WillySteed*ChristineMarie*KolleneSnow*AudienceMember*EdKociela AuthorPlygsAnswersQuestions *JewelryAtGuilt* DickJaneFlipbook*Spoilers*Tweets*RebeccaMusser*My5WivesGreat Stories*BuyTeamKolleenTshirtTodayDon'tMissOut!!!Review!!

Monday, July 25, 2011

Mormons Can't Agree With Who May Be Called Mormons "Sister Wives"



As a young girlie, I grew up in a small town in the North. Every county had the same churches, a Christian, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, and a Quaker Church. My knowledge consisted of knowing the Catholic Church and the Seventh Day  were very different- different books, beliefs; but all were thought of as Christians. I’d say I had been to them all at some time or another. Not a dime’s worth a difference in any of them. Same practices, teachings, and rituals, like communion every Sunday. Oh, some may have used bread instead of the cool little crackers, or not played instruments, but, you get the point. Any major differences weren’t something that disagreed with the Bible.  And we all used the same Bible. I was taught that it was a man’s heart and beliefs that God would look at. All were trying to be good Christians.


Since I was the youngest, I tended to stay out of the religious and political discussions at my house. My brother coming home from Cornell U in the 60’s thought he knew everything, and the discussions were lively. Maybe I should have listened more, but I was only 6. To the point of watching the show, “Sister Wives” the only facts I knew about Mormons was that the Osmond’s were, and that their LDS genealogy site was filled with mistakes. In other words, I was a Mormon “dummy”. I had no idea what their theologies were. I’ve been trying to learn about the Mormon religion ever since. It’s puzzling because everywhere you read, you get a different explanation. 


Questions keeps popping up in my head.


WHAT do all Mormons believe, and why are the different churches of Mormons calling the other churches NOT Mormons?


Now, we know there are (and I assume more); LDS, FLDS, Independent Fundamentalists, Johnston Group, Kingston Group, I’m sure many others. The LDS, Latter Day Saints, quit practicing polygamy in 1890 for Utah to become a state. NOT because their religion really changed in any way. The rules changed. In fact, the Mormon religion was steeped high in polygamy.
Here’s some Basic Mormon Beliefs, Polygamist or not- that differ with Christianity that I didn’t know prior to the show:  


 1.    Mormons can become gods and goddesses.

 2.    Goddesses will spend eternity in full submission to their god-husband.

 3.    Mormon women will give birth "forever and ever" to spirit-babies.

 4.    Mormon men can have multiple wives in heaven-eternal polygamy.

5.    Heavenly Father is an exalted man who lives with his goddess wife, Heavenly Mother, on a planet near the great star Kolob.

6.    American Indians are descendants of the wicked Lamanites, who were Israelites that God cursed with dark skin.

7.    God the Father had sex with Mary to conceive Jesus, who is the half brother of Lucifer.

8.    All Christian churches are an abomination.

9.    Mormons need 4 secret handshakes to get into the Celestial heaven.

10.  Joseph Smith revealed that the actual Garden of Eden is in Jackson County, Missouri.

11. The Mormon religion was founded in upstate New York in 1830, when Joseph Smith published a translation of writings he said he found and translated from Egyptian-style hieroglyphics into English.  After publishing  what he said was an English translation of the plates as the Book of Mormon, he organized branches of the Church of Christ, a church whose adherents were later called Latter Day Saints, Saints, or Mormons.

12. Joseph Smith had a revelation that men should be polygamists. (Someone is writing on Joseph, we’ll leave that for later).

13.  You must wear the Special undergarments for protection and remembrance of your covenants, which have resemblances of free Masonry symbols. That’s enough for now, there’s many more!


All this was very hard for me to absorb, polygamy or no. Basically, Joseph Smith created a Mormon book, started the Mormon Church with these just a speck of his teachings, and had a revelation they should all practice polygamy to get to their planet and be gods.

When Polygamy was outlawed, the LDS church outlawed it also; hence, many splinter groups came into play that continued on with polygamy. Since it was at the very core of Smiths’ teachings, if you were going to ARGUE, you might say the practicing polygamists are the true Mormons. 


HOWEVER, with Clowns like Warren Jeffs and the like, the LDS church is distancing themselves.


So, I looked around to see what a “Mormon” was defined as.


According to Wikipedia: The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second great Awakening. Most Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints, (LDS Church), while a minority are members of Mormon Fundamentalist or other independent churches. Many Mormons are also either independent or non-practicing. Mormons are often associated with polygamy, although the majority of Mormons are now not.
BUT WAIT: That’s not what the LDS Church says:


Use of the Word Mormon in News Reports. In a Request to the News Media from the LDS Newsroom:


The Associated Press Stylebook has recognized this difficulty and specified that the term Mormon is a nickname that should be applied exclusively to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that it is not accurately applied to any other person or organization (see entries on “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The” and “Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints”).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recognizes that the prosecution of polygamist Warren Jeffs is generating substantial media coverage and that Jeffs’ group refers to its members as fundamentalist Mormons. That is causing problems for reporters trying to help their readers, viewers and listeners distinguish between Jeffs’ followers and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In the public mind, the word Mormon has come to mean something very specific It has become a synonym for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Consequently, when Mormonis used to describe polygamist groups, it causes great confusion about our beliefs among the general public and frustration to our members. 

