You know how when people say, “I don’t want to sound racist, but…” you can be sure that the next thing out of their mouth is going to be about as racist as something can be? Well, I don’t want to sound offensive, but….
Mitt Romney, proudly showing how many hours it has been, and he has yet to contact his physician.
Man, that Mitt Romney is a good-looking dude, right? He looks like he just walked off the set of an erectile disfunction commercial. He just looks presidential. And he really knows his stuff! He has executive experience, as he was a really popular and effective republican governor of a democrat-leaning state. He is a successful entrepreneur with a JD and an MBA from Harvard Law and Harvard Business Schools. In each one of the republican debates, Romney has come out on top (or at least near the top) and hasn’t made any big flubs. He leads the in the polls…. It’s like he is some sort of machine, sent from the future, whose sole objective is to be the best possible republican candidate. And yet, for some reason, the republican establishment keeps looking for someone else to be their party’s nomination (first Bachmann, then Perry, then “Oh please, God!!” Chris Christie, and now Herman Cain….). I wonder why that is…. No I don’t.
For better or worse (usually worse), religion has always been connected to politics in American. In 1973, Roe v. Wade only intensified this reality. The issue of abortion has been used for many years as a litmus test of a candidate’s Christianity (regardless of a candidate’s respect for life in any other area), and without the support of the giant number of Christians out there who believe that it is their duty to vote Christians (read “republicans”–some get these terms confused) into office, the political landscape in this country would be drastically different.
He doesn't look as much like an ED spokesperson, but here he explains another troubling side-effect.
Four years ago, the candidates’ religion once again played a prominent role in our national elections as Barack Obama’s professed Christianity was attacked. His home church (A Christian Church) and it’s pastor Jeremiah Wright were attacked as being non-Christian because of some seemingly anti-American things he said from the pulpit–As if being critical of America is proof of apostasy. By the way, Wright’s sermon where he said the words “…not God Bless America. God damn America” had many things in common with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech that he gave to striking garbage workers in Memphis just before he was killed where he said America is going to hell. Here’s a quote (just in case you don’t click on the link): “If America does not use her vast resources of wealth to end poverty, to make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of life, she too will go to Hell.”–MLK
Idiots with Photoshop--The high price of free speech.
There was also a direct attack on Obama’s faith in Jesus Christ. People believed (and still believe) that he is secretly a Muslim, and that professions like the one he made HERE were simply lies that he told in order to get elected. No American president has ever identified himself as an adherent of a specifically “non-Christian” religion–No Atheists, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs… And almost all of them were Protestant. Barack Obama, as evidenced by his name, his skin, and his father’s faith, was branded by many (almost all of whom had an opposing political ideology) as a secret Muslim. And do we really want a non-Christian in the White House (or a non-white in the Christian house, for that matter)???
The LAST thing we need to be doing is giving THIS guy more money.
Now, I get it. I understand wanting to vote for people who are like you. Some even have the misguided notion that the way that the Kingdom of God is going to show up on Earth is by getting as many Christians into places of power (especially in business) as possible. I considered myself pretty enlightened about the whole separation of Church and State issue during the last election, but even I admitted that it would have been hard for me to vote for Obama if he were a Muslim. I’m not sure why. I haven’t figured it all out, but now I seriously don’t care. I had hoped to see some more drastic changes from the policies of the past, but the president can only do so much. I’d rather have an atheist running the country who cared about the poor and oppressed (here and all over the world) than have a Christian trying to establish an economic policy that puts an even larger share of the resources in the hands of the rich.
Which brings me to the reason for writing this post: Mormons are not Christians. I’m sorry– I’m not making any judgments about Heaven or Hell or anything like that, I’m just saying that empirically, the Mormon religion is way closer to Islam than it is to Christianity. Consider this: They both have a founding prophet who received visits from an angel that led to revelation of a book of scripture (The Qur’an and The Book of Mormon); they both have special reverence for, though not worship of, their founding prophet (Mohammed and Joseph Smith); they both reject the Christian doctrines of Original Sin and the Trinity; and they both believe that if you do not belong to their religion, you are going to Hell (of course, that’s true of just about everybody). One main difference is that Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet (just not the main prophet), and Mormons believe that Jesus was one of many gods. Oh, and that Satan was Jesus’ brother.
