Since we had the most views in the history of our blog and the most comments on a blog yesterday, I thought I would do a follow up to my arguments against the new Temple Recommend being issued by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Normally, I follow a format for writing articles, but I decided that I am going to do something I have not done since 2001. What is that? Well, I am just gonna let it fly. Balls to the wall, no holding back. It seems that the people who commented on the blog yesterday have misunderstood the message. I understand this, after all the schools do not teach reading comprehension very well and some people may have had a hard time interpreting the meaning behind the article.

 

Well, let me tell you what it was about and the reasoning behind the editing. I usually do not edit articles, but yesterday I realized that I made a couple of mistakes in the article. For those of you who read the first edition and I am mainly speaking to KELLEN GIRAUD and ANDREW ZITZELBERGER(who I thank for the comments) there is a reason why it was edited. I wrote a section that stated that I am protesting the new recommend and will not be getting one. This is not true. I will be getting one, but I do protest the idea. So I retracted that statement. 

 

Next clarification, many of you readers took the article as an attack on the LDS church. If you had bother to read any of my other articles you would know that my whole point was I AM AGAINST TRACKING DEVICES AND INVASION OF PRIVACY!!!! There, that should make my point clear enough. I said I am sick and tired of being tracked and I meant that (although I did edit that out). When I make a credit card purchase, BAM! my info has been sent to a machine, when I go to the bank, BOOM! My transaction is traced, and do not get me started on the Federal Government and their new National I.D cards. Buy a gun, have to register it (unless you buy it at a gun show). WHY? I have my right to privacy and the church has their right to fear infiltration of Temples by those not authorized to go in. MY fear is that this database could fall in the wrong hands. Worse other institutions could start implementing it and we would need bar codes in all facets of life, or even worse one day these recommends could be implanted with an RFID chip and the database could be hacked. People could have their recommends revoked without just cause. These are legitimate concerns and I am against ANY institution using barcodes. 

 

MY REBUTTAL

Now for my response to individual comments. Before commenting I would like to suggest using a spell checker or grammar check, because I had a hard time reading some of the run-on sentences and misspelled words. Mr. Giraud, first I applaud you for not insulting me to the degree that Mr. Anonymous below has or at all even. You stated your feelings and made your case. Good job! However, you are wrong on a few points. You said:

 

 “The root questions here are ‘Is Joseph Smith a prophet? Is the Book of Mormon true? Is President Thomas S. Monson a prophet? Is Jesus Christ the head of the Church?’”

 

Your first two questions are irrelevant. If Joseph Smith is a prophet, so what? The FLDS church believes that he is a prophet. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (not Latter-day) founded by James J. Strang and headquartered in Wisconsin believes Joseph Smith is a prophet. They also believe that James J. Strang was ordained THE rightful successor to Joseph Smith by you guessed it, JOSEPH SMITH. The Community of Christ formerly known as the RLDS church also believes in Joseph Smith. The Church of Jesus Christ founded by Sidney Rigdon also claims that Joseph Smith is a prophet. ALL of these churches claim that the Book of Mormon is true. So I do not see how Joseph Smith being a prophet solves the problem of leadership decisions. The real question is “Is Brigham Young the successor to Joseph Smith?”. This would prove that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. I am not here to argue that question, but I suggest that someone write a Dissertation on it for their Ph.D. It would make an interesting argument to read. 

 

Also, you are forgetting what Joseph Smith said in the History of the Church found on page 340 on the Google Book website “I did not like the old man being called up for erring in doctrine. It looks too much like the Methodist, and not like the Latter-day Saints. Methodists have creeds which a man must believe or be asked out of their church. I want the liberty of thinking and believing as I please. It feels so good not to be trammelled. It does not prove that a man is not a good man because he errs in doctrine.” After reading that, what is there to be sad about? By the way if you do not believe me look it up.

 

You can find the quote on the link here:

Joseph Smith Quote

 

Mr. Zitzelberger I have nothing to say about your comments except why be saddened?

 

Now for Mr/Ms Anonymous. First buy a dictionary. How do you EVEN know when I was born? I have not listed my birthdate on this website. I did provide positive views, therefore your negativism comment is simply not true. Too bad is not spelled to bad. How would YOU know if my mom would be disappointed in me? Did you know her? My mom being the hippy that she was told me never to take a backseat to anybody and to always stand up for what I believe in, so I suggest you get your facts straight. I was never a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That church was founded by James J. Strang. The LDS church has a hyphen in it so get that straight. Also, I do not know how to reflex in my words, like you suggested. If you are not going to reveal yourself I suggest you stop making claims that you know what my mom was thinking. Without identification, you have no evidence.