The Prophet Joseph Smith was often asked, “What are the fundamental principles of your religion?”
“The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.”(AP) -- The U.S. religious marketplace is extremely volatile, with nearly half of American adults leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether, a new survey finds.
The survey found the Roman Catholic Church has lost more members than any faith tradition.
The study released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is unusual for it sheer scope, relying on interviews with more than 35,000 adults to document a diverse and dynamic U.S. religious population.
While much of the study confirms earlier findings -- mainline Protestant churches are in decline, non-denominational churches are gaining and the ranks of the unaffiliated are growing -- it also provides a deeper look behind those trends, and of smaller religious groups.
"The American religious economy is like a marketplace -- very dynamic, very competitive," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. "Everyone is losing, everyone is gaining. There are net winners and losers, but no one can stand still. Those groups that are losing significant numbers have to recoup them to stay vibrant."
The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey estimates the United States is 78 percent Christian and about to lose its status as a majority Protestant nation, at 51 percent and slipping.
The rest of this interesting article can be viewed here: Survey
Most people in the Church by now are probably familiar with the hymn that Janice Kapp Perry wrote a couple of months ago to accompany a poem written by President Hinckley. President Hinckley published his poem in the May 1988 Ensign article entitled, “The Empty Tomb Bore Testimony,” but he notes that he penned the words many years previous to that at a friend’s funeral.
If you’ve received an email about the hymn you might already know the story behind it. If not, head over to Meridian Magazine which has an article posted detailing the creation of this hymn, including links to the sheet music. The circumstances surrounding the production of the hymn are certainly a “tender mercy” of the Lord, as Janice Kapp Perry describes it. She received official approval of the arranged hymn in the mail from President Hinckley the day after his death.
I think this hymn epitomizes the LDS belief and feelings surrounding mortal death. To members of the LDS Church death is nothing to fear, but a passing into and a beginning of a different stage of our existence. It is progression. Death is not the end, but a beginning of greater things! These doctrines and principles could not be taught more clearly and purely than in the Lord’s temples which dot the earth today. President Hinckley was pivotal in nearly tripling the number of these sacred edifices around the world.
This hymn was sung by the Tabernacle Choir at President Hinckley’s funeral (video link). Since then, Janice Kapp Perry has just recently produced vocal and instrumental recordings of the song with Prime Recordings, Inc.1. These recordings are very well done. She has made them freely available for all, so I have posted the vocal here for your listening:
What Is This Thing That Men Call Death?
Words by Gordon B. Hinckley, Music by Janice Kapp Perry
What is this thing that men call death,
This quiet passing in the night?
’Tis not the end, but genesis
Of better worlds and greater light.
O God, touch Thou my aching heart,
And calm my troubled, haunting fears.
Let hope and faith, transcendent, pure,
Give strength and peace beyond my tears.
There is no death, but only change
With recompense for victory won;
The gift of Him who loved all men,
The Son of God, the Holy One.
Despite this and other reports describing the challenges faced by many teenagers, there are examples of exceptional teenage commitment and accomplishments across the world. One illustration is how seriously many high school-age Latter-day Saints approach education. Many Mormon youth are not only staying in school; they are also taking extra classes.
The entire article can be read here: Mormon education
The second symbol used for "Mormon" would mean "gate," "door," or "way" in the pure Chinese. Professor Blair said the same symbol would be used to represent the second syllable of the names Simon, Truman, Naumann, Gohrmun, or Siemen. The first syllable of "Mormon" could have been written with one or two syllables, depending on the emphasis desired for the "R" sound. The two-syllable choice would have placed more of an accent on the R: "Mo(are)Men." Instead, the Church selected a symbol that reflects an "r-less accent" or "Mo-Men" sound.
In selecting a Chinese character to represent the first syllable of Mo-Men, almost any one of about 30 Chinese characters that are read as "Mo" could have been chosen. Let us quote from Professor Blair's research:
The symbol that was actually selected is the character specifically used to represent a like sounding syllable in foreign words. When not used to render a meaningless syllable of a foreign word, this character suggests "smoothing something with the hand." (If one were to take this literal rendering seriously, one could explain Mo-Men as meaning "hand-smoothed Gateway," or "way smoothed by hands." Further, interpolation might suggest that it was the bleeding hands of Jesus Christ that smoothed the way to salvation!)What the crafty enemies of the Restored Church have done is to pervert the facts in such a way that only those knowing Chinese can see their fraud. From the thirty characters which have the reading Mo, they substituted one which means "devil" (and which is not the character used by the Church) and then propagated the lie that in Chinese the word "Mormon" means "Devil's gate," or "Gateway to Hell."
