Free Republic

Nobel-laureate Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and a top official from the Simon Wiesenthal Center said Tuesday that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney should use his stature in the Mormon church to block its members from posthumously baptizing Jewish Holocaust victims. Their comments followed reports that Mormons had baptized the deceased parents of Wiesenthal, the late Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter. A spokeswoman for Romney said his campaign would not comment, directing all inquiries to church officials. Posthumous baptisms of non-Mormons are a regular practice of the Mormon religion. Church members believe the ritual creates the possibility for the deceased to...

...Mormon church leaders apologized to the family of Holocaust survivor and Jewish rights advocate Simon Wiesenthal after his parents were posthumously baptized, a controversial ritual that Mormons believe allows deceased people a way to the afterlife but offends members of many other religions. Wiesenthal died in 2005 after surviving the Nazi death camps and spending his life documenting Holocaust crimes and hunting down perpetrators who remained at large. Jews are particularly offended by an attempt to alter the religion of Holocaust victims, who were murdered because of their religion, and the baptism of Holocaust survivors was supposed to have been...

Pat Waldron asserts that Mormons are Christians and offers these reasons: First, Mormons call themselves "The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints." Second, Mormon temples contain pictures of Jesus. Third, the Mormon choir will "bring tears to your eyes, if you are a Christian." And, fourth, Mormons are nice people. But these "reasons" are hardly convincing because they deal only with superficial appearances. A more robust analysis reveals that Mormons reject absolutely essential Biblical beliefs that Christians have held for centuries. First, Mormons reject the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Christians believe that there is one God...

He took as many as 48 wives. Sources: [Official LDS website: FamilySearch.org] [A comprehensive PDF] [Wikipedia]Many were teenagers, as young as 13 years old. Many were already married to other men and continued in polyandry: having more than one husband.He married pairs of sisters, and even took a mother and her daughter for wives. The wives of the prophetsThe first seven Mormon prophets had at least 135 wives. Mormon prophet Number of wives Joseph Smith 48 Brigham Young 55 John Taylor 7 Wilford Woodruff 5 Lorenzo Snow 11 Joseph F. Smith 6 Heber J. Grant 3 Summary of Events...

The two groups with more than a few members are the FLDS (see Are members of the FLDS church “mormons”?) and the Community of Christ (formerly known as the Reformed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.) The Salt Lake based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has 14M members, and the second largest of such groups has at most 40,000 members. Historically...the other groups are all splinters from from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... SNIP It is also reasonably argued that “mormon” should be allowed as a genericized noun. There are many famous cases...

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On January 22 (2012) on Fox News Sunday Mormon presidential candidate Mitt Romney answered a question from Chris Wallace regarding Mr. Romney’s generous financial gifts (tithing) to the Mormon Church. Mr. Romney said, "This is a country that believes in the Bible, the Bible speaks about providing tithes and offerings, I made a commitment to my church a long, long time ago that I would give 10 percent of my income to the church, and I’ve followed through on that commitment. And hopefully as people look at the various individuals who’re running for president they’d be pleased with someone who...

I’m LDS, and I fully realize that the Mormon vote is going for Romney. He’s going to take Utah. And Arizona. Pardon me for not joining. I know the thinking. When that LDS tag is attached, members of the Church all understand that the person is honest, loving, trustworthy, etc., and all the others are questionable. I don’t buy that. I’ve seen too much of life to just accept that premise without any question. The rough approximations of the assumption of the character of LDS people are true, but in specific instances, you can’t count on that as a perfectly...

The Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced recent the recent posthumous “baptism” of the parents of Simon Wiesenthal in Mormon temples (see image from website) “We are outraged that such insensitive actions continue in the Mormon Temples. Throughout his life, Simon Wiesenthal especially revered his beloved mother who was deported and murdered at Belzec death camp in 1942. Such actions make a mockery of the many meetings with the top leadership of the Mormon Church dating back to 1995 that focused on the unwanted and unwarranted posthumous baptisms of Jewish Victims of the Nazi Holocaust,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of...

Chicago—In 1835 a traveling curiosity peddler of Egyptian mummies arrived in the small town of Kirtland, Ohio. He caught the attention of Joseph Smith (1805-44), the controversial founder of the Mormon religion. Smith secured a large sum of money from his followers ($2,400, or $60,000 in today’s dollars) to purchase four Egyptian mummies with scrolls of papyri. Smith announced that he could do what no one else could do: translate the ancient hieroglyphics. Smith asserted that the papyri contained the writings of the biblical prophets Abraham and Joseph. He titled his translation of the papyri the “Book of Abraham.” Smith’s...

