[HA Bible Study is on hiatus through the November election as we honor Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney by studying the scriptures of his Mormon religion.]
Doctrine and Covenants 38:32
Wherefore, for this cause I gave unto you the commandment that ye should go to the Ohio; and there I will give unto you my law; and there you shall be endowed with power from on high;
Discuss.
Sounds like a reasonable instruction for an off-beat cult in the 1840’s. Head for the wilderness, hang out with homies and get indoctrinated without the distractions of the gentiles. Not much different than God’s instructions to the various tribes of Israel. The LDS faith offers us a great study on how an outlier cult becomes a mainstream religion. Teaching in Las Vegas, many of my students were LDS ranging from stereotypical blond student council girls to Samoan football players to newly arrived Latin American immigrants both documented and undocumented. Still not many African-American kids, though. As the fastest growing LDS convert populations are from Latin America and Africa it will be interesting to see how an essentially Euro-American church adapts.
Just more evidence: Mormonism is an evil scourge. We won’t be safe until every last one of those animals is driven into the Pacific.
All men have heard of the Mormon Bible, but few except the “elect” have seen it, or, at least, taken the trouble to read it. I brought away a copy from Salt Lake. The book is a curiosity to me, it is such a pretentious affair, and yet so “slow,” so sleepy; such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print. If Joseph Smith composed this book, the act was a miracle — keeping awake while he did it was, at any rate. If he, according to tradition, merely translated it from certain ancient and mysteriously-engraved plates of copper, which he declares he found under a stone in an out-of-the-way locality, the work of translating was equally a miracle, for the same reason.
– Mark Twain on the Book of Mormon, Roughing It – 1872
Mormon kids have more clean cut youth genes than any other group in America.
If you really wanna go broke, become an orthodontist in Utah.
Even in the Book of Mormon, there is truth to be found as long as you understand my Delphic intent.
“and there you shall be endowed with power from on high;”
More than 1,000 tornadoes that have touched down in Ohio between 1950 and 2011.
Yee of little faith can choose to rely on My visible presence here or subject yourselves to the mysteries of scripture.
Somewhere back in one of the open threads Serial was convinced that Obama’s fund raising and cash on hand were going to take a huge hit when the new numbers came out. They’re out, let’s take a look at how Obama and Romney did.
Obama
September Total Receipts: $84,758,860
September Ending Cash On Hand: $88,777,411
October total Receipts: $126,060,870
October Ending Cash On Hand: $99,284,70
Romney:
September total Receipts: $86,614,016
September Ending Cash On Hand: $50,434,404
October Total Receipts: $77,733,238
October Ending Cash On Hand: $63,148,016
Kinda looks like Serial got it backwards.
@6
But Michael, your statistics completely oversample dollars.
Off the topic of Mormon Study, but in keeping with the theme of these weekly Sunday postings on religion.
For the most part I have no use for religion as it is usually practiced today. I especially like Goldy’s Sunday posts as they point out (what to me) is the utter ridiculous point of trying to reconcile texts written long ago for circumstances we can no longer fathom in an age of jet travel and smart phones.
There are exceptions. There are Islamic, Jewish and Christian scholars who have and are doing great work analyzing and writing about ancient texts and how those principles can be applied in the world we live in today. But, as usual, the exception proves the rule.
Earlier today a public man whose life was shaped by Christian religious principles and teaching passed away. Seldom in my life have we seen people in the political sphere live a life in accordance with the teachings of any religion.
George McGovern was such a man.
Others have written much better remembrances of McGovern than I am capable of writing, so if his life is unknown to you, I commend you to read up on him.
I’ll just say that in 1971 it was the McGovern candidacy and the principles he espoused so correctly that led and encouraged me to be politically active.
And despite being routed politically in 1972 and being the butt of ridicule, George McGovern continued for the next 40 years to work for, deliver upon and live the life practicing the Christian principles he learned as the son of a Methodist minister on the South Dakota prairie.
At this point in my life I have already seen more sun rises than I will see going forward, and I doubt I will live to see another politician like George McGovern who had the courage of his convictions and a faith in God such that he lives it; with strength, compassion and humor.
RIP George McGovern. Your life was an heroic life for believers and non-believers.
@8
@9 Dog bless you
Going to Ohio to get ‘his’ law.
You know, it’s funny. Most religions have a ‘chosen people’ or a ‘chosen place’. It is ‘god’ who does the choosing.
How come there is so much written about how ‘god’ chose this people or that place, and so little written about how ‘god’ didn’t choose the other people or places?
You’d think just once ‘god’ would have spoken to somebody and let him or her know that they were not chosen.
After long and serious deliberation [NAME] I have decided not to choose [PEOPLE] or [PLACE]. Frankly, this means you and [PEOPLE] are f*cked over losers for all of eternity.
Once again idiot HA leftists make fun of Steve’s religion… especially people who play “god” who LIVE in Seattle!
Following up with #6 let’s take a look at unitemized and itemized individual contributions*. These are those $20 checks from grandmas and waitresses that politicians love to talk about.
Itemized Obama for October:
$63,283,768
ItemizedRomney for October:
$29,512,946
Unitemized Obama:
$33,069,328
Unitemized Romney:
$12,403,804
With as much money as we have floating around in this election and this being the first post Citizens United presidential election, I don’t think you can draw much from this other than our dear righties claims to Romney having a lock on the election being overblown. It’s really obvious that Romney’s campaign is being fed by a handful of big donners, but I don’t think we know how this will effect the outcome of the election.
Religious Bigotry: a celebrated progressive way of life.
Bigotry in Religion – A celebration of life for Hypocrites.
Jeremiah Wright “Barack Obama should not be judged by the church he goes to”
Goldy “Mitt Romney should be judged by the church he goes to”
MBS and LS at 8 and 9,
I was in the 7th grade in 1972 in that wretched pit of conservatism, Wenatchee, Washington. I had a “El Pueblo para McGovern” sticker across my PeeChee (anyone remember PeeChees?). My music (!) teacher told me he didn’t want to see that in his classroom again. I learned then about rightwing intolerance for speech. I loved George McGovern. He was a true American hero.
You don’t understand the invalid nature of the comparison you make, do you?
A critique of the Book of Mormon is as much an attack on Romney as is a critique of the Bible is an attack on Obama. I don’t recall you leaping to your feet to defend Obama and his religion before, when we had Sunday Bible Study.
“I loved George McGovern. He was a true American hero.”
Me too. I liked McGovern and voted for him in ’72 (my first time to vote). Later in life, he recanted a lot of his more socialistic ideas and moved towards a more free market philosophy. All in all, he was a good guy.
Here’s a definition of Christianity that someone sent me. I don’t know the original source.
CHRISTIANITY: The belief that some cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept his as you master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity becasue a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. MAKES PERFECT SENSE.