintain that … God the Father is not a spirit but a glorified Being with a tangible body, as is his resurrected Son, Jesus Christ. Though separate in identity, they are one in purpose.” In addition, the purpose of existence in this reality has a definite purpose in LDS: “to qualify for the glorified celestial condition and relationships that are...

Well, I see it's back. Mitt Romney is now claiming he was never pro-choice. He's a liar: Romney Truth FileFree Republic's Rino Free America Project Jim Rob's tirade is on again against Mitt Romney. And so every thread is interrupted with an anti-Romney insert.

" Historically, only until recently have Mormons wanted to be called Christians, preferring not to be included with Christian denominations which Joseph Smith said were, "all wrong...all there creeds were an abomination in his sight, and that those professors (Christians) were all corrupt." (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith, 2:18-19) In the past Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) have preferred to be called "saints." However, in the recent years the LDS church has spend millions in an intense public relations campaign aimed at moving their church into the mainstream of Christianity. (slice) First: Mormons do not...

The Gospel Principles 2009 manual essentially calls classical Christianity “false Christianity” and its theology of God “pagan” and its adherents those who are “called” Christian. If we talked about Mormon beliefs and Mormonism and Mormon members this way, we’d get priesthood-slapped. Yes, you heard me right. Let me explain. In chapter 16 it implicitly taps into popular assumptions about Nicaea and then says that “false Christianity” (that the “Roman emperor adopted”) “taught that God was a being without form or substance.” My first reaction was that the New Testament teaches that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and...

 10. Blog hawking (I know, I know, we're supposed to be nice.)  9. Run-on, single-paragraph posts 8. Pings to Jim Robinson with kiss ass complements 7. Posting "hugh and series", "stuned beeber" or "Bush's fault" 6. A post asking a noOb if they are sure they're logged in 5. Passive-aggressive keyword epithet war 4. Satire posts that fool you (the rest are hilarious) 3. Viking Kitties (just kidding... love ya'... really...  who'd poke fun at you...  rah roh.) 2. Vanities 1. ...

I asked for it. My column last week was met with an overwhelming response from active Latter-day Saints, objective religious observers and fervent anti-Mormons. It made its way onto several message boards and blogs, sparking discussions that ran the gamut from the insightful and constructive to the snarky and fruitless. All in all, the column -- in which I encouraged Mormon readers to genuinely ask aggressors why they so dislike the church and its members -- garnered hundreds of replies. There was no way I could have responded to every message. Still, many of their responses were insightful and, I...

... The Mormons regard themselves as Christians, and Jesus figures prominently on the covers of LDS publications. They believe that after the death of Christ's apostles his church became confused, a period that ended only with the restoration of the Gospel by the presentation of another book of scripture by an angel to LDS founder Joseph Smith. Most Christian theologians, however, disagree, not just because they disbelieve the angel story and the Book of Mormon that resulted, but by pointing to Mormon concepts including the ability of humans to become godlike entities after death. Most perturbed have been conservative Evangelicals...

The Rise of Mormonism If anyone doubts that the Mormonism is a growing concern, just consider these facts. The Mormon church has grown from 2 million members in 1963 to 9.7 million members today with "stakes" (as they call their congregations) in 160 different countries. In the United States alone there are approximately 5 million people who claim to be Mormons!As we express our deep concerns about the anti-Christian nature of Mormonism, it is important that we recognize that many Mormons are fine people, with high moral values and deep devotion to their family. The sincerity of the Mormon people...

Mormons want you to believe that they are "Christians" and that their church, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints", is just another Christian denomination. Mormons themselves believe that they are Christians and that their church is the only true church. Joseph Smith receiving his vision There is even a move among Mormons to shorten the name of their church to simply "The Church of Jesus Christ."Their founder, Joseph Smith claimed to have been told in a vision regarding the Christian churches that God "forbade me to join with any of them" and "all their creeds were an...

Parts of my article found at: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/840079/posts (disproof-inserts added by Bro. Frank Fantasia) "And so it was said that his name would be known for both good and evil." --D&C I am going to be rather bold here. I am both a proud and active member of the LDS Church and of the Fraternity of Freemasory. I have also had the privalege to study under a 9th generation Witch who is also a friend of mine. Becoming an author, I am also a University Student in Theology, History, Literature, Creative Writing, Fantasy, Philosophy and Poetry. I have been a practitioner...

Reading all of these threads about Mormonism, I am utterly confused about what Mormonism is, exactly. What is all of this stuff about Jews coming to America in 600 BC? What is the Book of Abraham and why is Abraham writing in Egyptian Hieroglyphs? What does the book of Mormon? What is the storyline of it? I am confused as to what all of the Mormon writings are about, and how it is all put together theologically. Please explain.

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Shortly after the raid began on the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch, a group of Mormon missionaries sat down to eat at a restaurant here. A man shouted out "compound!" "There was this guy. He held up a knife and yelled at us," said Elder Tyler Duffy from Orem. Some of the fallout from the raid on the YFZ Ranch is being felt by members and missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While the FLDS Church is not connected in any way to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, some...

Most people have better things to do with their life than to be an "anti" anything. But for the benefit of Evangelical Christians who think it's their calling in life to become religious stalkers to Mormons and Mormonism, it is worth taking a few minutes to talk about how to at least be a good anti-Mormon (one that can one day stand confidently before God to report on their labors) as opposed to a bad one. My thoughts here, while not responding directly to any one post, were motivated by this post -- apparently by an Evangelical who is just...