I'm not anti-Mormon. I'm anti-THIS Mormon.
I love Muslims and I love Mormons. This is not anti-Mormonism–Mormons, by and large, are amazing, moral, kind people who do a lot of good in the world. I am way more offended by Mitt Romney’s economic policies than I am by his religion. And here’s the thing: He’s going to be the republican nominee for president. I am writing this to remind those of you who could never have voted for Barack Obama because you believed (wrongly) that he is a Muslim that Mitt Romney makes no secret of his Mormon faith. Also, to those of you who believe (wrongly) that Christians are called to put as many Christians as possible in places of power (you know who you are), I wanted to remind you of your convictions.
It seems pretty simple to me. I mean, Bill Maher gets it, and he’s and Atheist!
The Boeskool 
I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (and a Democrat.) And you sir are a Moron. Learn a little about our real beliefs before you post this regurgitated drivel. Of course we are Christians, and not all of us confuse conservative ideals for a political party. I have accepted Christ’s salvation, been baptized in His name, and even preached His gospel to idiots like you for two years of my life out of my own pocket. The Trinity? What a crock. Eternal progression? If we’re right isn’t that a great concept? Seriously what’s your problem with Christians not all sharing the same dogma?
I was initially confused, because I thought you wrote, “you sir are a mormon.” But yeah… Moron. Got it.
It definitely wasn’t my intent to offend you (or any other Mormon) with what I wrote. I am a person who thinks that where Mormons line up with Jesus they are getting it right, and where they line up with Joseph Smith they are getting it wrong. I’m sorry if this is upsetting to you. I will be the first to admit that I don’t know very much about the LDS. I don’t have many friends who are Mormons, and most of what I know comes from my own research, or reading the book “Under the Banner of Heaven” by Jon Krakauer, or maybe a little from South Park (just kidding on that last one… mostly). So maybe you can answer a few questions for me: Why do Mormons “share the gospel” with Christians? And if I were to die today while not being a member of the Mormon church, what do you believe would happen (or what does tradtitional Mormon theology say would happen) after I die? And lastly, do you really not believe there is a significant difference between Mormons and Christians?
And I didn’t mean to imply that all Mormons have the same poitical views or even believe the same things. I don’t remember writing that. I definitely know what it’s like to go against the grain with stereotypes like those. Anyway, I believe that passion is a good thing, even when it’s passion that disagrees with my worldview. Thank you for taking the time to read and respond. And sorry again for pissing you off.
I’m sorry for being pissed off. You caught me on a bad day. I’ll understand if you discount everything I say when I used the words “moron” and “idiot” in the same paragraph I call myself a Christian. Shame on me.
To answer your questions;
1. Our missionaries knock on everyone’s door (they don’t really enjoy it either.) You tell me how to seperate out those who need our message from those who just want to be left alone? Your’e happy the way you are? Great. One or two follow up questions to get people interested/thinking and then move on.
2. Nope, you won’t go to hell for not bein’ a Mormon. We’re not really a hellfire and damnation kinda church anyway.
3. Yeah, of course there are major differences. But Jesus said that pure religion is helping the widows and the motherless. That’s a universal constant.
I understand your point was not to attack our beliefs, but to call to attention the stupid factor when people are voting for someone they think will promote their ideals. I agreed with you up until the point you compared my church to the Muslim faith. OUCH!
Where is the Garden of Eden? Why are so many of your Temple rituals Masonic rituals?
Why are the emblems on your armored undergarments Masonic Emblems?
My entire family are LDS members. I love them. I respect their beliefs and I absolutely love their devotion to family but we rarely speak about religion when we are together.
The last time we spoke I brought up the secret names and that put family members on edge.
You call the Trinity a crock? That’s all I need to know about your religious beliefs. Blessed undergarments and secret temple ceremonies, secret names. That’s all I need to know to lead me to believe Mormonism is more a ritualistic cult then a true religion.
I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or as most people know us, “Mormon”. I will tell you that I am a Christian along with every other member of the “Mormon” church. I try to live my life the way that Christ taught people in the New Testament.
You wanted answers and I will try to do my best to answer them.
