This video interview from Wednesday, August 8, 2007 12:00 am is straight from the X files. I love digging up all these gems from the past. They are relevant in explaining how far from reality this current presidential candidate is and what he places his faith in.. Romney makes Huckabee and Santorum look mainstream.
I whole-hardheartedly disagree with the campaign and media memes of discussing a candidate's religion as unacceptable or off limits. It is the very essence of political discourse in American society and politics. Especially Republican politics. Mormonism is the Scientology of Christianity and Christianity has evolved into some pretty weird categories as of late itself.
Understanding the secretive esoteric world of bizarro that encompasses Mormondom is key to an informed voting public.
Enjoy.
"Christ appears in Jerusalem, splits the Mount of Olives to stop the war that's coming in to kill all the Jews--our church believes that," he explained. "That's where the coming in glory of Christ occurs. We also believe that over the thousand years that follows, in the Millennium, he will reign from two places. The law will come forward from one place--from Missouri--and the other will be in Jerusalem."
whew... and the queen of hearts will bake cherry tarts.
Mormons, however, today tout what they believe is the actual site of the ancient Garden of Eden in Independence, Mo. That is where they believe the lost 10 tribes of Israel will gather and build the great city of Zion before the Second Coming of Christ, and from where the Lord will govern during a 1,000-year reign known as the Millennium.
The 10th of 13 articles of faith handed down by Mormon prophet Joseph Smith says, "We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem in Kansas City) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisaical glory."
The Mormon Church's Doctrine and Covenants[scripture] say in 1831, after he had traveled to Missouri, the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith that the New Jerusalem prophesied by John the Revelator will be built in the Western Hemisphere and will coexist with the old Jerusalem.
H/T to jjray for flushing this out today. I found it to be incredibly relevant for All Saint's Day... and latter day saints in particular.
Read the first part here.
Romney's comments raise an important foreign policy question concerning our relationship to Israel and the world at large. Mormons believe they will rule the world, not from Salt Lake City but Jackson County Missouri and from their adopted (and newly converted) cousins in Jerusalem. Mormons often speak of their feelings of kinship with Jews in relation to their exodus to the Great Salt lake, the river Jordan, Brigham Young (moses like figure) etc.
Most Mormon people are given a patriarchal blessing. A patriarchal blessing is a blessing (similar to a prayer by the laying on of hands) given to worthy members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by a stake patriarch (a priesthood holder ordained to this calling) and is a sacred, personal blessing from the Lord. Members who are worthy and ready may receive their patriarchal blessing by first meeting with their bishop, and once approved by the bishop they make an appointment with their stake patriarch. The blessing given (said) by the patriarch is recorded and later typed up (usually by the patriarch's wife) and is sent to LDS Church headquarters where it is kept on file. A printed copy of the patriarchal blessing is also mailed to the recipient.
...The patriarchal blessings of most Latter-day Saints indicate that they are literal, blood descendants of Abraham and of Israel. Those who are not literal descendants are adopted into the family of Abraham when they receive baptism and confirmation (see Law of Adoption). They are then entitled to all the rights and privileges of heirs (TPJS, pp. 149-50). This doctrine of adoption was understood by ancient prophets and apostles (e.g., Rom. 11; 1 Ne. 10:14; Jacob 5; cf. D&C 84:33-34).
So there you have it. Mormons believe they are adopted Israelites. Mitt Romney is from the tribe of Ephraim. Alongside this bizarre belief is the unique Mormon teaching of becoming a God. The Church teaches that God the Father used to be a man on another planet, that he became a God by following the laws and ordinances of that God on that planet and came to this world with his wife (she became a goddess), and that they produce spirit offspring in heaven. These spirit offspring, which includes Jesus, the devil, and you and me, are all brothers and sisters born in the preexistence. These preexistence spirits come down and inhabit babies at the time of birth and their memories of the preexistence are lost at the time. Furthermore, faithful Mormons, who pay a full 10% tithe of their income to the Mormon church through Mormon temples, have the potential of becoming gods of their own planets and are then able to start the procedure over again.
As a former Mormon that was spoon fed all of this malarkey as a child, I marvel tonight as I write it out and the implications of religious extremism that I was born into.
It all seems very far away now, like another life that I lived.