PatrickG
09-25-2005, 02:28 AM
I had breakfast with some Mormon (aka Latter Day Saints) Elders (missionaires basically if memory serves) a week ago and they were talking about their need for secrecy.
"Do not cast your pearls before swine, (http://www.bartleby.com/59/3/donotcastyou.html) ", one said in reference to the need for their temples to be kept free of outsiders.
It was an interesting breakfast as there were two ex-Mormons at the table as well.
In any case, one of the Mormons shocked me with several things he said (aside from basically calling his dinner companions swine).
He responded to one friend's comments about DNA testing that showed that Native Americans cannot be members of the Lost Tribes of Israel with something like this, "The evidence may be there but I know what I believe and my belief stands, regardless of facts or evidence."
Then, he proceeded to tell a story about how Mormons were in hot water in Mexico because the government had laws requiring all buildings to be inspected and how they could not allow their temple to be inspected. "God provided a way", he explained.
And what was this way? A prominent Mormon founded a college in Mexico. Alumni from that college took major positions in the government and changed Federal laws to match Mormon doctrine about the secrecy of their temples.
That doesn't sound like God to me. That sounds like taking it into your own hands.
On a similar note, isn't it convenient that Mary Bono is the architect of the current copyright law which puts a 20 year freeze on public domain? Mary Bono is a Scientologist and Scientology uses copyright laws to shut down critics. There have been INVESTIGATIONS INTO DEATHS OF SCIENTOLOGY MEMBERS that have been stymied by lack of information on church policy.
I think any religion, in order to receive constitutional protection, should operate under full public disclosure of its beliefs, ceremonies, practices and policies.
It's one thing if one hand doesn't know what the other is doing but I think it's intolerable for one hand not to know what the other one is FOR.
"Do not cast your pearls before swine, (http://www.bartleby.com/59/3/donotcastyou.html) ", one said in reference to the need for their temples to be kept free of outsiders.
It was an interesting breakfast as there were two ex-Mormons at the table as well.
In any case, one of the Mormons shocked me with several things he said (aside from basically calling his dinner companions swine).
He responded to one friend's comments about DNA testing that showed that Native Americans cannot be members of the Lost Tribes of Israel with something like this, "The evidence may be there but I know what I believe and my belief stands, regardless of facts or evidence."
Then, he proceeded to tell a story about how Mormons were in hot water in Mexico because the government had laws requiring all buildings to be inspected and how they could not allow their temple to be inspected. "God provided a way", he explained.
And what was this way? A prominent Mormon founded a college in Mexico. Alumni from that college took major positions in the government and changed Federal laws to match Mormon doctrine about the secrecy of their temples.
That doesn't sound like God to me. That sounds like taking it into your own hands.
On a similar note, isn't it convenient that Mary Bono is the architect of the current copyright law which puts a 20 year freeze on public domain? Mary Bono is a Scientologist and Scientology uses copyright laws to shut down critics. There have been INVESTIGATIONS INTO DEATHS OF SCIENTOLOGY MEMBERS that have been stymied by lack of information on church policy.
I think any religion, in order to receive constitutional protection, should operate under full public disclosure of its beliefs, ceremonies, practices and policies.
It's one thing if one hand doesn't know what the other is doing but I think it's intolerable for one hand not to know what the other one is FOR.