As soon as word got out that Senator Reid (or might I remind my fellow Latter-day "Saints", Brother Reid) was speaking in our stake, the e-mails and phone calls began pouring in. Furious complaints about the "political" nature of this presentation. Righteous indignation over the Senator's politics. Messages, threats, that if he were permitted to speak, members of my church would heckle him from the audience. Would load signs into their pickups with the words "Mormons Against Harry Reid" painted on them, and park the trucks outside the chapel.
One man said, "If I see Harry Reid in the temple, I'm going to hit him." Another told our stake president, "Harry Reid is the most evil man on the earth, and you and your counselors are next."
There were even people weighing in from out of state. One woman called from St. George, Utah; my husband took the call, and she gave him a message for our stake president: "You're a wicked man for allowing this to happen."
The outcry was so virulent, they cancelled the fireside. For security reasons. The man was fearful for the safety of his family.
Fearful! Of his fellow Mormons!
One guy e-mailed me and said, quote: I would rather hear from a minion of Satan himself than from Senator Harry Reid.
zzyzx wrote:Yep, can't be a Mormon and be a Democrat. A well known revelation confirms this and that is why Hugh B. Brown was removed from the Earth... he was a Damn Democrat!
God was really slow about bumping off President Faust.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
bcspace wrote:Yes. You realized that the political left is antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is why we have more evidence. However, repentence from the sin of political liberalism would have been the proper reaction as opposed to going inactive.
I'm so confused...BC Space tells me that political liberalism is a sin that should be repented of while Elder Jensen tells me this:
"There is sort of a division along Mormon/non-Mormon, Republican/Democratic lines," says Elder Marlin Jensen, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. "We regret that more than anything -- that there would become a church party and a non-church party. That would be the last thing that we would want to have happen"
Who am I to believe?
There is also this:
An an hourlong interview at the church's worldwide headquarters in downtown Salt Lake City arranged and overseen by LDS media-relations director Mike Otterson, Jensen discussed leaders' views about the seeming demise of two-party politics among members. Among the concerns he aired:
-- The LDS Church's reputation as a one-party monolith is damaging in the long run because of the seesaw fortunes of the national political parties.
-- The overwhelming Republican bent of LDS members in Utah and the Intermountain West undermines the checks-and-balances principle of democratic government.
-- Any notion that it is impossible to be a Democrat and a good Mormon is wrongheaded and should be "obliterated."
So what should be "obliterated", political liberalism or wrongheaded spacism? Hmmmm....
Loralee, first, apologies for getting your comment on here so late! It came in when I still had the comment moderation on and I didn't notice it until now.
Second, my husband was in on the decision to cancel the fireside. It really was for security reasons. This same talk was presented in other stakes in the area with moderate outcry, but nothing even came close to what was being said this time around. My stake really rang the bell on intolerance.
Third, this is probably as good a time as any to let you all know that this fireside was something that was endorsed by the First Presidency, as an effort to defuse the very polarity we're talking about. This wasn't some random whim on the part of our stake president. Stakes throughout Nevada were being encouraged to listen to Senator Reid's testimony.
This was posted on that website Danna linked. I'm not sure what to think about the bolded part.
I wonder how long the FP has been encouraging Reid's election year fireside tour?
dblagent007 wrote:I wonder how long the FP has been encouraging Reid's election year fireside tour?
Are we looking at a second Great Apostasy?
“I was hooked from the start,” Snoop Dogg said. “We talked about the purpose of life, played Mousetrap, and ate brownies. The kids thought it was off the hook, for real.”
"The Democratic Party has in the last 20 years waned to the point where it really is almost not a factor in our political life," Jensen said. "There is a feeling that that is not healthy at all -- that as a state we suffer in different ways. But certainly any time you don't have the dialogue and the give-and-take that the democratic process provides, you're going to be poorer for it in the long run."
There also are more immediate, tangible costs, he said.
Jensen blamed the Republican monopoly for contributing to Utah political leaders' inability or unwillingness to grapple with long-range planning issues. He pointed to the lack of state leadership on issues of open-space preservation and land-use planning.
He also pointed to the massive, catch-up highway-building binge that has disrupted Salt Lake County commuters and businesses. "One might say that the transportation crisis that we're in might have been averted had there been better balance in the parties and something was thrashed out 10 years ago, perhaps during Gov. Bangerter's time, rather than being allowed to wait until we reached a crisis situation.
"There are probably issues like that environmentally, educationally that we'd really benefit from if there were a more robust dialogue going on. But we've lacked that and I think we've suffered somewhat because of it."
Is Jensen really someone to take seriously? He is, after all, only a Seventy, right?
“I was hooked from the start,” Snoop Dogg said. “We talked about the purpose of life, played Mousetrap, and ate brownies. The kids thought it was off the hook, for real.”
bcspace wrote: I see nothing wrong with protecting the values of the Gospel and their integrity. What people on the Left fail to understand about the Church's politically neutral stance is that it's not a spiritual license or indulgence to promote or tacitly support that which is contrary to what the Church teaches and believes in.
You are so delusional. You preach this crap in your ward? The political gospel according to BCSpace. I think you are in danger of discipline.