The book of Mormon

[marieelissa]

As part of the restoration of the gospel, God brought forth the Book of Mormon: Another testament of Jesus Christ. The book of mormon is a powerful witness of Jesus Christ. It helps us understand his teachings, including those in the bible.

[Mikena]

  I have never read anything about the Mormon Faith. But I must say that it sounds really interesting. I am all for bringing about new enlightenment towards the understanding of God. I used to go to a holiness church sometimes with my Grandmother. Is there any ties between these two religions? What I mean are their beliefs similar? I was brought up Hard -shell Baptist but I later joined the Methodist. I found the Methodist to be more to my liking. The small Baptist Church that I grew up in did not believe Women should hold any offices in the church. Basically, we are to only be seen and not heard. I don't feel that God really wants it that way. What are your views on all of this? I hope you have a wonderful week-end!

[bud1]

I think that all religions somehow are interconnected.  I have read both the Bible  and  the book of Mormon several years ago. They both have same message about God. People get upset sometimes because they do not understand but only 1 teaching.   Your post keeps me on my toes. Keep up the great work 

[dell9031]

All religions but Mormonism have the archeological evidence to support places and time named and identified in their readings(scriptures)...

[ppv2]

I disagree with you.  I don't think that Mormons are Christians.

[amyrouse]

If you've read the Twilight series, you have read about the Mormon religion.  Its basically a big advertisement for the LDS.

[mattymatt79]

Most religions stem from either Judaism or Catholicism anyways. Mormons were just another offshoot of Catholics just like the rest of the christian denominations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q6brMrFw0E

Mormons have a diverse history of being racists, and they're the creator of the sawed off shotgun.   

[mstachitus]

Don't mean to dig up dead posts, but some of the stuff in here makes me laugh

I'm not sure if some have guessed it, but yes I'm LDS (Mormon, whatever you want to call it).  It was stated earlier in the topic that all religions but Mormons have archaeological evidence supporting their faiths.  This is an extremely amusing post.  I'd like to see at least one piece of evidence from every single religion out there, please.  I'm not sure how many religions there are, but I'm sure it numbers in the thousands, so the list would have to be long.

Plus, there is a lot of debatable evidence supporting the Book of Mormon, but that really isn't important.  The Book of Mormon is evidence itself.  Evidence does not require evidence.  Reading the book and doing what it says will give you the only true evidence there is: a testimony and conviction of its truth.

But for the curious, here is a site that has some possible findings: http://www.jefflindsay.com/BMEvidences.shtml

This site has a lot of interesting information as well: http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/

Mormons are Christians.  The name of the church is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints".  Christ's name is in the churches name.  Mormons generally know more about Christ and His atonement than most who profess that we are not Christians, and the Bible for that matter.

I haven't read the Twilight series, but I thought it was about Vampires falling in love with High School girls, but who knows ...

Don't get me started on the racism thing.  I'll discuss that later.  You'll find that 99% (I am making up this figure) of anti-mormon literature has been dis-proven decades ago (if not more), but is still circulated because anti-mormons know that people have no idea that these things have actually been resolved.  And I hope we did create the sawed-off shotgun, because that is pretty dang cool, if you ask me 

The LDS church has no common roots with Catholicism whatsoever, nor has it any with Judaism (except the Bible I suppose).  Religious scholars know that there are far more derivatives of religion than these two branches.  Protestant faiths stemmed from Catholicism because they protested (hence the name) the inconsistencies of the Catholic church.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is not a protestant church, it is a Restored Church (a whole separate category).  Joseph Smith was not baptized into any church previously, so therefore he has no connection with other faiths; nor does the church itself.

[amyrouse]

I haven't read the Twilight series, but I thought it was about Vampires falling in love with High School girls, but who knows ...

Try reading it.  You might be surprised.  I could make a list, write paragraphs, whatever you'd like about it, but you might be shocked once you read the "saga" about how steeped in Stephenie Meyer's Mormon principles it is.

[mstachitus]

I haven't read the Twilight series, but I thought it was about Vampires falling in love with High School girls, but who knows ...

Try reading it.  You might be surprised.  I could make a list, write paragraphs, whatever you'd like about it, but you might be shocked once you read the "saga" about how steeped in Stephenie Meyer's Mormon principles it is.

I'll just go ahead and take your word for it.  I don't really have much of an interest in those books   I don't doubt your word though.

[amyrouse]

I haven't read the Twilight series, but I thought it was about Vampires falling in love with High School girls, but who knows ...

Try reading it.  You might be surprised.  I could make a list, write paragraphs, whatever you'd like about it, but you might be shocked once you read the "saga" about how steeped in Stephenie Meyer's Mormon principles it is.

I'll just go ahead and take your word for it.  I don't really have much of an interest in those books   I don't doubt your word though.

You're probably better off that way.  Its quite an interesting read, as in how the characters are and all these people that are crazy about it... I don't get it.  Personally, after visiting Salt Lake City, touring the tabernacle, and speaking with some LDS members, it angers me even more the way the characters are portrayed and how people view them as perfection.  I'm sure if you read them, they'd upset you as well.   

