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Mormon Vampires in the Garden of Eden [The OTHER WORLD series]
TouchstoneMag.com ^ | November/December 2009 | John Granger

Posted on 10/20/2014 8:16:07 AM PDT by Colofornian

...Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books...featuring atypical vampires and werewolf champions are allegories...a re-telling of the Garden of Eden drama—with a Mormon twist. Here, the Fall is a good thing, even the key to salvation and divinization, just as Joseph Smith...the Latter-day Saint prophet, said it was...

The key word in...Meyer’s dream is not “vampire”...but “meadow.”...“Mountain Meadows,”...means something much less pastoral and positive and much more visceral and painful to...LDS. ...2003 saw the publication of three books...focused on the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which...Mormon faithful in Southern Utah executed...120 men, women, and children on their way to California from Arkansas.

All three books paint the Mormon faith as inherently bloodthirsty, violent, secretive, and abusive to women and non-believers...

...In his 2003 book, Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer presents many damning anecdotes about the suffering of child-brides in communities of polygamous LDS fundamentalists who live, for the most part, above and outside the law in the Mormon belt. These girls are wed in their early teens to much older men practicing what they call “celestial marriage.”...

...Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857...is an atrocity with few equivalents in American history. The only Mormon defenses for it have been the pathetic insistence that...migrating families somehow provoked the attack and ...all Utah was in a panic that they were about to be killed by the US Army and California militias gathering at their borders.

[SNIP]

Christians understand Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God, their “original sin,” or Fall, as the beginning of man’s distance from God, a distance that man could not restore on his own, but that required the incarnation and sacrifice of a divine, sinless Savior to accomplish.

Mormons reject this interpretation...not only was the Fall not a bad thing, it was actually a good, even necessary thing for human salvation...

(Excerpt) Read more at touchstonemag.com ...


TOPICS: General Discusssion; Other non-Christian; Religion & Culture; Theology
KEYWORDS: lds; mormon; twilight; vampires
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Well, THE World Series kicks off this week. But ya know, there is -- ANOTHER World...as in "The OTHER WORLD series!"

Mormon cosmology...Mormon anthropology...Mormon theology. And, as this review by a Mormon mag mentions, even Mormon alchemy and Mormon epistemology as well (All-in-one!)

If you want to skip most of the lengthy review of the vampire "Twilight" series -- and just want to get to the boiled-down summary. Well, here it is:

From the Touchstone Mag review:

...featuring atypical vampires and werewolf champions are allegories...a re-telling of the Garden of Eden drama—with a Mormon twist. Here, the Fall is a good thing, even the key to salvation and divinization, just as Joseph Smith, Jr., the Latter-day Saint prophet, said it was.

The reviewer even recounts the origination of The Twilight series as it occurred to Mormon writer Stephenie Meyer (a dream).

******************

As for the "series" element of this post, you can visit this link for primary research re: 19th century occultic Mormon phenomena: Paranormal intermingling, demonic possession [Vanity].

For this and 16 other articles posted as part of the 2013 "Other World Series" re: the occultic/paranormal linkage of Mormonism and "the other world," see: Colofornian's articles

This list did not include the final three postings from Oct. 31, 2013:
* The Haunting of a Mormon Missionary in Ecuador [The OTHER World Series]
* Earning Your Scooby Snack [The OTHER World Series: The Paranormal in Salt Lake City]
* A haunted house in Salt Lake City? McCune Mansion [The OTHER World Series]

1 posted on 10/20/2014 8:16:07 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: All
From the Touchstone Mag review re: Mormon "child-'brides'":

...In his 2003 book, Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer presents many damning anecdotes about the suffering of child-brides in communities of polygamous LDS fundamentalists who live, for the most part, above and outside the law in the Mormon belt. These girls are wed in their early teens to much older men practicing what they call “celestial marriage.”...

