Xyzzy,

Being an active, believing Mormon myself, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

I only briefly glanced at the website, but it appears like the usual "Mormons are scary/different, don't trust them" kind of website.

All of our members are lay clergy. We don't have a professional paid ministry. So right off the bat, his point about Romney being a clergyman (a word we don't even use) is kind of moot. Think of it. Romney spent years counseling and teaching his brothers and sisters, in his own free time, while building a company, with no repayment from the church. And when those years were done he was released from the calling, called to another position (like scout master, or Sunday school teacher), and another was called in his place.

The website's point about our doctrines being different than other churches is also kind of a no-brainer. (I would characterize some of his points as incorrect, but even if he was right I honestly don't see what that has to do with being President anyway.) If there is a specific question there, I'm happy to tell you what we believe.

@Zeta-Flux:

We thought it was an interesting link, in general.

Are any non-Mormons Christian?

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;312602]
Are any non-Mormons Christian?[/QUOTE]
...:huh:?

Rephrased: Does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints consider any other religion to be Christian?

(Is Mormon the right word? "Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" seems a bit long, but we do not want to offend anyone.)

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;312607]
(Is Mormon the right word? "Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" seems a bit long, but we do not want to offend anyone.)[/QUOTE]"LDS", "LDS elders", "LDS church" and "LDS members" were the most commonly-used terms I saw/heard in/on speech/TV/radio/newspaper when I visited my aunt in Utah in the mid-1970s.

In my experience, most Mormons use the dictionary definition of Christian: a person who believes in and follows Jesus Christ. So, yes, absolutely, we believe other people and other denominations are Christian. It is also one of the reasons we find it puzzling when others deny our Christianity. [The most common reason I've seen is because we are not "creedal" Christians.]

Now, if you asked the follow-up question "Do Mormons believe other churches are correct?" the answer is a bit more complicated. We believe that everyone has a certain measure of light and knowledge, but that our church has more truth to offer. That we are the only church on earth which holds the power of the priesthood, and the authority to baptize and perform other ordinances.

Most religions appear to engage in such "claims of uniqueness before existence has even been established" ploys. Welcome to the club. At least the Mormons have no history of mass slaughter of those who question their uniqueness claim.

[URL="http://www.cracked.com/article_16680_5-presidential-elections-even-dumber-than-this-one-somehow.html"]5 Presidential Elections Even Dumber Than This One (Somehow)[/URL] [referring to 2008, but still]


[QUOTE=ewmayer;312673]Most religions appear to engage in such "claims of uniqueness before existence has even been established" ploys. Welcome to the club. At least the Mormons have no history of mass slaughter of those who question their uniqueness claim.[/QUOTE]
Hey man, my E&M textbook proved uniqueness of solutions to Laplace's equation before existence. (Apparently the former is much simpler than the latter, and the former is indeed rather easy.)

[QUOTE]In my experience, most Mormons use the dictionary definition of Christian: a person who believes in and follows Jesus Christ. So, yes, absolutely, we believe other people and other denominations are Christian.[/QUOTE]Perhaps three more questions?
[LIST][*] Has "God" been a god forever or did he become a god?[*]If "God" became a god, is this path to godhood available to you?[*]If Mormons believe other Christians are kinda okay, is there a reciprocal agreement with, for example, the Catholic Church regarding baptisms?[/LIST]

[QUOTE=Dubslow;312361]I'm one person. Even if I had the money, they wouldn't care. If I'm a company, they might care.

PS [URL="http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/21/14015361-romney-paid-141-percent-effective-tax-rate-in-2011?lite"]Romney paid 14.1 percent effective tax rate in 2011[/URL][/QUOTE]

That is about the half the rate that I paid. And I think it grossly unfair that someone who earns 2-3 orders of magnitude more than I do pays less tax. And in any case, why should I have to hire an accountant to figure out ways to reduce my tax liability. Isn't the fact that I end up paying more tax because it doesn't make economic sense for me to hire an accountant unfair and regressive?

Also, your tax liability figures for different income quintiles are federal tax only. Add on state and sales tax and the picture changes quite a bit.

PS: Your comments about Warren Buffet are way off. First, he is a businessman - and a shrewd one at that - not a saint. Second, he thinks it is wrong that he pays less tax than his secretary.

It's too early in the history of the church to know exactly where other religions will fall in relation to the growing power of the LDS church. I have read that in the past the Catholic church was specifically singled out as the "Lady of ill-repute of Babylon the great." It doesn't have to be official church doctrine to be a common belief.

Growing up Southern Baptist, it was never official church doctrine, yet in every church I attended there would eventually be someone who claimed that Catholics weren't Christians or that only some Catholics were Christians--and a pretty universal claim that JW's and LDS were not Christians (and Methodists were just uppity because they could read.)

The early Christian sects probably got along the same way. We know that the Gnostics pretty much trolled among other Christians groups for "the chosen" to join them, and Marcion conducted word wars with the proto-orthodox (who believed all manner of things that later were not considered orthodox.) But, about the time that one sect of Christians (typically the little 'c' catholics) gained political power and numbers they turned on their sectarian brothers. And on the pagans. And on the Libraries. There is good evidence that the Nag Hammadi texts are the work of monks trying to hide the texts that had been outlawed by the New Orthodoxy.

A little long winded, but remember that the LDS church is still rather young right now there is a need to play nice with other religions--and we live in a more ecumenical time. That may change.

I would like to draw a contrast between the fact that basically every Mormon I've ever interacted with has been a pretty decent human being, and the fact that the Mormon Missionaries I've had interaction with seemed to have very little training or understanding of their own church's history and theology. This is perhaps [COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]adequately [/FONT][/COLOR]explained by the lay-clergy aspect, but in my opinion destroys any in-roads that the pleasant demeanor creates.

Additionally there is the Glenn Beck thing. Which brings us back around to the election. It is enough that Glenn Beck supports Romney to make me question any chance of voting for him.