Mormon commentator Glenn Beck on the Vatican

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Ridgerunner said:
No, it’s better that you did, even though some of us (including me) deviated from it. I have no reason to think Beck was being anything but sincere, and think he was. One does not have to be Catholic or even like Catholicism to realize that if this administration tramples on the Catholic Church, no others are safe,including Beck’s.
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I know how easy it is to deviate from the topic and I’m probably being over-critical here, especially in an election year. I just didn’t want this to devolve into a poitical discussion. Our freedom of religion is truly being threatened by our current administration so I gues it is difficult to leave politics out. I was just really pleased to hear Beck’s opinion on the position of the Catholic Church in all of this and I don’t think he had any underlying motivation. Thanks for your comments.
 
Jerusha said:
With a Mormon in the White House, do you think the abuses in the LDS church will be addressed? I know Romney did well straightening out the SLC Olympics corruption, but how far do you think he is willing to go? Perhaps all churches will have to suffer a bit, in order to straighten out one of the worst?
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I’m not sure it would be the responsibility of the President of the United States to sort out any abuses within the LDS church, unless they were something that adversely affected the country. I would hope that he would stay out of it. I would not want a Catholic President stepping into the governance of the Catholic Church. What abuses are you speaking of?
 
Ridgerunner said:
Neither do I. What’s “purchase of TR”?
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Having to be a full tithe payer in order to get a valid temple recommend (TR) in order to go to the temple.

Temple worship for Mormons is the summit of their life. You need a current recommend to get in, and in order to do that, you must, amongst other things be a full and declared tithe payer.
 
Marie5890 said:
Having to be a full tithe payer in order to get a valid temple recommend (TR) in order to go to the temple.

Temple worship for Mormons is the summit of their life. You need a current recommend to get in, and in order to do that, you must, amongst other things be a full and declared tithe payer.
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And you have to present your TR to St. Joseph Smith at the gate of heaven in order to gain admission to the Mormon’s highest level of heaven-- 🤷
 
Marie5890 said:
Having to be a full tithe payer in order to get a valid temple recommend (TR) in order to go to the temple.

Temple worship for Mormons is the summit of their life. You need a current recommend to get in, and in order to do that, you must, amongst other things be a full and declared tithe payer.
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Oh. Well, the Mormons are not unique in that respect. Go to many, many Evangelical and non-Denom churches and they’ll love you to death until it becomes clear you are not going to be a significant contributor “according to your means”. You are then talked to about tithing. If you still don’t, you are asked to leave the congregation. That’s one of the reasons (but not the only one) why there are so many Protestand denominations. They don’t all do that.

There are plenty of things I don’t care for about the Mormon religion, including having auditors that are, if anything, more stringent than the IRS if you claim to be tithing. But I do not see such things as disqualifying one for the office of President; and certainly not while they are such a minority. But let’s think about it. Is TR really that much weirder or awful than the Black Liberation Theology that our current president spent 20 years in, or the Marxism in which he was immersed all his life? For that matter, is it all that much weirder than the dissident “Liberation Theology Lite” that infects so many in the Catholic Church in this country? Can Romney possibly be a worse person in government than Nancy Pelosi or (closer to home) Claire McCaskill? If he wants to tithe to the Mormon Church to get access to the temple, or hand his TR card to St. Peter or whatever, can it possibly be more threatening to me and my children and grandchildren than being subject to the death-loving Kathleen Sebelius?
 
Jerusha said:
And you have to present your TR to St. Joseph Smith at the gate of heaven in order to gain admission to the Mormon’s highest level of heaven-- 🤷
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It almost seems like JS created himself an elite men’s club, the “temple of the celestial kingdom”, that only the richest of men can afford to join without going broke. How they can get away with charging such a high ‘membership fee’ to be allowed to worship as a full member of any ‘church’ is beyond me. Charity isn’t something that should be mandated, especially not if it’s required before any member is allowed to enter the “temple”. It should be a voluntary gift from the heart.

Since no one really knows for sure if any of that money is even used for charitable purposes, because the church refuses to divulge to anyone how the money is used, it makes it even more incredible. I have to ask one question. Are the members contributions to the church tax deductible? If they are, does the church also expect to get another 10% of those tax refunds, too? 🤷
 
Telstar said:
I listened to him on radio for a very long time before he went to TV. As I said, he’s been a lot more “PC” since that time. But, prior to his TV debut, he used to relish in every embarrassing incident in the news that put the Catholic Church in a negative light. He even had a ‘theme song’ made about “pedophile Priests” that he always played whenever he talked about news items related to the Catholic Church, especially when they were about those kinds of allegations. He also used to look for any kind of story about something the Pope (JPII at the time) might have said about faith or morals so he could twist it, and turn it into a means to belittle the Pope and the Church. Those were some of the things he did that really made me change my opinion of him enough to finally stop listening, even though I still liked him a lot. I knew a lot of those actions came from his experiences in the past that left their scars on him.
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Fair enough. One’s behavior on the radio can certainly be different than on television. Admittedly, I haven’t followed Beck much on his radio show.
I certainly agree with you about what he said about the Pope appointing ‘conservative’ Cardinals, and that we all need to stand united against this whole Obama situation. If the Catholic Church can’t stand up to it, then no other churches will have any chance of fighting it, either. The whole world has been putting a strangle hold on our religious freedoms over the past several decades. It’s time for us all to stand up together and tell them, “That’s enough!”.
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I hope so. I mean the Manhattan Declaration was supposed to signify a renewed unity among Christians across denominational lines, but I’m not entirely convinced. Perhaps I’m simply a pessimist. Especially since a majority of American Catholics seem to be sleepwalking. Most voted for Obama in 2008, and I assume he will win them again in 2012. Catholics in America seem to be convinced that the Democratic Party is still “the Catholic party.”
 