PROVO -- A major new art exhibit is currently undergoing installation at the BYU Museum of Art is expected to attract 100,000 visitors and will feature art from the world of Islam. KSL was able to get an exclusive first look. The "Beauty and Belief" exhibit is expected to attract 100-thousand visitors. Works will travel to four museums in America, but they make their first stop in Provo. The exhibit team is mounting 250 works of art. A pair of 19th century mother-of-pearl doors from India were donated by the Doris Duke Foundation in Hawaii. A heavy, jewel-encrusted box from...

DUCHESNE — A judge has ordered an LDS Church bishop to stand trial on charges of witness tampering and failure to report abuse. But the defense attorney for Bishop Gordon Moon called the judge's order "a far cry from a ringing endorsement of the prosecution's case." "I think anyone who reads the bindover order can see that," attorney David Leavitt said Wednesday. "From our perspective, the bindover was something we expected because the burden of proof is so low." Moon, 43, is accused of failing to notify police about a 17-year-old girl's disclosure that she had been sexually abused by...

<p>Despite major gains in pop and political culture, many Evangelicals remain wary of Mormons. Just ask Latter Day Saints (LDS) church member Mitt Romney who is currently struggling to claim front-runner status as the Republican nominee. Political pundits believe the lack of Evangelical support is crippling his campaign.</p>

Mitt Romney never has bad hair days, but yesterday was truly a bad political one. How bad? Consider this: • Romney did not win a single county in either Missouri or Minnesota. • He won the Minnesota caucus by 19 points in 2008, but finished third last night—28 points behind Santorum. • He won nearly 30 percent of the Missouri vote in 2008 in a tight three-man race, but won only 25 percent last night in a race with only one opponent whom the national media had given up for dead. • He won the Colorado caucus by over 40...

Brigham Youg University has the largest library of books on Muslims scholars. It has been in the forefront of taking old books and translating them into English and publishing them. The Morman are call themselves the Church of Christ and Latter Day Saints–believing that there are prophets after Jesus Christ. The Mormons are Unitarians and reject Trinity. The LDS position on Islam can be found in an August 2000 article by James Toronto, entitled “A Latter-day Saint Perspective on Muhammad,” from Ensign—the church’s flagship monthly magazine. In the clearest and most complete elucidation of its position on Muslims, Toronto, the...

Americans, from sea to shining sea, are hurting and confused. We are told, daily, that everything is getting better. America's best days are still in her future. The overwhelming evidence (continually declining home prices, escalating unemployment figures, massive cuts in defense as our enemies strengthen, etc.) point in the opposite direction. What are we to believe? Several politicians, who are all fine speakers, are running for the presidency. I fear that, metaphorically, our nation has hit a massive iceberg and has an irreparable rip from bow to stern. Like the RMS Titanic, we're going down. We don't need excellent orators;...

Mitt Romney says it's been a good night for Rick Santorum, but that he still expects to become the Republican nominee for president. After losses to Santorum in Missouri's non-binding primary and the Minnesota caucuses -- where he is in third place -- Romney is congratulating the former Pennsylvania senator but continuing to focus on President Barack Obama. Despite Tuesday's setbacks, Romney says he is ready to lead the Republican Party and is happy to compare his record on leadership to Obama's.

...I attended a luncheon for the Holocaust Museum...Each year I ask myself, Why am I here? ...Tis a gruesome tradition. I think of my grandfather, Rabbi Jacob Meyer Rakowski... My grandfather was the...last — descendant of a rabbinic dynasty hailing back to 11th century France. At age 82, grandpa was gassed in Auschwitz, together with 47 members of my parents' families. I last saw him two years earlier, when my parents, my brother and I were deported to Siberia. I'm retelling this old history because now, with Mitt Romney possibly becoming the Republican nominee, it's important to remember that his...

I decided to search the web for more info on Mormonism, and found this very interesting site. The page I linked above consists of ex-Mormons posting their stories of when/how they realized something was very wrong with the picture. A lot of the stuff is just blowing me away.

[Me: The title of the article says "hesitant," but the article says that 22% is a flat "no" in answer to the question ending with "would you vote for that person?"]Though the vast majority of Americans say they would vote for their party's nominee for president in 2012 if that person happens to be a Mormon, 22% say they would not, a figure largely unchanged since 1967. [Me: Is less than 4 out of 5 really considered "vast?"]The new Gallup poll, conducted June 9-12, finds nearly 20% of Republicans and independents saying they would not support a Mormon for president....

