In my study of religions and mythology I have read about strange practices but I had NEVER heard of sacred underwear till Mitt Romney began his very strange run for the Presidency...
From Salon: Is Mormon underwear magic?
To outsiders, there is little more fascinating about the Mormon religion than the secret underwear
To outsiders, there is little more fascinating about the Mormon religion than the secret underwear that Mormon temple initiates are expected to wear day and night. As one former believer put it, “I’ve been an exmo since 1967. All that time, the underwear questions were the first ones I got from people who found out I had been Mormon. A friend brought it up again last week at lunch.” Another former Mormon agrees: “When people first find out I’m exmo, their first question/comment almost ALWAYS is, ‘So what is the deal with the magic underwear?!’ Honest! People outside the morg are spending WAY too much time thinking about garmies!”(“Garmies” is insider slang for the sacred undergarments prescribed by the religion’s founder, Joseph Smith.)
Some outside interest may be driven simply by curiosity: Mormons have sacred underwear! What do they look like? Or incredulity: Religious leaders can tell women to wear undershirts with special symbols all the time beneath their bras and people do it?! But that’s not the whole story.
The idea of sacred, secret underwear seems a little kinky, at least to some outsiders. Commenters on blogs and forums confess the attraction.
I tell you guys who grew up taking ‘undergarments’ for granted — WE in the not-know find these items fetching indeed [here in Idaho]. (Kymba)It only makes sense that some subset of us would find the idea of Mormon undies titillating. They are novel, they are secret, they are taboo, and they are in constant contact with genitalia.
Mine had been in the bottom of my closet in a moving box in a paper bag for 5 years until a couple weekends ago when I modeled them for my boyfriend. He was intrigued by the whole thing and found them to be very sexy. (Randy)
But are they kinky to insiders?
It’s hard to get a balanced sample from active Mormons, because the Garments, as I said, are sacred, and catering to the curiosity of prurient outsiders would violate a covenant sworn during the same temple ceremony in which a Mormon gets authorized to wear the Garment. Unfortunately those who have been fantasizing about a romp in which layers of white cotton create the perfect sense of mystery (or bondage), ex-Mormons offer few words of encouragement. Discomfort seems to be the predominant theme.
I was continuously battling wedgies — often in public; how the people would stare as I would try to wrestle crumpled material out of my crack. (Lady DB)Theologically, Mormon undergarments are said to be symbols of a covenant between God and the believer. Initiates pantomime their own death should they violate this sacred trust. The underwear have sacred symbols drawn from the Masonic Order into which Joseph Smith was initiated shortly before he proclaimed God’s desire that people wear the Garment. True-believing Mormons avoid allowing their Garments to touch the ground. They may cut off and burn the symbols when a Garment itself is worn out.
If you have ever worn the modern ones, you should appreciate the distance these have come. When I first got married they came in a one-piece get-up with a wide neck so you could step into them. The back had a split crotch (not the kind in kinky panties), but this huge, wide, sloppy split would separate under your clothes, leaving a draft in your nether region much of the time. The little panel they sew into the ladies’ special part was so poorly designed that it would roll and twist till you felt like you were skewered by a roll of old toilet paper. (Insanad)
Of all of the things about Mo-dom, the thing I miss the least is the underwear. (Zapotec)
I thought the kitchen was on fire a few times until I found my mom burning the “sacred symbols” in tin cans before she cut the underwear into dust cloths. I was slapped a time or two for letting them fall or drag on the floor when I did laundry as a child. (Cheryl)In Mormon folk religion, Garments have special powers. Stories are told of wearers being saved from bullets or a fiery death in a car crash. One story tells of a Mormon soldier during WWII who was killed by a Japanese flame thrower – but his Garment survived intact. The stories go back to Joseph Smith himself, who died in a hail of bullets without his Garment on. His companion, Willard Richards, who was wearing his, emerged unscathed. Mormon historian Hubert Bancroft described the incident in his 1890 “History of Utah”: “This garment protects from disease, and even death, for the bullet of an enemy will not penetrate it. The Prophet Joseph carelessly left off this garment on the day of his death, and had he not done so, he would have escaped unharmed.”
