Joseph Smith's First Vision at Age 14
Joseph Smith had his first vision at age 14. Allegedly, celestial
persons appeared to him: "My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to
know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No
sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak,
than I asked the personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the
sects was right — and which I should join. I was answered that I must join none
of them, for they were all wrong, and the personage who addressed me said that
all their creeds were an abomination in His sight: that those professors were
all corrupt . . ." (Joseph Smith, History
of the Church, vol. 1, p. 5-6).
"What is it that inspires professors of Christianity
generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence
of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world," (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph
Smith, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith, p. 270.)
Joseph Smith's Wikipedia Entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith
Joseph Smith's Wikipedia Entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith
Mormon founder Joseph Smith's
sex life detailed by Mormon historian Sandra Tanner, a great, great
granddaughter of Brigham Young - http://www.youtube.com/
The Mormon’s – A PBS
Frontline Documentary: http://paxonbothhouses.
Ayn Rand, Romney and
Mormonism: http://paxonbothhouses.
Learn more about the Mormon
God's "home planet" of "Kolob" at http://en.wikipedia.org/
Video Series
Comparing Jesus Christ and Christianity with Joseph Smith and Mormonism - from
a Baptist point of view. If time is short, see the "Conclusion":
***
Dear
A,
I'm
appending a Newsweek article about Mormonism and how it
relates to Republican and Democratic voting patterns.
"Anti-Mormon Problem" confirms my
long-standing belief that Romney's presidential aspirations will hit a
"religious" wall.
That
said, I believe Romney's Mormonism is "fair game" - if only to make
conservative Christians aware of Joseph Smith's sexual, marital and racial
abnormalities, and in a more general sense, to make conservatives aware of
Mormonism's dubious relationship to Christianity.
Personally,
I like Romney and see no good reason why
his religious convictions should dissuade conservative voters. After all, I'm voting for the Islamic Kenyan.
However,
conservative Christians do not behave in accordance with "good
reason."
Instead,
their political worldview depends on an essentially sectarian belief that
America must have "good Christian" leadership to maintain its
"exceptional" status in the world.
If
conservatives decide that Romney is not a "good Christian" - at least
not in any sense they can understand and approve - then they will
likely lose the upcoming election due to moral convictions that prevent them from voting for a candidate whose religious radicalism is outside the domain of
"orthodox" Christianity. (Mormon scholar, Sandra Tanner -- a direct descendant of Brigham Young -- came to believe that Joseph Smith was a sexual predator and that Mormonism is not a Christian religion. Subsequent to this conviction, Ms. Tanner became a converted Baptist. http://www.youtube.com/
On
the other hand, if conservative Christians come to terms with a presidential
candidate whose religious beliefs are beyond the bounds of orthodox
Christianity, they might develop a sense of mature irony, or at least
recognize that political pragmatism is more important to them than their
supposedly primary relationship with Jesus Christ.
I
have documented Mormonism's questionable Christian affiliation at
Again,
I have no problem with the world's "Great Religions" and much admire
my Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist friends.
As
for Mormonism...
Although Mr.
Romney would not be my first choice as a drinking companion but I would much
prefer his company to Bachman, Perry, Cain, Trump, Santorum or Gingrich.
Pax on
both houses,
Alan
PS
Hang in there Ron Paul!
***
Democrats Have Bigger Anti-Mormon Problem in Election Than GOP Has
Polls show 27 percent of Democrats would not vote for a Mormon, versus 18 percent of Republicans. There are votes in anti-Mormonism, but the Obama campaign must resist any temptation to play on it.
With just over six months before Election Day, the 2012 presidential campaign looks dull but astonishing. It’s dull because Barack Obama no longer elicits the kind of passion he did in 2008, and Mitt Romney has never elicited much passion at all. But it’s astonishing because it features an African-American and a Mormon, two of the most discriminated-against groups in American history. In the year of Romney’s birth (1947) or Obama’s (1961), the idea that a presidential election would one day pit an American of Romney’s religion versus an American of Obama’s race would have boggled the mind.
Mitt Romney speaks at a Republican National Committee meeting on Friday in Scottsdale, Ariz., Jae C. Hong / AP Photo
When Obama first ran in 2008, Republicans wrestled with how to attack him without playing on antiblack bigotry. Now it’s the Democrats’ turn to be tempted. In the United States anti-Mormon bigotry has remained remarkably durable. According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans who say they would not vote for a Catholic, a woman, an African-American, or a Jew has dropped sharply since the 1960s and 1970s. The percentage saying they would not vote for a Mormon, however, hasn’t budged. In 1967, the first year Gallup asked the question, 17 percent of Americans said they would not back a Mormon candidate. When Gallup asked again last summer, the figure had risen to 22 percent.
Despite the media’s obsession with the alleged anti-Mormonism of evangelical Christians, the party with the larger anti-Mormon problem is the Democrats. According to Gallup, while only 18 percent of Republicans said they would oppose a Mormon candidate, among Democrats the figure was 27 percent. As if on cue, Montana’s Democratic governor, Brian Schweitzer, last week volunteered that women would not back Romney because his father was “born on a polygamy commune in Mexico.”
To its credit, the Obama campaign repudiated Schweitzer’s statement. But between now and Election Day, anti-Mormonism is going to be the Democratic Party’s constant temptation for one simple reason: there are votes in it.
The temptation comes in various forms. The first is to mock Mormonism for its allegedly weird theology. I recently heard a political commentator mock Mormons for the underpants some wear under their clothing. But undergarments designed to remind a person of his religious obligations are hardly unique to Mormonism. In truth, every religion’s practices and beliefs—if taken out of context—can seem nutty.
One reason Democrats may be more anti-Mormon than Republicans is that Democrats, on average, are more secular. Devout Protestants, Catholics, and Jews may be more tolerant of Mormonism because they understand from firsthand experience the comfort and strength that religious commitment brings. Many secular Democrats, by contrast, may start with the assumption that religious orthodoxy produces irrationality and intolerance. I don’t think, for instance, that there’s any way to understand the hostility that many liberals felt toward Joseph Lieberman in the 1990s—long before he became associated with the Iraq War and the John McCain campaign—without understanding their hostility to what they perceived as his moralistic Orthodox Judaism. Democrats may exhibit greater suspicion of Mormonism, in other words, because they exhibit greater suspicion of all organized religion. It’s just that anti-Mormonism is still socially acceptable enough to confess to a pollster.
It’s important that Barack Obama wins this election, but for the country’s sake, it’s important that Mormonism not lose.
The second way in which Democrats justify their anti-Mormonism is via the LDS Church’s own flirtation with bigotry. Until 1978 the Church of Latter-day Saints would not ordain men of African descent into the priesthood. And as recently as 2008, the church organized massively to ban gay marriage in California. It wouldn’t be surprising, therefore, if one reason Democrats are more anti-Mormon than Republicans is because African-Americans, gays, and lesbians are more anti-Mormon. But using the church’s historic (and even present-day) intolerance to justify intolerance toward its members is idiotic. LDS is hardly the only faith with a history of antiblack racism, and individual Mormons should be held no more responsible for the LDS Church’s antigay views than individual Catholics should be held responsible for the Vatican’s.
Democrats should remember the fear and revulsion they felt when conservatives played on Obama’s race and do everything humanly possible to prevent their party mates from doing the same. It’s important that Barack Obama wins this election, but for the country’s sake, it’s important that Mormonism not lose.
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Peter Beinart is editor-in-chief of Open Zion, a blog about Israel, Palestine, and the Jewish future at The Daily Beast. He is the author of The Crisis of Zionism(Times Books).
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