The Mormon Church owns one of the most active and unregulated gun sale portals on the web, according to a national investigation released by the New York City Mayor's office. The website in question is KSL.com, the online hub for Utah's NBC affiliate and sister radio station, which are both owned and operated by the for-profit arm of the Mormon Church. In addition to local news, KSL.com produces a popular classifieds section that reaches millions of users well beyond Utah.The LDS connection drew little notice when Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a leading financier of the gun control movement, published the report...

As Mitt Romney solidifies his frontrunner status with a double-digit win this week in the Florida Republican primary, Mormons are embracing a unique moment in their political history that has been dubbed the “Mormon moment” — but not without concerns about what the increasing prominence could mean for their community. In extensive interviews with 10 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who live and work in the D.C.-area, POLITICO discovered a close-knit community that is enjoying, granted with some reservations, the national spotlight that Romney’s second White House bid is helping to shine on Mormons across...

Park Romney says some pretty wild things. Mormonism, he writes on the Web site parkromney.com, “is an insidious contemporary fraud.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is “an American cult,” he professes. Mitt Romney, he claims, would be conflicted in office because “obedience to the leadership of the Mormon Church is part of the covenant of the temple ordinances to which Mitt Romney is absolutely a party.” Were you to come across a man articulating such views on a street corner, you probably would give him a wide berth and look over your shoulder to make sure he...

...A religious studies class late last year at Utah State University...was unusual for two reasons. The small group of students, faculty and faithful there to hear Mormon Elder Marlin Jensen were openly troubled about the future...asking hard questions. And Jensen was uncharacteristically frank... Did the leaders...know that members are "leaving in droves?" a woman asked. "We are aware," said Jensen, according to a tape recording of his unscripted remarks. "And I'm speaking of the 15 men that are above me in the hierarchy of the church."... "My own daughter," he then added, "has come to me and said, 'Dad, why...

SNIP Until 1978, the LDS church banned men of African descent from its priesthood... SNIP The LDS church has neither formally apologized for the priesthood ban nor publicly repudiated many of the theories used to justify it for more than 125 years. SNIP ...many blacks perceive the LDS church as racist... ...Rev. O’Neal Dozier told The Palm Beach Post...“The Book of Mormon says the Negro skin is cursed.” ...another Mormon scripture, The Pearl of Great Price, says, “blackness came upon” Cain’s descendants, who were “despised among all people.” SNIP ...Tim Russert noted that Romney was 31 when the priesthood ban...

Richard L. Bushman...wrote in 2005 "Rough Stone Rolling..." "I first became aware of the problems shortly after 'Rough Stone Rolling' came out...I thought I was getting these emails asking for help..." Then Bushman heard that many other scholars were also being beset with queries from members of the LDS Church who had encountered something on the Internet that had shaken their faith. He began to hear the same thing from ordinary Mormons who had friends or family who were having problems. He also heard from people at BYU how it was a problem there as well. People were encountering things...

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is losing a record number of its membership. A new report quotes an LDS general authority who said more members are falling away today than any time in the past 175 years. At meetings like General Conference, Utahns may be used to seeing members of the LDS Church show up in record numbers. But according to a recent Reuters article citing LDS General Authority Marlin K. Jensen, for the church as a whole, the record in going in a different direction. Elder Jensen told the...

June 1986 I HAVE A QUESTION I Have a question I've noticed a trend for newlyweds to have elaboratevexpensive wedding receptions. Is this necessary particularly for a temple marriage? ... How can Jesus and Lucifer be spirit brothers when their characters and purposes are so utterly opposed? Jess L. Christensen, Institute of Religion director at Utah State University, Logan Utah. On first hearing the doctrine that Lucifer and our Lord, Jesus Christ are brothers may seem surprising to some - especially to those unacquainted with latter-day revelations. But both the scriptures and the prophets affirm that Jesus Christ and Lucifer...

MORmONS come up with the most insane idiocy, and then they expect others to believe it because they say so, then they get offended when others dont. LDS INC has been working very hard to keep this video blocker and off of youtube because it helps shows just how stupid MORmON claims really

The Salon article "Mitt and the White Horse Prophecy A close look at the roots of Romney's -- and the Mormon church's -- political ambitions" by Sally Denton will no doubt be dismissed as a religious smear by those inclined to support Mitt Romney... ...if we as an electorate truly did consider totally off limits all questions about what a candidate believes about God, the role of his faith in society and history and how his particular creed dictates that he behaves -- then I'd be fine with declaring articles like Denton's irrelevant if not beyond the pale. But it's...

