Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Bizarre Mormon Beliefs . . .




Now that the 2012 US Presidential election is over, most followers of the Mormon faith are glad; first that the election is now in the past tense but sliding in at a close second; ‘the Republican candidate was instrumental in bringing their religion into the national spotlight.’  Most true believers hope the disappointing loss by their “favorite son” will somehow help to dispel many misconceptions about their faith.  Beyond that point, it’s probably safe to say that reflecting on the aforementioned election and perhaps the 1960 election between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon which spotlighted the Catholic faith in a similar lite; we’ve learned that politics and religion, like oil & water, do not make a good mix.

For example in 1960 the public was forced to learned (because of the election), that the Pope was not the Antichrist and the devil didn’t really live just a little below the Catholic Church.

Although in the not too distant past the religious sect commonly known as Mormonism or The Latter Day Saints (LDS) was often classified as a cult by many main stream religious groups; of recent date, and in large part because of election politics, most such groups now agree that the faith / belief is nothing more than another branch of or a type of Christianity . . .

The fact is every religion has its own unique beliefs & traditions.  None the less, here I’ve attempted to provide a list of rather unusual or odd Latter Day Saints (LDS) aka Mormon beliefs. Each Item on the list is based upon LDS scripture taken directly from The Book of Mormon, like the one displayed above, so you can be assured they are authentic. 

While tithes (what some folks call a “church tax”), are not uncommon among religious organizations, rarely are they mandatory.   LDS theology states that in order to make it to the highest kingdom of heaven, you must pay a full and honest tithe.

No coffee, no drugs and no tobacco.   This is one of the most famous pieces of LDS doctrine; it has also brought about many myths about Mormons.


Exclusive to the LDS faith is this belief . . .  In no uncertain terms, every human on earth now was a spirit that resides in the “pre-existence”.  When each of us drops dead, our spirits are separated from our bodies and if we were good they go to “spirit paradise.” If we were bad they go to “spirit prison.” You see, the spirit world exists as a separate place (separate from heaven) for spirits to dwell while awaiting the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Practically everyone who knows anything about the Mormon religion knows they have a Prophet.  What many may not know; is that anything the prophet says in his “official capacity” is considered official church canon / law.  Basically the Mormon faith believes God calls prophets to lead the church . . . So their current leader is believed to be a living prophet, much like Abraham and Moses who are depicted in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible.  Some have likened this to the Catholic Pope, but as a general rule, his ideas / beliefs are commonly considered church “doctrine” as opposed to church “law”.


The Book of Mormon is a book of LDS scripture that takes place right after the stories referenced in the New Testament of The Holy Bible but occurs on the American continent, not somewhere in the Middle East.   It is important to note that the Mormon scripture is not intended to replace the Old or the New Testaments of the Holy Bible,  it simply follows the stories of two tribes who descended from the family of Lehi, a patriarch and prophet who the Mormons believe led his family from Jerusalem to the western hemisphere sometime around 600 B.C.  .. . .. For lack of better terms, you might call it a 3rd Testament .  .  .You see, shortly after Jesus’ resurrection the people of the Mormon faith believe he visited and shared his beliefs / teachings with the peoples of the Americas, who were the direct descendants of Lehi.


The church was founded / started by 19th century American religious leader Joseph Smith, Jr.  His story generally goes something like this:  When Joseph was a young man (in his mid-teens), he took the opportunity to pray and ask heavenly father to tell him which church he should attend. To his surprise he was told he should attend “none-of-the-above”.  To Joseph, this basically meant that everyone had it wrong.


This was soon followed by a vision in which God and Jesus appeared; God directed him to an ancient record in the form of “Golden Plates”.  The Golden Plates, it turns out, are the source from which Joseph said he translated the Book of Mormon, the sacred text of the faith. A few witnesses described the plates as weighing somewhere between 30 and 60 pounds (14 to 27 kg); they were golden in color, and composed of thin metallic pages. They were engraved on both sides and held together with three D-shaped rings.


