Although "The McLaughlin Group" said it will keep O'Donnell off the air for now, neither MSNBC nor HBO plans to take action against him, spokespeople from both networks said.
"The vast majority of Americans recognize that one of our strengths as a nation is our tolerance for religions that are different than our own," Fehrnstrom said. "Sadly, not every person thinks that way, but there's nothing that can be said or done to change their small minds."
Mormons Dismayed by Persistent Bias Against Them Nearly 180 Years After Church's Founding
For Mormons, O'Donnell's comments were a rallying cry. Members of the church are taught not to argue with outsiders over faith. But as criticism of their faith rose to new heights during the campaign, the Mormons took on their antagonists like never before, in a wave of activism encouraged by church leadership.
Mormon leaders and church members say they were initially unprepared for the intensity of attacks, which many say were unprecedented in modern times. The attacks, they say, are a sign that, nearly 180 years after their church's founding, their long struggle for wide acceptance in America is far from over, despite global church expansion and prosperity.
On the Internet, the Romney bid prompted an outpouring of broadsides against Mormonism from both the secular and religious worlds. Evangelical Christian speakers who consider it their mission to criticize Mormon beliefs lectured to church congregations across the country.
Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the Catholic journal First Things, wrote that a Mormon presidency would threaten Christian faiths. Atheist author Christopher Hitchens called Mormonism "a mad cult" on Slate.com, and Bill Keller, a former convict who runs an online ministry in Florida, told a national radio audience that a vote for Romney was a vote for Satan.
"It seems like it's been open season on Mormons," says Marvin Perkins, a Los Angeles Mormon Church member who lectures about the history of blacks in the church.
Romney Speech on His Faith, Reminiscent of JFK, Failed to Change Evangelicals' Minds
Romney was reluctant to speak publicly about his religion. Eventually, senior advisers persuaded him to do so to allay voter concerns about how it might affect his decision-making as president.
Inevitably, comparisons were made to a now-famous 1960 campaign speech that another presidential candidate from Massachusetts, then-Senator John F. Kennedy, who became America's first Roman Catholic president, delivered to an audience of Southern Baptists. Although Romney's December speech was well-received by political pundits, it did little to move his polling numbers upward.
That same month, M. Russell Ballard, one of the Mormon Church's 12 apostles, or governors, urged students at a graduation at the church-owned Brigham Young University to use the Internet and "new media" to defend the faith. At least 150 new Mormon sites were created and registered with the site mormon-blogs.com. "People were haranguing us on the Internet," Ballard said in an interview. "I just felt we needed to unleash our own people."
Normally insular church leaders, with help from Washington-based consultant Apco Worldwide, began a public-relations campaign last fall, visiting 11 editorial boards of newspapers across the country. In another first, the church posted a series of videos, some featuring Ballard, on YouTube to counter a wave of anti-Mormon footage on the site.
Many Mormons were excited by Romney's candidacy. "There's a member of the tribe that's up there," Nathan Oman, an assistant professor at William and Mary School of Law, said last month, adding that he had not yet decided whom to vote for. "What happens to him is a test of whether or not our tribe gets included in the political universe."
Polygamy, Doctrinal Differences at Root of Antipathy Toward Mormons
Mormonism began in 1830 after Joseph Smith, a farmer in upstate New York, said an angel led him to some golden plates that contained a "New World gospel" -- the Book of Mormon. Mormons regard themselves as Christians, but some Christian denominations, particularly the Southern Baptist Convention, do not.
Mormons Are New Testament Christians, not Creedal Christians
Mormons are not Creedal Christians.However, they do believe in the Jesus Christ of the New Testament:
The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) is often accused by Evangelical pastors of not believing in Christ and, therefore, not being a Christian religion. This article http://mormonsarechristian.blogspot.com/ helps to clarify such misconceptions by examining early Christianity's comprehension of baptism, the Godhead, the deity of Jesus Christ and His Atonement.The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) adheres more closely to First Century Christianity and the New Testament than any other denomination.For example, Harper’s Bible Dictionary entry on the Trinity says “the formal doctrine of the Trinity as it was defined by the great church councils of the fourth and fifth centuries is not to be found in the New Testament.”
One Baptist blogger stated“99 percent of the members of his Baptist church believe in the Mormon (and Early Christian) view of the Trinity.It is the preachers who insist on the Nicene Creed definition.”It seems to me the reason the pastors denigrate the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) is to protect their flock (and their livelihood).
by
Bot (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments)
on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 12:52:29 PM
We should be biased about religion. Religions can be extremely dangerous. The vaunted Neocons that engineered us into 911 and the Iraq war were subversive Zionist Jews (amongst other things).
If an individual indicates that he is basically secular with religious trappings, I don't mind, because I know that he isn't subversive with subversive agendas. Romney, Hucklebee and other religionists can't be trusted any more than the Rev. Moon.
Of course hustling and nationalism are religions too. In the name of "tolerance", let's not let another flock of crooks and traitors in.
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John Hanks (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 830 comments)
on Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 8:53:29 AM
Any political party is more dangerous to freedom than any religion, including extreme religions like Muslims. People can always be organized as factions in opposition to religion, but historically they cannot be organized against political parties that take over governments. In fact, the worst atrocities committed in the history of the world were organized and enacted by political parties which arose in opposition to religions, the Nazi Party in their attempt to exterminate the Jews and the Communist Party in their attempt to destroy all religion.
It should not surprise us that political parties in this country have decided to turn their attention toward a religion. As an independent voter, I view political parties as the "self-created societies" that George Washington said they were, and wielders of "artificial authority", which President Washington said would eventually be turned against freedom, in this case, freedom of religion.
The two major parties which generated this outbreak of hatred are not the government of the United States. They are private organizations which say they are the government of the United States and which distribute propaganda in whatever direction they perceive will increase their power and control of the people, in exactly the same way the Nazi Party used propaganda to increase the power of the Nazi Party. In Germany it was hatred of the Jews that was used to unify the Germans; in America the two major parties are using hatred of Mormons to unify party faction here. Party members tend to be emotionally unstable people who have no real beliefs of their own, but will blindly follow where party propaganda leads them. Their entire political philosophy is based on belonging to a large group, which necessarily is opposed by another large group, not on determination of what is right or wrong.
If we examine what political parties are, then it is inherently wrong to support them, just as President Washington cautioned in 1792. The fact that something wrong is popular does not make it right. That being the case, the best thing to do in American politics is to register independent and work through the corrupt politics of our day to establish free elections right here in the United States. I know this will seem like a radical idea to some of our political party friends who are busy imposing their interpretation of free elections by military force on other parts of the world.
by
Robert Winn (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 24 comments)
on Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 7:54:17 PM