After wondering aloud yesterday whether the Romneys converted Mitt's dead father-in-law to Mormonism...Yes. They did. Edward Davies, Ann Romney's father, was an atheist who was also strongly anti-religion. By the time he died, he was the only member of Ann Romney's immediate family to not convert to Mormonism. Fourteen months later, in 1993, he was baptized in a special ceremony at a Salt Lake City church. This practice requires a living person who has already been baptized to undergo the immersion in water again on behalf of the dead. No word on who this person might have been in Davies'...

There is an element of the Mormon faith that hasn't gotten a lot of attention, but if Romney is the nominee, it will....the relatively recent racism of the Church...which practiced exclusion and contempt for African-Americans...and has yet to fully repudiate it. It wasn't until 1978 that the LDS church allowed African-American males into the priesthood -- an essential post that nearly all...males attain. Mormon men don't get to be god of their own planet without it. Yet Romney, as a Mormon missionary...tried to convert others into a faith that practiced overt racism...He was 31 years old before blacks were allowed...

Mitt Romney's tax returns reveal that the Republican presidential candidate does something fewer Americans do these days: He tithes. Romney's 2009 and 2010 tax returns, released Tuesday, show that he and his wife, Ann, gave 10 percent of their income, about $4.1 million, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The couple reported income of about $43 million for the two years. LDS church members must tithe to participate in temple rituals. Nearly 80 percent of Mormons tithe, a poll released this month by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows. While tithing among Mormons is...

Dear Mr. Joseph Smith, Is it a good work to vote my conscience or must I vote for elder Romney? Has anyone polled the mormon vote? Will the mormons vote their conscience or will they vote for Romney because he is a mormon? I voted for Romney because he's a mormon = I voted for Obama because he is black.

SNIP ...a unique poll of more than 1,000 American Mormons, released this month by the respected and independent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. It’s 125-page report is titled “Certain in their beliefs, uncertain in their place in society.“SNIP Here are just a few facts about Mormons from the Pew Forum’s extensive polling report:- Mormons make up two per cent of the U.S. population. They are concentrated in Utah (34 per cent), the Mountain states and the Pacific Northwest. - Nearly half (46%) of Mormons say that Mormons face a lot of discrimination in the U.S. today. That is...

Newt Gingrich, the winner in the Palmetto State's GOP primary, may have benefited from South Carolinians' uneasiness with Mitt Romney's Mormon faith. Exit polls show that 43 percent of voters who said that the candidates' religious beliefs mattered "a great deal" went for Gingrich. Only 9 percent went for Romney -- a lower percentage than he netted overall, where he is running in second. In contrast, of voters who said the religious beliefs of candidates didn't matter to them at all, Romney won 42 percent. SNIP Huckabee did add, however, that Romney may nevertheless have to address his faith to...

Many GOP voters -- including some well-meaning Freepers -- keep attempting to lecture voters that Mitt Romney's Mormonism "doesn't matter." Well, tell that to three of every five South Carolina primary voters who, according to CNN exit polls, said a candidate's religion mattered either "a great deal" or "somewhat." Click EXIT POLLS: South Carolina for polling data. Only 40 percent of South Carolina GOP voters said that the "Religious Beliefs of Candidates Matter... Not Much/Not at All" Two-fifths of the "Not Much/Not at All" Crowd voted pro-Romney -- compared to... ...less than one-third of them voting for Gingrich... ...less than...

GILBERT, S.C. — Lois Buffington shook her head when she talked about the evangelical Christians she knows who won't vote for Mitt Romney in Saturday's presidential primary here because he's a Mormon. "That angers me, and I am a Southern Baptist from day one and will always be," said Buffington, a retired business owner from nearby Lexington who stood outside in the rain Friday to hear Romney speak on the final full day of campaigning before Saturday's primary vote. "Mr. Romney is a Mormon because that's his belief and his choice. That's what America was built on, freedom of choice,"...

In a new biography, two...Boston Globe reporters write about...Mitt Romney... On their hunt for The Real Romney, Scott Helman and Michael Kranish traced Romney's life... SNIP He...became a leader in the Mormon lay clergy...and eventually became the leader of more than a dozen congregations in eastern Massachusetts. SNIP Peggie HayesHelman: "One of the things the Mormon church does not look kindly upon is single parenthood. There was a woman named Peggie Hayes who had known Romney when she was in his ward. She had come from a family which had had some struggles, had looked to Mormonism to anchor them....

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Daily Caller has learned that 100 tea party leaders from 25 states will announce Thursday that they are supporting Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and will form a coalition called Tea Partiers With Newt. The news comes as signs appear that tea partiers here in South Carolina, which holds a primary Saturday, may be coalescing around Gingrich. “My sense is there is a growing coalition behind Newt Gingrich,” Joe Dugan, who leads the state’s chapter of Tea Party Patriots, told TheDC. A news release that will go out Thursday from the Gingrich campaign says the coalition...

