A little something about Mormons...

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is, of course, ... running for President!

Hurrrahhhh!!! No wait, should we be celebrating? Who here really knows what a Mormon is? Since he's not Jewish, it'll probably be ok to talk about his religeous faith, since people tend to think that Mormons are just kind of weird.

Here are a couple of links to sites about Mormonism... but hey, they all sound kind of biased since they talk about real practices of the Mormon religion, so they must be hogwash. Right?

Real Mormon History
Mormon Cult
History of Mormons

Here, we shall attempt to give you a breakdown on Mormonism. You can do your own research, contrast and compare and then decide if you think Mormons are justifiably ... weird or not. And then you can either go and love Romney or run from him.

Mormons, a.k.a. The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints, or LDS. The Mormons are stron adherents to the concept that they are a "restoration" of the earliest Christian and pre-Christian doctrines, basically the Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox "cults" got the whole Jesus Christ thing wrong and Mormons got it right. But let's start In The Beginning, shall we?

Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805 – 1844) was the American founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, also known as Mormonism. His mission was to restore the original Christian church, said to have been lost. Smith was also a political and military leader in the American Midwest. No kidding.

At 14, Smith experienced a "vision." The story goes that young squire Smith was concerned about what religion to follow so he went to a grove of trees to pray. As he prayed, Smith saw God and Jesus Christ. God, and Jesus, both told young Smith that all of the other churches were fake and he should join none of them.

In 1826, at 21, Smith was convicted for being a "disorderly person" and an "impostor" in Bainbridge, New York. In court documents Smith was described as a 'Glass Looker' for using his peep stone (.. that's right.. Peep Stones) to locate buried treasure in exchange for fees. Smith used his burried treasure skills with his 'glass looking' to the extent of discovering the buried golden tablets.

Smith said that, in 1823, he had a resurrected visitor who was a prophet named Moroni. The dead, resurrected prophet named Moroni led Smith to finding a long-buried book... inscribed on metal leaves... which contained a record of God's dealings with the ancient Israelite inhabitants of the Americas.... no really, this is what he said. The record, and artifacts included a sword, a compass-like device, a breastplate and what Smith referred to as the Urim and Thummim.

These all happened to be buried in a hill in his back yard. Smith states that in 1827 that the angel allowed him to take the plates and artifacts. Almost immediately thereafter Smith began having difficulties with his treasure-hunting colleagues who were trying to discover where the plates were hidden on the Smith farm. They were never found by those people.

So far we have the following:

• A vision from God the creator of the universe and his only son Jesus Christ,
• A statement from God that all other religions are fake and not to be trusted,
• A conviction for fraud in NY,
• A visitation from a resurrected dead prophet named Moroni,
• Peep Stones, to find buried treasure,
• unearthed Golden Tablets,
• A book, written on metal leaves, which depicted God talking to American Israelites,
• A Sword,
• Compass,
• Breastplate,
• And two things named Urim and Thummim,
• All on his family's farm.

Smith and his wife moved to Pennsylvania. reported to a few family members that he had translated some of the Reformed Egyptian text from the Golden plates he had found in his back yard, with the help of a resurrected prophet. Smith's friend, Harris, was Smith's scribe who recorded what Smith told him to.

Smith used his "Peep Stones" which he tossed around in one of his hats, and told Harris what to write. A local school teacher, named Oliver Cowdery, took an interest in Smith's story and began acting as a scribe as well. However, Smith would not allow anyone to see or touch the golden plates which he kept hidden in the woods even while translating.

Around 1829 Smith completed the translation and out came the book of Mormon. Smith then received new instructions from God whereas he started organizing a new Christian church. Smith and Cowdery, after baptizing each other, proceeded to baptize several followers who called themselves the Church of Christ. This new church was based on Smith's view of Christian theology wile translating golden plates that he dug up in his back yard.

In 1830 branches of the Church of Christ were set up in NY. People immediately started hating them so Smith claimed to have set up a City of Zion on American Indian land in Missouri. They left Pennsylvania and planted themselves in Ohio. But in Ohio they beat and tar and feathered Smith, he was hated so bad!

The built a temple in Kirtland, Ohio in 1836 surrounded by appearance of Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Elias, numerous angels, etc. Smith created an "anti-bank" but it failed 21 days later. He and his associates were accused of illegal and unethical actions, by the very people who were duped into financing his anti-bank fiasco. So, Smith skipped out of Kirtland (heading to Missouri) late one night with his followers... along with $6,100 in civil suits and a warrant for Smith's arrest.

Smith stated that they would build a temple in Missouri and that it will be the future center of New Jerusalem. Local leaders were afraid that the influx of Mormons would ruin their community. The locals banded together and beat the hell out of the Mormons and jailed several for months.

Smith and Co. escaped Missouri in 1839. Are you seeing the pattern here? Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri... SO, they set up in Illinois, created a city named Nauvoo, and even created their own militia named the Nauvoo Legion. In Nauvoo, Smith taught about plural marriages.

In 1644 a paper made some statements about Smith, who was the mayor of Nauvoo, that caused Smith to state that the newspaper was a public nuisance. Nauvoo's mayor, Smith, in conjunction with the city council, ordered the city marshal to destroy the paper and the press on June 10, 1844.

Smith, his brother, and some followers were jailed. The locals stormed the jail, shot Smith while he was trying to escape and shot his dead body several more times to make sure he was good and dead.

Mitt Romney is a Republican Mormon running for President of the United States.