Ken Jennings: Defender of the faith

[YOhio]

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/...p_slander.html

Take the question Mike Huckabee cannily used to make headlines: "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the Devil are brothers?" Huckabee was widely criticized and quickly apologized, but even the apology gave the wrong impression: that he'd somehow been impolite, and not that the whole slur was off base.
The truth, Huck, is that Mormons believe that God is the Father of us all, which does, I guess, in some sense, make Jesus and Satan brothers. And by the same logic, we also believe that Moses and Orville Redenbacher and Attila the Hun and Neil Diamond are brothers. Happy now?

[marsupial]

Ken Jennings is a great guy. Danimal served with his wife and we were good friends with his brother in college.

[BYU71]

Originally Posted by YOhio

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/...p_slander.html

What is interesting to me is I asked my brothers and sister at the our family Christmas party what they remember as far as Satan and Jesus and the war in heaven.

All of them remember being taught Jesus and Satan being favored higher than any of the Fathers other children. They remembered being taught that each presented a plan to the father. Jesus's plan was accepted and Satan was ticked and took 1/3 of the host of heaven into rebellion. Adam, another favored son led the 2/3 who approved the plan.

It has really come as a surprise to me that some now say our belief is that Satan was just another one of the children of God and that is why we mention him as Jesus's brother and for no other reason.

What we were taught must not be taught now or mentioned much. The younger people at the party really didn't know much or have an opinion on how favored Satan was.

It seems a lot of things that were taught in my youth and early 20's have fallen by the wayside and are no longer taught as our beliefs.

It is my hope the honor code will someday fall to that fate.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I liked that part about how JS and BY really didn't want to do polygamy. Perhaps not, but they sure showed plenty of team spirit in the end.

[MikeWaters]

I liked Ken better when he was winning on jeapordy.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

I liked that part about how JS and BY really didn't want to do polygamy. Perhaps not, but they sure showed plenty of team spirit in the end.

His racism explanation was better.

It's true that, prior to 1978, blacks could not be ordained to the Mormon priesthood. But here, too, a more nuanced view is helpful. Joseph Smith is now known to have ordained African-American men in the 1830s and 1840s. The prohibition evolved in later decades, propped up by a series of racist folk doctrines. Mormons were relieved when those teachings were repudiated. (It adds context but little comfort to note that other major U.S. denominations had racist and segregationist dogma on their books until the 1970s as well.) And today, the church has more than half a million black members, including prominent leaders, both here and abroad.

[MikeWaters]

Who are the prominent black leaders? The one that called into Hugh Hewitt's show and said that he was ok with the ban, because non-Levites were banned as well?

[Clark Addison]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Who are the prominent black leaders? The one that called into Hugh Hewitt's show and said that he was ok with the ban, because non-Levites were banned as well?

It depends on whether you count deceased persons (Helvecio Martins) or Area Authorities (several guys).

[marsupial]

Except for the polygamy part, I thought it was a well written response to all the attention the church has received lately. I was glad to see it published.