This clip, less than 5 minutes long, is worth watching. To sum up: the interviewer acts surprised that there are any black Mormons and then tries to determine whether they are “more Mormon” or “more black.” The clip ends with the black Mormons disagreeing on politics, which is pretty much what you would expect.
Here is another link:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-october-9-2012/the-black-mormon-vote
Just an hour after Pres. Monson announced that Mormon men could start their missions at the age of 18 and Mormon women could start their missions at the age of 19, an 18-year-old young woman from our ward posted on Facebook saying that her entire life plan has changed.
It makes sense. If you are an 18-year-old young woman and you have to wait three years to go on a mission, you probably consider it far enough away that you can go to college and push away planning for your mission. But if the mission is less than a year away, everything changes.
I always found the one-year wait for young men rather awkward. They graduate from college and go to a semester or two of college, and then they go away for two years, and then they come back to the same college? Leaving at 18 seems to make much more sense to me.
The response of some Mormon feminists was very positive, and I was happy to see that. I agree 100 percent with theseresponses:
This seems especially appropriate for those of us who spend time on Mormon blogs. This is from Elder Quentin L. Cook:
Many who are in a spiritual drought and lack commitment have not necessarily been involved in major sins or transgressions, but they have made unwise choices. Some are casual in their observance of sacred covenants. Others spend most of their time giving first-class devotion to lesser causes. Some allow intense cultural or political views to weaken their allegiance to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some have immersed themselves in Internet materials that magnify, exaggerate, and, in some cases, invent shortcomings of early Church leaders. Then they draw incorrect conclusions that can affect testimony. Any who have made these choices can repent and be spiritually renewed.
-Mitt Romney will make no significant cuts in the size of government if he is elected.
-Mitt Romney thinks Social Security, Medicare and financial regulations are great things.
-Mitt Romney thinks we should spend more, not less, on the military, when we are facing $1 trillion deficits.
-Mitt Romney wants to spend more on teachers. He wants to keep many elements of Obamacare and continue our ridiculously progressive tax code.
-And with all this, my left-wing friends are in despair because Obama came out flat. Don’t worry, friends, you will get plenty of big government under a President Romney.
By the way, my prediction of a Romney victory is not looking so unlikely now, is it?
According to this story, a group called Catholics for Obama is calling Catholics and has a standard approach which includes the question:
“1. How can you support a ‘Mormon’ who does not believe in Jesus Christ?”
It is impossible to know how many such calls have been made. Still, I wonder how the media would have responded in 2000 if the Bush campaign had called Gore supporters asking them how they could support a VP candidate, Joe Lieberman, who did not believe in Jesus Christ.