This wonderful article was taken from here: Seeing Red AZ
In todays society, it is not politically correct to defame, malign, discredit, denigrate, or hate any group....whether they be Jews, Muslims, Gays, Lesbians, Blacks, or the Australian Aborigines.......except Mormons. It is OK in our society to call Mormons liars, to discredit their leaders, to hold anti-Mormon rallies at General Conference in Salt Lake City and at Temple dedications.
Ask yourself why...........
But even Jesus Christ Himself was spit upon, called names, ridiculed, and finally crucified by others who thought that they knew better than He. We see the same type of people around us today that existed in the days of Christ. That much has not changed.
Now to the article...........
----------------
How Republicans ended up with Shamnesty McCain
More on religion in politics from The American Spectator.
Mike Huckabee stoked the fires of paranoia in a New York Times Magazine story when he asked, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?” One-time presidential candidate the Reverend Al Sharpton spoke for many true believers when he said, “As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyway.”
Bill Keller, host of the Florida-based Live Prayer TV warned his reported 2.4 million e-mail subscribers that a vote for Romney would mean a vote for — you guess it — Beelzebub. “The presidency is the most powerful position in the world,” Keller told American Spectator contributor Carrie Sheffield. “If Romney was elected president, it would give mainstream credibility and acceptance to the Mormon cult and lead millions of people into that cult.”
Slate magazine contributor Christopher Hitchens demanded that Romney answer for the racist past of his faith. “His church was officially racist until 1965, believing that black people were an inferior species,” Hitchens fumed, while Slate editor Jacob Weisberg said that the religion’s founder Joseph Smith was an obvious con man, and that “Romney has every right to believe in con men, but I want to know if he does, and if so, I don’t want him running the country.”
Republicans now have two liberal Baptists to choose from, neither one with a small government bone in his body. Is it possible that evangelical Republicans were so anti-Mormon that they cut a deal with the devil?
What does it say about the principles of the faith-based of this nation when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints holds the unenviable distinction of being the last acceptable group to defame with impunity?
A well written post excerpted from : Meridian
Secretive Mormonism?
By John A. Tvedtnes
With Mitt Romney’s candidacy for the Presidency, much attention has been given to his affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly (though incorrectly) called “the Mormon Church.” In recent months, commentators and journalists have stressed the “secretive” nature of the religion.
It seems strange to consider as “secretive” a church that has some 60,000 full-time missionaries teaching its doctrines and converting roughly a million new members every three years. The church’s major doctrines are summarized in its thirteen Articles of Faith, and these and other beliefs are explained in its scriptures, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. These beliefs are discussed openly by church leaders in worldwide television and radio broadcasts of the semiannual general conferences held in
Hundreds of books describing Mormon beliefs have been published by the church-owned Deseret Book and other church-affiliated organizations, including a number of books that discuss temple rites in detail. The five-volume Encyclopedia of Mormonism, published by Macmillan in 1992, remains the most comprehensive explanation of the church’s history and teachings. A searchable on-line version has been posted on the internet at http://www.lib.byu.edu/Macmillan.
The church’s own websites (http://www.lds.org and http://www.mormon.org) have much information about the movement, including searchable versions of its monthly publications since 1970. Access to past publications is available on Deseret Book’s GospelLink CD-ROM set. All documents held in church archives have recently been made available on another CD-ROM set, Mormon Studies. Not bad for such a “secretive” organization.
Commentators frequently refer to Mormon temple rites as the heart of secret goings-on. It is true that some elements of the temple are so sacred that we do not discuss them publicly, but most of what goes on in the temples is well-known. One need not look far to learn that the most important such rite is the solemnization of marriage for time and all eternity and that vicarious ordinances (sacraments in Roman Catholic parlance) are performed for deceased ancestors, beginning with proxy baptism.