An author who grew up in the Mormon Church says she isn't surprised that a recent survey of Latter-day Saints (LDS) shows that they overwhelmingly consider themselves to be Christians. The survey, "Mormons in America: Certain in Their Beliefs, Uncertain of Their Place in Society," was conducted by The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. It shows that 97 percent of Mormons consider themselves Christians. But an earlier Pew survey of the general public found that only 51 percent of Americans agree. Tricia Erickson is the author of Can Mitt Romney Serve Two Masters? The Mormon Church Versus the...

.......... the private equity giant once run by the GOP presidential frontrunner carved his church a slice of several of its most lucrative business deals, securities records show..-SNIP-As part of just one Bain transaction in 2008, involving its investment in Burger King Holdings, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal that an unnamed Bain partner donated 65,326 shares of Burger King stock to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, holdings then worth nearly $1.9 million. And there were numerous others, giving the church a stake in other Bain properties, such as Domino's Pizza, the electronics manufacturer DDi,...

DNA evidence is offering a serious challenge to the Mormon claim that Native Americans are descended from Hebrew colonizers who came to the Americas around the time Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians hundreds of years before Christ. Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, claimed that an angel named Moroni appeared to him when he was 17 and told him of golden plates buried in a stone box near his family’s home in Palmyra, New York. The angel also told Smith that the plates contained an “account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang.” Smith retrieved...

I knew this would happen and in a way, it is a good thing because it will also bring focus to Barack Obama's eligibility. Reading the paperwork on this I found out some things I wasn't aware of pertaining to our citizenship statutes back in the 1940's such as the statute listed in this challenge, U.S. Nationality Act of 1940 Sect 201, 54 Stat. 1137 which provides provides the law by which a person born outside the U.S. is bound by in order to qualify legally as a U.S. citizen. For some that do not know, according to Mexican law...

Michael Moore sides with Gingrich on anti-Romney film Newt Gingrich has been at the forefront of the attacks on Mitt Romney‘s tenure at private equity firm Bain Capital. And it was pro-Gingrich Super PAC Winning Our Future that produced “When Mitt Romney Came to Town,” the controversial 28-minute documentary tying Romney to corporate greed. This has put Gingrich in an awkward alliance with liberal filmmaker Michael Moore. “I wondered who they stole from my crew,” Moore told the New York Times regarding the documentary. “It was fun to hear what I have been saying for 20 years, not just by...

<p>GREER, S.C. — The second time around, the shock has worn off.</p> <p>The prospect of a Mormon president appears to be less alien to South Carolina Republicans who are giving Mitt Romney a second look after his failed White House bid in 2008.</p>

(CBS News) Pastor Joel Osteen, one of America's most popular religious figures, said on "CBS This Morning" that GOP candidate Mitt Romney believes in Jesus like he does. "What I see about Governor Romney is that he says, 'I believe Jesus Christ is the son of God, he's raised from the dead and he's my savior.' I see him as being a believer in Christ, like me." Charlie Rose said, "That's enough for you?" "That's enough for me," Osteen said. "There's differences in all religion. I realize Mormonism is different from Christianity, but you know what, he's a man of...

I had the privilege to attend the meeting of evangelicals in Texas this weekend. Due to pressing matters before me Saturday I could not make the Saturday portion, but was there Friday hearing the advocacy for the candidates, the run down, etc. I did not vote. As with all meetings of Christian conservatives, we all pledge to have an off the record meeting and a handful of the sinners start leaking like sieves. It is aggravating and typically why I never say a word in these meetings. Since a few have decided to leak so many details from the meeting...

A conservative Christian caucus gave GOP presidential long shot Rick Santorum a last-ditch boost from a Texas ranch yesterday, bestowing its blessing upon the former Pennsylvania senator in an attempt to galvanize the God-fearing vote against front-runner Mitt Romney. About 150 social conservatives anointed Santorum as their man on the ballot, voting to back him over Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry — and, in doing so, to try and derail Romney after his back-to-back wins in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Their vote came as little surprise to Romney’s brethren at the Church of Jesus Christ of...

I have always prided myself on the fact of being a grassroots Conservative and when I find a tidbit, I try to put it out there where the goats can get it. Even I with my PHD(Plain High School Diploma)am smart enough to step off the train tracks when I see a light in the distance getting closer to me. This ranting may come from the mouth of a complete fool, but trust me, you will see this narrative again repeated in the Obama Media as he has no record of actual achievement to run on and if the establishment...