Mormonism and Christian Fascism

[drumdude]

Dan McClellan is on the front lines fighting against this exponentially growing movement, led by evangelicals like Kirk Cameron. To get the flavor of that movement, see this short video:

https://youtu.be/zSs8ZTvTTJM

Mormons and Evangelicals have been united for many decades now in their efforts to use the Bible to advance whatever right wing authoritarian causes they’d like to ram through.

After 9/11, Christopher Hitchens popularized the phrase “Islamofascism.” Today, we are facing an even larger threat, Christofascism.

You can see Mormons like DCP visibly struggle with this trend. On the one hand, they long ago have sown the seeds for this to take place. They figured if they simply aligned with the moral majority and other conservative values in the “Culture Wars,” that we would suddenly be the shining city on the hill.

But now they’re realizing that it doesn’t stop at banning abortion. It doesn’t stop at school vouchers. It doesn’t stop at prayer in schools. It keeps going with demonizing asylum seekers. With separating families. With putting people in camps.

DCP and Mormons like him are part of the “in group” now, but how much longer until the evangelical religious right starts seeing Mormons as just another out group to deal with?

[Rivendale]

Another example of people using the Bible as a big book of multiple choice. Dan was correct in how Kirk is using it to push his ideology. The last 45 blistering seconds could be applied to the Book of Mormon where grave immoralities are justified and are being taught to Mormon children and young adults.

From the Seminary manual.

Invite a student to read Alma 14:11 aloud, and ask the class to look for Alma’s response to Amulek’s request.
Why did the Lord permit these women and children to be burned? (You may need to explain that in this verse, the phrase “he doth suffer” means “he allows.” The Lord allowed the people to suffer so their deaths could stand as a witness against the people who killed them. See also Alma 60:13.)

Dale Renlund General conference.

Some might point out that Nephi violated a commandment when he slew Laban. However, this exception does not negate the rule—the rule that personal revelation will be in harmony with God’s commandments. No simple explanation of this episode is completely satisfactory, but let me highlight some aspects. The episode did not begin with Nephi asking if he could slay Laban. It was not something he wanted to do. Killing Laban was not for Nephi’s personal benefit but to provide scriptures to a future nation and a covenant people. And Nephi was sure that it was revelation—in fact, in this case, it was a commandment from God.23

Gospel topic essays.

The revelation on marriage required that a wife give her consent before her husband could enter into plural marriage.42 Nevertheless, toward the end of the revelation, the Lord said that if the first wife “receive not this law”—the command to practice plural marriage—the husband would be “exempt from the law of Sarah,” presumably the requirement that the husband gain the consent of the first wife before marrying additional women.43 After Emma opposed plural marriage, Joseph was placed in an agonizing dilemma, forced to choose between the will of God and the will of his beloved Emma. He may have thought Emma’s rejection of plural marriage exempted him from the law of Sarah. Her decision to “receive not this law” permitted him to marry additional wives without her consent. Because of Joseph’s early death and Emma’s decision to remain in Nauvoo and not discuss plural marriage after the Church moved west, many aspects of their story remain known only to the two of them.

Come follow me Sunday school manual.

While we don’t know all the reasons Saul was commanded to kill all of the Amalekites and their animals, there are lessons to learn from his response to that commandment. To help class members identify these lessons, you could write on the board To obey is better than … and invite class members to ponder this phrase as you review together events from 1 Samuel 15. What are some good things we do in our lives that we sometimes choose instead of obeying God? Why is obedience to God better than those other good things?

[Moksha]

Another example of people using the Bible as a big book of multiple choice. Dan was correct in how Kirk is using it to push his ideology. The last 45 blistering seconds could be applied to the Book of Mormon where grave immoralities are justified and are being taught to Mormon children and young adults.

From the Seminary manual.

Invite a student to read Alma 14:11 aloud, and ask the class to look for Alma’s response to Amulek’s request.
Why did the Lord permit these women and children to be burned? (You may need to explain that in this verse, the phrase “he doth suffer” means “he allows.” The Lord allowed the people to suffer so their deaths could stand as a witness against the people who killed them. See also Alma 60:13.)

Dale Renlund General conference.

Some might point out that Nephi violated a commandment when he slew Laban. However, this exception does not negate the rule—the rule that personal revelation will be in harmony with God’s commandments. No simple explanation of this episode is completely satisfactory, but let me highlight some aspects. The episode did not begin with Nephi asking if he could slay Laban. It was not something he wanted to do. Killing Laban was not for Nephi’s personal benefit but to provide scriptures to a future nation and a covenant people. And Nephi was sure that it was revelation—in fact, in this case, it was a commandment from God.23

Gospel topic essays.

The revelation on marriage required that a wife give her consent before her husband could enter into plural marriage.42 Nevertheless, toward the end of the revelation, the Lord said that if the first wife “receive not this law”—the command to practice plural marriage—the husband would be “exempt from the law of Sarah,” presumably the requirement that the husband gain the consent of the first wife before marrying additional women.43 After Emma opposed plural marriage, Joseph was placed in an agonizing dilemma, forced to choose between the will of God and the will of his beloved Emma. He may have thought Emma’s rejection of plural marriage exempted him from the law of Sarah. Her decision to “receive not this law” permitted him to marry additional wives without her consent. Because of Joseph’s early death and Emma’s decision to remain in Nauvoo and not discuss plural marriage after the Church moved west, many aspects of their story remain known only to the two of them.

Come follow me Sunday school manual.

While we don’t know all the reasons Saul was commanded to kill all of the Amalekites and their animals, there are lessons to learn from his response to that commandment. To help class members identify these lessons, you could write on the board To obey is better than … and invite class members to ponder this phrase as you review together events from 1 Samuel 15. What are some good things we do in our lives that we sometimes choose instead of obeying God? Why is obedience to God better than those other good things?

We should be thankful that Dr. Peterson did not bear witness that Brian David Mitchell was commanded by the Lord to kidnap and seal himself to Elizabeth Smart as a recreation of 19th-century Mormon history.