The political campaign* by Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman Jr. for the GOP presidential nomination, along with the favourite and profane Broadway melodic “The Book of Mormon,” are arranging Mormon Church public. But common caricatures — not to mention some of the Church of Christ of Mormon*’ PR efforts — produce confusion about this fourteen million-strong religious belief. So let’s take out misunderstandings about how this faith can engage the world, whether on a mission or in the White House.
Latter-day Saint* practice polygamy.
Mainstream Mormons don't apply polygamy nowadays, simply it stays part of our story and divinity. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter-day Saint religious belief, married at least 33 women (often without the consent of his first wife, Emma) and preached that polygamy was divinely sanctioned. In 1890, more than four decades after Smith’s death, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the mainstream Mormon Church — yielded to political pressure and phased out the practice. Nowadays, members who marry more one married person are excommunicated, but ultra-orthodox splinter groups continue the practice.
Polygamy continues a source of tensity since mainstream Mormon Church. Mormon figures routinely background our polygamous history, telling that only a small part of 19th-century Mormon families were polygamous. (Historians say it was 20 to 30 percent.) But the LDS Church, which teaches that marriages — or “sealings” — performed in its temples are eternal, has never disavowed chemical element* of Latter-day Saint theological system suggesting that polygamy will represent practiced in heaven. Church policy allows widowed and some divorced men to be sealed for all eternity to more one wife, while Mormon women may not be sealed to more one husband. Consequently, some mainstream LDS churchgoers anticipate polygamy as part of eternity, while others reject it.
Mormons aren’t Christians.
A couple of weeks ago, an anchor on Fox News stated that Mitt Romney is “obviously not . . . a Christian.” Yet that equal Sunday morning, millions of members of the Christian church of Jesus of Mormon* around the world prayed in the name of Jesus, received a bread-and-water sacrament memorializing the body and blood of Christ, and discussed Savior* teachings in Sunday school.
We Latter-day Saint* view ourselves as Christians. A lot of Christian pastors and scholarly person*, however, point to theological technicalities that disqualify us from the mainline tradition. Some evangelicals do not see us as Christians for reasons rooted in antiquated anti-Mormon prejudice. And Mormons distance ourselves from other Christians by claiming that our faith offers a “restoration” of doctrines lost to mainstream Christendom.
Growing up in California, I often discovered that I belonged to a cult; local churches screened anti-Mormon films; and classmates taped anti-Mormon notes in my locker. Some people will never see Mormons as Christians. But ask my Jewish husband if he thinks his Christmas-celebrating, New Testament-reading Mormon wife is Christian, and his answer will be absolutely yes.
Latter-day Saint* practice polygamy.
Mainstream Mormons don't apply polygamy nowadays, simply it stays part of our story and divinity. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter-day Saint religious belief, married at least 33 women (often without the consent of his first wife, Emma) and preached that polygamy was divinely sanctioned. In 1890, more than four decades after Smith’s death, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the mainstream Mormon Church — yielded to political pressure and phased out the practice. Nowadays, members who marry more one married person are excommunicated, but ultra-orthodox splinter groups continue the practice.
Polygamy continues a source of tensity since mainstream Mormon Church. Mormon figures routinely background our polygamous history, telling that only a small part of 19th-century Mormon families were polygamous. (Historians say it was 20 to 30 percent.) But the LDS Church, which teaches that marriages — or “sealings” — performed in its temples are eternal, has never disavowed chemical element* of Latter-day Saint theological system suggesting that polygamy will represent practiced in heaven. Church policy allows widowed and some divorced men to be sealed for all eternity to more one wife, while Mormon women may not be sealed to more one husband. Consequently, some mainstream LDS churchgoers anticipate polygamy as part of eternity, while others reject it.
Mormons aren’t Christians.
A couple of weeks ago, an anchor on Fox News stated that Mitt Romney is “obviously not . . . a Christian.” Yet that equal Sunday morning, millions of members of the Christian church of Jesus of Mormon* around the world prayed in the name of Jesus, received a bread-and-water sacrament memorializing the body and blood of Christ, and discussed Savior* teachings in Sunday school.
We Latter-day Saint* view ourselves as Christians. A lot of Christian pastors and scholarly person*, however, point to theological technicalities that disqualify us from the mainline tradition. Some evangelicals do not see us as Christians for reasons rooted in antiquated anti-Mormon prejudice. And Mormons distance ourselves from other Christians by claiming that our faith offers a “restoration” of doctrines lost to mainstream Christendom.
Growing up in California, I often discovered that I belonged to a cult; local churches screened anti-Mormon films; and classmates taped anti-Mormon notes in my locker. Some people will never see Mormons as Christians. But ask my Jewish husband if he thinks his Christmas-celebrating, New Testament-reading Mormon wife is Christian, and his answer will be absolutely yes.
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