Welcome to MormonVoices. Our volunteers respond to public discussions and comments from public figures that misrepresent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We encourage and direct Mormons to get involved in online discussions and thereby help shape the public understanding and perceptions of the Church. Please join your voice with ours, and become a member of MormonVoices.
MormonVoices is an independent organization that is supportive of, but not
controlled by or affiliated with, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
search the site
16 September 2012
Mormon Helping Hands Busy in Africa
September 14, 2012
Thousands of Mormon Helping Hands volunteers throughout Africa were busy on a Saturday in August cleaning, digging, weeding, filling potholes and mowing lawns — and that’s not all.
The annual day of service in Africa involved members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) and their neighbors who spent the day cleaning inside and outside of hospitals, police stations and radio stations, performing erosion control, clearing a path for people to get water, trimming flowers and removing cobwebs.
Service to many African communities meant shoveling out gutters filled with all sorts of garbage and waste. In fact, as Latter-day Saints were working, passers-by saw the success of the monumental effort and joined in to help.
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-helping-hands-busy-in-africa
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
African-American Christians waver over vote
September 16, 2012
Associated Press
Some black clergy see no good presidential choice between a Mormon candidate and one who supports gay marriage, so they are telling their flocks to stay home on Election Day. That’s a worrisome message for the nation’s first African-American president, who can’t afford to lose any voters from his base in a tight race.
The pastors say their congregants are asking how a true Christian could back same-sex marriage, as President Barack Obama did in May. As for Republican Mitt Romney, the first Mormon nominee from a major party, congregants are questioning the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its former ban on men of African descent in the priesthood.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
African-American Christians Waver Over This Year’s Election
September 16, 2012
Huffington Post
Some black clergy see no good presidential choice between a Mormon candidate and one who supports gay marriage, so they are telling their flocks to stay home on Election Day. That’s a worrisome message for the nation’s first African-American president, who can’t afford to lose any voters from his base in a tight race.
The pastors say their congregants are asking how a true Christian could back same-sex marriage, as President Barack Obama did in May. As for Republican Mitt Romney, the first Mormon nominee from a major party, congregants are questioning the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its former ban on men of African descent in the priesthood.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/16/african-american-christians-voting-election_n_1887956.html
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Why I Love Mormonism
September 16, 2012
New York Times
It makes little sense to say that Mormonism is not Christian. It’s right there in the Mormon articles of faith that were adapted from Smith’s famous Wentworth Letter from 1842. Article 1 reads, “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.” But, as Bloom makes compellingly clear, Mormonism is not just Christian. The new revelation given to Joseph Smith in his visions and the annual visits of the angel Moroni from 1820 onward, is a new gospel for the new world. Mormonism is an American religion, which beautifully, if fallaciously, understands the native inhabitants of the New World as ancient descendants of inhabitants of the Old World, the scattered tribes of Israel. Article 10 reads, “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and the restoration of the ten tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent.” I don’t know whether Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu has read this article of faith, but it might have some specific consequences for American foreign policy should his close friend and former colleague at the Boston Consulting Group, Mitt Romney, be elected.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/why-i-love-mormonism/
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Obama Mormons Believe
September 16, 2012
Technorati
Interest in Mr. Romney’s Mormon faith is in decline, a shift from the U.S. News and World Report earlier this month, which claimed otherwise. Romney’s Mormonism was at a high point around the 9th of September, but research I performed on the 16th seems to indicate a significant decline.
Using the same sources, Google search trends, I found that the media have shifted the focus away from Mormonism. Try a simple Google news search, and you’ll find that the Mormon issue is receiving little attention. Perhaps a better indicator is the graph from Google Trends showing the peak in early September, followed by a rapid drop.
http://technorati.com/politics/article/obama-mormons-believe/
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
One thousand Mormons volunteer to gut homes after Hurricane Isaac
September 16, 2012
WWLTV (Louisiana)
With hundreds of volunteers on hand, through “Mormon Helping Hands,” self-sufficiency is in order — including figuring out how to provide your own housing. Volunteers brought their own tents with them. It is a message of self-sufficiency, imparted to the volunteers before they head this way.
“Come with all the food and water that you’ll need, all of your equipment that you’ll need to do this kind of work and be completely self-sustaining,” said Rulon McKay of Mormon Helping Hands.
So far, those efforts have led Mormon Helping Hands to gut 400 homes. Another 300 homes are expected to be done by the end of this weekend, including Travis Johnson’s house.
“I just want to thank everybody,” he said. “Every little bit counts.”
Depending on how many work orders they receive, Mormon Helping Hands said they will be working in several parishes through at least next weekend.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Clayton Christensen on Mormonism and Disruptive Innovation
September 12, 2012
National Review
Last year, Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School published a short essay on how Mormon ideas and sensibilities might have shaped Mitt Romney’s economic thinking. I found this passage particularly interesting:
On the one side, we believe that the Lord told us, “For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things. Men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will; for the power is in them. He that doeth not anything until he is commanded, the same is damned.” (Doctrine and Covenants, 58:26 – 29; which I have condensed). And on the other side, several times every year, we raise our hands in conference to signify that we will sustain and follow our leaders. We are an innovative but obedient people.
