(no subject)

[silversolitaire]

I don't get the Mormons and it annoys the hell out of me. I'm interested in religion, in sprituality and I want to understand other beliefs, but the Mormons defeat me. No matter how much I read about them I feel like I don't understand a thing. This is very frustrating...

Comments

[lorienwillow.livejournal.com]

Oh and another question! What's with the Sun Temple Stone thing? Is it part of a normal worship? What does it do?

It has nothing to do with worship. It's just a decoration found of one or two very old temples. The idea for the design isn't exactly known, but is probably based on a scripture in 1 Corinthians 15:40-42 that says "There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory" Some LDS people probably like it because to them it's representative of heaven. Or maybe just because it's pretty.

And do you know any places where I can see nice paintings of the history of the church? I know I've seen very pretty paintings of Joseph Smith before and when he translated the book etc. I'd like to see them again but I can't find them! I like to look at paintings, mosaics, statues etc. of spiritual situations.

I haven't done a lot of searching on this, so there's probably better galleries out there. But this one (http://www.rggallery.com/lllist.php) seems to have a lot of really nice art, especially pics by Liz Lemon Swindle, who does some wonderful paintings about Joseph Smith. The side menu has a lot of spiritual subjects to choose from and you can discover more artists there.

Oh... and what do you think of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith?

I think it was a tragedy, a senseless death caused by irrational hatred. I also think that the plan of those opposed to the church backfired. Instead of crushing the growing LDS church, the martyrdom strengthened the testimony and resolve of many in the church. Not even an extermination order could stop people from believing in the teachings of the church, and it has continued to grow ever since.

[silversolitaire.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the paintings! They are really beautiful! I still can't find that site again that had all these great illustrations of the First Vision and the translating etc. *annoyed* One day I will find it again! *swings fist*

Okay, now I'm going to ask a couple of controversial questions. Please don't take offense. I respect your belief and I'm not making fun of you. I just want to show you how these things appear to me and I want to know how you view them.

About Joseph Smith. Do you really view him as Prophet? How do you consider the things he did? Shouldn't a Prophet act accordingly? (I realize I'm judging a bit, I'm sorry). Example: It seems very fishy to me that he for the books and he spread them and then years later he adds "Oh wait, there was also this thing about plural marriage. Didn't remember to add it then, but it counts!" I understand that even members of his own church didn't support the idea of plural marriage (including his wife!) and even established rules against it. What it sounds like to me is that it suddenly came to his mind that he wanted to have more than one woman, but the rules said he'd have to be faithful and not have extramarital sex, so of course he had to marry them all. He had 34 wives, most of which he only spent the wedding night with! 11 of them already were married!

One of the situations that annoyed me the most was Zina Huntington, his 5th wife. He wanted to marry her and she didn't want to because she was already courted by Jacobs. Then she marries Jacobs and months into her marriage, Smith writes to her by proxy of her brother: "Tell Zina, I put it off and put it off till an angel with a drawn sword stood by me and told me if I did not establish that principle upon the earth I would lose my position and my life" I mean, please! Doesn't this sound really odd?

So, what do you think of this? How can it be excused or explained? I'm just asking to see what his standing is. I realize that even when a prophet isn't 100% perfect still a lot of good can come from his teaching, so even if he wasn't that noble in that sense it doesn't change what arose from it, but I just want to know how he is considered nowadays.

Eep, now I was distracted and forgot the rest. Oh well, gonna post this now and add more when I remember! ^^;