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Texas LDS deal with confusion
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LDS outside Utah bear the brunt of the hostility. Only Utah can deal with the root problem.
The LDS Church has NOTHING to do with the FLDS Church. Members who practice polygamy or repeatedly teach people that polygamy is a modern practice (after being warned not to do so) are excommunicated. But the raid in Texas wasn't about adult polygamy. The Texas officials said the wiveS could return to their husbnds - the issue is child abuse.
The average marrying age in the LDS Church is around 23 years old and 60% of LDS members have some college experience.
The confusion about the two Churches is because of a biased media who want to purposely smear the Church to limit its influence and message.
If people want to argue that the FLDS and the LDS churches are the same, then by the same logic the "Christian" Church in Waco Texas that was raided in 1993 is the same as the First Baptist Church.
"SAN ANGELO, Texas (CNN) -- The Texas branch of the American Civil Liberties Union said it was concerned that the basic rights of the children and mothers connected to a Texas polygamist ranch were violated during a recent raid and custody hearing."
Or are you so blinded by your own biases that you will ignore it?
1. Roman Catholic -by far the largest
2. Spanish Catholic
3. Orthodox � severed their ties with Rome in the 11th Century
4. Byzantine Catholics
5. Polish National Catholics
6. Old Catholics
7. Eastern Orthodox
8. White Robed Benedictine Network of Catholics �
guided by its own Bishop, follows the Vatican Council II
9. Lutheranism � still considered part of Catholicism in some articles
10. Universal Catholics
We follow the same basic belief system, so are therefore still a part of each other.
Baptists have different "sects" Southern Baptist, 1st Baptist, Reformed Baptist, Seventh day Baptist, Missionary Baptist, Conservative Baptist.
Americans understand the differences and the sameness of Mormons and Fundamentalist Mormons.
People do understand the difference because they have major differences within their own religions.
The FLDS are more LDS than the LDS is.
Reference Utah Law: The law states that marriage at the age of 18 years and above does not require parental consent. For those aged 16-17, parental consent is necessary. For those 15 years old, the following requirements must be met: Parental consent must be obtained. Approval from Juvenile Court is necessary. The court must conclude that the marriage is voluntary and in the best interests of the minor.
This is consistent with the laws of most other states.
Also, the above laws apply to couples, where both are underage, NOT marriage with a minor and the exceptions are principally designed for young unmarried couples who have children.
Yes they can if they receive strong evidence that repeated abuse or other illegal activities are occurring (i.e., if you are abusing your children). The FLDS children were taken away for many of the same reasons any other children are taken away from parents.
When something becomes twisted and perverted, it is no longer equal to the original...even IF it once had been or still has similar componants.
Once last try for those of you who are too blinded by your bigotry and hatred to think reasonably:
If I decided I liked a lot of what the Lutheran Church taught but didn't like a few of the key, fundamental parts, so I took their books and much of their doctrine and formed my own "Fundmental Lutheran Church"...would the Lutheran Church have to acknowlege MY breakoff as one of their own? Would they be responsible in anyway for the way I might twist and pervert their doctrines? Even if it looked similar from the outside?
I know, I know "but this is different" you say. (sigh)
The FLDS moved to Texas, partly because the age of consent in Texas was 14. The locals in Eldorado were worried about the FLDS taking over the county, so State Rep. Harvey Hilderbran sponsored a bill in 2005 that raised the legal age of consent to marry in Texas from 14 to 16. This was specifically targeted against the FLDS. Where is the ACLU, or do they only take on liberal causes?
I agree that everyone should be concerned for these children. Also, that the state could just walk in and take kids based on now supposedly false allegations of abuse.
It is neither right nor reasonable that any LDS member should feel responsible for what has happened, or what may yet happen in this situation. Any helping hand or support the LDS church gives is not a debt we owe. We have no guilt to assuage.
My desire for them is that they may enjoy their Constitutional religious liberties within the confines of the law. If there are crimes committed, they will have to face them themselves. If they decide to marry underage girls in spite of the law, they will have to continue to do it in civil disobedience. They are big kids. They can own their own consequences.
If this is true, then any Satan Worshiper who refers to and/or teaches from the Bible is Christian.
NOT SO. Your logic is completely flawed.
Then the missionaries will get a fair chance to spread the Gospel to all who are able to hear it.
FLDS DO NOT. They have there own leadership, separate, and distinct from LDS, and they do not recognize LDS leadership. It is a completely different organization.
Unlike the different Catholic sects that all see the Pope as their Church's authority.
The essential characteristic of the restored Gospel is Priesthood Authority.
FLDS have rejected that totally.
They pay lip service to external trappings associated with the True Church; temples, prophets,Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon. However that does not somehow make them "cousins" of LDS, it is instead a mockery and perversion. Worse, they practice polygamy; which, if done outside God's explicit instruction is abominal whoremongering.
Inevitably the world will confuse the FLDS with the True Church. If one had set out to intentionally confuse people and discredit the Church you could not have designed a circumstance any better for that purpose than events as they are unfolding.
The kind of horrific abuse FLDS inflicts on it's children is an inevitable (and forseeable) outcome.
Unlimited sympathy and support are due the victims of FLDS.
However any sympathy or empathy for the institution from LDS members is tragicly misguided and impossible to comprehend.
There are more differences, but that's the starting point.
An anonymous phone call from a single psychotic 33 year-old woman in Colorado claiming to be a sexually abused teenager in Eldorado, Texas is "strong evidence"???
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It is a profound confusion manifest in such absolutely untrue statements as, �While the FLDS Church is not connected in any way to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints��
The LDS Church IS ABSOLUTELY CONNECTED with the FLDS Church in very important ways.
First is the connection LDS should feel for their fellowman. FLDS members are fellow human beings and should be treated with dignity and respect, not dehumanized, demonized, and marginalized, as the LDS are trying to do in their efforts to distance themselves from the FLDS.
FLDS members are religious believers in God, just like the LDS. They are believers in the sanctity of marriage and family, just like the LDS. They are believers in eternal marriage (the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage), just like the LDS. They are believers in the modern revelations of the Restoration (Book-of-Mormon, D&C, etc.), brought about by Joseph Smith, just like the LDS.
The FLDS are closer brothers/sisters to the LDS than any other religion. Shame on the LDS for forgetting that by abandoning and condemning them in time of need.