The article I'm sending the link for is really not about Glenn Beck, but something far more worrisome (I would call it sinister), and the mention of Mormon power in this movement is central to a lot of info revealed in this article -- what you will read here is "first cousin" to the information that Jeff Sharlet will give us at the Exmormon Foundation Conference. After reading this, there is all the more reason for all of us in this exmormon community to keep a very focused eye on the activities of the church in this VERY relevant church vs state issue. I think this is so important, I'm sending it to all Mormon lists/boards I'm subscribed to.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/3334/can_mormon_glenn_beck_unite_the_christian_right

I can see the compromises being made:

*No coffee, tea, cola, alcohol, cigarettes, hot drinks, or pork.

*Burka-style garments for all women.

*Suicide missionaries.

*Ban on all birth-control meds and devices

*No blood transfusions (gotta accomodate the JW's)

*Public stoning of gays, feminists and left handed people.

Did I miss anything?

yep, I'm way more scared of the Xian "right" than I am Mormons. Mo's are just pawns in that game, a means to an end really.

Those silly arguments about whether Mormons are Christian?

They served a purpose to keep Mormons isolated, but this article sounds like we are moving into a new realm where all fanatics bond together to impose their common rules on all of us.

I wish I hadn't read that. I don't think I'll sleep as well now.

Those who think Mormonism is harmless need to read it twice.

The flow of history has been in an overall direction of more individual liberties, not fewer. There have been plenty of bumps and plenty of reactive resistance, but the flow moves on around them, if enough perspective is taken.

When I read Sharlett's book, I really was scared, because it seems that the Family/Fellowship is powerful and hidden, almost like a parallel government. But then came Sharlett's book, the C Street sex scandals, etc. It's not so hidden anymore and it looks like DADT may very well be overturned tomorrow.

Fanatics like these seem to eventually overreach, like the Fellowship's support of the Uganda gay death penalty that was embarrassing to them. Even Beck at some point will too. I mean, look at their agenda and you can see that time has passed them by: "The ecumenical call to arms extols a conservative lifestyle where fathers lead and women honor their highest domestic calling by becoming “prolific mothers” of “full quivers of children.” I guess they've got the Duggars on their side.

I also wondered in reading Sharlett's book why the mormons hadn't glommed on to the Family stuff, why they weren't in the thick of it themselves. The morg leadership certainly is in tune with the Family line, which is that Christ has chosen the rich and powerful to rule over the rest of us, otherwise He wouldn't have given them riches and power. That surely must be the credo of the Q15.

What saves me from fearing their meetings and manifestos is the knowledge that about 30% and only 30% of this country are blind followers of authority. The rest of us are not, and the rest of us are still busy thinking, reading, and sharing reason and evidence of what the world is really like and that what is good for individuals is most often good for all of us.