We are nicknamed Mormon’s because of The Book of Mormon. Mormon was a prophet that we believe lived on the American continent. Most scriptures talk about prophets in Jerusalem and surrounding countries, but there were ones on this continent also because there were people here that needed God and His word. Our church is the exact same church that Christ set up in the New Testament. If you look deeply into our faith, you will see that our church is set up exactly as it was when Christ was on the earth. We have a prophet, and we have 12 apostles to lead us, We have the Melchezidek and Aaronic priesthood.
When the prophets were stoned, and killed off eventually religion was taken off of the earth. People were too wicked for God’s influence to stay on the earth. It wasn’t until years later when all of a sudden religion started becoming important to people again. This is where Joseph Smith comes into play. He was a boy of 15 years living in New York with his family. His family had been trying out many different religions that had sprung up that claimed to have the truth. All of these churches had beliefs in Christ, but there was something missing and Joseph felt that. Anyone that is a true Christian believes that they can pray to God and receive answers. Joseph believed this. He was reading in the book of James (Chapter 1 verse 5) one night. The scripture he read was, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him”. Joseph was hit hard with the scripture. He truly believed that if he asked God about what church to join that God would tell him. He resolved to pray about it and find out the true church. We went to a grove of trees by his home and decided to pray. He looked around to see if he was alone and knelt to pray. As he began to offer up the desires of his heart, he was immediately seized upon by some power which he said had entirely overcome him. He said the power was so strong that it seized his tongue as to where he could not utter a word. Thick darkness gathered around him and he felt that he was doomed for destruction. After exerting all his power to call upon God to deliver him from the power that had taken hold of him to which he thought would actually kill him, he saw a pillar of light over his head above the brightness of the sun. It descended gradually until it fell upon him. After being delivered from the enemy power that had seized him, the light rested on him and he saw two personages. One being God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ standing on His right side. This is where the restoration of Christ’s church began. That very same church that was organized in the New Testament.
People that have a problem with Joseph Smith do not know what this man went through to bring God’s church back to the earth. From the moment he told his preacher that he had seen God and Jesus Christ and that he did not believe that the true church of God was on the earth the persecution for this young man began.
He was only fifteen. He was persecuted by every preacher he came into contact with. He was hunted like an animal to be killed. He was imprisoned for crimes he did not commit. He was ripped from his home at night and had hot tar poured on his body. He was poisoned, he was fed human flesh while he was in prison, He had child after child die. He himself was martyred along with his brother. Not once did he ever deny what he saw or heard that morning in that grove of trees. It could have been so easy for him to deny it. The persecutions would have stopped. The threats on his life would have stopped. He would have never been imprisoned. Four of his children would have lived to grow old. Now I ask you, would you go through trials like this if you knew what you saw and knew God knew it and that you could not deny it?
When you want to find out about Christ, isn’t the scriptures the best way to find out about His life. Yes, there are many books that speak of Christ, but the scripture stories happened when Christ was on the earth. What better information could that be than by people actually there and who knew Him. I ask the same of you that if you want to find out about “Mormon’s” wouldn’t you want the truth and actually ask a Mormon? After all no one knows us better than ourselves.
The reason why we preach to gospel to other Christians is because God wants all people to come unto Christ. There are saving ordinances that all people need to be able to live with God again. Those ordinances can only be performed by someone who holds the priesthood. Our church is the only church that has had those priesthood keys restored. The priesthood was restored to Joseph by John the Baptist and Peter, James and John who appeared to him in resurrected form. We believe that families are forever. We believe our church is the only church on the earth ordained of God and that has the power to make those ordinances binding here and in heaven to do that the priesthood is needed.
