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Help me understand what Mormonism is?

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Mormonism is definitely a Christian faith. It is similar to Catholicism in that it accepts devine revelation as an ongoing process (though the Catholics have a go-slow approach to accepting extra-Biblical revelation whereas the Mormons can turn on a dime). This tends to bug the crap out of Bible-only Protestants who hold that the totality of devine revelation is found only in the Bible.

As far as Mormonism in American culture, we are seeing and are going to see a lot more of it. Mormonism is a growing faith and America is the Mormon Canaan. The American Intermountain West is the promised land of the Mormons and they are putting their stamp on the cultural landscape like never before. Under the last Prophet, the LDS church went on a temple building spree unprecendented in their history, bringing Mormon temples to dozens of cities across the US. Beyond the new temples the Mormons have been queitly enshrining their foundational myths and stories on the landscape, erecting roadside monuments and historical markers for important events in their history. This is very similar to the "George Washington slept here" reminders of early American history we are used to in the east.
 
SagaLore said:
So how was the sex? :awe:
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Catholic. By far.


Not really fair comparison, though, because the Mormon and I were first-timers and neither of us really had a clue. We worked hard at it, though, and we worked on it a lot.

The women who came (came!) after the Mormon certainly benefitted from her quirks.

The Mormon was a prude but she was also a squirter. The Catholic was an adventurous German, and her uncle had diddled with her when she was 5 years-old.


Catholic. By far. But I'm not sure that the religion had anything to do with it.
 
not christian. and they wouldn't argue otherwise except for the fact that they want to be accepted by everyone else. bullshit is bullshit
 
Up until the 70s/80s, if you were Black you weren't allowed to be a member.

Also, polygame was A-OK until more recent times.

Both were tenets of the religion, until it became politically incorrect to do so openly.

So expect lots of flip-flopping.
 
rloring said:
Mormons are absolutely not Christians. Satan's greatest and oldest ploy on the human race is confusion and making people doubt GOD'S very existence that's why the world is flooded with 1000's of religions and denominations. In my quest to find truth, I was everything under the sun, but satisfied and secure in any belief system. I have discovered that a common grave mistake to make in this quest is to judge GOD or religion by the people who follow it. I stopped listening to frail, fragmented human reasoning which proved to be worthless and reading everyone's book on the subject and go right to the source. GOD will draw near to no one who is not serious about HIM. The thought of eternity and life after death became more and more paramount to me because after i take my last breath the very last moment is all that matters and what preparations I made for it. 100% of the people to date that I have talked to that either claimed to be atheist, of another faith, searching, and down right hostile about the BIBLE were so because of simply a lack of interpretation and understanding about writing style, culture of the day, Hebrew and Greek use of words. I have heard just about every so called contradiction and error in the BIBLE and they were all a misunderstanding of BIBLICAL writing. I trust nothing and no one and especially anything not visible or tangible, but as I dug into the BIBLE myself and got help with interpretation GOD showed HIMSELF because now I am laying aside human reasoning and allowed the BIBLE to illuminate itself instead of looking for errors or looking to make a mockery of it. Eternity is far too long to play with it. We spend more time pondering life on other planets instead of life after. You cannot make JESUS go away by unbelief no more than I can make you unreal by unbelief. There will be a judgement whether one believes, accepts, understands, or even cares and at that point it is too late. You could never atone for your own sins, so CHRIST is your permanent lamb of sacrifice which is the only payment for sins GOD will accept so CHRIST is the only thing that pleases GOD, not your works like 100% of every other religion basically teaches. True Christianity is the only faith where GOD reaches down to man, every other is man reaching up to GOD by works and rigorous deeds of obedience. The BIBLE says that .."without faith it is impossible to please GOD..." (Hebrews 11:6), and Romans 8 is a good place to start, 1 of many. To those that really want to learn, turn off the tv preachers, get a BIBLE, shut your door, ask GOD to help you understand what HE wants you to know, open and read and allow the scriptures to speak to you, ask HIM for forgiveness, accept JESUS and keep it movin' and apply what you read for application is the real link to deep understanding. Expect scoffers because they are many. It took me a looong time to get passed being laughed at, but human nature usually always scoffs at what it fears and does not understand so just realize that it is just the depravity of human nature, just keep it moving.
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No, you're wrong about that.
 
Christianity is defined as the belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that he came to earth to save humanity, and that he is both divine and human. If you believe this, then you are a Christian. Hence, Mormons are absolutely, 100% Christian.