2 posted on 10/20/2014 8:16:32 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: All
From the Touchstone Mag review:

The key word in...Meyer’s dream is not “vampire”...but “meadow.”...“Mountain Meadows,”...means something much less pastoral and positive and much more visceral and painful to...LDS. ...2003 saw the publication of three books...focused on the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which...Mormon faithful in Southern Utah executed...120 men, women, and children on their way to California from Arkansas. All three books paint the Mormon faith as inherently bloodthirsty, violent, secretive, and abusive to women and non-believers...Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857...is an atrocity with few equivalents in American history. The only Mormon defenses for it have been the pathetic insistence that...migrating families somehow provoked the attack and ...all Utah was in a panic that they were about to be killed by the US Army and California militias gathering at their borders.

3 posted on 10/20/2014 8:17:14 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: All
From the Touchstone Mag review re: how the 'Fall' in the Garden of Eden matches Mormon theology that it was a "good thing": :

...Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books...featuring atypical vampires and werewolf champions are allegories...a re-telling of the Garden of Eden drama—with a Mormon twist. Here, the Fall is a good thing, even the key to salvation and divinization, just as Joseph Smith...the Latter-day Saint prophet, said it was...Christians understand Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God, their “original sin,” or Fall, as the beginning of man’s distance from God, a distance that man could not restore on his own, but that required the incarnation and sacrifice of a divine, sinless Savior to accomplish. Mormons reject this interpretation...not only was the Fall not a bad thing, it was actually a good, even necessary thing for human salvation...

Allow me to cite a few Lds current "apostles" (Packer & Oaks) presentation of the 'Fall" presented by Mormon leaders as a "good thing":

* Lds 'apostle Packer's distasteful Lds theology on the fall of mankind
* The Lds church in one of its priesthood manuals calls the Great Fall a  "Great Blessing" while one of its general authorities, active "apostle" Dallin Oaks, wrote: "Some Christians condemn Eve for her act, concluding that she and her daughters are somehow flawed by it. Not the Latter-day Saints! Informed by revelation, we celebrate Eve's act and honor her with wisdom and courage in the great episode called the Fall." ("The Choice that Began Mortality" Liahona, 2002)

Wow. As another Mormon leader phrased it, Eve's sin was a 'fall' -- but it was an "upward fall."
Only in upsidedown Mormonism... 
...are falls "upward" bounding... 
...are wars, murders, hate, idolatry, racism, rape, incest, sexual abuse, lust, theft, and other consequences of the fall a "blessing" to be "celebrated."... 
...is the pride of wanting to become a fellow "god" of THE God a "good thing..."  [Last time I checked the Bible, the prophet Isaiah didn't exactly promote that idea (Is. 14:14-16; chapter 43; chapter 44; chapter 45)]

For the sake of non-Mormons, allow me to explain the word "mortal" from a Mormon perspective: Why do Lds believe that by Adam & Eve sinning, it wasn't simply a "fall" -- but an "fall upward" -- an event to be "celebrated"??? Because they believe that it was only by mankind sinning that they could die -- becoming "mortal." And that by becoming "mortal" they could both (finally) have kids AND thereby rise to (eventual) godhood.

4 posted on 10/20/2014 8:19:31 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: All

(Also, be sure to read this Touchstone Mag’s review re: Meyer’s ‘pokes’ at Joseph Smith and how Meyer presents the Catholic Church as the “Volturi”).


5 posted on 10/20/2014 8:20:10 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: Colofornian

well aint Mormonism speshall...

and of course...neighborly..


6 posted on 10/20/2014 8:21:00 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Colofornian

ZZZZZ


7 posted on 10/20/2014 8:24:25 AM PDT by Dagnabitt (Amnesty is treason. Its agents are traitors.)
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To: Colofornian

BTW have the Mormons been dead dunking the victims of Ebola yet..

there were several Catholic nuns in Africa who died for instance..

and Thomas Eric Duncan is waiting for his so called “temple work” to be done for him..