Even the endowment ceremony, the one most commonly held in Latter-day Saint temples, is mostly public knowledge. Most of the teachings presented during that time derive from the Book of Moses, published in the Pearl of Great Price. During an endowment session, we are reminded of our responsibility to obey the basic laws given mankind by God, such as the law of chastity (including fidelity after marriage), the law of obedience to God’s commandments, the law of sacrifice (which culminated in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross), the law of the gospel (salvation through Christ), and the law of consecration of one’s time, talents, and other divine blessings, to building up the Lord’s work on the earth.
Elements that are not discussed openly include ritual elements of temple prayer and the actual endowment or giving of signs, names, and tokens designed to enable one to pass the angels and ultimately to enter the presence of God. These may seem strange to most modern Christians, but they were common in early Christianity, as I have discussed in some of my published articles on ancient temple rites. [1]
Two millennia ago, various pagan writers criticized Christianity for being secretive. In response to one such critic, named Celsus, a prominent Christian theologian named Origen (AD 185-254), wrote:
In these circumstances, to speak of the Christian doctrine as a secret system, is altogether absurd. But that there should be certain doctrines, not made known to the multitude, which are (revealed) after the exoteric ones have been taught, is not a peculiarity of Christianity alone, but also of philosophic systems, in which certain truths are exoteric and others esoteric (Against Celsus, 1:7).
St. Cyril of Jerusalem (died AD 386), in his Catechetical Lectures, described early Christian rituals performed following baptism that are readily recognizable to Latter-day Saints who attend modern temples.
So how did the idea of “secretive Mormonism” arise? Frankly, it came from some of the many anti-Mormon “ministries,” of which there are roughly 150 in the
Unfortunately, journalists and non-Mormon commentators seem to rely more on these hostile writers (or others influenced by them) for information than on authoritative sources. It’s like asking a Buddhist monk for information on Southern Baptist beliefs.
Exaggeration? I don’t think so, and I suspect that most of my thirteen million coreligionists would agree with me. Brigham Young once said, “There is no such thing as a mystery but to the ignorant” (Journal of Discourses 2:90).
As I’ve written here before, during this Republican presidential campaign something very ugly arose. It manifested itself in various ways. For example:
The unpleasant and undeniable fact is that in the United States today it is still possible to get away with making statements about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that simply would not be tolerated regarding any other religious group.
Another unpleasant and undeniable fact is that by and large, such statements are not loudly and vigorously denounced, but get at most a sad shake of the head from observers who ought to be outraged.
“If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). So inquired the anguished Job. On this one fundamental question hang much of the hopes and fears of mankind. And how one answers it will largely determine not only how one approaches death but also how one lives life.
The passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley has moved Latter-day Saints to reflect more deeply upon the meaning of death and its implications for how we live our lives. Death is not the final stop on life’s path but a mere gateway that leads to an eternal course that we continually shape by our choices. President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles likened the long journey of human life to “a grand three-act play” in which the first act is a previous pre-mortal existence with God, the second act is the trial of this mortal life, and the third act is a glorious future of eternity. Such a broad vision of life endows each moment with eternal significance.
During President Hinckley’s recent funeral, the choir sang a hymn that he himself composed titled “What Is This Thing That Men Call Death?” There is no doubt how he answered Job’s question. Echoing his typical brightness and optimism, the hymn proclaims that death “’Tis not the end but genesis of better worlds and greater light.”
Accordingly, Mormon funerals are typically marked by an atmosphere of hopefulness and peace. They generally are not burdened by the inconsolable grief and despair so often seen in other funerals. Latter-day Saints who mourn the death of loved ones are lightened by the assurance and understanding that the gospel of Jesus Christ offers. In addition, some might be surprised by the lack of formal ritual in these funerals. The commemoration service is conducted by a lay minister and features heartfelt tributes and comforting music. Moreover, the basic format, tone and length of President Hinckley’s funeral are typical of what might be seen in the funerals of regular Church members.
Regarding the undaunted way in which Latter-day Saints confront death, well-known literary scholar Harold Bloom proclaimed the following: “What is the essence of religion? … Religion rises inevitably from our apprehension of our own death. To give meaning to meaninglessness is the endless quest of all religion. … Of all religions that I know, the one that most vehemently and persuasively defies and denies the reality of death is the original Mormonism of the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator Joseph Smith.”