What has happened to the simple principle of telling the truth? That question should be posed to the Mormon community. I’m not an expert on anything—but I do know a little bit about Mormonism—or, as they prefer to be called, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS). My father was a Mormon for several years and many of his family were Mormons. I have also spent a considerable amount of time reading LDS literature. Again, that doesn’t make me an expert, but at least educated. I have observed a notable change in the way the LDS Church...

FOXNews.com compiled a list of 21 questions representing some widely-held beliefs and misconceptions about Mormonism, and posed them to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church objected to answering some of the questions on the grounds that they misrepresent the basic tenets of the Mormon religion. "Many of these questions are typically found on anti-Mormon blogs or Web sites which aim to misrepresent or distort Mormon doctrines," the Church said in a statement. "Several of these questions do not represent ... any serious attempt to depict the core values and beliefs of its members." Here are the...

Not only is Mormonism a Christian faith, it is the truest form of Christianity, said speaker after speaker on the first day of the 177th Semiannual LDS General Conference. LDS authorities were responding to the allegation that Mormonism isn't part of Christianity. Made by different mainline Protestant and Catholic churches and repeated constantly during coverage of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, the claim is based on Mormonism's beliefs about God, its rejection of ancient ideas about the Trinity still widely accepted, and the LDS Church's extra-biblical scriptures. "It is not our purpose to demean any person's belief nor the doctrine of...

Sometimes things happen in American politics that make no sense at all. We are experiencing just one of those moments in the 2008 presidential campaign.I thought that the concept of a religious test for public office in our country was put to bed once and for all when John Kennedy, a Catholic, was elected president in 1960 and Joe Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, was nominated for vice president in 2000. Now we have a candidate with a record of accomplishment, Mitt Romney, who is consistently lagging in the polls with the most credible reason being that significant numbers of Republican...

By the time Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election in 1860, there had already been several attempts on his life. His anti-slavery stance caused the nation to split within days of his victory. Because his life was in danger, he was hidden in the luggage rack of the train that took him into Washington, D.C., and for the first time in our democracy, a duly elected president had to be sneaked into the White House under the cover of darkness. Decades before Lincoln, Joseph Smith’s progressive announcement that he would run for president on an anti-slavery platform was explosive and...

The following draws from the book Is the Mormon My Brother by apologist James White. Earlier this year, Paul Kaiser reprinted a Worldview article titled 10 Mormonism Facts which generated a myriad of responses from visitors who stated that Mormons were being misrepresented and are simply our brothers & sisters in the Body of Christ. Let’s look at what Dr. White presents using LDS resources: The First VisionWithout question the key revelation in Mormon Scripture regarding the nature of God is to be found in what is known as the First Vision of Joseph Smith. The vision itself is fundamental...

TAMPA - Sam Glover was sitting on his front porch one evening last month, enjoying the breeze, when two clean-cut young men approached with a proposition. How would he like to visit their church and learn more about Jesus Christ? Glover eagerly agreed and made an appointment to come by their Carrollwood church the next day. It was only later that Glover realized the men, who introduced themselves as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, were Mormon missionaries. They were looking for converts to a religion as American as baseball, but often seen as from outer...

The first Christians were charged with blasphemy because they refused to confess “Caesar is Lord.� For this crime against the state, they were crucified, lit on fire, and served as human torches to light the evening parties in Caesar’s gardens. Jesus was the first to teach the separation of church and state. His followers were instructed to “Render unto Caesar, that which is Caesar’s, and to God, that which is God’s.� This was a direct challenge to the unified powers of Caesar as both priest and king. It was required of Roman citizens to proclaim “Caesar is Lord.� But for...

1 We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. 2 We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression. 3 We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. 4 We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of...

Am I an anti-Mormon bigot for simply raising this question? In this column two weeks ago (available here), I stated I would vote for Mitt Romney should he win the Republican nomination, and that “though I am willing to unite with and befriend Mormons in common cause to advance our shared values, I am hoping to be a voice of clarity – unwilling to allow Mormonism to be mistaken for orthodox Christianity and unwilling again to disqualify a candidate simply because he is from a faith tradition so different from my own.” I also stated, “many Mormons in recent years...

They Shoot Mormons, Don't They? Religious bigotry, alive and well today May 4, 2007 - by Saundra Duffy-Hawkins “I wouldn’t vote for a Mormon for dogcatcher, much less President of the United States!” There’s a lot of that kind of hateful rhetoric going around since Mitt Romney decided to throw his hat in the ring – as if Mormons are some kind of hideous evil monsters. The loudest anti-Mormon shouts, sad to say, are coming from America’s so-called “Christian right”. How can Mitt Romney hope to get a fair shake in this spiritually polluted atmosphere? There was another man running...

Mitt Romney is a picture perfect Republican candidate for President. Some on the left have suggested that Romney carries extra baggage: He is a member of the LDS (Mormon) Church. Will traditional Christians vote for a Mormon? Traditional Christians believe their faith can inform politics. Other faiths can reach similar conclusions and become allies. Americans are electing the President of the United States not the Patriarch of Antioch, the Bishop of Rome, or the President of the Southern Baptist Convention. Any labeling of Mormons as too “weird” to serve the public sets a risky precedent that will come back to...