That is the question that this diary explores. Each user will have to conclude its importance and relevance, nay every voter will need to weigh it.
Here we go :
The Book of Mormon tells of the resurrected Jesus Christ and His visit to His faithful followers in ancient America. After His visits to His disciples in the Old World, He descended out of heaven and appeared to His followers in ancient America.
The Book of Mormon describes how, during His visit, Jesus Christ healed their sick, taught them His gospel, blessed their children, and called twelve disciples to organize His Church in the Americas (3 Nephi 11:18; 3 Nephi 12:1-2)
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This is precious and just neat :
Sam answered...
Of course! It just makes sense! We always hear of the ancient cultures in America talk about the "white God who promised he would return", being called some intense long name. So many cultures have that. It just makes sense that if Jesus Christ, the savior of the world, really did what he did, FOR THE WORLD, then he would make it known to the world, and not just now, but back then too. I'm sure he had the power to do that. Who is to say he didn't or couldn't? He is the Savior…
And there is only one way to verify it :
Deanna answered...
The Book of Mormon does talk of Jesus Christ visiting the Americas after he was resurrected. The only way to know if that is true, is to know if the Book of Mormon is true, and the only way to know that is to read it for yourself and pray to God to know that answer. I have read the Book of Mormon and prayed, and I know that Jesus did come to American and healed their sick, taught his Gospel, and organized his Church as well.
This is nice since it is not falsifiable.
Ann agrees with this :
Laura answered...
It is encouraged for Mormon women to be supportive of the men in the church because they hold the priesthood, which allows us to perform ordinances and receive the power of the Holy Ghost. We definitely believe in the equality of men and women. Although they share different responsibilities (men: provider of the family and priesthood holder; women: rear children and care for the family), we believe that we are all equal in the Lord's eyes.
That is why she is tasked with advising Mitt on how to oversee women.
This person feels that it is relevant
Mitt Romney is a lifetime member of the Mormon Church, with deep roots that stretch back to the earliest days of Mormonism. Romney’s great grandfather practiced polygamy in Mexico in Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, where many Mormon polygamists fled to evade the Edmunds Act of 1882. Romney has served in leadership positions in the church throughout his life, including being a bishop (the pastor of a church) as well as spending 30 months proselytizing in France as missionary from 1966-1969. These are all well-known facts that can be found through a variety sources, as well as from statements made by Romney himself. However, many facets of his involvement with the notoriously enigmatic sect remain completely unknown not only to most Americans but to many Mormons as well.
It does trouble Ben Stein
here is some good information
Mormons do not have a paid clergy to run their church so males make up the entire infrastructure and as usual, women need not apply. Mitt was ordained at the age of twelve, like other Mormon males. He became a Bishop in 1981 and Boston Stake President in 1986.
Here we get to the heart of the matter:
The reason a Catholic bishop (I'm Catholic) has never run for public office is because he cannot separate his religious beliefs from governing a secular United States made up of many different faiths and non-faiths. His religious views would dictate exactly how his votes would be cast and how his policies were shaped. That's not a dig against this hypothetical bishop, that's exactly what everyone would expect him to do.
So I ask again, why isn't Mitt receiving a serious look into his religious views?
Do we remember this :
Here's a segment of Meet The Press from 12/16/2007. You'll notice that Romney will not condemn his church for their odious treatment of African Americans until 1978.
MR. RUSSERT: You, you raise the issue of color of skin. In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court, Brown vs. Board of Education, desegregated all our public schools. In 1964 civil rights laws giving full equality to black Americans. And yet it wasn't till 1978 that the Mormon church decided to allow blacks to participate fully. Here was the headlines in the papers in June of '78. "Mormon Church Dissolves Black Bias. Citing new revelation from God, the president of the Mormon Church decreed for the first time black males could fully participate in church rites." You were 31 years old, and your church was excluding blacks from full participation. Didn't you think, "What am I doing part of an organization that is viewed by many as a racist organization?"
