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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