Americans switching faiths / dropping out

(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

Mormon YouTube videos...

There are about 35 YouTube videos about the Book of Mormon placed there by Fairlds.org

If you are interested in the truth about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons, this is an excellent place to start with 35 short videos on various topics. No matter what you have read or heard elsewhere from various anti-Mormon propaganda, here you will see and hear the truth of what Mormons believe in.


Book of Mormon videos

What Is This Thing That Men Call Death?

The following is taken from one of my favorite blogs, Temple Study

You can listen to the new song by going to the Temple Study blog or on this blog....enjoy.

“What Is This Thing That Men Call Death?” - New Recording by Janice Kapp Perry

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.

Mormon education...

NEW YORK CITY 19 February 2008 At a summit this Friday, America’s Promise Alliance will contend that high school drop-out rates are increasing. The group, founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, has gathered data that was announced today at a press conference and will be more deeply discussed on Friday, according to the New York Sun.

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

Another anti-Mormon myth...

The following was taken from here:

Question: Isn't it true that "Mormon" in Chinese means "Gates of Hell?"

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This gross misrepresentation can be heard in The God Makers movie and from anti-Mormons parroting the falsehood which it foisted upon them. Robert W. Blair, professor of linguistics at Brigham Young University, is one of several scholars who have answered that charge. He explained that in the Chinese language foreign words are converted into characters which, when read aloud, more or less approximate the sound of the foreign word. In the case of "Mormon," it is represented by two characters that closely approximate the English pronunciation of "Mormon."

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."

Never Give Up...........

"Part of our mortal training is to walk by faith, repent of our sins, and call upon the Lord in daily prayer. We rejoice in the moments when promptings by the Holy Ghost are kindly given, and we are urged along the proper path of life. But each of us faces many difficult times here in mortality. All sorts of voices are screaming at us from the stadiums of public opinion. Our course will never be the popular way of the world. There are obstacles strewn in our path upon which we may sprain an ankle or stub a toe. But we must keep going. We move on in the strength of the Lord, each accountable for our own performance at the end of our mortal race. We must be able to declare with Paul:

"'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

"'Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing (2 Tim. 4:7-8).'" - Gary J. Coleman, "Jesus Christ Is at the Center of the Restoration of the Gospel," Ensign (CR), November 1992, p.43

It is OK to diss Mormons.........

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...........

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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?