Reader Jen left a detailed comment today on my post entitled "Man on a mission," explaining the position of the Mormon Church on a number of issues — including the Israel-Palestine conflict. She also mentioned something I was completely unaware of. In her comment, she stated that Jordan actually recognizes the Mormon Church:
I do commend the state of Jordan for being the only Muslim country to officially recognize the Mormon church and to allow people in Jordan to worship in the open.
This was news to me. I had always thought that the Mormon Church had not been allowed to set up shop in the Kingdom. After doing some Googling, I found this:
In 1989, Jordan became the first Arab country to grant formal recognition to the [Mormon] Church, allowing it to establish the Center for Cultural and Educational Affairs in Amman.
To make my position clear, I do not agree with many of the teachings of the Mormon Church but I am all for facilitating the freedom of religion in Jordan and elsewhere.
Read Jen’s full comment here.
Ok… well… I did a bit of research and well, it seems we have a different definition of “son of god” here. Does your husband (and the Jordanian government!) know mormons are a polytheists that hope to be a god one day? Or can you help us understand these quotes since we, trapped in our “darkened and erroneous traditions” of montheism, are so incapable of research ourselves:
LDS Prophet Joseph Smith taught that God was once a mortal man:
LDS President Brigham Young declared that God was once a finite being:
LDS President Joseph Fielding Smith said that God had a father, a grandfather, etc.:
LDS President Joseph F. Smith taught that God was born as a mortal on some other earth:
LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie taught:
LDS Apostle Melvin Ballard explained that God has a wife:
LDS Doctrine and Covenants promises the faithful LDS couple that they can achieve godhood in the same manner as God the Father:
LDS President Brigham Young taught that faithful Mormons can achieve godhood:
LDS President Joseph F. Smith said:
As recently as 2007 both Apostle Boyd K. Packer and Dallen Oakes, during an interview for PBS, explained that God the father has a resurrected body. Apostle Packer stated:
Apostle Oakes used the same term when he was interviewed:
LDS Apostle James E. Talmage taught that God progressed from a mortal to a god:
Istaghfar Allah al3theem! I really can’t see what right Mormons have to claim a link to the great Abrahamic (ie monotheistic) faiths. This appears to be pure polytheism…
-jo
see also: Man on a mission
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints and am from North Wales, UK. My husband is Jordanian and is a practising muslim
It is really sad reading most of these posts about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon church) as there are so many negative comments, most of which are completely untrue. Maybe people should actually do their research properly before expressing their opinion. Why can’t people just except other people’s beliefs? Mormons are Christians and the Book of Mormon is not “our” Bible its just another witness that Jesus Christ is the son of God. If you don’t beleive it, then try reading the book for yourself!!! As for the post that implied that all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints support a war that sanctions the killing and raping of people and their homes, that is simply not true.
Wow, I made a mistake in my writing, and wasn’t as clear as I ought to be. I wish there were an edit option.
This sentence was confusing: “In fact, there are examples of them being much more faithful and prophets coming from those who were not marked like that.”
Basically, what I said is, the decendants of Laman and Lemuel who were marked to seperate them from the Nephites to protect the Nephites are not loathsome throughout the narrative. In fact, many of them end up more faithful than those who were not marked. The decendants of Nephi ended up being destroyed, because of disobedience.
I believe God controls nature and if he wants to seperate nations, he can make them look different, speak different, or have different cultures. Scientifically, if a people have shared looks and values, they usually group together, and mingle less with groups that don’t share those things. That fits what the Book of Mormon says. When those that had been seperated in such a way became pure (white, not skin-wise, but purity wise), they became part of the people of Nephi. The narrative itself describes this, and it makes sense because they accepted their religion and again had something in common, something that was much more important than skin color.
Noah had cursed Canaan, and the priesthood was not to go to his decendants, and they were seperated. The biblical account isn’t clear, but God does not curse unless their is an important reason, and those people were likewise seperated from other of Noah’s decendants.
Likewise, when many African-Americans began to accept the Gospel, our leaders pleaded with God and received answers that the time had come to allow them to share with us the fullness of God’s blessings, and thus have the priesthood again. That cultural difference went away, and they became part of the church. Their was no longer a reason for them not to have those blessings, because they had become pure. The Book of Mormon narrative was an example of what happened in 1978.
Thanks for your comments Jo. “White” in Webster’s 1828 dictionary (so at the time the Book of Mormon was translated), one of the definitions meant pure. The correction is merely to reflect the language at the time.
As far as the those teachings go, we don’t believe skin color inherantly makes somebody evil, but it was to seperate the decendants of Laman and Lemuel from Nephi’s. Even the Book of Mormon talks of those who had received the change as being better many times than those who didn’t. In fact, there are examples of them being much more faithful and prophets coming from those who were not marked like that. In the Book of Mormon, when they were marked that way, it was to protect Nephi’s people from them, so they would know who they were when they were enemies.
As far as those of African-American ancestry receiving the priesthood, isn’t it wonderful?! That is an example of the fulfillment of what the Book of Mormon and the Bible says that all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Yes, they were barred for a time, but that was more due to the understanding of Noah’s curse upon Canaan, barring him and his decendants from the priesthood.