8 posted on 10/20/2014 8:30:02 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Colofornian

these people and this ‘church’ is NOT “the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints - LDS” out of SLC - and you know it.

But you post this tripe as though it were part of it.

I realize the FR is a major conduit foe bashing the Mormon church - with a cadre of vitriolic Mormon haters - but this is beneath FR.


9 posted on 10/20/2014 8:38:28 AM PDT by maine-iac7 (Christian is as Christian does - by their fruits)
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To: maine-iac7

Not bashing church.
They have wards, “temples”, that’s a different issue.
It is not mormon bashing but exposure of mormonism.
The SLC lds are one of only 50+ mormon ward organizations, and the least like what Joseph Smith founded.
In your own words “and you know it”.

As a side note Battle Star Galactica story was written based on the book of mormon.


10 posted on 10/20/2014 8:44:39 AM PDT by svcw (Not 'hope and change' but 'dopes in chains')
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To: Colofornian

AP Salt Lake City— The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as “The Mormon Church”, announced today that it was sending four Mormon Apostles to West Africa “on a mission of divine healing” to those Ebola stricken countries. Church spokesman, Richard Lindsay, said, “These apostles were sent to lay hands on those afflicted in order to heal them, just like the apostles in New Testament times.” Lindsay was asked if he feared that the apostles would get Ebola from coming into close contact with those infected. Lindsay replied, “Not at all, because these men are the Lord’s anointed, and they will be divinely protected!” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has approximately 2500 members in Sierra Leone and about 5,000 members in Liberia. The LDS Church is one of the fastest growing religions in West Africa, according to Mr. Lindsay.

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1408828,1409028#msg-1409028


11 posted on 10/20/2014 8:46:09 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: maine-iac7

Are you talking about those who were responsible for the Meadow Massacres? I thought those were Mormons.


12 posted on 10/20/2014 8:46:56 AM PDT by freedomlover
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To: maine-iac7
I realize the FR is a major conduit foe bashing the Mormon church - with a cadre of vitriolic Mormon haters - but this is beneath FR.

Tell Greg West that we all said "hi!"

13 posted on 10/20/2014 8:54:02 AM PDT by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
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To: Alex Murphy

LOL


14 posted on 10/20/2014 8:56:45 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: Colofornian
Maybe I'll take a trip over that way this week. My brother lives in Veyo.

I will report back....

15 posted on 10/20/2014 8:57:35 AM PDT by Utah Binger (Southern Utah where the world comes to see America)
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To: Tennessee Nana; Colofornian; Utah Binger; svcw
Maybe you should note that your post #11 is a spoof, but makes a good but obvious point about the LDS church.

It really DOES sound like something that would be claimed by SLC!

If you claim to be God's apostle, then help and heal.

16 posted on 10/20/2014 10:14:07 AM PDT by greyfoxx39 (Valerie Jarrett warned us they would "get even with those who opposed them"..)
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To: maine-iac7
I realize the FR is a major conduit foe bashing the Mormon church

I also try to diversify with bashing other cults from time to time.

17 posted on 10/20/2014 11:17:48 AM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

Can’t think of anything that qualifies as a cult that has representation on FR aside from LDS.


18 posted on 10/20/2014 1:09:31 PM PDT by Wyrd bið ful aræd (Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo et mundabor, Lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.)
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To: Wyrd bið ful aræd
Can’t think of anything that qualifies as a cult that has representation on FR aside from LDS.

You would be horribly wrong. There are some Armstrongites on the forum who occasionally rear their ugly heads. Some Hebrew Roots weirdos with their Gentile Rabbi who think we have to follow dietary laws and stop reading the Apostle Paul. Not sure if we have any other groups though.

19 posted on 10/20/2014 5:54:15 PM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: maine-iac7
But you post this tripe as though it were part of it.

Oh??

It was NOT Brigham Young's bunch that tortured and killed the FAncher party?

Who knew!

Musta been them thar pesky injuns!

20 posted on 10/20/2014 6:30:33 PM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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