If you believe that they aren't Christian, then in your head you just went and redefined what "Christian" means. That's fine, but it's not reality.
 
ichy said:
I believe you mean non-Trinitarian.

IMO Mormons are not Christians since they have a non-orthodox view of the trinity and they tacked on extra books to the Bible.
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Yep, my bad on the Unitarian/Trinitarian word mixup.

I don't think they're non-Christian. They just had some extra guys decide some different things for them. Go read about the ecumenical councils, especially the first one. Before that, it wasn't even settled that Jesus was God (in either the Uni or Trini sense). Christianity has changed just as much as Mormonism, since they were founded. As someone else said, nobody really gives Catholics crap for modern revelations through the Pope. Mormons just believe in different church leaders who revealed different things. Same basis of God/Jesus there.
 
DougK62 said:
Christianity is defined as the belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that he came to earth to save humanity, and that he is both divine and human. If you believe this, then you are a Christian. Hence, Mormons are absolutely, 100% Christian.
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Belief in the Bible is also central to Christianity. You can't just add books to it and claim your religion is Christian.
 
Mormonism is the result of an elaborate fabrication, to gain wealth and power, by Joseph Smith.
 
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ichy said:
Belief in the Bible is also central to Christianity. You can't just add books to it and claim your religion is Christian.
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What Bible are you talking about?
There are thousands of versions of Christian Bibles.
It is still evolving today.

Why does it matter if Joseph Smith added his own books in the 1800s, or someone added or deleted books in the 1600s, 1500s, etc?

Most religious people disagree with other denominations and proclaim theirs as the true form of the religion.
 
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ichy said:
Belief in the Bible is also central to Christianity. You can't just add books to it and claim your religion is Christian.
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Not true. The Christian Bible comes in a bunch of flavors, and has had items added to it and removed from it for as long as it's been around. The Bible is an important text in Christianity, but adding to it has no effect on whether you're a Christian or not.
 
Basically some dude got drunk one night and had a strange event. Walking Aimlessly in a drunken stupor he found a sekrit Gold book. This special gold book he found hidden in some hill was the missing sequel to the Bible.

Anyhow This dude was told by a voice to copy all the stuff from this gold book before it disappears.

After that incident, he went to the Utah town centre and showed everyone his notes and declared a new religion, with himself the leader and grand priest of Mormonism.

And enough people followed this guy to get the religion started, how sold the men on it by saying you can have all the wives you want.

It worked, once the religion got big enough and enough suckers indoctrinated into it, they removed the bonus "all the wives you want" out of the book and made it one wife only.
 
ichy said:
Belief in the Bible is also central to Christianity. You can't just add books to it and claim your religion is Christian.
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I think what you're not understanding is that the stuff Mormons are doing (picking which writings they include in their books of faith - yes, they have 4 separate books) is pretty much exactly what vanilla Christianity did over a millennium or more.

There wasn't just a "Bible" that suddenly appeared one day with all of the current books in the exact order they are now with the exact words they currently have. What you define as the Christian Bible (probably Protestant, since Catholic is slightly different) wasn't really finalized until around ~1500 or so.
 
Hugo Drax said:
After that incident, he went to the Utah town centre and showed everyone his notes and declared a new religion, with himself the leader and grand priest of Mormonism.
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Historical corrections: Papa Joe never set foot in Utah and they were golden plates, not a golden book.
 
joshsquall said:
I think what you're not understanding is that the stuff Mormons are doing (picking which writings they include in their books of faith - yes, they have 4 separate books) is pretty much exactly what vanilla Christianity did over a millennium or more.

There wasn't just a "Bible" that suddenly appeared one day with all of the current books in the exact order they are now with the exact words they currently have. What you define as the Christian Bible (probably Protestant, since Catholic is slightly different) wasn't really finalized until around ~1500 or so.
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I'm aware of the fact that there isn't one exact "authoritative" Bible, but the differences between mainstream Christian versions pale in comparison to all the extra shit that the Mormons made up.

BTW, I'm an atheist and it's not like I think orthodox Christianity is any more valid than Mormonism. I just don't think Mormons are Christians.
 
You interact with mormons every day without ever knowing it.

When Mitt Romney is elected president it will have absolutely no effect on your everyday life. Nothing will change, just like it never does.
 
Alienwho said:
You interact with mormons every day without ever knowing it.

When Mitt Romney is elected president it will have absolutely no effect on your everyday life. Nothing will change, just like it never does.
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Aren't mormon tithings kinda like a jesus tax?
 
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