One would wonder why we would even care to send missionaries all over the world to do this. We believe that we are all spirit children of God. We believe that all of us on earth are brothers and sisters. Because of that knowledge we have a deep rooted love for mankind and for their happiness. This is why our church is so big on service and helping one another is because we are all one big family. We all need each other to make it back to God. We believe in fact that Christ and Lucifer are our brothers. We believe that we all lived in heaven before coming to earth before any one possessed the earth, God presented a plan to help all of His children to return to Him. Christ and Lucifer both gave ideas on how they would accomplish this. The difference being was that Christ said He would come to earth, suffer for my sins and your sins and even die for us because He loved us that much. He would let us choose ourselves to follow God. But He did not want any glory for it, it was to go to God. Lucifer wanted all the glory for himself. He would force all of us to do what was right and make us all return so that none of us would be lost. God wanted us to learn to love Him by us having the freedom to choose for ourselves not be forced to believe. This started a rebellion where Satan took 1/3 of the hosts of heaven with him to try to keep you and I from returning to live with God forever. Lucifer became Satan and was cast out of heaven. He has not stopped since to try to prevent God’s church from coming to earth by any means possible. He doesn’t have a body because of the choices he made and because of that, we will always have more power than he and he hates us for it. Believe it or not, because you are here on earth you chose to follow Christ in Heaven just as I did. Satan will do everything in his power to destroy us. Look around you. Look at the evil that prevails in this world. He and his spirits are running rampant through this world hurting God in every way he can by destroying us and anything that is good. I can’t even begin to imagine one Being having that much hatred toward his own brothers and sisters. I have 2 brothers and 4 sisters. I love them with every fiber of my being. I want to be with them in heaven with God. The love I have for my own family permeates out to my other brothers and sisters that live on this earth.
As an answer to your question about if you died today what would happen. We believe that all spirits will go to heaven. We believe that when God passes His judgements on His children and the way they have lived their lives that they will eventually end up in one of three degrees of glory or end up in outer darkness with Satan. The Celestial Kingdom being the highest degree where we will actually live with God and Jesus Christ forever. To obtain this kingdom, you need to take upon you the name of Christ. You do that by being baptized into His church. If baptism was not important why would have Christ, who was perfect, even needed baptism? He was the example. We believe that through baptism, our sins are washed clean and we are pure as a newborn child. God knowing that we all possess the “natural man” and are prone to temptation, he provided the sacrament for us to take each week at church which symbolically respresents Christ’s atoning blood that was shed for us and His body that hung on the cross for us to help us remember why we are here and what we need to reach for. The sacrament is like being baptized each week. Having our sins washed away and starting out each week without sin. It is such a refreshing thought to know that as fallable as I am, I have a Father in Heaven who cares about me and wants me to have every resource available to help me to return to Him. It brings me so much peace. A peace I cannot begin to describe to you. It is a peace that only one can find out for himself. I encourage you do so. It can be such a strength in moments of trials.
If you want to know what the mormons are about you need to go to the source. I will include some good resources for you.
http://www.lds.org
http://www.mormon.org
http://jesuschrist.lds.org/
http://www.youtube.com/MormonMessages
http://www.youtube.com/Mormon
http://familyproclamation.lds.org/
http://humanitarian.lds.org/
http://www.lambofgodvideo.org/
http://www.mormonchannel.org/
http://livingchrist.lds.org/
Find out yourself what we are about. Then when you have done sufficient homework, then you will see that we are Christians in every sense of the word.
Wow. That was really long. I knew most of that, but thanks.
Even with all that, you didn’t really answer two of my three questions though (Why do Mormons proselytize Christians? and What happens to people outside of the LDS church when they die?). If Mormons truly believed that they were Christians (as Christians define the term), then when they walked with their backpacks and encountered someone who said, “Yeah, I’m saved. I’ve given my life to Jesus,” then they would respond with something like, “Oh, great! That’s what it takes. Way to go…” and then move on. That’s not what happens. I feel like, from its beginning, the LDS has tried to paint a picture of themselves being “just like Christians” (in order to keep from being branded as a cult or a different religion) while trying to convert Christians and telling them their understanding of our right relationship with God and Jesus is inherently wrong. And I feel like this is dishonest. Can you see how this duality could be perceived as deceitful?
I fear that my blog entry is being perceived as a judgment against Mormons, and that was not my intent. I am not God, and it’s really not my responsibility to work out the exact way that He is going to work out the afterlife. But there is a difference between Christianity and Mormonism. Saying there is not is like believing that only sparrows get into heaven and then having the sparrows go nest to nest telling the robins that they need to be sparros. Then, when the robins claim that sparrows are different from them, they sparrows are like, “Well we’re both birds!” If you want to squabble over semantics, sure: “Christian” means “follower of Christ,” and since Mormons consider themselves followers of Christ, they call themselves “Christians.” When most people use the term “Christian,” they are referring to a specific religion. A religion that is very different from that of the Mormons.