Today such accounts are not investigated or endorsed by the church authorities. The Catholic hierarchy has an established procedure for assessing claims about weeping statues or a miracle cure, but the Mormon hierarchy largely ignores stories about the real-world protective powers of the white underwear. In 1988, Mormon authorities asserted that the Garment serves as a protection “against temptation and evil.” Unfortunately, ordinary believers may take the broader protective power of their Garments seriously, sometimes with painful consequences.
Flame swept up my arm and no clothing burned at all except the entire sleeve and part of the shoulder of the Garment that burned/melted. I was burned where the material melted into globules. I was a good person. They did not work as claimed. I will never ever forget that day. (AmIDarkNow)Taking off the Garments is a big step for many people leaving the Mormon religion. Some people feel vulnerable when they first abandon the regulation underclothes.
My TBM (True-believing Mormon) father was a radiologist and believed that his garmies would protect him from radiation. Needless to say, the bonehead died of leukemia at 49. (Jeebus)
The following extracts are from The BBC...
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded in 19th century America and has 13.5 million members world-wide (LDS 2008 Statistical Report).
Mormonism has been present in the UK since 1837 and has 190,000 members (LDS 2008 figures).
- The church is called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or The Church of Jesus Christ.
- Mormons believe their church is a restoration of the Church as conceived by Jesus and that the other Christian churches have gone astray.
- The church was founded by Joseph Smith (1805 - 1844).
- It was then developed by Brigham Young who migrated with the new Mormons to Salt Lake City in 1847.
- Mormons believe that God has a physical body, is married, and can have children.
- They also believe that humans can become gods in the afterlife.
- Mormons are strongly focused on traditional family life and values.
- They oppose abortion, homosesxuality, unmarried sexual acts, pornography, gambling, tobacco, consuming alcohol, tea, coffee, and the use of drugs.
- One of the more common misconceptions is that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints advocates polygamy. However, this was discontinued over a century ago and the Church excommunicates anyone who practices it.
From The BBC - Living prophets?
Mormons believe in living prophets - human beings who are prophets of God in the same way as Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and the Apostles.They point out that Christ himself said that he would send prophets after him.
A modern prophet
The President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at any given time, is a prophet.The 16th President of the Church is Thomas S. Monson (1927- ) who became President in February 2008.
Continuous revelation
Although the essential truths of God do not change, they do need to be adapted to suit the particular context in which they are being applied. Because there are living prophets, God is able to ensure that people get the teachings they need to follow his will.God gives the prophets revelations of what they should write and say. (A revelation is a communication from God.)
So Mormons believe that revelation is a continuing process through which God still instructs us.
Prophets today
The first Mormon prophet was Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church.Mormons believe the teaching and writing of Joseph Smith was the result of revelations from God, and they believe that the teaching and writing of their present-day prophets are similarly inspired.
The leaders of the Church are the current prophets, able to receive revelation from God on both religious and practical issues. Mormons believe that God uses these prophets to direct the Church as a whole, as well as to direct individual believers.
Prophets aren't always prophets
Mormons do not believe that everything a prophet says is inspired by God (and nor do the prophets). Prophets are human beings who God has chosen to speak through - but not everything they say is being said by God. Joseph Smith said that "a prophet is only a prophet when acting as such".Everyone can be inspired by God
In fact all believers can receive inspiration from God, but God uses the senior officials of the Church for revelations that are intended to affect all members. These revelations are intended to bind the whole Church together.A modern prophecy
One of the best-known examples of modern revelation occurred in June 1978 when President Spencer W. Kimball gave the revelation that all worthy males could hold the priesthood. This eliminated discrimination against African-Americans in the Church.From the BBC - The Mormon view...