Most important, this affirmation of life in the face of death arises from faith in God’s abundant mercy. Joseph Smith taught that God is “more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive.” It is on such a foundation that the fears of death can be reconciled with the hopes of lifeI borrowed this from the link below.......this was so well written and so well said, that I just had to share it. The highlights are my own.
http://www.uncorrelated.com/2008/02/total_crap.html
For Mormons, Mr. O'Donnell's comments were a rallying cry. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are taught not to argue with outsiders over faith. But as criticism of their church rose to new heights during the campaign, they took on their antagonists like never before, in a wave of activism encouraged by church leadership.
This is complete, total, unmitigated crap. None of it ever happened. 99.9% of LDS church members never heard of Lawrence O'Donnell, don't know what he said and certainly didn't" rally. There have been no, none, zero statements by church leadership to church members about those statements or any others or any mention at all of the political race--as consistent with LDS church policy. There is no wave of activism other than the normal public relations activities and proselyting activities
Mormon leaders and church members say they were initially unprepared for the intensity of attacks, which many say were unprecedented in modern times. The attacks, they say, are a sign that their long struggle for wide acceptance in America is far from over, despite global church expansion and prosperity.
More total crap.
The LDS church has endured consistent, unremitting, prolonged, intense attacks and hatred since the church was organized in the early 19th century. Church members were chased out of Ohio, Missouri and Illinois at gunpoint. The federal government went to war against the church, occupied the Utah territory, imprisoned it leaders and threatened to confiscate its temples (can you imagine the U.S. military confiscating the Dome of the Rock mosque?). Anti-Mormon literature, films, tapes, websites, discussion lists, groups, blogs didn't suddenly spring up since the Romney campaign was announced--the mainstream media simply got around to noticing them.
This idea the the church is struggling for mainstream acceptance is part of the liberal media narrative about the church. The church itself is not looking at all to be part of the mainstream, it wants to be the mainstream. Does this surprise you? Isn't this the goal of any ideology? Don't socialists work to be the mainstream? Don't Evangelicals work to be the mainstream? The LDS church doesn't have 100,000 full time missionaries so that it can adapt to mainstream thought and practices, but rather to proselyte its own principles and culture.
It is precisely because it doesn't want to be part of the mainstream, that it generates such intense opposition from some very insecure Evangelicals. And why shouldn't they be? For a "wacky religion" they sure are kicking butt and taking names aren't they? Wealthy, successful, growing and accepted in the highest ranks of corporate America, politics and academia. I doubt the dynamic was any better represented than with Huckabee, the pinnacle of Evangelical social achievement, and Mitt Romney, one of many highly successful LDS business people and political figures.
Romney was in Huckabee's way. Mormons are in the way of Evangelical Protestantism. Its as simple as that, and its always been like that, and it will always be this way.
On the Internet, the Romney bid prompted an outpouring of broadsides against Mormonism from both the secular and religious worlds. Evangelical Christian speakers who consider it their mission to criticize Mormon beliefs lectured to church congregations across the country. Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the Catholic journal First Things, wrote that a Mormon presidency would threaten Christian faiths. Atheist author Christopher Hitchens called Mormonism "a mad cult" on Slate.com, and Bill Keller, a former convict who runs an online ministry in Florida, told a national radio audience that a vote for Mr. Romney was a vote for Satan."It seems like it's been open season on Mormons," says Marvin Perkins, a Los Angeles Mormon Church member who lectures about the history of blacks in the church.
Romney's campaign represented a proportionally greater threat and thus elicited a more panicked response, but the only thing about the song that changed was its volume. The reality is that Romney got 4,000,000 votes and McCain got 4,700,000, which suggests to me that Mormons are not the bogeymen the liberal media would like them to be.
There is no question that he scared a lot of the inbred chicken pluckers in the rural south, but they were just as suspicious of Mitt's yankee roots as they were his Mormonism. Other people's success scares these people, which is why they ran around in sheets and lynched black people after the civil war. Notably, the urban, better educated, upwardly mobile Evangelicals were happy to vote for Mitt--because they weren't threatened by him.
For the sake of fairness, Mormons have their inbred turkey-plucking contingent as well, but the church is working with those people. Pastor Huckabee just exploited their unchristian hatred.
Ultimately, the LDS church takes the attitude that people can say whatever they want as long as they spell the name right.