Many of the important programs and institutions in our church, as a result, were innovations developed by local leaders, to solve local problems. As our prophet and apostles have then learned of these innovations and their effectiveness, they have asked every congregation in the world to adopt the innovations – and almost everyone does. Our systems of welfare, teaching our children, missionary program, and our ability to help the unemployed to find work, are examples of this. Responsibility for innovation is dispersed and bottom-up. When a better way is discovered, top-down direction drives broad and uniform adoption.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hook of Mormon
September 15, 2012
New York Post
Until Brandon Flowers came along, Mormon rock stars were about as rare as liberal country singers or sexually inactive rappers. But the Killers’ rise to fame has been an undoubted boon for the religion over the past decade. Even though Flowers risked a backlash from the largely secular music world, the frontman has been forthright about his beliefs and background ever since the Las Vegas band released their debut, “Hot Fuss,” back in 2004.
“It’s still such a small religion compared to mainstream Christianity, but it’s getting more and more known,” says the singer a few days before the Tuesday release of the Killers’ fourth album, “Battle Born.” Flowers has made a huge effort to paint Mormonism in a less stereotypical light.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Mormon Dilemma: What About Mormon Latinos?
September 13, 2012
Phoenix New Times (Arizona)
Mormon church officials state publicly they do not get involved in partisan politics, nor do they give members a list of church-sanctioned candidates. But is there a difference between telling members of the flock for whom to vote and telling them how to vote?
The answer is key, as turnout among Arizona’s more than 395,000 Mormons likely will be a boon at the polls, not only for presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the highest-profile Mormon in the country, but for U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Flake and scores of local and legislative candidates who also are LDS.
Although Mormons already are more likely to register to vote and cast ballots, having a fellow Mormon on the presidential ballot might get a bump even out of this already civic-minded bunch.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2012-09-13/news/the-mormon-dilemma-what-about-mormon-latinos/
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
How Agnosticism Could Have Prevented 9/11 and a Mormon Attack 144 Years Earlier
September 16, 2012
Policy Mic
This week marks the anniversary of an act of political and theistic extremism that took the lives of scores of innocent victims caught in the familiar drama that often ensues when groups of people choose to hold fast to their ideas about religious identity and adopt murder as the remedy for their political ills when they are under the jackboot of oppression.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre — in which 120 men, women and children were gunned down in cold blood during the early days of America’s expansion into the West — was burned into the American consciousness on September 11, 1857, 144 years before another act of terrorism would sear the fabric that envelopes the American idea that we are free from harm.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Doug McIntyre: Free speech as well as America is under attack
September 16, 2012
Daily News (Los Angeles)
With their holiest book subjected to mockery you’d expect Mormons to be outraged.
But rather than outrage, the church placed three full-page ads in the audience program inviting the world to read the actual “Book of Mormon.”
“You’ve seen the Play Now Read the Book,” said one. “The Book is Always Better,” said another.
No protests. No beheadings. No flags have been burned.
Those who troubled to thumb through their programs were treated to a double dose of the First Amendment in action. A beautiful, powerful display of America at its very best.
http://www.dailynews.com/columnists/ci_21552515/doug-mcintyre-free-speech-well-america-is-under
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Evangelical supporters of Romney gather at summit
September 16, 2012
Washington Times
Many of the born-again Christians at Family Research Council President Tony Perkins’ annual Values Voter Summit — some from as far away as the California — are recent converts to the Romney presidential quest. They said in interviews that they have put aside their doubts in favor of what they say is a man who, though a Mormon, shares their moral values and political aims despite the doctrinal differences between his faith and theirs.
“I know I said a few months ago that I would never vote for a Mormon, but my husband and I and our friends are so far past that now,” said Kim Bengard, whose San Clemente, Calif., home is three doors away from what was President Nixon’s “Western White House.” “I have come to understand that Mitt Romney supports my values. We’re really pleased with him.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/16/evangelical-supporters-of-romney-gather-at-summit-/
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Is gay marriage a wedge issue?
September 16, 2012
Sun Dial (California)
During the early 19th century the Mormons, followers of the Church of Latter-day Saint were harassed by their fellow Americans. On several occasion, this harassment escalated to skirmishes, and it was not uncommon for them to be deemed unwanted and chased out under the threat of the bayonet.
Were Mormons then law-breakers? Were they uncivilized heathens that practiced cannibalism? No. They were patriotic Americans and God-fearing Christians.
Unfortunately for them, they also practiced polygamy, when a man can have multiple wives, and for this they were despised enough to justify violence against them. These polygamous marriages were entered voluntarily, and the Mormons did not attempt to force their views on others. At worst, they might offer to teach you about their church if you were curious.
This didn’t matter to their fellow Americans though, and violence continued.
http://sundial.csun.edu/2012/09/u-s-history-plays-role-in-gay-marriage-debate/
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Florida’s Koran-burning pastor: ‘We will not back down’ from fight
September 17, 2012
Buenos Aires Herald (Argentina)
Romney is a Mormon and I’m obviously not a fan of the Mormon faith because I think it is very weird. But at the same time Mormons are considered to be honest and moral people who have a high character standard. So he would be better than Obama.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
NOTE: This is posted for those who are interested in keeping abreast what is being said around the world about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members. MormonVoices cannot and does not guarantee the validity or truthfulness of any information reported. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of this information lies with the reader. As all information comes from other news sources and has not been independently verified, MormonVoices cannot guarantee or be responsible for the security of links in the clipping service. MormonVoices will attempt as much as possible to exclude news articles containing strongly offensive language or which lead to offensive images, but cannot guarantee that some will not slip through.
Journalists
