Mormon Republicans, Mormon Democrats...

I always find it strange that members of the church who are Republican are alway trashing Democrats. Somehow they assume that all Mormons are Republicans. I am always amused by this when president Hinckly himself said that members of the church can belong to any political party.

Here is President Hinckley himself;

"Q. It says, Given the platform and positions taken by the Democratic Party, can you be a good church member and a Democrat?

A. Yes, I think so. I don't know why you couldn't. It depends on what you believe as a Democrat in terms of some things. There are some things we don't subscribe to. We've got lots of Democrats in the church, lots of them, and they are good people. I don't worry about that too much. This is Washington. I better be careful of what I say. Well, we've got a Democratic presidency and another candidate marked out for the future."
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,155008723,00.html
I don't think there is much wiggle room in this statement. There are lots of us :-)

Also, one of the men I respect the most, Harry Reid. He gives a good interview where he answers questions about his beliefs and his party afiliation.
http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/13779

I mean, I can see why some people get on their high horse and say that democrats are evil because they are for abortion and gays. Well, I am against any form of on demand abortion, and I am not pro-gay for sure, but there are other ethical issues that are far more important to me than the personal life of some people I have yet to meet. The illegal war in Iraq for instance.

That is something i'm worried about.

BYU. professor thinks bombs, not planes, toppled WTC

My Dad (an inactive member of the church, long story for another post) showed me this link on www.rense.com . I have read many web sites and theories claiming that the world trade centers were actually destroyed by explosives coming from the interior of the buildings. I have never been sure wether or not to beleive them. This article on Deseret News is the first that I have seen in a reputable source. Here is the article.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635160132,00.html

My Father has a theory that this guy will soon be excommunicated because he thinks that the church and the republican party are as thick as theives. Anyway, I am curious as to see what happens to one Steven E. Jones. I hope he gets the evidence he is looking for and we can answer this question once and for all. And, for me, it is deep irony that the one guy that has the guts to stand up and demand the truth is a card carrying Mormon.

As of late...

Recently, my wife decided that we should read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I am glad that she did. Honestly it's been a while since I have regularly read the Book of Mormon (or any scriptures for that matter.) I keep going over in my mind the experiences that occur in the book and how intricate it is. It's no wonder what we have is mainly spiritual in nature. There would be an enormous amount of history to tell! What is most important is the spiritual nature of the book anyway.

I have also been reading some material online regarding the church. Recently I have been reading Jeff Lindsay’s blog http://mormanity.blogspot.com/ I am amazed at Jeff’s humanity and his intelligent posts. I have been reading from his website for while http://www.jefflindsay.com/. There is a lot of good information on there, not just Mormon apologetics.

I was amazed to find posting on Jeff’s blog none other than one Daniel C. Peterson. Daniel came to my mission in Arcadia California sometime in 96 I think. I remember that he gave a really interesting talk. After his talk, he opened up to allow for doctrinal questions. I at the time was not much into doctrine other than a few things. There were a couple of missionaries in my Zone that were having these "deep doctrine" discussions, which they wouldn't let me in on due to the fact that I was a greenie.

One particular missionary, I can't think of his name, had come up with this theory that the statement "Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess" found in Romans and Mosiah (or perhaps elsewhere) was referring to an actual ordinance. He had all these scriptures to back up his claims. I remember Daniel basically shot the idea down without much of a thought. I found the whole thing amusing really. I gained a lot of respect for Daniel that day.

Anyway, as I read more and more online from the critics of the Church, I keep thinking about people who are doing their best to discredit the church. They spend hours and hours studying church history, doctrines and anything they can get their hands on. I met a guy one time on my mission that had read the entire standard works and had a whole library of both anti books and books written by General Authorities. He spent so much time trying to debunk what we believe that I think that he may have forgotten to do any studying of his own church.

People should really spend more time reading the Bible and less time trying to discredit other people. You can find fault in anything if you look for it. You can also find good things in anything if you look for it.
At the end of the day, we can do as much study as we would like but it will amount to nil unless we go to the ultimate source for truth, God. He can teach us all truth.

A new beginning

As I read the other blogs out there, I feel inadequite compared to some of these bloggers. The purpose of my blog is to share some of my ideas and thoughts regarding the spiritual realm, for the most part.

This is not going to be the place to debate deep doctrine, mainly because I am not a scriptorian. If you want that sort of thing, there are other blogs out there with bloggers that are much more intellegent than I.

I hope somone out there can benefit from what is here, but most likely, no one will ever read this.