Smith allegedly found the plates on September 22, 1823 on a hill near his home in Manchester, New York.  He said an angel (named Moroni) guided him to the stone box where they were buried, apparently a short while after God told him about their existence. Smith pointed out that the angel at first prevented him from taking the plates; instead, he was instructed to return to the same location in a year.  For one or more of the following reasons perhaps only known to young Master Smith, the next year wasn’t good either because the angel would not allow Smith to take the plates until he obeyed certain specific “commandments”. A young Joseph Smith recorded / stated that the angel required at least the following: (1) that he have no thought of using the plates for monetary gain, (2) that he tell his father about the vision, and (3) that he never show the plates to any unauthorized person . . . Several additional commandments or rules are often recited by others who allege they ‘overheard’ Joseph add them to this short list but only Young Joseph Smith ever knew if they were more . . . In any event, several of those “alleged” commandants are derogatory by their very nature and lends no additional credibility to the story line anyway.


It was several years later indeed, in September of 1827, on his fourth annual attempt to retrieve the plates that Smith returned home with a heavy object wrapped in a frock (a loose outer garment worn by peasants and workers; smock), which he hid away in a box. Though he allowed others to lift the box, he insisted that the guiding angel had forbidden him to show the plates to anyone until they had been translated from their original “reformed Egyptian” language.


From these Golden Plates, Smith dictated the text over the next several years. He did this by using a “seer stone” which he placed in the bottom of a hat and then placed the hat over his face to view the words written within the stone.  Smith published the book / translation in 1830.

According to most leaders of the church, Joseph Smith was, through the power and gift of God, granted the ability to translate the writing on the Golden Plates into what folks now call The Book of Mormon, which is subtitled “Another Testament of Jesus Christ.”


According to Mormon lore, when he was finished translating the plates he gave them back to the angel (Moroin) who he insisted “has them in his charge”, so exactly where they may be now, is anyone’s guess.


It’s commonly known that another oddity / rule of the faith that has brought about a great deal of criticism is the fact that any ‘worthy’ white male can be given the priesthood and is regularly given specific duties, but black people were not allowed to hold the priesthood until 1978 and even today, females are not allowed to have the priesthood.


In Later Day Saints theology you can be forgiven for any sin, except two (2). First: Denying the Holy Spirit; and second: Murder.   Now add this to the mix: Heavenly Father / God is believed to be infinitely forgiving, until the second coming of Jesus Christ occurs; following that event, you end up where you end up, no matter what . . . No second chances, ever.


Most Mormons believe that God created multiple worlds and each world has people living on it. They also believe that while several Gods exist, but each God has his own individual universe. It’s important to note that a true believer is only subject to the one God in charge of his or her universe and further, if the highest level of heaven is obtained you can become a god yourself.


Yet another belief that differs from traditional Christianity is the belief that it’s reasonable to perform baptisms for the dead, but only if requested by the family.


Kolob is said to be a star or planet described in the Book of Abraham that is often claimed to be a specific text / chapter within The Book of Mormon.  According to this written record, Kolob is the heavenly body nearest to the throne of God. Kolob is called both a “star” and a “planet” in the text and as a result some LDS commentators consider Kolob to be a planet; it’s of little surprise that there is a serious problem with this “story” , especially since the existence of Kolob has never been proven to exist within the field of astronomy . . . The fact is there is no Book of Abraham within the text of The Book of Mormon at all; however there is a Book of Abraham in the “Pearl of Great Price”, another Joseph Smith publication, which is apparently the source of the story wherein some folks claim a planet called Kolob is the location of  “Heaven”.

Never the less, you may hear on occasion that Kolob is believed to be the “Mormon Heaven” planet, and that Heavenly Father / or God lives there, and is a 6 foot 2 inch, 200 pound white male. Apparently such ideas are pure conjecture by some un-named LDS commentator.  Regardless such flawed information is periodically a topic of discussion and a huge criticism of Mormonism in general.

And finally, although there was polygamy in the 1800’s, it hasn’t been a part of the main stream church for more than 120 years.  Today (2012), there’s more than 14 million Mormons worldwide; more members reside outside the United States than inside.  Some say if those numbers were reversed, Mitt Romney would have won the election against Barack Obama in 2012 . . . Just Joking, no one is really saying that . . . not aloud anyway.


Sources:                                                                                                        http://listverse.com/2008/02/04/top-10-bizarre-mormon-beliefs/                                      http://www.wate.com/story/19938331/local-mormons-explain-facts-dispel-myths-of-their-religion http://mormonforpresident.info/mormonfactsandmyths.html                                        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_plates                                                     http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/frock                                                                           http://www.mrm.org/where-are-the-gold-plates                                            http://classic.scriptures.lds.org/en/bm/contents                                                                  http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Lehi                                                                             http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolob                                                       http://www.top10craziestmormonbeliefs.com/a/93

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