The Latest Mormon Ad Campaign
The Mormons have long been actively advertising themselves on television. Their most recent campaign is kind of interesting. Conspicuously absent from the recent ads is any mention of the Book of Mormon. Instead it's all about Bible. And not just the Bible, the King James Bible.
Mitt Romney is a Mormon running for president. His natural base would be the Christian Right, but it will be something of a tough sell because to evangelicals, the Mormon church is not Christian but some other religion, possibly even a cult. Many in that movement will be reluctant, to say least, to support someone outside of mainstream Protestant Christianity.
This is what makes the ad campaign interesting. By downplaying the Book of Mormon and emphasizing the Bible, the Mormons are playing up common religious ground with the evangelicals. The choice of the King James Version furthers this. While most evangelicals don't care too much which translation of the Bible you use (so long as it's a respected one), there are still some hardliners out there who view the KJV as the one true English Bible, all others being perversions. So the thrust of the ads is seemingly to make the Mormons as a church more palatable to Christian conservatives. And if the church as a whole is more palatable, so will a member of that church running for president.
posted by Doc at 8:56 AM
8 Comments:
While this campaign is more than 3 years old, I doubt it's been conceived with any thought of Mitt Romney's candidacy. Mormons face the popular misconception that we have a different Bible. The official English Bible for the LDS is the KJV. It's a lot easier to preach if you can start out on common ground. Even Paul wrote that to the Jews he became a Jew in order to convert them (1 Cor. 9:20).
If the campaign is more than 3 years old, then obviously I have no point. I've only seen the commercials recently.
The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) is often misunderstood . . Some accuse the Church of not believing in Christ and, therefore, not being a Christian religion . . This article helps to clarify such misconceptions
· Baptism: .
Early Christian churches, practiced baptism of youth (not infants) by immersion by the father of the family. The local congregation had a lay ministry. An early Christian Church has been re-constructed at the Israel Museum, and the above can be verified. http://www.imj.org.il/eng/exhibitions/2000/christianity/ancientchurch/structure/index.html
The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) continues baptism and a lay ministry as taught by Jesus’ Apostles. . Early Christians were persecuted for keeping their practices sacred, and not allowing non-Christians to witness them
· The Trinity: .
A literal reading of the New Testament points to God and Jesus Christ , His Son , being separate , divine beings , united in purpose. . To whom was Jesus praying in Gethsemane, and Who was speaking to Him and his apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration?
The Nicene Creed”s definition of the Trinity was influenced by scribes translating the Greek manuscripts into Latin. . The scribes embellished on a passage explaining the Trinity , which is the Catholic and Protestant belief that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. . The oldest versions of the epistle of 1 John, read: "There are three that bear witness: the Spirit, the water and the blood and these three are one."
Scribes later added "the Father, the Word and the Spirit," and it remained in the epistle when it was translated into English for the King James Version, according to Dr. Bart Ehrman, Chairman of the Religion Department at UNC- Chapel Hill. . . .He no longer believes in the Nicene Trinity. .
Scholars agree that Early Christians believed in an embodied God; it was neo-Platonist influences that later turned Him into a disembodied Spirit. . Divinization, narrowing the space between God and humans, was also part of Early Christian belief. . The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) views the Trinity as three separate divine beings , in accord with the earliest Greek New Testament manuscripts.
· The Cross: .
The Cross became popular as a Christian symbol in the Fifth Century A.D. . Members of the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) believe the proper Christian symbol is Christ’s resurrection , not his crucifixion on the Cross. Many Mormon chapels feature paintings of the resurrected Christ or His Second Coming.
· Christ's Atonement: .
But Mormons don”t term Catholics and Protestants “non-Christian”. . They believe Christ’s atonement in Gethsemane and on the Cross applies to all mankind. . The dictionary definition of a Christian is “of, pertaining to, believing in, or belonging to a religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ”: . All of the above denominations are followers of Christ, and consider him divine, and the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament. They all worship the one and only true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and address Him in prayer as prescribed in The Lord’s Prayer.
It”s important to understand the difference between Reformation and Restoration when we consider who might be authentic Christians. If members of the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) embrace early Christian theology , they are likely more “Christian” than their detractors.
* * *
· Christ-Like Lives: . . .The 2005 National Study of Youth and Religion published by UNC-Chapel Hill found that Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) youth (ages 13 to 17) were more likely to exhibit these Christian characteristics than Evangelicals (the next most observant group):
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . LDS Evangelical
Attend Religious Services weekly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71% . . . . 55%
Importance of Religious Faith in shaping daily life –
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . extremely important .. 52. . . . . . . 28
Believes in life after death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 . . . . . . 62
Believes in psychics or fortune-tellers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . 5
Has taught religious education classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 . . . . . . 28
Has fasted or denied something as spiritual discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 . . . . . . 22
Sabbath Observance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 . . . . . . 40
Shared religious faith with someone not of their faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 . . . . . . 56
Family talks about God, scriptures, prayer daily . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 . . . . . . 19
Supportiveness of church for parent in trying to raise teen
(very supportive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 . . . . . . 26
Church congregation has done an excellent job in helping
Teens better understand their own sexuality and sexual morality . . . . . 84 . . . . . . 35
While I think there are good reasons to keep an eye on Romney and covert support by the LDS Church, these ads are not related to Romney.
One respondent above said that these advertisements began more than 3 years ago. I believe they began 5 to 6 years ago. I've seen them many times, and a few evangelical churches complained about them when they first went on the air.
Clarification would be nice.
I have seen these ads for many years, but have never seen them using the Bible as the freebee in the ad. It has always been a copy of the Book of Mormon they would give away. The King James Version of the Bible has always been the version the LDS church has used, but they claim it has translation errors.
If there has been a recent switch in the gift item associated with the ad (Book of Mormon to Bible), the timing of the change is suspicious. It would be, at minimum, a conveniently timed ad change that just happens to help Mitt with people's perception of his religion.
The reason the LDS church uses the King James version of the bible is not for Mitt's sake. It has always been used by the church because it is the version with the least amount of translation. Reading the bible can be like playing "telephone" you are reading words that have been translated from different languages. Some bibles even have language that sounds like someone today could have said it. The King James version was translated from the Greek record. So it's only a 2 off copy. I'm not LDS but I know many and respect Mormons for their ability to practice what they preach. There is a great piece on "This American Life" this week that talks about people who talk about things they really know nothing about, just because they know a little bit about it.
Has anonymous noticed how goofy
bible and LDS stuff no longer
happens? And does he know what a
couple of goofballs Joe Smith had
for parents? If we went back to the
days of a permanent power outage
with transportation being shank's
mare (walking) and getting hauled
by old Dobbin surely we'd be
seeing all kinds of Maronis and
Jesus's popping out of the great
unknown. Trust me, that book of
Mormon was only meant to hustle
suckers. Heaven hustling is only
topped by prostitution as the worlds oldest profession.
For all the %ages listed, I think the one most obviously excluded is:
Percentage that take the Book of Mormon as the divine word over the Bible:
LDS 100%
Evangelical 0%
That is the reason why the Christian church doesn't accept the LDS movement as genuinely Christian. Well, that, coupled with the fact that "The Book of Mormon" was published in AD 1830, based (at least partially) upon texts from 600 BC (per introduction in "The Book of Mormon"), yet uses English language which was prevalent neither in AD 1830 nor 600 BC.
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