Roman_Catholic said:
I could be wrong but judging by Beck’s radio show I don’t think he is a big supporter of Romney and, seeing as how Romney has declined to appear of Beck’s show, I don’t think Romney is a big fan of Beck. It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve caught his show but he seemed to be a supporter of Santorum. Of course that could be different now as Beck really supports the “anyone but Obama” stance and with Romney taking a commanding lead for the nomination he may now be pulling for him.

God bless
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Beck actually said that if Romney is the nominee, he would seriously consider voting for Paul if he ran third-party.
 
Are the members contributions to the church tax deductible? If they are, does the church also expect to get another 10% of those tax refunds, too?
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All tax deductible.

Can you imagine the federal windfall if a TR were ruled a purchase? Or, more likely, can you imagine if that question were removed from the TR interview?
 
FabiusMaximus said:
Fair enough. One’s behavior on the radio can certainly be different than on television. Admittedly, I haven’t followed Beck much on his radio show.
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He was much less PC on the radio, before his first TV gig. After that, even his radio show was changed radically, to the point that a lot of his early ‘Insider’ fans stopped listening to him, long before I did.
FabiusMaximus said:
I hope so. I mean the Manhattan Declaration was supposed to signify a renewed unity among Christians across denominational lines, but I’m not entirely convinced. Perhaps I’m simply a pessimist. Especially since a majority of American Catholics seem to be sleepwalking. Most voted for Obama in 2008, and I assume he will win them again in 2012. Catholics in America seem to be convinced that the Democratic Party is still “the Catholic party.”
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That’s something that boggles my mind. The Democratic Party is not the same as it was, years ago. It’s been taken over by those who have a much more liberal mindset that supports things like abortion on demand, gay marriage and many other issues that are so detrimental to Christian family values. It’s been something that’s been so clear to me, living in MA with some of the most liberal Senators in the country, that keep getting voted into office because so many people really don’t look at their voting record or think about what those issues really mean in the light of Christian belief. The saddest part of it is that those Senators are/were Catholic. They should know better.

Edit: Romney wasn’t much help as our governor, either. He’s the one that made Massachusetts the first state that legalized gay marriage. :rolleyes:
 
Telstar said:
It almost seems like JS created himself an elite men’s club, the “temple of the celestial kingdom”, that only the richest of men can afford to join without going broke. How they can get away with charging such a high ‘membership fee’ to be allowed to worship as a full member of any ‘church’ is beyond me. Charity isn’t something that should be mandated, especially not if it’s required before any member is allowed to enter the “temple”. It should be a voluntary gift from the heart.
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Latter-day Saints believe that tithing is a principle instituted by God. We of course see the Biblical basis for tithing (Gen 14:20, Gen 28:22, Num 18:26, Deut 12:6, 2 Chr 31:15, Luke 18:12, etc), and believe that it is one way to offer sacrifice to God. We believe that to enter the Lord’s holy house, the temple, one should be striving to follow the Lord’s commandments. Essentially, to enter the Lord’s house, one should believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, have faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, believe in the restoration of the Gospel and the Lord’s Church, sustain the inspired leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ, and follow commandments and teachings such as the law of chastity, the word of wisdom, and tithing. I see nothing about “only the richest of men can afford without going broke”. Giving 10% of our income also teaches us to live more frugally and to manage our income better, to try to not go into debt, and also to rely on the Lord to provide us with what we need. Also, if one does not have any income at all, then obviously 10% of nothing is nothing. They will not be “barred” from the temple, and I know that when I was a student with no income, I certainly was not restricted from attending the Lord’s house, and even now I am still not “the richest of men”, nor are the vast majority of temple patrons. We believe that following the Lord’s commandments, including tithing, brings blessings (both temporal and spiritual) into our lives, and I and many others have seen this, which is why we strive to follow Christ’s commandments.
 
Oh my heck, I swear we just went through this with ParkerD.

I’ll ask you what I asked him, do you follow all 613 of the Mitzvot described in the OT?

We do not, since Jesus Christ if the fulfillment of the law.He is the New and Everlasing Covenant of which we are baptized into.
 
RebeccaJ said:
Oh my heck, I swear we just went through this with ParkerD.

I’ll ask you what I asked him, do you follow all 613 of the Mitzvot described in the OT?

We do not, since Jesus Christ if the fulfillment of the law.He is the New and Everlasing Covenant of which we are baptized into.
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It does not logically follow that because Latter-day Saints believe in the Biblical practice of tithing, believing that God has called us to this practice in these days as one way of offering sacrifice, that we must therefore follow the 613 commandments, and if we don’t we are hypocritical. It has nothing at all to do with following the laws of the Mitzvot, but instead seeing the Biblical foundation for a practice that we believe God has called us to follow through revelation in these days as one means of offering sacrifice.
 
LivingWaters7 said:
It does not logically follow that because Latter-day Saints believe in the Biblical practice of tithing, believing that God has called us to this practice in these days as one way of offering sacrifice, that we must therefore follow the 613 commandments, and if we don’t we are hypocritical. It has nothing at all to do with following the laws of the Mitzvot, but instead seeing the Biblical foundation for a practice that we believe God has called us to follow through revelation in these days as one means of offering sacrifice.
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I never said it was hypocritical. It is nonsensical, if you are going to point to a Mitvah as prescribing a practice of your religion, it would follow that you see them all as necessary.
 
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