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| Ted Cruz and Glenn Beck in Iowa (Cruz is the one in blue) |
Yes, it's come down to the islamophobe* casino mogul vs. the Joe McCarthy lookalike with the whacky Christian fundie links. Don't blame me, man, I'm originally from Massachusetts.
So yesterday we reported that The Mahound had been instantly deleted from the largest Google+ conservative group for not being anti-Trump enough and for making a joke about the Mormon angel Moroni.
Well, the plot has now thickened.
Ted Cruz, now the great white hope of the Republican anti-Trumpsters (unless and until there is a brokered convention) has apparently gone full-Mormon. After being backhandedly "endorsed" by Mitt Romney, Cruz was introduced by Glenn Beck at a Utah campaign rally as being, along with Mormon junior senator Mike Lee, a fulfillment of Mormon prophecy. Beck also drew attention to a young Mormon kid who had been fasting every Tuesday for a Cruz electoral win: "This is the new priesthood rising!"
In other news, establishment conservative and lapsed Catholic Dinesh D'Souza announced that he is getting married again. D'Souza resigned from the Presidency of King's College a few years ago after appearing at a Christian conference with a young twenty-something blonde who he claimed was his new fiancé, though it was quickly pointed out that he was still married to his first wife, Dixie at the time. The new new fiancé is a Venezuelan brunette (no word on what happened to the blonde).
Ted Cruz's father--ultra-"family values" minister Rafael Cruz--will officiate at the wedding.
The crisis continues.
*Not that there's anything wrong with it.
Geez Louise, do we know any of these people?? I can't keep score anymore, it keeps changing! I think everybody has gone out of their minds. Seriously, I don't know who stands for what anymore.
ReplyDeleteI think that describes it perfectly.
DeleteMormons accept lots of extra-biblical literature as holy scripture. They believe the Constitution of the U. S. is a divinely inspired document. They also excel in dredging up the most implausible of human events as fulfillments of their purported prophecies scattered hither and yon throughout their forebears' ponderous tomes.
ReplyDeleteFrom experience, I have found that lapsed Catholics, like Beck and D'Souza (and, probably, some Cruz back in the day), can end up believing in some pretty squirrely things, and doing them, as well.
One thing I've never understood about Mormons is whether the "normal" seeming ones like Mitt Romney or Orin Hatch really believe in all the goofy stuff? (And that's not a snark against Mormonism per se. Catholics believe in some pretty goofy--to others--stuff too.) I've never received an adequate answer to that question. And in this quasi-secular post-Christian environment where it is the PRIVACY of religion that seems to be most sacred, I'm not sure I'll get an answer.
ReplyDeleteYes. They do. I'm a Catholic convert but was raised LDS. The batshit crazy runs deep.
ReplyDeleteDid it all seem "normal" to you at the time? And then why do they seem to so milk drinking, suit wearing, boringly normal to others? What explains that apparent disparity?
DeleteToo bad about D'Souza. I hoped when he left King's College, it was because he had returned to the Church.
ReplyDeleteYeah. It doesn't look like that will be happening for the moment...
DeleteTell me, what, in Catholicism, approximates the strangeness of the following Mormon beliefs?:
ReplyDelete--every worthy male will become god of his own universe.
--God the Father has celestial copulation with mother God. They create us as spirits. Our earthly parents copulate and conceive to release us from the spirit world. Mormons are encouraged to have large families to release spirits from the spirit world.
-God the Father lives on the planet Kolob.
--all worthy Mormons wear garments, thin white knee length underwear. Woman wear the garment beneath their bra. The garment, except for bathing, should always be touching a part of your body (ie: dangle it from your toe during sex). The garment is embroidered with symbols (which are really no more than Masonic symbols, popular in the mid nineteenth century). Mormons give them other meaning.
--baptism of the dead. That's why Mormons are so into genealogy. They've baptised many a dead Catholic into their church. Even saints and probably all the popes.
The temple ceremonies for marriage are disturbing, and I won't go into here.
Frankly, I'm taken aback that you would compare Catholic beliefs to Mormon ones in degree of strangeness. Catholics are transparent and everything we believe has been proclaimed unabashedly and depicted in art through the ages. Mormon belief can only come from the Father of Lies. Much of it is secret--such as what takes place during a temple marriage.
Mormons are not Trinitarian. Their baptisms are not recognised by Catholics. They do not believe Jesus is God. They think of him more as our brother. They may believe he is now God of his own planet, I'm not sure. They give him a place of honor but they think of him a lot differently. Most Mormons do not know the Lord's Prayer. Children are not taught it.
