Mormonism

Dawud · 06-22-2008, 07:12 PM

There's a modern religion for you

It's a denomination of Christianity, a branch of the tree of Christianity that many Christians probably want to prune, but it's there, it's part of the tree.

And it's modern... 1830.

The official name is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was founded by Joseph Smith, a seeker who believed he was given authority to restore Christianity.

So you don't get confused, I'm not a Mormon and I don't believe Joseph Smith was a prophet. But there are some things I have in common with Mormons...

Chastity, fidelity, ...thinking... (I know there are more....)

Recent.... 1830 and 1844... The Baha'i Faith began in 1844, the same year that Joseph Smith was shot by a mob. The Forerunner of Baha'u'llah, the Bab, was shot by a firing squad six years later, in 1850.

Mormon temples and Baha'i temples serve different purposes and look quite a bit different from each other, but the first temple of both religions was lost. The first Mormon temple was lost to a splinter group and the first Baha'i temple was lost to the Soviet Union.

The second temple of each religion was built in.... (and this is a surprising coincidence....) So I'll build up to it. The Mormon Church began in Pennsylvania and the Baha'i Faith began in Persia... Pennsylvania and Persia are very far apart (if that isn't obvious...) And even though they started so far apart, and so recently, the second temple of each religion was built in the same state, Illinois.

dbanks82 · 11-27-2008, 08:20 AM

I was really shocked to see such a posting in a place like interfaith. It seems like something I would read on some anti mormon blog. Just to clarify some things I am a mormon. We do not believe that whites are a superior race. Gordon. B Hinckley, who was the president of the lds church until he passed away recently, spoke to the members of the lds church and urged them to move past racist attitudes. And that racist attitudes had no place in gods church. Yes of course there have been mormons in the past that have had racial attitudes including church leaders. This is due to the culture of the times in which these men lived. Which I see as very unfortuante. But mormons are not alone in this. Many Christian churches during the 1800's taught that black people didn't have souls and couldn't be saved. And to my knowledge mormons are the only ones who never had segregated congregations. You can't hold mormonism to higher standard than you hold the rest of the christian world to. Next of all the second accusation was quite humorous. That we believe Jesus was blonde haired and blue eyed. The church makes no stand on Jesus's physical traits. Yes mormon artists may have depicted him in such away. That in no way means we are taught Jesus was blonde hair and blue eyed. There are also mormon artists that have depicted him with a darker complextion. Its is a decision that is totally left up to the artist.
Anyway when I was a missionary for the church of jesus christ of latter day saints I had the opportunity of meeting some bahai people. They were some of the most amazing people I have ever meet. We had great conversation and gained a lot of understanding of our two faiths. We saw lots of similarities. Such as persecution faced by both of our faiths as well as similar time periods. I really admire the bahai religion and hold it in the highest regard.

seattlegal · 11-27-2008, 10:35 AM

Hi, dbanks, and welcome to IO.

Don't mind The Dude. (You can put him on your Ignore List via your User Control Panel by clicking on User CP in the top left corner of the page.) He seems to enjoy making such posts.

wil · 11-27-2008, 01:08 PM

Welcome Dbanks,

Namaste Dude, seems many relgions had racist tendencies in the past.

Namaste Dawud, Illinois...are you making any sort of presidential inference here? Lincoln moved there in 1830 and our recent addition is coming from there...hmmm some race contemplation between those two too. Not hard to find links once you start looking for them.

17th Angel · 11-27-2008, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seattlegal

Hi, dbanks, and welcome to IO.

Don't mind The Dude. (You can put him on your Ignore List via your User Control Panel by clicking on User CP in the top left corner of the page.) He seems to enjoy making such posts.

He left, and left sadly holding the same thoughts, ah well.

Quahom1 · 11-27-2008, 11:58 PM

Let us not make a member feel unwelcome shall we?

v/r

Q

Francis king · 11-28-2008, 09:55 PM

bah, I missed what was said...

Dream · 11-30-2008, 05:22 AM

Dawud! Haven't seen you for a while.

Well its a good thing that dbanks82 showed up to reign us in over at the Christianity forum. 'Us' meaning the non-Catholics. I don't think any Catholics were involved in the conversation (although we did somehow reach a 'Critical Mass' in that thread). Maybe things got out of hand. You can send a message to either a moderator or maybe "I, Brian" the administrator, if you feel the thread was inappropriate. The rest of us are unable to make any changes to the thread.