Polygamists and polygamist organizations that occasionally make the news are not dissident wings of the Church or fundamentalists. They have no affiliation whatsoever with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most of their members have never had any association with the Church either. It follows that because Warren Jeffs is not affiliated with the Mormon Church, and since he is not Mormon, reporters should look for more accurate and less misleading descriptions of him in the media. 

 Nutshell: LDS wants the use of the name MORMON, and no other MORMON group should use it!  It bothers them so much they put a press release out!


When I queried, I got some good responses:

“One way scholars have treated that is to refer to a broader “Mormon Movement” with all of the various sects, including the mainstream church, deriving from the religious movement spurred by the beliefs and writings of Joseph Smith. The mainstream church (LDS) clearly gets offended when the other sects call themselves “Mormon” because it has tried so hard to distance itself from its earlier more controversial beliefs and practices, not to mention from all that gets into the newspapers. 

Also…"The word Mormon is loaded in arguable definitions and contexts but the original label as proclaimed by the brethren was to proudly differentiate themselves from Christians and choose a hero from the ‘Book of Mormon’ to give this new label a more distinctive separation.”

I am going to tick someone off, I'm really not trying to, it's just my humble viewpoint.

If you are following Joseph Smith and his teachings, you are a MORMON are you not?  If you marry underage girls or not, if you practice polygamy or not, your still using the same basic teachings. Like with Christians, there’s good and bad in all Churches. LDS forgets they started out the same way. Kody calls himself an Independent Fundamentalist Mormon. The LDS would say he is not a Mormon. Confusing? Yep.


It reminds me of one of my favorite stories of Dr. Seuss, The Sneetches. Because the star-bellied Sneetches are being prejudicial to the plain-bellied Sneetches, a "fix-it-up chappie" named Sylvester McMonkey McBean appears and offers the Sneetches without stars a chance to have them by going through his Star-On Machine. Shows the reader that racism is not the way to go. 

When my boys were little, I came home to find my husband and them all shirtless, with “stars upons thars”. It was the cutest thing I ever saw, I just wish I had taken a picture.

LDS, you shouldn’t be so stingy with the name. It applies to all that adhere to the teachings of Joseph Smith. Actually, the polygamists are following it more, so I say they can call themselves Mormons. There’s good and bad in every group. Don’t be a Sneetch!


(Sources: http://newsroom.lds.org/article/use-of-the-word-mormon-in-news-reports
http://www.worldviewweekend.com/worldview-times/article.php?articleid=1588
               

25 comments:

  1. I agree, if the person is following the beliefs of Joseph Smith, that person is a Mormon, regardless of whether or not they're a member of the LDS church.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree too, after all I've learned on here about Joseph Smith. Following a false prophet is what they should be worried about! Cute tying it into the Sneetches!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I hope everyone knows that story, it goes right with this, a HOOT!

    ReplyDelete
  4. American Indians are descendants of the wicked Lamanites, who were Israelites that God cursed with dark skin.

    7.God the Father had sex with Mary to conceive Jesus, who is the half brother of Lucifer.
    8. ll Christian churches are an abomination.
    9. ormons need 4 secret handshakes to get into the Celestial heaven.

    Snuck those in, did ya? HOW SCARY IS THAT? Are we in the Mason's?

    ReplyDelete
  5. So The husband is their God, not G O D? Sorry, new here. This is some scary shit.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Don't you mean M's upon their Melons? BWAHAHAHAHAH

    ReplyDelete
  7. Or P for planets?
    But that first stuff is freaky. Do they really believe that?

    ReplyDelete
  8. The only thing they seem to agree on is to lie, and bleed the beast.

    ReplyDelete
  9. What are those symbols at the top mean to Mormons?

    ReplyDelete
  10. I swear, I believe that it's so hard to fathom this stuff, that we do have to be told over and over. It's hard to look at the Browns and think this is how the believe. Esp. Meri.