To Jaynheidi, I see your sincerity, but I also know that the Mormon doctrine has truth mixed with error. Truth can be like a covering of sweet chocolate over poison…how easily the candy goes down but how poisoness the lies. If you are a truth seeker, I suggest you go to http://www.20truths.info and read all of it. The writer, Jim Day, may not be a believer, but he is an excellent fact finder. Perhaps before you read it, you could pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to guide you as you read.
When Mormons die, don’t they get their own planet?
I think that depends on what spiritual plain you wind up on. Apparently there is a cast system in Heaven.
I did not perceive your post as judgement against Mormons, I perceive you as being misinformed. And making it to heaven involves a lot more than just saying “I’m saved”. I could say that I am saved and then turn around and treat my neighbor’s, family and other assocations like crap. Does that still save me because I say I have accepted Christ. Did Christ himself go around telling people that He was saved because He had given His life to God? He showed us by his actions. He expects that same of us. Too many people draw near to God with their mouths but their hearts are far from Him. I told you that everyone goes to Heaven. You are then taught the gospel of Jesus Christ there if you have not had the opportunity to hear it hear it on earth. You will then be given the choice to decide if you accept or not. Your acceptance or non-acceptance of it depends are the degree of glory you end up in. But that choice is still up to you. You yourself decide where you place yourself.
I can sit and argue every point of every aspect of our religion with you and until you ask God what is true, you will never see the truth. Look to the staff….It is that easy. Or are you scared to find the truth.
A Christian believes that the word of God is in the Bible not the book of Mormon or the Pearl of Great Price. I was in the park with my kids last summer and I was approached by two women who gave me a pamphlet and asked if I had been saved. I smiled and said yes and the women said, “God Bless You”, and continued on.
It was quite a different experience two years earlier when two Elders from the Mormon Church knocked on my door asking the same thing but not being satisfied with the same answer I gave above they asked if I had heard of the Book of Mormon. I said yes and politely said I wasn’t interested,
The book of Mormon has nothing to do with being saved. We know that everyone certainly does not go to heaven but by following Gods words and examples we have a chance to be saved.
As much as I know you weren’t trying to be judgmental against Mormons, you essentially advocate voting for a Christian because he’s a Christian (even though he’s a Democrat) over a Mormon because he’s a Mormon (even though he is a Republican)….
AND stating (in bold, I might add) that “Mormons are not Christians” and the comparison that follows is sure to draw a reaction from that crowd, independent of how factual that statement may be.
I’m not advocating that at all. What I was attempting to say (apparently very poorly) was that there are people out there (a lot of them really) who believe that Christians should only vote for Christians. There are other people out there who believe that Christians should only vote for republicans. Many of these groups contain the same people, and these people are going to be put in an interesting predicament when the republican nominee for President is a Mormon and the democratic nominee is a Christian. We’ll see which belief they hold dearer….
And as far as saying “Mormons are not Christians,” I’m simply saying that it is a different religion (as evidenced by their own mission to convert Christians to Mormonism, along with their belief that non-Mormons go the “heaven,” but it’s the part of “heaven” that is reserved for Jesus’ brother Satan–that most closely resembles what most Christians would call “hell”). It is definitely a different religion. I’m not arguing rightness or wrongness of doctrine–both have some pretty kooky beliefs to people outside of the respective churches. I’m simply saying that even though they use the word Christian in describing themselves, that does not change the fact that the traditional view of the Christian Church that was started after Jesus’ death and resurrection is starkly different than the Latter Day Saints.
Did you mean to write ‘I hate this MORON’ under that last pic? Either way…
Just for the record, they lost my interest when the gold plates appeared. God easily could have made the plates out of Roentgenium (the Periodic table goes Copper, Silver, Gold, Roentgenium in order). But, alas, he “chose” something that had been around, not something that was invented in a lab in 1994. I wold have believed a book that predicted something like Roentgenium over a hundred years in advance.
*would not wold. Still having trouble with the index finger post surgery and that cursed ‘u’ just didn’t happen. Regardless, I would have been impressed and probably believe the book of mormon had the plates Joseph Smith found been made of Roentgenium.
Pingback: Hating Obama More Than You Love Jesus | The Boeskool
Pingback: Mormons. | The Boeskool
Pingback: Blogs, Birthdays and Bullshit | The Boeskool