A Mormon for President?
Mitt Romney is shaping up to be the Republican front-runner for President. By all accounts and
Mitt Romney
appearances, he should be the ideal President candidate for conservatives: he is a successful businessman, he managed the state of Massachusetts as governor according to consistent conservative principles, and he even managed the Salt Lake City winter Olympics, making it a huge success.
There’s just one problem: he is a Mormon. And for members of the Religious Right, which is dominated by orthodox Christians, that can be a stumbling block. Of course, it would have been better for the credibility of the conservatives if they had never included the Religious Right; using religious matters to judge people and policies in our government violates the spirit if not the letter of church-state separation.
When I was a Baptist, there was a film shown at my church titled “The God Makers” which depicted Mormonism as a cult infested with pagan elements. This is ironic; Jews could say similar things about Christianity itself. Today, having rejected Christianity, I find those arguments about Mormonism pointless, but I do have my own reasons to oppose any political influence the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints may have:
http://dalehusband.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/the-book-of-mormon-is-a-p-o-s/
Racism, homophobia, and whatever other forms of bigotry the Mormon Church may endorse should be eradicated from secular politics in America. Nobody who would take the Book of Mormon seriously as scripture should be trusted to run the world’s most powerful democracy. We should have some standards for truth, logic, and ethics from our leaders. Thus, I will never vote for a Mormon for President, even if he was not a Republican.
Mormonism, a failed religion
At first glance, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, aka the Mormon Church, seems highly successful. It was founded in the early 19th Century and has spread over the world. Somewhat.
http://www.worldmapper.org/display_religion.php?selected=561
The term ‘Mormons’ most often refers to a member of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which is commonly called the Mormon Church. According to Latter Day Saint belief, Mormon is the name of the prophet who compiled the book of scripture known as the Book of Mormon. Also included are over 90 schismatic bodies. The map is dominated by the Americas. (Information source: Wikipedia)
So in the 150 years that the Church has been spreading, it has done little to become a world faith. Why not?
I’ve seen these missionaries in my community. They stick out like sore thumbs with their outfits, and thus give the impression that their own faith makes them and potential converts to their faith the same way. That’s bound to turn people off! You’d think they would dress more like everyone else to blend in and thus put people at ease!
The fact that Mormon missionaries are not paid for their work also must limit the number who would be willing and able to serve. I guess the Mormon leadership is too stingy.
BTW, whoever made this video didn’t want feedback on it:
Adding comments has been disabled for this video.The city was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young and his Mormon followers, who extensively irrigated and cultivated the arid valley. Due to its proximity to the Great Salt Lake, the city was originally named “Great Salt Lake City” – the word “great” was dropped from the official name in 1868. Although Salt Lake City is still home to the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), less than half the population of Salt Lake City proper is Mormon today.[5]
Less than 50% of Salt Lake City’s residents are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a much lower proportion than in Utah’s more rural municipalities; altogether, LDS members make up about 62% of Utah’s population.[55]
Salt Lake City has been considered one of the top 51 “gay-friendly places to live” in the U.S.[60] The city is home to a large, business savvy, organized, and politically supported gay community. Leaders of the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Utah,[61][62] as well as leaders of Utah’s largest Jewish congregation, the Salt Lake Kol Ami,[63] along with three elected representatives of the city identify themselves as gay. These developments have attracted controversy from socially conservative officials representing other regions of the state. A 2006 study by UCLA estimates that approximately 7.6% of the city’s population, or almost 14,000 people, are openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual, compared to just 3.7%, or just over 60,000 people, for the metropolitan area as a whole.[64]
Though I’ve never been a Mormon, as both an ex-Christian and an ex-Baha’i I can identify strongly with people like Emily Pearson. When you leave a religious community you have identified with for so long and given so much of your life too, its like ripping out your own liver. But the resulting freedom you gain from the choice you make helps you grow as a person and makes you stronger in the end.
I wonder how many members of these Unitarian Universalist churches in Utah are ex-Mormons:
| First Unitarian Church |
| Number of Members: 356 | ||||||||
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| South Valley UU Society |
| Number of Members: 140 | ||||||||
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| UU Church of Ogden |
| Number of Members: 112 | ||||||||
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| Utah Valley UU Fellowship |
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| Cache Valley UUs |
| Number of Members: 47 | ||||||||
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I counted about 655 UUs in Utah! That’s a lot of UUs in a supposedly conservative state dominated by one religious group! Most UU churches are also “Welcoming Congregations” meaning they accept as equals gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders.
As the old saying goes, what comes around goes around, so maybe its time the Unitarian Universalist Association sent hundreds of “missionaries” to Utah to encourage more people who are Mormons but questioning their faith to look at UU churches. And PAY those missionaries too!
And maybe someday, the state’s name will be spelled UUtah!
Uh, just kidding!
Related articles
- How does one resign from the Mormon Church (wiki.answers.com)
If this video is true……
….then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, along with any sect related to that cult, is totally unworthy of anyone’s respect.
Indeed, I would only expect insane people to ever take such a religion seriously!
The Book of Mormon is a P.O.S.
P.O.S. = Pile Of Shit
As a rule, I try to respect different religious beliefs and their followers even while disagreeing with them, usually because most religious believers I know have good qualities I admire and want to encourage, and you don’t do that by rejecting them because of one or two issues that one may overlook on a casual basis. Most Christians, Muslims, Baha’is, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, and Atheists I can respect, as long as they respect me. But there are exceptions. I completely reject, deny and refuse to associate with ANYONE who is fuking stupid enough to believe in the Book of Mormon and its teachings, period. And here is why:
Mormonism and the Baha’i Faith
Yikes! Reading this testimony, I wonder how many people lost their faith in Baha’u'llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, because another religion accepted as valid by it, such as Christianity or Islam, was also debunked in the eyes of the now ex-Baha’i.
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Talk/talk.religion.bahai/2008-06/msg00026.html Continue reading →