    ReplyDelete
  11. It is strange that the groups that follow Joseph aren't supposed to be called Mormon anymore. I agree with you!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Differences between mainstream Mormons and Mormon fundamentalists -
    1) Belief that living polygamy now is necessary for "exaltation" in the afterlife. Exaltation means getting your own planet and ruling over it as a god - Mainstream Mormons believe that polygamy will only be required after Jesus returns, or in the afterlife, not at this time.
    2) Belief in the Adam - God Doctrine - Fundamentalists usually believe in the Adam - God doctrine - that Adam, the first man, has evolved to the point where he has become a god. Most fundamentalists believe this, most mainstream Mormons do not.
    3) Belief in the "United Order" - Mormon fundamentalists believe and practice "the United Order" which means that they share financial resources. An example of the United Order in Mormon fundamentalism is the United Effort Plan (UEP) of the FLDS. The UEP owns all of the homes and businesses of the FLDS members, as a member is required to give the deed to their home to the sect leaders, who in turn allow the member to live there. In the event that the member chooses to leave the sect, the member may not be permitted to live in their own home.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I had one trying to convert tell me that Christ wasn't the only one resurrected that Joseph Smith etc was too and how glorious it was as well that the cross was blasphemous. Also, that Adam was the physical embodiment of Arch Angel Michael. I think they will fib to anyone to get them to cross over and it is hard to tell what is truth or not with them. I have read plenty on LDS and the occult. I was recently reading about Mormon female healing rituals and other magical practices they embrace Free Masonary seems the least scary I suppose. Much of their rites were orally passed down until recently and they still are very secretive.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Everyone's religious beliefs sound incredulous to people who haven't been raised in them. I have no problems believing that a spirit impregnated a virgin to give birth to a human representation of my God. That He was tortured to death, sealed into a cave, came back to life, and then rose bodily to Heaven. Or even that Jonah was able to live for three days inside a fish's stomach; 3 days w/o food or water, surrounded by corrosive stomach acid.

    The Bible is filled with stories that defy logic, which is fine because religious beliefs are based on faith, not provable fact.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Friend of Flora, you left out something in your list of differences between Mormon fundamentalism and LDS - the Word of Wisdom. I think I will write a post on it.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I think it's terribly scary. It's not based on God's miracles, it based on a false prophet, a mere mortal, a horny toad.

    ReplyDelete
  17. HAHAHAHAH They do act like a bunch of Sneetches. I'm one, no your not, I'm ONE!

    ReplyDelete
  18. So confusing for a numuts like me. One of these days, I'll get it all. Please write it in dummy, for I get lost....

    ReplyDelete
  19. "Joseph Smith revealed that the actual Garden of Eden is in Jackson County, Missouri."

    That would of been a shame if the world ended before the Mormons existed, or we'd come over on the Mayflower, we would of missed it all!LOL

    ReplyDelete
  20. You know, the underwear is like the stars - just about the same thing! hahahahahah

    ReplyDelete
  21. As far as the Mormons, in other words representatives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are concerned, they can also be seen in Finland from time to time. They are usually young American men who are dressed neatly, behave well, and visit homes. Furthermore, when visiting, the most important subjects of conversation to them are normally the Book of Mormon and the life of prophet Joseph Smith. They usually bring these views forth as the first and most important when talking to people. These issues cannot be overlooked when discussing the issues that Mormons consider as the most important.
    But what should we think about the teachings of the Mormons and do they generally deviate from the common Christian doctrine? Are the teachings in line with the doctrine of the Bible in any way or are they completely different? We are going to make an effort to try to study and clarify the following issues below, for example. If you are a Mormon, it is worth your while to study these issues in detail.

    http://www.jariiivanainen.net/Mormons.html

    ReplyDelete
  22. I know that the Mormons (LDS) will say that they are not connected to the FLDS, but that's NOT true. It's really quite simple...a Mormon is a Mormon (period). Mormonism is not a religion, nor christian, it's a CULT. This cult is an Anti-American Subversive Criminal Organization. In Arizona alone, the Mormons suck 30 million dollars per year from the Arizona welfare and food stamp system at taxpayers expense. The Mormon dominated legislature in Arizona has been hiding this fraud for years, and will not adhere to the laws and standards of this state or country to further their agenda. BTW..there are hundreds of polygamous Mormon families living all over northern Arizona (not just Colorado City). I've heard that about 80% of all Mormons in Arizona are on welfare and food stamps. Can you say massive welfare fraud. Now, I have not even touched upon child molestation, Jon Kyl, John McCain, Governor Brewer and the entire Arizona legislature turning a blind eye to the mormons criminal activities just for votes. There are three things the Mormons just HATE...informed people, educated people, and the truth. I certainly hope this Warren Jeffs Trial will finally inform this nation to the true Mormon agenda, and it's not pretty huh? Need I say more about ROMNEY? Being an Arizona native for sixty some years, I've seen all this crap for many years.

    ReplyDelete
  23. The Mormon Curtain has an entire section of articles up about DNA testing that proves them false.

    http://www.mormoncurtain.com/topic_dna.html

    ReplyDelete
  24. This whole subject bothers me. Since I've been reading here, Many LDS attack the FM for calling themselves a Mormon. Let's face it, they all are, in various forms. I do not believe that the LDS has the right to "own" the word.

    ReplyDelete