Parker,
(A reader can look at your questions–I am not going to re-state them.)
Telstar (Lori),
Your questions show a lack of knowledge about the subject, even though you have said you have Latter-day Saint friends. (It makes me wonder about whether they are enough of a friend to ask them “delicate” questions.)
Those questions certainly do show a major difference between the religious backgrounds. I realize, since others have discussed this and I have also read about it in the newspaper, that there is what I now understand is the continuation of the law of Moses practice of the priest doing what we had discussed earlier–what could be called a “penance offering”, since as you noted the Douay Rheims translation uses the words “do penance” instead of the word “repent”. So when the priest or the pope “does penance” and that is publicized, I realize that doesn’t mean there is some serious sin involved, but means that this is following what you earlier discussed about the “law of sacrifice” and “an offering”.
Latter-day Saints are familiar through seeing the example of each married couple on many occasions, that the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve (of which the most senior apostle becomes the president of the church after the death of the president) are or have been (if their spouse is deceased, such as Elder Scott whose wife died several years ago) happily married men and their wife often travels with them. There is no need for Latter-day Saints to carry around with them any doubt as to whether any of these leaders has been unfaithful to their marriage covenant. (For one thing, we can see their love for their wife in their eyes and in how they treat her.) But if any of them had that kind of serious sin (of which a case happened in the early 1900’s when an apostle was excommunicated and dropped from the Quorum of the Twelve immediately and went through the process of personal repentance), then they would confess it to one of their fellow quorum members of those two quorums and go through all repentance steps including excommunication if it were the kind of sin you asked about–but here is some important background:
Latter-day Saint youth who are keeping the commandments (of which the apostles were once a youth and kept the commandments in their youth) deal with repentance often in their youth from everyday kinds of “sins” such as anger or perhaps having contention with a parent or a sibling, and understand the idea of covenant keeping and of the blessings of partaking worthily each week of communion. There are thousands and tens of thousands of Latter-day Saint youth who never have a sexual sin in their life–it would be anathema to them. They truly have on the “whole armor of God” in their make-up and their countenance (if you’re familiar with Paul’s use of that metaphor).
There are also very careful, discerning interviews before a man is called as a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and if they had ever had that kind of sin in their past, they wouldn’t be called as an apostle.
A bishop would be excommunicated immediately if they took upon themselves that sin.
Some people are able to see purity in the eyes of a person they are seeing, whether on television or in person. I assure you that I can see purity in the eyes of the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the Seventy, and the women leaders who speak in General Conference. It shows in their eyes, just as the Savior said about the eyes. Purity is in their countenance, and they radiate the joy of living the gospel, as does their spouse.
), the Douay-Rheims Version is my favorite and the one I have has all the words of Christ in red.
) Mormonism and Islam are clear losers.