Comments on: Fellow Mormons: don’t embarrass us.

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:58:36 +0000

I live in Utah in the heart of the LDS population. What I am hearing here where I live is this: Some LDS people are Democrats. No problem. Each has a right and we respect each other’s rights. Some people have gay friends. Also not a problem. Overall, most people believe that a marriage is between one man and one woman, which is defined by our Creator in the physical, emotional, and spiritual make up of our beings. In my opinion it is odd that this question even has to be visited.
Most LDS people are peaceable quiet people who want to be able to live in peace. Most are way too busy with raising big families to take much time to march in any protest…kids in sports, music lessons, etc.
Being a convert myself (from the Chicago area), I can tell you this is not a cult. Each person is encouraged to study everything out for themselves and make their own decisions. It’s amazing how supportive “Mormons” are for the individual regardless of their choices.
I just happened upon this site this morning and wanted to say “hello” and share with you what it is like on the inside. I now begin a very busy day and will not be able to check responses. But, I hope you have a wonderful and peaceful day. Truly.

By: John K.

John K. — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:53:26 +0000

Ronan,

If only you had put out a voter guide prior to our elections, we could have avoided so much of this distress. Sorry to let you down. We didn’t know.

By: Adam Greenwood

Adam Greenwood — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:18:08 +0000

You are not adequately outraged.

By: ron

ron — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:29:50 +0000

I have a sick feeling that assassination attempts might recur. If one succeeds it will throw this country into an never-ending hell of liberal guiltmongering. and it will be the perpetrators fault – not Obama’s.

Left-wing freakoes openly talked about killing Bush (heck, even left wing media elite did, on national television and in books) – which does not bode well towards mutual respect for his successor.

unlike the leftist hypocrites, conservatives need to respect the office and respect the occupant..

By: Adam Greenwood

Adam Greenwood — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:35:11 +0000

WWEB–what would embarass a Briton? Words to live by.

–

I see your Guatemalans and raise you a Spaniard. Nearly everyone I met was convinced that I must have had frequent shootouts at my high school. Also that Bill Clinton was bent on evil, rightwing world domination, or else that he was the only thing standing between the world and evil, rightwing world domination, take your pick.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:44:06 +0000

“…a country that abandoned slavery far too late, and whose record on civil rights has not always matched the rhetoric of its foundation…”

It is shameful, I admit. But don’t forget who left us with such a beautiful birthright–one that had taken a couple of centuries to develop and refine into the well oiled mercantile machine that it was. It wasn’t going to come apart easily. And sadly it continues to grind, coughing and sputtering as it resists it’s painfully slow but inevitable death.

By: Rob F.

Rob F. — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 02:51:24 +0000

Ronan, it’s easy to see that your initial post can be taken the wrong way by social conservative Latter Day Saints in the U.S. who are wounded by the political defeat that they have suffered. The context was typical of the condescension that we have come to expect from Europe. Understand that there is a real cultural schism in this country between the socially and religiously conservative interior and the socially liberal and often irreligious coast and Northeast that does threaten to tear this nation apart. These cultural differences make communication between opposing groups difficult if not impossible. This is a serious threat to our society. Unfortunately, I don’t see a resolution that will not involve a breakup of the United States along cultural lines. I give it 40-50 years at best.

With respect to some of these peoples feelings about the junior senator from Illinois, just accept the fact that a significant minority of members of the Church are going to see him as an antichrist in the mold of Sherem and Nehor. They see the speeches that seem to be cast in a messianic light and his support of moral positions that are antithetical to their moral view and that just closes the deal for them. This is not a view that is unique to LDS members. Other christians in the U.S. are reaching the same conclusion.

As far as supporting and sustaining the junior senator, the twelfth article of faith does not require the Saints to support a political official, they are merely to be subject to them. We are required to support, uphold, and sustain the law, which is very different from the leader.

By: blt

blt — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:48:24 +0000

Thanks Sam B!

By: bbell

bbell — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:14:17 +0000

Jimbob,

You were chastised by a German on race relations? How funny.

By: jimbob

jimbob — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:01:26 +0000

I always find it strange how excited western Europeans get about America’s civil rights record. I remember once summering in Holland and skipping class to go to one day of the trial of Milosevic. I met a German woman there who, at a break, was eager to chastise me about America’s stance on civil rights. Predictably, she was just flummoxed about our inability to cure race relations in our country.

It was at that point I reminded her that GB had a de facto apartheid economic and governmental system in the Ulster counties well into the ’80s; that the French have had lots and lots of race riots based on some rampant xenophobia; and that many Muslims and Croatians felt like that much of western Europe turned a blind eye while Serbia engaged in its ethnic cleansing in the ’90s. I think I ended with the thought that it seemed every country has at least some of the problems the United States has.

She didn’t have much of response to this, and the trial started back up again, but on the train ride home, I kept thinking that there’s a good chance that America isn’t any more racist than any other country, just that we have better press coverage of our racism. I’m still trying to decide.