I am confused by my research on Mormonism. I want truth and need your help. I do not want to hear from the people who want to scare the weak minded that Mitt may start a harem at the White House. I also do not want to entertain those who want to white wash what Mitt Willard really believes. I want truth.
I have a few Mormon friends. They are WONDERFUL people. Actually, I wish more of my Christian friends had their sense of family, dedication, hard work and devotion. Their LDS faith has not in anyway had ANY negative effect on me, but they seem just a little more distant from me than other friends. It might not be them. Maybe it’s just me because I DON’T really know what they believe.
And what should it matter? I know Christians that believe they have to “rest” on the Sabbath although they are set from from the “law” and Paul made it clear that to some EVERY day is holy. Their belief doesn’t really effect me accept they make my life miserable by judging everything I do instead of letting the Holy Spirit do it for me. Let them believe what they want.
But belief DOES matter in many ways. We know George Washington and even one time Deist Benjamin Franklin felt that SEEKING God’s Providence was what allowed success in becoming independent from a much stronger and more well equipped enemy. Someone could tell me they have a million dollars for me, but if I don’t BELIEVE it – I will never take the actions to go get it. (And if I don’t get it not only do I not have the moola, my church, friends, local economy and family don’t benefit either.) Belief IS important. If he is calling on a different god from me – I know his prayers won’t be answered. (My God still loves him by the way.)
I haven’t studied Mormonism except some basic stuff we all known. It includes:
- Joseph Smith thought he had a revelation from God and wrote a new scripture. (Christians can’t get past this because the Bible is clear that no one is to add or take away from the Holy Bible.)
- The Mormons (like every other religious and non-religious group in history) used murder, extortion and other “sins” to exert their power from time to time.
- Polygamy and Racism were common practices even up until a few decades ago. (Mitt’s Grandfather moved to Mexico because he was under threat for being arrested on polygamy laws.)
- They don’t drink caffeine, smoke and have awesome looking temples.
That’s about all I knew and frankly, didn’t care. But I DO want to know a bit more about what Governor Romney believes. With a current White House occupant who finds it more appropriate to acknowledge Kwanza and Ramadan (and Halloween it seems), I’d like to know where this guy comes from in his belief structure.
I know enough about Islam that I WOULD likely vote against them if they believed the Koran. I have some Muslim friends and they frankly have no clue what it really says. But I could never fully trust the motives of someone that was taught it was ok to lie and deceive so that you could fool non-Muslims to eventually subvert them and their goals. You just never know where they would be coming from. It’s too much work, frankly.
I have two interesting sides I’ve seen of Mormonism recently. The first is from the President of Fuller Theological Seminary. He wrote an article for CNN that said:
So are Mormons Christians? For me, that’s a complicated question.
My Mormon friends and I disagree on enough subjects that I am not prepared to say that their theology falls within the scope of historic Christian teaching. But the important thing is that we continue to talk about these things, and with increasing candor and mutual openness to correction.
No one has shown any impulse to walk away from the table of dialogue. We do all of this with the blessing of many leaders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, some of whom have become good friends.
While I am not prepared to reclassify Mormonism as possessing undeniably Christian theology, I do accept many of my Mormon friends as genuine followers of the Jesus whom I worship as the divine Savior.
I find Mormons to be more Christ-centered than they have been in the past.
This frankly means quite a bit to me. I respect Fuller’s work and, although they too have been in error on some issues over the years, it provides me a perspective from someone that knows way more than I do about the differences in the beliefs.
On the other hand I came across this very measured discussion FROM AN EX-MORMON that not only was deeply involved in their faith, he continues to monitor, study and interact with other Mormons. I would not post this if I felt it was bigoted or lacking an intellectual perspective. It gives a different picture:
That’s kind of weird.
It reminds me of the episode from Everybody Loves Raymond where Robert thinks he’s found the girl of his dreams. She’s gorgeous, smart and attentive. But it turns out they don’t have same belief system. Because she worships frogs. Seriously – it’s hilarious.
Clinton believed in Jesus and yet he embarrassed our country and (in my opinion) committed treason by exchanging campaign funds for giving the Chinese our defense secrets. Jimmy Carter taught Sunday School and was one of the worst Presidents we ever had. Being a “Christian” doesn’t guarantee anything. But I truly would like to hear from intelligent, thoughtful Mormons if they experienced what this man in the video has.
Your thoughts please.
2 comments:
There is some interesting reading out there, specifically about Mitt and the LDS domination of the 2002 SLC Olympics. Read a PDF called "The Mormon Olympics" and a Sports Illustrated article called "Snow Job" that tells of the draining of $1.5 billion from the U.S Treasury to finance Salt Lake City's infrastructure improvements in order to accommodate the participation of 2400 athletes in those winter games. When Mitt took over the SLOC, he additionally relied upon another $343 million or so of government grants obtained by Gov. Romney's K Street buddies.
Utah itself is 60% Mormon but they hold 80% of all political offices including all of the Congressional seats. Mormons are usually Republicans but I guess Republicans can have agendas that are not conservative. There is the "noise" about the theocratic nature of the religion, impacted by Joseph Smith's "White Horse Prophecy" which is best covered by the anti-Mormon blog sites out there.
When the reading is done, you may find nothing to even write about, but I spent the better part of a retiree's day trying to find a concrete story -- but did not get inspired eno0ugh to construct even a good conspiracy piece. I did conclude that Romney did not "save" the games, the organization known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did. But on the other side of the coin, the LDS-dominated SLOC perpetrated the scandal that involved greasing the palms of Olympic organizations representing foreign countries.
I have a friend who is formerly a Mormon. He recounts things much worse than the man in the video, frankly.
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