Hitchens, the best-selling author of God is Not Great, wrote last fall that Romney owed voters a discussion about "the mad cult" of his church. Similar commentaries inspired Ryan Bell, a Salt Lake City attorney, to start a Web site, Romney Experience.com last summer. "Every faith has wacky doctrines," he says, adding that the press seems fixated on his faith's more sensational side.
Past Bias Against Blacks Still Haunts Mormons
Mormon fury boiled over after O'Donnell's appearance on "The McLaughlin Group," when he called church founder Smith a pro-slavery criminal and rapist. He said Romney "was" a racist because he was a member of a church that discriminated against blacks until 1978.
Bell and others responded on their Web sites that Smith, who faced many charges in his turbulent life, including treason, was never convicted of any crimes. (At least one Mormon historian says he was found guilty of a misdemeanor as a minor for fraud, but others say incomplete court records make it impossible to determine.)
The allegations about the church discriminating against African-Americans stung the most. Many Mormon historians say Smith welcomed blacks from the church's inception, had ordained some blacks onto the Mormon ministry and ran on an abolitionist platform for president in 1844.
African-Americans were barred from becoming church leaders, they say, by Smith's successor, Brigham Young. Many Protestant churches, Bell pointed out, were also racially segregated well into the 1970s. In 1978, the church lifted the ban on blacks becoming leaders.
Mormons called on the "McLaughlin Group" to take action against O'Donnell. Host John McLaughlin decided that O'Donnell, who appeared seven times last year, will be kept off the air for now, says Allison Butler, the show's managing director. But any apology to Mormons must come from him, Butler says.
Although Romney's withdrawal from the race is likely to quiet the controversy for now, many church members believe the turmoil of the past year will have lasting effects. "There will be a long-term consequence in the Mormon church," says Mauss, the Mormon sociologist.
"I think there is going to be a wholesale reconsideration with how Mormons should deal with the latent and overt anti-Mormon propaganda, Mauss continued. "I don't think the Mormons are ever again going to sorrowfully turn away and close the door and just keep out of the fray."
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Volume III, Number 10 Special Report Copyright 2008, Dow Jones & Company. The 'Skeeter Bites Report Copyright 2008, Skeeter Sanders. All rights reserved.
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.
by
John Hanks (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 869 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
