Posted by:
steve benson
(
)
Date: September 21, 2012 11:30PM
"Editor of Web Site May Face Mormon Excommunication"
by Laurie Goodstein,
"New York Times"
21 September 2012
"The editor of a Web site that encourages Mormons to question Church history and doctrine has been told that he faces a Church trial and possible excommunication because he is an apostate who is trying to lead Church members astray.
"David Twede, a fifth-generation Mormon who lives in Florida, is the managing editor of MormonThink, one of the most influential of the many Web sites on which active and former Mormons debate church teaching. Such sites have drawn increased traffic as Mormons turn to the Internet to find answers to controversial questions about Mormon history and traditions that the Church does not address.
"The Church has come under heightened scrutiny with the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney, a Mormon who once served as a bishop. The church went through a spate of public excommunications of prominent scholars and feminists in the early 1990s, but in recent years public excommunications of dissidents have been rare, Church experts said.
"Mr. Twede’s situation was first reported on Friday by the Web site 'The Daily Beast,' which suggested that Mr. Twede was being disciplined because he had posted several articles on MormonThink critical of Mr. Romney. . . .
"Michael Purdy, a Church spokesman, said in a statement, 'It is patently false for someone to suggest they face Church discipline for having questions or for expressing a political view.'
“'Church discipline becomes necessary only in those rare occasions when an individual’s actions cannot be ignored while they claim to be in good standing with the Church,' he wrote. 'Every organization, whether religious or secular, must be able to define where its boundaries begin and end.'
"Scott Gordon, president of the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, an organization in Redding, Calif., that defends Mormon theology[i.e., the Mormon apologetics outfit FAIR], said that he had forwarded materials posted by Mr. Twede to Church officials in Salt Lake City.
“'It has nothing to do with Romney,' Mr. Gordon said. 'I know members very high up in the Church who are voting for Obama.'
“It’s about him posting on a blog that he was actively in there trying to subvert people’s beliefs in the L.D.S. church,” Mr. Gordon said, using the shorthand for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"Philip Barlow, a professor of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University, said that other Mormon bloggers had posted negative articles about Mr. Romney without any repercussions from the Church.
“'You wouldn’t be called to a disciplinary council for criticizing Mitt Romney,' he said. 'You would be called for doing harm to the Church.'"
("Editor of Web Site May Face Mormon Excommunication," by Laurie Goodstein, "New York Times," Religion Section, 21 September 21, 2012, at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/22/us/web-site-editor-may-face-mormon-excommunication.html?_r=1)
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C'mon, now. Who actually believes that finely-spun sophistry (not counting reflexively-obedient-true-believing Mormons)?
When David and I were communicating recently about getting his situation with his local LDS Church leaders some major national media exposure, he referred me to some of his postings on MormonThink.org--the ones that have led to excommunication plans arranged at his expense.
These links included:
--Romney's Mormon/Non-Christian view of God:
http://www.mormonthink.com/christian.htm--The history of the Mormon Church's entanglement in politics and the possible implications that history might have for a Romney presidnecy. (This one was described to me by David as "[a]ctually the article that seemed to piss them off"):
http://www.MormonThink.com/politics.htm(For further background on how this incident developed into a national story, see:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,644285,644285#msg-644285)
Let's get real, folks.
Posting critical, historically-sound analysis (as David most certainly did) about Mitt Romney's non-Christian view of God and about the LDS Church's history of entanglement in politics is viewed by the paranoid Mormon Church as doing harm to, um, the paranoid Mormon Church.
This is a potential biggie.
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(related RfM thread at:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,646049)
Edited 27 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2012 01:06AM by steve benson.