GOV. ROMNEY: I'm very proud of my faith, and it's the faith of my fathers, and I certainly believe that it is a, a faith--well, it's true and I love my faith. And I'm not going to distance myself in any way from my faith. But you can see what I believed and what my family believed by looking at, at our lives. My dad marched with Martin Luther King. My mm was a tireless crusader for civil rights. You may recall that my dad walked out of the Republican convention in 1964 in San Francisco in part because Barry Goldwater, in his speech, gave my dad the impression that he was someone who was going to be weak on civil rights. So my dad's reputation, my mom's and my own has always been one of reaching out to people and not discriminating based upon race or anything else. And so those are my fundamental core beliefs, and I was anxious to see a change in, in my church.
I can remember when, when I heard about the change being made. I was driving home from, I think, it was law school, but I was driving home, going through the Fresh Pond rotary in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I heard it on the radio, and I pulled over and, and literally wept. Even at this day it's emotional, and so it's very deep and fundamental in my, in my life and my most core beliefs that all people are children of God. My faith has always told me that. My faith has also always told me that, in the eyes of God, every individual was, was merited the, the fullest degree of happiness in the hereafter, and I, and I had no question in my mind that African-Americans and, and blacks generally, would have every right and every benefit in the hereafter that anyone else had and that God is no respecter of persons.
MR. RUSSERT: But it was wrong for your faith to exclude it for as long as it did.
GOV. ROMNEY: I've told you exactly where I stand. My view is that there--there's, there's no discrimination in the eyes of God, and I could not have been more pleased than to see the change that occurred.
This is fairly fascinating as well
Sherman says:
According to the Book of Abraham, one of the LDS scripture. Kolob was set by the Lord to be the governing one and is the first creation or the first star that was created. Therefore, if Kolob was set to be the governing one, it should be at the midst of all things or should I say, the center of all. The Milky way galaxy has its center where all other stars in our galaxy revolves. Therefore, if Kolob was set as the governing one, then it should be found at the center and that center is the core of the Milky way galaxy. God’s residence will be found at the center of the Milky way galaxy. You may find our beliefs ridiculous but to us it is not for it was revealed by God himself to the prophets. It is no wonder that ancient people during Christ’s time called Jesus Christ as lunatik or someone who is crazy. But to all who believed on Him, his doctrine is pure and amazing. We believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has pure religion.
This is pretty special :
aaron says:
Actually astronomers have confirmed that there is a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. The region surrounding this black hole is extremely hot and filled with radiation
Sherman says:
Exactly Aaron, God is a burning glory that no mortal man can behold. This is why it is covered with interstellar dusts to protect us from the core’s intense radiation. Astronomers had also believed that there are millions or even billions of earths like this that may be inhabited by man who has the same image as we are created in the image and likeness of our Ultimate Father. Christ’s had said that He had created worlds without number. Many worlds have come anew and many have already passed. It was also known and discovered that other galaxies also existed. Paul said “For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)
But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are dall things, and we by him.” 1 Cor 8:5-6
The other galaxies we see are not the creation of the Father of our spirits but a creation of other gods who also resides at the center of each respective galaxies that has been discovered. Each has it’s own Kolob at its center respectively
ye shall be gods booyah !
As God Is Man May Be?
By Bill McKeever
Although it is not found in any of Mormonism's Standard Works, an expression which precisely defines the LDS teaching that men can become Gods was coined by fifth LDS President Lorenzo Snow. In June of 1840, Snow declared, "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." Besides correctly illustrating the Latter-day Saint teaching that God was once a mere mortal man, this couplet also declares that man has the potential to become God! According to LDS theology, eternal life is synonymous with godhood. In the words of LDS Apostle Bruce McConkie, "Thus those who gain eternal life receive exaltation ... They are gods." (Mormon Doctrine, pg. 237).
NY Times explores this as well
Leading students through stories about Jesus and the Nephite and Lamanite tribes, who Mormons believe once populated the Americas, and tossing out peanut butter cups as rewards, Mr. Romney always returned to the same question: how could students apply the lessons of Mormon scripture in their daily lives?Mr. Romney’s penchant for rules mirrors that of his church, where he once excommunicated adulterers and sometimes discouraged mothers from working outside the home.
“I remember literally kneeling down with Mitt at his home and praying about our firm,” Bob Gay, a former Bain colleague and current church official, told Jeff Benedict, author of “The Mormon Way of Doing Business.” “We did that in times of crisis, and we prayed that we’d do right by our people and our investors.”