Please explain Morman beliefs to me. (Mormons, church, prophet, quote)

[Georgianbelle]

This is a religion that I don't understand. According to history Joseph Smith was a charlatan, who cheated on his wife. I don't claim to know ANYTHING about this religion, but I would like to. A first cousin of mine recently became a Morman. He was in college in the Southeast, and some missionaries with the church recruited him. Now, he is marrying a girl in the church and none of us can go to the wedding. We aren't allowed in the temple because we are not Mormons. I don't really care, but my aunt and uncle do. They are Christians, but not Mormans and I guess not considered worthy to step foot in the temple. I wish someone would explain this to me.

[MEDALLOKUYA]

Basically,

Fairytale from a false prophet.

Got to hand it to him, quite a feat to to get that many follows with without a shred of proof and a far out story in the modern world.

[mordant]

There is a Mormon (note the spelling, not Morman) here, Katzpur, who would doubtless be happy to explain. In fact if you search this forum for "Mormon" you'll probably find a sort of question-and-answer thread on Mormonism which is both recent and active. That would be a good starting-place.

I believe that this very issue of temple weddings being limited to True Believers was specifically addressed. If I recall correctly, most Mormons have civil ceremonies open to all and some have temple ceremonies which are limited to the Faithful. Their particular magical belief is that this temple ceremony seals a family to be together for eternity. I can't help but admire the value they place on devotion and loyalty and stability of love relationships and family life; alas, I don't think these ceremonies help in any way other than helping to drive home the seriousness and solemnity of making these kinds of commitments, and helping people to do them in a more mindful fashion. But there's no magic fairy dust that makes people get along or keep promises or give priority to what's important. There is just social pressure and taboo, which I know from personal experience can end up at times being counterproductive. Because in any human relationship it "takes two to tango" as they say and if one of them isn't doing their job it is beyond a certain point just pointless bondage for the other party to keep ramming their head into brick walls.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by Georgianbelle

This is a religion that I don't understand. According to history Joseph Smith was a charlatan, who cheated on his wife. I don't claim to know ANYTHING about this religion, but I would like to. A first cousin of mine recently became a Morman. He was in college in the Southeast, and some missionaries with the church recruited him. Now, he is marrying a girl in the church and none of us can go to the wedding. We aren't allowed in the temple because we are not Mormons. I don't really care, but my aunt and uncle do. They are Christians, but not Mormans and I guess not considered worthy to step foot in the temple. I wish someone would explain this to me.

I'm not sure you really do want to understand. You have a preconceptions that are inaccurate and some clearly negative biases against Mormonism already. I'm always happy to answer sincere inquiries about Mormonism, but yours clearly isn't one.

[mensaguy]

Go to the Christianity forum and read this thread:

From a Mormon: What unique beliefs does the LDS Church have

If that doesn't answer your questions, do a search for some other threads that cover the topic. If you still have questions, you can ask someone via direct message, or send me a note and I'll move this thread to the Christianity forum and reopen it.