In a letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune published on 1/21/12, the following was asked:
If Mitt Romney is the good, upstanding member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that he says he is, then he swore a solemn oath on pain of death in an LDS temple promising to consecrate "everything with which the Lord has blessed you" to his church.
In other words, he swore on his life that we will put the LDS Church ahead of everything.
I would like Romney to clarify for the nation this important question: If elected president, which oath will you stand by, your LDS Church oath or the presidential oath of the Constitution?
I'm sure a variation of this question will be asked more often as the campaign continues, and I hope Mitt can handle it better than he has with questions about his tax returns.
I'm also wondering when Mitt will be asked if he and his wife have received the 'second anointing' ordinance.
"Moving beyond apologist persuasion, LDS polemicists furiously (and often fraudulently) attack any non-traditional view of Mormonism. They don't mince words -- they mince the truth."
-- Mike Quinn, writing of the FARMSboys, in "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View," p. x (Rev. ed. 1998)
If he has received his 2nd anointing then he can put his oath of office ahead of the church with out worrying about the consequences.
"Any over-ritualized religion since the dawn of time can make its priests say yes, we know, it is rotten, and hard luck, but just do as we say, keep at the ritual, stick it out, give us your money and you'll end up with the angels in heaven for evermore."
Rollo Tomasi wrote:In a letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune published on 1/21/12, the following was asked:
If Mitt Romney is the good, upstanding member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that he says he is, then he swore a solemn oath on pain of death in an LDS temple promising to consecrate "everything with which the Lord has blessed you" to his church.
In other words, he swore on his life that we will put the LDS Church ahead of everything.
I would like Romney to clarify for the nation this important question: If elected president, which oath will you stand by, your LDS Church oath or the presidential oath of the Constitution?
I'm sure a variation of this question will be asked more often as the campaign continues, and I hope Mitt can handle it better than he has with questions about his tax returns.
I'm also wondering when Mitt will be asked if he and his wife have received the 'second anointing' ordinance.
I think this is a great and important question, Rollo, and I'm hoping that it gets asked more often, too. In reading over some of the Romney-campaign-related posts over at the ironically named Mormon Dialogue board, I've gotten the sense again and again that the TBM posters want Romney to win the election precisely because of this oath--i.e., that they would like him to gain office because they believe he will place the interests of the LDS Church ahead of the interests of the USA.
It would be interesting to run a poll along these lines over there in order to see the results, though I bet such a thing wouldn't be allowed to stand.
"[I]f, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
Rollo Tomasi wrote:In a letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune published on 1/21/12, the following was asked:
If Mitt Romney is the good, upstanding member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that he says he is, then he swore a solemn oath on pain of death in an LDS temple promising to consecrate "everything with which the Lord has blessed you" to his church.
In other words, he swore on his life that we will put the LDS Church ahead of everything.
I would like Romney to clarify for the nation this important question: If elected president, which oath will you stand by, your LDS Church oath or the presidential oath of the Constitution?
I'm sure a variation of this question will be asked more often as the campaign continues, and I hope Mitt can handle it better than he has with questions about his tax returns.
I'm also wondering when Mitt will be asked if he and his wife have received the 'second anointing' ordinance.
I would like some nice LDS or ex-LDS person to PM me the exact wording of the temple oath in question.
Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.
Chinese Proverb
Jersey Girl wrote:Thank you to the person who met my request. Much appreciated!
So, what does it mean to LDS to consecrate everything to the church? Can someone answer that and be specific?
Jersey Girl,
Your request cannot be granted, I'm afraid. A specific, agreed upon answer does not exist. It used to.
Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame on us gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given... Zeus (1178 BC)
Has Mitt made a claim about himself on this election trail that has subsequently been proven to be accurate rather than....shall we use the word....misleading?
As I understand it, Ann was 16 years old when Mitt proposed marriage to her. Instinctively that sounds a tad wrong.
“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.” Keith McMullin - Counsellor in Presiding Bishopric
"One, two, three...let's go shopping!" Thomas S Monson - Prophet, Seer, Revelator
So, what does it mean to LDS to consecrate everything to the church? Can someone answer that and be specific?
It would mean, among other things, leaving your job to serve in the Church, not using your job as an arm of the Church.
Oh....it's much more than that bcspace.
The oath says to consecrate time, talents and everything you're blessed with to the church.
What if Mitt is going over a budget plan and someone asks him a question about the church? What if he sees a missionary opportunity? It is not out of the realm of possibility that he would delay or forestall the budget plan to save this person's soul; in other words, he would put church ahead of state. We don't need a President that puts church ahead of state right now.
I seem to recall reading phone records of conversations Ezra Taft Benson had with church leadership while he was U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, reporting back to SLC and taking advice or even orders from them how to proceed on some issue.
I might be misremembering it, though. Has anyone seen what I'm referring to?
Parley P. Pratt wrote:We must lie to support brother Joseph, it is our duty to do so.