Larry Miller, owner of the Utah Jazz, local entertainment and automotive magnate, was interviewed by a local television station about his remembrances of the late LDS church president, Gordon Hinckley. Miller went to see Hinckley (before he was church president) for advice about purchasing the Jazz franchise. Apparently Hinckley's only comment was that "it would be good for the church". Some ten years later during the Bulls-Jazz championship, Miller got a call on his private cell phone from the triumvirate Mormons refer to as the First Presidency. The congratulated him on the 100+ million viewers that were watching the game, when Hinckley piped up, recalling their earlier conversation, and said, "see I told you..."
Miller went on to explain that what Hinckley saw in the prospect of bringing the Jazz to Utah was a unique opportunity for advertising impressions. Every time someone mentions the basketball team, its referred to as the UTAH Jazz, and people automatically associate Utah with Mormons. The Jazz have produced billions of ad impressions for the church, and Gordon saw, and pronounced it good.
The LDS church is a very sophisticated operation. Nine of the fifteen members of their highest leadership council have advanced degrees, two thirds of those are PhDs. Four are former University presidents. One has an MD and PhD. Brigham Young Universities MBA program and its accounting program are ranked among the very best in the nation. Mormons don't do "Bob Jones U." and they are very, very clear about their goals.
My point is, the LDS church absolutely loved the Romney campaign. They love Harry Reid for the same reason. The more people hear about the LDS church, the more curious they are going to get and ultimately they have enough confidence in their message that they welcome the scrutiny. What the Journal interprets as defensive measures is actually an effort to capitalize on all the attention.
The truth is that the Church reveres the Bible as a sacred volume of scripture. Latter-day Saints cherish its teachings and engage in a lifelong study of its divine wisdom. Moreover, during worship and instruction services the Bible and its teachings are pondered and discussed. To increase biblical understanding, the Church provides extensive resources and tools: lesson manuals, cross-reference materials, Bible maps, a Bible dictionary, and articles in various magazines. Thus, the Bible is much more than simply a collection of antiquated writings and revelations that have only scant relevance to the modern world. On the contrary, it stands in the center of the Latter-day Saints’ spiritual lives.
In a recent sermon, Church apostle Elder M. Russell Ballard characterized the Bible as the “bedrock of all Christianity” and one of the “pillars” of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Furthermore, he described the Bible as a miracle: “It is a miracle that the Bible’s 4,000 years of sacred and secular history were recorded and preserved by the prophets, apostles, and inspired churchmen. … It is a miracle that the Bible literally contains within its pages the converting, healing Spirit of Christ, which has turned men’s hearts for centuries, leading them to pray, to choose right paths, and to search to find their Savior.” It instills real, tangible power in the lives of Latter-day Saints and offers practical solutions and spiritual guidance that inspire them to overcome challenges and trials.
There is a broad range of approaches within the vast mosaic of biblical interpretation. For example, biblical inerrancy maintains that the Bible is without error and contradiction; biblical infallibility holds that the Bible is free from errors regarding faith and practice but not necessarily science or history; biblical literalism requires a literal interpretation of events and teachings in the Bible and generally discounts allegory and metaphor; and the “Bible as literature” educational approach extols the literary qualities of the Bible but disregards its miraculous elements.
The Church does not strictly subscribe to any of these interpretive approaches. Rather, in the words of Joseph Smith, it regards the Bible to be the word of God, “as far as it is translated correctly” (8th Article of Faith). Accordingly, Church members believe that during the centuries-long process in which fallible human beings compiled, translated and transcribed the Bible, various errors entered the text. However, this does not override the overwhelming predominance of truth within the Bible. As Elder Ballard noted, “Without the Bible, we would not know of His Church then, nor would we have the fullness of His gospel now.” Part of that fullness is the Bible’s seminal instruction that God reveals Himself to those who seek Him. The Bible is a living invitation to know personally the sacred revelatory experience that fills its pages.
The scriptures, or “standard works,” of the Latter-day Saints comprise the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. According to Elder Ballard, these scriptures constitute a “great, indivisible whole” of God’s revealed word that help humankind understand the past, present and future. The great gospel plan contained in these works does not apply to one generation or one people alone but to all of God’s children throughout all time. Thus, in the words of Elder Ballard, “those who think that one part is more important or more true than the other parts are missing some of the beauty and completeness of the canon of ancient scripture.”
During previous periods of time when God organized His church, He added new revelations to pre-existing scripture, forming a connection between believers of the present and believers of the past. For example, the Old Testament book of Isaiah gives shape and meaning to the Gospel of Matthew. The two revelations need not be viewed as rivals competing with each other: the existence of one does not negate the relevance or legitimacy of the other. This ongoing revelation of scripture gives uniformity and continuity to an unfolding gospel narrative and unites people under one standard of doctrine.
