Mormons...?

Question

Tell me all of the crazy myths, stories, etc. you have heard about Mormons.

Answer 1

im a mormon, so im just gonna put a basic history of our church and our beleifs. go to www.lds.org if you have any more questions.


Introduction to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

When Jesus Christ lived on the earth, He organized His Church so that all people could receive His gospel and return one day to live with God, our Heavenly Father. After Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, His Apostles continued to receive revelation from Him on how to direct the work of His Church. However, after they were killed, members changed the teachings of the Church that He had established. While many good people and some truth remained, this Apostasy, or general falling away from the truth, brought about the withdrawal of the Church from the earth. The Apostle Peter prophesied that Jesus would restore His Church before His Second Coming (Acts 3:19–21).
Jesus Christ began to restore His Church in its fulness to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1820. It has grown to become a worldwide Church with over 12 million members. It has the same teachings and basic organization as the Church established by Jesus in New Testament times.


In the spring of 1820, a 14-year-old boy named Joseph Smith went into a grove of trees near his home in Palmyra, New York, and prayed to learn which church he should join. In answer to his prayer, God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to him, just as heavenly beings had appeared to prophets like Moses and Paul in biblical times. Joseph learned that the Church originally organized by Jesus Christ was no longer on the earth.
Joseph Smith was chosen by God to restore the Church of Jesus Christ to the earth. During the next 10 years, Joseph was visited by other heavenly messengers, translated the Book of Mormon, and received authority to organize the Church. The Church was organized in Fayette, New York, on 6 April 1830, under the leadership of Joseph Smith. It has grown to an organization with members and congregations throughout the world.

and for one last thing, i give you our beliefs.

1 We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
2 We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.
3 We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
4 We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by eimmersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
5 We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
6 We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.
7 We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.
8 We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
9 We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet breveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
10 We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
11 We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
12 We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
13 We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Answer 2

I live in Salt Lake City and I am not a Mormon, but almost all of my friends and family are. One summer I worked up in Alaska for a cruise line, and when a guest would find out I was from Salt Lake City, Utah I would get asked the weirdest things. The first question I was asked was If I was a mormon. The second question was if I am a polygamist. I think the weirdest thing I was asked was if I has horns and a tail. For some reason these people heard that mormons have horns and a tail.

Now from me living in Utah, and knowing alot of mormons, and hearing stories from other people, we all notice that Salt Lake City has a little bubble around it. The Mormons definitly have a infulence on the life here. They have bought a whole block here in the middle of downtown and set rules, like you can't spit and you can't swear, when you are on this block. I don't really care but I know alot of people think it's wrong. I've also notices that some, not all, but some of the mormons hold that attitude "of more holy then thou" but I have also had times when the mormon families in my neighborhood have been the sweetest people on the earth!!

Answer 3

Umm, I have heard that Joseph Smith, the mormon founder, married very young girls and women that were already married to other men.

Also that their Book of Abraham scripture is not actually a translation of an Egyptian scroll as they said for over 100 years.

And that their long time claim that Native Americans were primarily descended from Israel isn't supported by DNA studies at all.

Crazy myths right?

Answer 4

This is not a myth about the LDS church. I heard that mormons believe that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are all three seperate dieties yet one in purpose and holyness. If so, tell me why does the Bible reffer to the Holy Spirit also as the Spirit of Christ. If Jesus is not God the father in the flesh then why is he called Emanuel? Why does the prophecy in Isaiah 9:6 say "6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, [a] Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Why would Jesus be given all three titles if they didn't directly apply to him?
The Bible also says in John 1 "1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. "
It says the Word was God. Jesus is the word of God.
And if the Bible isn't entirely accurate and untrustworthy and has been changed a little through the years then Christ is a liar because he said in Matt 5:18 "I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says "16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
2 Peter 1:20 also says, "20Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
I also heard that the book of Mormon is considered to be more accurate and credible than the Bible. One or the other must be more credible because they contradict eachother.

