Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<Ha! The LDS website is trying to break into your computer, and baptize anyone in your email list.>> LOL!! Maybe I should try it. My email list is so outdated, there are plenty of 'deceased' accounts to choose from. 8^D
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder The Mormons baptizing dead people against their wishes, another old chestnut resurrected and another reason to despise them.
Originally Posted By utahjosh Yes, hating a group for spending their personal time to offer a gift is really great. It is such a despicable act.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder Take your smarmy unwanted, unasked for "gifts" and shove them where the sun don't shine. Go play victim somewhere else.
Originally Posted By utahjosh You can't claim they are unwanted. It's a gift. not a "gift." And your attitude needs a lift.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney Actually they are unwanted. Many athiests are offended by it, and some Christians too. Frankly, I don't care because once I'm dead it will be too late for the Mormon's to change where I'll be spending eternity.
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Originally Posted By Dabob2 "You can't claim they are unwanted." Sure I can. I guarantee you my grandma, as staunch a Southern Baptist as ever lived, would not want to be re-baptized by another faith. She wouldn't want it from the American Baptists, let alone the Mormons. You've convinced yourself it's a "gift" but it's actually pure condescension and disrespect for anither's faith. It's essentially telling her (and her descendants stlll here) that her own Baptism wasn't good enough or wasn't sufficient. It's a giant middle finger, given with a smiling but clueless face. My gramma was a beautiful person and she's in heaven now. Not Baptist heaven or Mormon heaven or Muslim heaven. Just heaven. She doesn't want your "gift" and wouldn't accept it. Why should she? She's already where she needs to be, thank you very much. You should respect that, respect her, and respect her descendants, and that includes not doing what they tell you is plainly desrespectful.
Originally Posted By barboy Hey Counselor, I just stuck a pin in the neck of a voodoo doll I made in your likeness----did you feel it yet? LOL!!!
Originally Posted By barboy I'm still making yours, dabob----you should expect some pain come 2am Eastern time. LOL!!!! This is fun
Originally Posted By barboy Oh and utahjosh, I haven't forgotton you by a damn sight-----I'm going to get medieval on your doll. Marcellus Wallace will be proud. hahahahah
Originally Posted By DyGDisney I forgot about Jewish people. Yeah, they are offended. "Jews are particularly offended by an attempt to alter the religion of Holocaust victims, who were murdered because of their religion, and the baptism of Holocaust survivors was supposed to have been barred by a 1995 agreement." <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/14/mormon-baptism-apology_n_1277359.html" target="_blank">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...359.html</a>
Originally Posted By tiggertoo <<Ha! The LDS website is trying to break into your computer, and baptize anyone in your email list.>> lol! Virtual baptism, with a subtext that reads: "You have just been baptized into the LDS church. Resistance is futile."
Originally Posted By ecdc RE, the original question, I have mixed feelings. I certainly don't fault Romney for coming up with as analogous term as he could to try and relate. No blame there. That said, there's a reason the LDS Church doesn't have "pastors" - their church structure is entirely different. In traditional Protestantism, you pick your church and you have a pastor that you hope will...well...pastor you to Christ. (I understand there's some different understandings around the term in different faiths, but the basic idea is the same.) Mormons do not do that. They are assigned to a congregation based on where they live. They have no choice over their leaders. While an LDS bishop absolutely does offer some counseling and guidance to members of that congregation, his role is far more administrative than a typical pastor would be. If a Protestant pastor's role is to give sermons and preside over the flock, a Mormon bishop's role is to attend meetings, delegate, collect tithing for Salt Lake City, perform worthiness interviews, etc. Simply saying the names are different and everything else is the same is not accurate.
Originally Posted By tiggertoo The reason he used pastor instead of bishop is because they basically perform the same function, i.e., preside over a congregations, or ward in Mormon lexicon (usually a couple hundred members). A Stake President is over 5 to 10 wards, and you can extrapolate from the numbers from there. To put this into more perspective, there are about 150 stakes in just California. Also, these are temporary positions and rotate amongst the members of the ward. So, a bishop will preside for a few years, then another member of the ward becomes bishop, and the previous bishop becomes just another member.
Originally Posted By ecdc I've probably said this before and lost track, so forgive me, but to me the most fascinating part of the Romney/Mormon moment is the notion that the ideal Mormon male is just not that well liked outside of Mormonism. In the faith, Romney truly is what Mormon males aspire to be. There's a stiffness and a formality to Mormon leaders. Attend a Mormon worship service and you'll see an adherence to rules (debate time and whose turn it is, anyone?) and a formality that's absolutely revered in the faith. Mormons see this as emulating the church of Christ. If you're a Mormon woman and your husband is on the stand and you see him up there basically being a Mitt Romney, you are delighted and in love. This is what Mormon women want in their priesthood holding men. But outside the faith, it's seen as cold and impersonal...just like Romney. Phony, even. I think it's why Romney struggles with women (his awful policies aside) - he's relating to them the way he knows how and his whole life he's been admired for it and found attractive for it. But outside the faith, he's seen as condescending to women. As we've seen from some of the testy responses here from Romney's Mormon supporters, this is just not understood by the faithful. Personally, I think the church would do well to learn from it.
Originally Posted By utahjosh <. It's essentially telling her (and her descendants stlll here) that her own Baptism wasn't good enough or wasn't sufficient. It's a giant middle finger, given with a smiling but clueless face. > Guess what. We tell the living and the dead that their Baptism isn't good enough. Jesus told the whole world their "baptisms" weren't good enough.
Originally Posted By utahjosh But I'm not going to discuss the beautiful and sacred doctrine of baptism in behalf of the dead here any longer. I said it originally as a joke. A simple joke. I didn't mean to stir that pot.