Of all the standard works, the Bible remains the best source for an intimate understanding of the character and personality of Jesus Christ during His mortal mission. While the Old Testament offers a prophetic foretelling of that mission, the New Testament provides an unmatched account of the events, experiences, teachings and personal interactions of Christ. The Book of Mormon strengthens and reinforces His teachings through additional witnesses and provides moving accounts of the personal experiences many individuals had with Him. According to Elder Ballard, “The Book of Mormon does not dilute nor diminish nor de-emphasize the Bible. On the contrary, it expands, extends, and exalts it.”
In a front-page article the Asia Times, a fairly significant voice in Far East news, their reporter reviews the history and doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The primary source material appears to be an article on the Catholic.com apologetic web site entitled “The Wacky World of Joseph Smith,” and the infamous South Park episode “All About Mormons
.”
Yes, someone has clearly done their homework.
Here are some of the more amusing examples of what the reporter has discovered about us:
Voters may reject a candidate whose religious views are crazy, for example, someone who thinks he talks to God. [MP: Has the reporter ever heard of “prayer”?] Does Romney believe that he himself will become God, as Mormon doctrine teaches?
* * *
Just what is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly called the Mormons? Joseph Smith Jr, the forger, treasure-hunter, magician, polygamist and self-styled priest-king of the American continent, invented an American version of Europe’s ethnically-founded idolatry. Each European tribe that rebelled against Christianity styled itself the Chosen People. Smith concocted a tale in which Americans actually were the Chosen People, and America was the Promised Land of the ancient Hebrews and Jesus Christ. In short, Smith took to the extremes of fantasy and forgery an impulse towards national self-worship that always lurks somewhere in American Christianity.
* * *
Belief in the Book of Mormon is one of the strangest collective delusions in history. The circumstances of its forgery are transparent and exhaustively documented. After supposedly finding golden tablets composed by the aptly-named Angel Moroni, Smith “translated” 16 pages of them using his treasure-hunting stones. A friend showed the manuscript to his suspicious wife, who hid or destroyed it. Smith could not exactly reproduce the “translation” which he had dictated free-style, and stood in danger of exposure were he to produce a different version. Instead he received a new revelation to translate not those golden tablets, but yet another set of tablets that no one else could see. [MP: Note that the reporter hopeless garbles the details of the early translation attempts. One would hope that getting the basic facts right would be the first step to writing a major article.]
Historians have demonstrated that a sizable chunk of the supposed Book of Mormon was copied from a novel by a certain Reverend Solomon Spalding, who concocted the notion of an ancient Hebrew migration to North America as an entertainment. [MP: For crying out loud, even Fawn Brodie and the Tanners reject the Spaulding theory!]
* * *
If the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a tyranny tempered by incompetence, as the old joke goes, the Mormon Church is a megalomania atrophied by age. Although the Latter Day Saints claim 13 million members, less than one-third are active. Unlike American Christian denominations, the Mormons have had small success in Africa and Asia, the centers of Christian evangelization. As punishment for their sins, the Mormons must live in their promised land in the Rockies. [MP: The reporter pulled the “one-third” figure out of nowhere. He ignores the success we’ve seen in Latin and South America, and in Asian countries like Mongolia. And he fails to note that more Mormons live outside the United States than inside it.]
And so forth.
For all the unintended humor that one can find in this article, it unfortunately gives us a glimpse of what the Latter-day Saint movement is up against in Asia and the world at large. Despite what we think of ourselves, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding driven by misinformation from the popular press.
We have a lot of work ahead of us.
In the Book of Mormon we learn that "charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever," (Moroni 7:47). This list of 10 Charity Quotes are from leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The following are excerpts from some of the media reports that have been published or broadcast this week, along with links to the full stories.