Answer 5

I had heard a lot of weird things about Mormons, especially since I grew up in Missouri around the area where the Mormons had settled before they were run out of the state because of the "Mormon Expulsion and Extermination Law" that was enacted back in the 1800's. The biggest myth is that all Mormons are polygamists, that they dig up the dead and baptize them and also marry their dead family members. This isn't true. The Mormon as Expulsion & Extermination Law was repealed in 1976. Those that chose to continue to practice polygamy have been excommunicated since this practice is against the law.

As far as the dead members of the family, NO we don't dig up dead bodies. But we do baptizisms and marriages for our deceased family members, vicariously or by proxy if you want to say that. We go into the temple, take upon the name of our ancestors and do this family work for them. It is a practice that is spoken of in the Bible. "If the dead rise not at all, then why are they therefore baptized?" and, "The hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers and fathers to their children."

Answer 6

Thanks loopylung, you pretty much summerized what I was going to say. I don't understand why people are so worried about what Mormons do, if we were to examine other religions and their practices we would be able to find things that make them different. Take for instance of a principle that was created in 1830 by a 14 yr old girl, not a layman or even a preacher but a 14 yr old girl she didn't even claim to be called of God. It's called the Rapture.

Answer 7

There is actually a movie out there somewhere that tells the story about the man who supposedly heard God's voice at the age of fourteen and in later years found some golden tablets with an Arabic language written on them~ This man and another copied down the writing onto parchment paper and it was sent to Yale I think, and translated into the Mormons version of the bible. The strange thing is that no one ever saw the tablets and no one knows what ever happened to them.

Answer 8

These aren't "crazy myths" or stories, these are some direct quotes from the Book of Mormon about "Lamanites" (What Mormons call the Native Americans that were here before Europeans came to what is now the US)

Maybe this explains the scarcity of black Mormons?


2 Nephi 5:21 "And he [God] had caused the cursing to come upon them [the Lamanites] ... wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them."

3 Nephi 2:14-15 "It came to pass that those Lamanites who had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites; And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites; And their young men and their daughters became exceedingly fair."

2 Nephi 30:6 "And then shall they rejoice; for they shall know that it is a blessing unto them from the hand of God; and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a pure and delightsome people."

Enos 1:20 "The Lamanites ... were led by their evil nature that they became wild, and ferocious, and a bloodthirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins and their heads shaven.... And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us."

Mosiah 10:11-12 "The Lamanites ... were a wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people."

Mosiah 25:11 "The Lamanites ... were ... sinful and polluted."

Answer 9

They believe that G-d has bones many wives in heaven who are having babies right now and that we are the product of these spirit children up in heaven. We are the shells they need to make it back to heaven. Meaning they have to earn their way back to heaven by being good Mormons. Every Mormon male thinks he well become g-d of his own world that is reward for being a good Mormon here on earth. Also every woman in the Mormon Church needs a man to become her own goddess of her own world which she will reign with her husband making spirit children.

Answer 10

I think that there are a lot of funny and not so funny rumors about Mormons...it's too bad that people don't ask a Mormon to clarify, and if that doesn't make sense, ask one of their missionaries...after all isn't that what they are supposed to do?
I think people should ask a representative of any church to find out their beliefs.

Answer 11

Well, I don't know the truth of this, but I have heard that they Baptize the dead into their church. That was not the wacky part; I have heard that women are not allowed into Mormon Heaven unless they are asked there by their husband. SO, I have heard that Mormon widows who were married to men who are NOT Mormons, and refused to become Mormons, baptized their husbands after they die so that they, the widows, can go to Mormon Heaven. I am not sure why they would do this. If I was in whatever afterlife, and I was wrenched against my will into Mormon Heaven, I would certainly not ask the person who dragged me there against my will to join me!

This is a pretty wacky story; again, I have no idea if its true (I would doubt it).