ReplyDeleteMormons do embrace artificial birth control and abortion is "between a woman and her doctor". There is no proscription against either. Many Mormons in good standing consume soda in vast quantities, often with caffeine. Your belief that they are big milk drinkers makes me think they have you buffaloed to a significant degree.
ReplyDeleteFor the definitive biography of Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, husband to 28 wives, see "No Man Knows My History" by Fawn Brody, the great biographer
ReplyDeleteWhy did DeSiuza remarry outside the Church?He could have gotten one of those quicky drive by annulments from Frankenpope.
ReplyDeleteBiographer of Joseph Smith above should be Fawn Brodie.
ReplyDeleteThe God of my religion doesn't live on Kolub. But above the altar in my temple there is a little niche that usually contains a bowl of His flesh. Or at least it does when the red light is on. Every week a priest gives me some of His flesh to eat. This is after the priest has drunk some of His blood, though I am not allowed to drink it, not begin a priest. As I consume the literal flesh of God, I contemplate the fact that God is also a Jewish man. Often before I eat the flesh of God I go to a booth in the corner of the temple, but only when there is a green light over the booth. There I have a whispered conversation on my knees with an old man behind a screen. Occasionally it'a about my sex life.
ReplyDeleteLook. My point was not to be irreverent but to describe how strange the Catholic faith might look to some non-Catholics. I'm a Catholic, but even I think some of it is strange. Indeed, that's one of the reasons that I like it, if I can put it that way.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of what you say about Mormonism. I say "most" because some of it I didn't really know--like the soda thing. But I don't really have a problem with the strange parts because they are strange per se. Rather, as a Catholic, I have a problem with them because they are bizarrely unChristian, even though Mormonism claims to be Christian. And as a skeptical human being I have a problem with them because they were originated by a 19th century hoaxer.
Thank you for the Brodie link. I think I have the book in storage. I will try to find it again.
Yes eating the body and blood of Jesus turned even His contemporaries away. They didn't accept Him as Truth. Believers, recognising Truth, proclaim it to be a sacred mystery. We don't hold back. We harken back to the Last Supper and Jesus' own words. Mormons are disingenuous and hide stuff and have secrets only the elect are privy to. Very rarely will they speak of Kolob, mother god, etc. They stress all the mainstream, palatable stuff. As far as confession, privately, to another human--I think psychology has proven how therapeutic that is, let alone our belief in the added graces attained. If the expression of the Catholic Faith is based on truth, how can it be repugnant? Mormon expression of belief in falsehoods remains objectively repugnant. I know you were trying to be big hearted toward Mormons but I don't think you should reduce Catholicism to be as weird as Mormonism.
ReplyDeleteUnderstood. I wonder whether the "liberalism" that has flamed through Catholicism in the last 50+ years has also affected Mormonism. Are there Mormons who (just like liberal or Modernist Catholics) "go through the motions" without really believing much of it, or who stash their "magic underwear" in the closet when no one else is looking? But you're right that there does seem a secrecy to it all so it makes it tough to know.
ReplyDeleteOh sure there are are lib Mormons. When sodo marriage was on the ballot here in Wash state I saw a few bumper stickers that read Mormons for Marriage Equality.
ReplyDeleteSeattle Kim
You mean, all the wives get equal time? (Sorry, I had to say that.)
DeleteSomething is wrong with this country!
ReplyDeleteI tried to copy and paste an article from the Daily Universe, BYU's student newspaper documenting the bragging rights of many Mormons that they are addicted to soda, and must start their day off with a caffeinated drink. If interested, Google "soda consumption by state". It should be there. August 2015. Thanks, Mr. M. I know you are a great seeker of truth, no matter how inconvenient it may be.
ReplyDeleteThanks for saying that. I really appreciate it.
DeleteSo D'Souza has abandoned his Faith and has gone Evangelical. Lovely. As for the Mormon stuff I think Ted is an example of a child who has been pushed and worshiped his whole life by a parent means to make him his fulfillment/weapon.
ReplyDeleteI did 25 years in the Navy; served aboard five ballistic missile submarines. More than once I did a stint as laundry "queen" a volunteer who does the entire crew's laundry for a week. I remember those "garments." There are in fact embroidered symbols just above the knees. What really struck me though, was the label. It had a drawing on it not unlike Disney's Magic Kingdom castle. Hence, I dubbed the garments "magic skivvies."
ReplyDelete