The surveillance video of an incident that took place a few weeks ago has just come out. 2 gay men were in Salt Lake City on an open-to-the-public plaza that is owned by the Church if Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The 2 men kissed and were then confronted by LDS Security guards. While this was on private property and the Church can set it’s own rules for that property, it goes to show the gay-hating attitude of the Church and some of it’s members. Would have these fellows been treated the same way if they were a male and female that had kissed and were asked to leave?
“Open shirts, open minds”. When last we talked about Chad Hardy, purveyor of hot Mormon missionary calendars, he was in the process of being excommunicated by the LDS. Now his communications degree is being witheld by Brigham Young University until he’s reinstated as a member of the church—which doesn’t sound imminent.
The Men on a Mission calendar was cute, but hardly porn. “…A tongue-and-cheek charity project intended to strip-off stereotypes associated with the Mormon culture,” the project supports Duchene muscular dystrophy. You still can buy the calendar, or donate to Chad’s legal fight against the church.
If the church was smart, they would have congratulated Chad on his marketing skills and made him class valedictorian. “Make Mormonism sexy” is a tough creative brief to execute, and couldn’t the LDS use some positive PR right about now?
Know the leaders of the Latter Day Saints not that bodies are temples (I Corinthians 6:19-20)? The hunky human chest is a glory unto God. And having some fun in the name of charity and outreach is no reason to cut a 6th-gen community member off from their family and their society. That’s shameful.
Over $75 million was spent in California on Proposition 8, the quest to outlaw gay marriage. The Latter Day Saints are said to be responsible for a good several million of that. Gay people really bug the Mormons.
The search-engine-friendily named blog “Revoke LDS Church 501(c)(3) Status” would like to point out that in order to deserve tax exempt status, a religious organization must ensure
no substantial part of (its) activities …is carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation…
This former Mormon’s reasons for providing a host of handy suggestions and links for how to let the IRS know tax-free time must end for the LDS include this most reasonable reflection:
I created this blog because I believe that the members of the Church are some of the most loving people I have ever known in my life, and that they are not well served by the recent decision of Church leaders to exhort members to donate of their “time and means” (i.e. money) to Proposition 8. Reading a letter with this exhortation in every church in California crossed a line — not only because of its political nature, but also because Joseph Smith, the Church’s founder, believed “in being subject to … magistrates” and in “obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” Moreover, the Church struggled to practice marriage as it chose, free from government interference, for many of its early years. Has it forgotten its history?
The Stop All Monsters blog has even more keen ideas for how to exercise your views on the separation of church and state, including a boycott on a number of Mormon-owned Mariott hotels in California.
On January 27, 2008, Gordon B. Hinkley, the 97 year old President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as Mormons or LDS) died in Salt Lake City.
Yesterday, his successor was named; the new President of the Church is Thomas S. Monson, 80, who has served as an Apostle since 1963, when he was 36.
So, why Thomas S. Monson? Simple, he outlived the rest.
In the LDS Church when the President dies the person who becomes the next president is the senior apostle. This does not refer to age; it refers to who has been an Apostle the longest.
The LDS Church claims to be led by revelation, that God is directing matters. So when God wants someone specific to be prophet God makes sure that he outlives the rest so he can make it. Seems simple enough I suppose, that should be within God’s power to do so.
How do you know when its God’s will though? Is there a way to know for sure? Some might say that it is directed by the Holy Spirit. How can you know when you are directed by the Holy Spirit?
One way might be to look at the fruits of the actions untaken by the Holy Spirit. Here is the big problem though; the fruits show the guidance of the Holy Spirit to be no more reliable than depending on average human choices.
When someone is asked to take a position in the LDS church it is called a “calling”; meaning that the choice was led by God and that he is calling you to that position. Most of the people running the LDS church are doing it voluntarily on their own time, they are not paid. This is not the case once you go higher up the line of authority, and by the time you are an Apostle you are receiving a living allowance; the amount is not known because the church doesn’t release its financial information publicly.
So, are these callings (including being called to be an Apostle, which can eventually lead to being President/Prophet) divine or not?
Then LDS Church has had its share of ecclesiastical abuses similar to how other churches have, but with a twist. Since these people in authority positions are “called of God” their decision and positions have more weight to the membership, they have “authority” to speak for the position that they are in.
If this is the case, how are the ecclesiastical abuses accounted for? Did God intend for them to happen? Perhaps he had a lesson to teach someone.
I believe that the evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that it is not revelation, but simply the will of people doing the best that they can with what they know.
For case reports of LDS Church Ecclesiastical abuses (even done by people “called by God”) see the Mormon Alliance website.
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