[mstachitus]

You're probably better off that way.  Its quite an interesting read, as in how the characters are and all these people that are crazy about it... I don't get it.  Personally, after visiting Salt Lake City, touring the tabernacle, and speaking with some LDS members, it angers me even more the way the characters are portrayed and how people view them as perfection.  I'm sure if you read them, they'd upset you as well.   

That is an interesting statement.  What made you mad about the characters?  Are the characters supposed to be Mormons, or are they from Salt Lake?

So what sort of opinions did you get of people in Salt Lake?

Just curious ...

[amyrouse]

I must have worded that wrong.

I loved the trip to Salt Lake and everyone I met at the tabernacle were incredibly sweet.

I'm going to spoil the story for you here, so if you want to read it, do not read the rest of this post.























OK...

The characters in Twilight make me ill because they seem to profess LDS ideology, yet the way they act is maddening.  Edward stalks Bella, sneaks into her room at night and watches her sleep, and basically attempts to control her life.  Then when Edward leaves because of a stupid accident, Bella's life practically ends because he's gone.  As though the only meaning to her life was having him around to control her.  When he comes back, she claims she doesn't deserve him and is grateful that he wants to be with someone that is so beneath him.  We must remember at this point that Edward is a friggin vampire that, even though he doesn't drink human blood, has in the past, limiting it to those who he believed were unworthy of life.  He then does not want Bella visiting her best friend, who happens to be male, and disables her truck's engine to keep her from it and bribes his adoptive sister into kidnapping Bella to keep her from it.  He hides things that are important and dealing with Bella from her in order to protect her.  Bella is his fragile little female who will break if he is not there to keep it from happening.  It is sickening.  I don't even want to get started on the marriage/vampire conversion/pregnancy discussion.  It is as if Bella doesn't have a right to be herself as long as she wants to love Edward.

Now, that being said, this paragraph is a description about how I don't like the characters because of their actions.  This paragraph is not support of my view that Twilight is LDS propaganda.

[mstachitus]

I must have worded that wrong.

I loved the trip to Salt Lake and everyone I met at the tabernacle were incredibly sweet.

I'm going to spoil the story for you here, so if you want to read it, do not read the rest of this post.

OK...

The characters in Twilight make me ill because they seem to profess LDS ideology, yet the way they act is maddening.  Edward stalks Bella, sneaks into her room at night and watches her sleep, and basically attempts to control her life.  Then when Edward leaves because of a stupid accident, Bella's life practically ends because he's gone.  As though the only meaning to her life was having him around to control her.  When he comes back, she claims she doesn't deserve him and is grateful that he wants to be with someone that is so beneath him.  We must remember at this point that Edward is a friggin vampire that, even though he doesn't drink human blood, has in the past, limiting it to those who he believed were unworthy of life.  He then does not want Bella visiting her best friend, who happens to be male, and disables her truck's engine to keep her from it and bribes his adoptive sister into kidnapping Bella to keep her from it.  He hides things that are important and dealing with Bella from her in order to protect her.  Bella is his fragile little female who will break if he is not there to keep it from happening.  It is sickening.  I don't even want to get started on the marriage/vampire conversion/pregnancy discussion.  It is as if Bella doesn't have a right to be herself as long as she wants to love Edward.

Now, that being said, this paragraph is a description about how I don't like the characters because of their actions.  This paragraph is not support of my view that Twilight is LDS propaganda.

Oh I wasn't assuming that you didn't like your trip to Salt Lake.  My bad.

Does it actually state that her characters are Mormon though?  I mean, if every Mormon writer wrote only about Mormons, that would be a really boring book.  I myself am a Novelist, and even though I have certain standards by which I live, it does not mean that I should have my characters do the same.

I have heard that some of the content in the series is not very good for a Mormon woman to write about.  I haven't read it, so I don't know.  I think there is a difference between content and characters.  Characters can do bad things, but you don't have to write about it in detail, or it just becomes perverse.

Now if the characters are actually supposed to be Mormons, they should clearly act like them.

[amyrouse]

Does it actually state that her characters are Mormon though?  I mean, if every Mormon writer wrote only about Mormons, that would be a really boring book.  I myself am a Novelist, and even though I have certain standards by which I live, it does not mean that I should have my characters do the same.

I have heard that some of the content in the series is not very good for a Mormon woman to write about.  I haven't read it, so I don't know.  I think there is a difference between content and characters.  Characters can do bad things, but you don't have to write about it in detail, or it just becomes perverse.

Now if the characters are actually supposed to be Mormons, they should clearly act like them.

No, it doesn't state it outright that the characters are Mormons, and I don't believe they are personally.  I believe Stephenie Meyer's religion, though, bled through into her writing.

Here is one opinion on the topic.  You can google Twilight and LDS and find more.  http://unorthodoxology.blogspot.com/2009/05/twilight-saga-mormon-theology-and.html