Joseph Smith lived in upstate New York. The area was constantly entertained (or terrified) by the traveling carnivals they called ministers and religious people who came through, threatened hell to non-believers, and solicited money to keep them going. This was also the beginning of a period of heightened intensity over the issue of slavery in the U.S. For example, slavery was legally abolished in the state of New York in 1827, right around the same time that Smith started having his visions and receiving messages from God.
The Missouri Compromise was 1820, an agreement that the underground railroad slaves who escaped to non-slave territories would be returned to their slave "owners." No rights for slaves anywhere in the U.S., no escape, no hope.
Mormonism was from the outset a business. Among the first institutions set up by early mormons was a religious bank which folded when the leaders stole all the money. Right after that, when so many people left the church, the leaders set up the requirement that all members must tithe 10% of their gross income to the church. Apparently God forgot to mention that to Smith in his earlier communications.
As the Mormons moved from New York to Ohio to Missouri, to Illinois, they frequently ran into conflict with the non-mormon locals. The mormons were always run as a cult, with members obligated to obey without question the orders given by the leaders. So on too many occasions, the leaders would order people to move to some small city; so many of them would move there that it created conflict with the locals; the mormons would try to take over the government; the locals would run them out. This happened repeatedly. Although the mormons lament the history of persecution against them, they never acknowledge the fact that they have persecuted various groups, including black people, from the outset, that they have regularly organized to try to take over a community and turn it into a theocracy.
Is that what this Prop 8 was? Preparation for Romney in 2012? A couple of the mormons I spoke with who were out demonstrating for Prop 8 said exactly that: Romney in 2012. So this Prop 8 may be just the beginning of getting every mormon out all the time picketing, demonstrating, doing whatever to take over local institutions, get involved in politics, and try to get Romney elected in 2012. What do they think he would do if he was elected? Order everyone to tithe to Utah?
Every black person who voted for Prop 8: don’t bother filling out the membership application for the church, because you are already morons. To think that any black person would align themselves with a religion that was the spiritual wing of the klan, using racism and anti-black sentiment to recruit members and raise money for themselves while black people in this country were forced to live in chains. No black person should ever align themselves with the mormon church. On any issue. If you don’t like gay marriage, then don’t marry a gay person. But don’t work with mormons to deny other groups their basic civil rights, in this case the constitutional right to have the laws of the land applied equally to them.
After the death of Joseph Smith Jr., the next guy in line, Brigham Young, preached that "Negroes" were black due to the mark of Cain, and were cursed. The black skin was evidence that God had placed a curse on all black people. No black person could ever become a priest in the mormon religion. No black person could participate in the Endowment and celestial marriage, but were allowed to enter the church’s temples to perform baptism for the dead. You know that University in Utah? This is the guy they named it after. He is considered their prophet.
In 1978, the mormons began moving into Africa to recruit new customers – or members as they like to call them in public. In order to do that, in order to get the African people to give the mormons money, the mormons had to change their official doctrine about black people being cursed by God. So the mormon top guys suddenly said that when God first talked to Joseph Smith, first communicated with Smith through some magic tablets – there was a typo. Something just got mis-translated. Oops. God didn’t say blacks were cursed. He said something else, like maybe "caves" are black, or black pearls are cool (not cursed) or something else, but Smith just misunderstood.
Mormonism is all about money. It is a business. The head of all local mormon groups are always local businessmen, almost always including a CPA to help the church and its members avoid paying any taxes to help support this country (just like most Republicans). They want people to give all the money to their church, and pay nothing to help support their own communities.
One new recruit is worth $200,000 at a minimum. Let’s say a mormon girl marries a 20-year-old non-mormon boy (who converts). He will earn $50,000/year, title 10% or $5,000/year, $50,000 in 10 years, $200,000 by the time he is 60, $250,000 if he lives to 70. But wait: let’s say the recruit has 6 kids. Each of them will also pay at least $200,000 to the church. That means that one new recruit is actually responsible for bringing $1.4 million into the church. No wonder they’re such energetic salespeople. And the church doesn’t even have to pay a commission.
The mormon church is like a franchise. The place in Utah is the center, the franchisor. The people around the country enter into a contract to have their own franchise. Those people are called franchisees. They have to agree to follow certain rules (don’t let any dirty non-mormons inside their churches), they have policies for collection of money from the customers/members, and the franchisees must send a certain percentage to the franchisor of everything they take in. It’s really just like a hamburger chain, but with that prayer thing attached.
And how do they get new members? Mostly by selling bigotry. First against blacks. Always against women who are officially considered inferior and of no consequence except as servants and slaves. And now the mormons have decided they will use gays as their fund-raising and recruitment scapegoats. Somebody should put them out of business.
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
In 2005, the Intelligence Report published the following statements made by Warren Jeffs, President of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints:
"The black race is the people through which the devil has always been able to bring evil unto the earth."
"[Cain was] cursed with a black skin and he is the father of the Negro people. He has great power, can appear and disappear. He is used by the devil, as a mortal man, to do great evils."
"Today you can see a black man with a white woman, et cetera. A great evil has happened on this land because the devil knows that if all the people have Negro blood, there will be nobody worthy to have the priesthood."
"If you marry a person who has connections with a Negro, you would become cursed." (Wikipedia)
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Our country gives everyone freedom of religion. Unfortunately, there are some right-wing religions that want to destroy democracy, take away from us the same rights we have given them, and turn our country into a theocracy where the country is run based upon somebody's ideological or religious beliefs rather than upon principles of fairness, justice, and common sense. You know, like the Ayatollah Koumeini, the Crusades. The Reign of Terror of George W. Bush. And we know how well those turned out.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
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