New York Times (New York, USA)
“With his buoyant personality and affinity for public relations, Mr. Hinckley made Mormonism more familiar to the public and more accepted in the Christian fold. He gave news conferences and was the first church president to sit for interviews on ‘60 Minutes’ and ‘Larry King Live.’ When the Winter Olympics went to Salt Lake City in 2002, the church’s home base, he guided the church outreach campaign.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/us/28hinckley.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Los Angeles Times (California, USA)
“Though he became the Mormons' 15th president and prophet at age 84, Hinckley's energy, style and longevity, which drew comparisons to Pope John Paul II, allowed him to engage millions throughout the world and provided the church a media-friendly face.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-hinckley28jan28,0,1888134.story
Houston Chronicle (Texas, USA)
“As a leader of the fastest-growing faith founded in the United States, Hinckley guided the church as it more than doubled its number of temples and expanded membership well beyond the boundaries of its center in Salt Lake City.”
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/5490149.html
The Estado of Sao Paulo (Brazil)
“During his 13 years as the head of the Mormon Church, he made countless trips to meet with members of the Mormon Church which now has 13 million members in 171 countries.”
http://www.estadao.com.br/vidae/not_vid116153,0.htm
Chicago Tribune (Illinois, USA)
“The church presidency is a lifetime position. Before Hinckley, the oldest church president was David O. McKay who was 96 when he died in 1970.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-080228-hinckley,1,2722823.story
National Public Radio (Washington, D.C., USA)
“Most Americans know it as ‘The Mormon Church.’ Hinckley launched an effort to stamp out that phrase. He asked news media to use the formal name, ‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.’ And, in case anyone missed the point, he changed the official Mormon logo so that the name ‘Jesus Christ’ appeared in oversized letters.”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7017514
USA Today (Virginia, USA)
“As a top church leader for nearly 50 years, Hinckley met with many U.S. presidents and foreign dignitaries.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-01-27-obit-hinckley_N.htm
Reuters (Great Britain)
“In the year 2000, in spite of his advanced age, Mr. Hinckley completed an 11-day tour of the Pacific Rim where he traveled more than 35,400km and spoke to more than 26,000 people.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1423a42c-cd60-11dc-a3da-000077b07658.html
China View (China)
“His grandfather knew church founder Joseph Smith and followed Brigham Young west to the Great Salt Lake Basin.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/28/content_7511648.htm
Baltimore Sun (Maryland, USA)
“In a statement, President Bush praised Hinckley as a ‘deeply patriotic man. While serving for over seven decades in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon demonstrated the heart of a servant and the wisdom of a leader. He was a tireless worker and a talented communicator who was respected in his community and beloved by his congregation.’”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-hinckley0128,0,2527193.story
Herald Sun (Australia)
“He was the first church president to travel to Spain, where in 1996 he broke ground for a temple in Madrid, and to Africa, where he met thousands of Mormons in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.”
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23123145-663,00.html
Argus Observer (Ontario, Canada)
“In 2004 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civil award, by President George W. Bush. He also received the Silver Buffalo Award of the Boy Scouts of America and has been honored by the National Conference (formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews) for his contributions to tolerance and understanding in the world.”
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23123145-663,00.html
BBC (Great Britain)
“The post is held for life, and Hinckley lived to become the oldest ever president, seeing church membership expand to 13 million people.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7212488.stm
Diario Buenos Aires(Argentina)
“President Gordon B. Hinckley was known as a tireless leader, even at the age of 97, who always dedicated his life to a full-day’s work at the office and traveled the world extensively.”
http://www.diariobuenosaires.com.ar/nota2.asp?IDNoticia=22585
Turkish Press (Turkey)
“As a member of the First Presidency, the highest governing body of the church, he has had a major role in administering both the ecclesiastical and temporal affairs of the Church, whose members are spread over some 171 nations and territories.”
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=212693
Austria National Radio (Austria)
http://mbl.is/mm/frettir/erlent/2008/01/28/forseti_mormonasafnadarins_latinn/
The passing of President Hinckley was discussed extensively on the “blogosphere.” The day following his death, a new blog post was published about him every couple of minutes. According to Blogpulse, a service that tracks trends in blogs, President Gordon B. Hinckley was the third most mentioned person in the blogosphere on Monday, 28 January.
Radio coverage of the funeral on Saturday, 2 February, starting at 11 a.m. MST, will be available on WFED 1050 AM in Washington, D.C., on KTTH 770 AM in Seattle and on KTAR 92.3 FM in Phoenix.
(chār'ĭ-tē) Pronunciation Key 1 Corinthians 13:13
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
1 Corinthians 13:8
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
1 Corinthians 13:4
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
1 Corinthians 13:3
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:2
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