Mormons believe that conventional Christian churches have lost the authority of God. They believe that conventional Christian beliefs are a mixture of the truth and of errors that have been added over the centuries.Mormons believe that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose on the third day. They believe that there would be no salvation without his atonement. They believe Christ will return to earth to reign and rule.
The conventional Christian view
Traditional Christian belief is contained in the creed as interpreted by the various denominations over the centuries.The teaching of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints differs from the creed in so many places that many traditional Christians say that Mormons are not Christians.
Attitudes of other Christians
Both the Vatican and the policy-making body of the United Methodist Church have decided that Mormons must be rebaptised when converting to Catholicism or Methodism.This shows that the Roman Catholic Church regards Mormonism as varying in its essential beliefs from traditional Christianity. It does allow members of most Protestant and Orthodox churches to convert to Catholicism without being rebaptised.
However Mormons require that everyone be baptised when they join their Church, no matter what background they come from.
One difference in the two concepts of baptism is that the Roman Catholic church states that baptism remits original sin as well as personal sin, and that as Mormons do not accept the idea of original sin their idea of baptism is different. Mormons believe people are baptised for the remission of their own sins.
From the BBC - The first revelations...
Joseph Smith
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded by Joseph Smith in New York State in the USA in 1830.Smith had received a revelation from God, first through an angel, and then through a book inscribed on golden plates.
Smith translated the writing on the plates into the Book of Mormon, which tells the story of the ancient people of America. It was published in 1830
The Church
The Church was founded in 1830 and soon attracted members. From the start it actively tried to convert people and sent missionaries out to win members.The Church also attracted enemies and was persecuted by mainstream Christian church members. Smith himself was imprisoned more than thirty times for his faith.
In 1836 the first Mormon Temple was dedicated at Kirtland in Ohio.
The City of Nauvoo
The church continued to grow, many of its members being converts from England. But the persecution also continued and eventually the Mormons moved to Illinois, where they built a new city, where they could live and worship in peace, on the banks of the Mississippi.The death of Joseph Smith
The Mormon hope that they would find peace at Nauvoo was disappointed and the persecution continued.Joseph Smith was arrested on several occasions, and in 1844 a jail where he and his brother was being held was attacked by an armed mob, and both men were shot and killed.
In India there used to be an obsession about thier genetic lines. New conquerors would often have genealogies created to make thier rule legitimate... but the founder of the Mormon "religion" is an immigrant to the US who literally created this cult in the 1800's , where did he get the long line of Mormon genealogy from?
From Salon: Mitt Romney: Son of Abraham?
Mormonism has led the Republican candidate on an unlikely path toward Israel
Mormonism includes a ritual called the “ patriarchal blessing ” in which a member in good standing receives a set of pronouncements spoken by an older male who is thought, during the ritual itself, to act as a latter-day prophet. Like many of Mormonism’s better known distinctive features, such as plural marriage and wearing sacred undergarments , the practice was instituted by Joseph Smith himself.* One of the most central functions of the patriarchal blessing is to reveal which great-grandson of Abraham a person can claim as his ancestor. Per Mormonwiki:“Through these blessings, Latter-day Saints are told their lineage from the tribes of Israel. All tribes have been represented, but Latter-day Saints descend mostly from the sons of Joseph—Ephraim and Manasseh.”One former Mormon describes the experience: “While reading my patriarchal blessing I took note that it says I was: ‘born through the loins of Ephraim.’ I found it fascinating how patriarchs could tell which tribes people were descended from.”
This peculiar-seeming teaching offers a fascinating window into the way sacred stories emerge and evolve. It also offers a window into one way religious sects compete and seek status.
In the Bible story, the Hebrew people are divided into 12 tribes based on the 12 sons of Jacob, one of whom is Joseph of the “Technicolor Dreamcoat.” The story of Jacob’s 12 sons and the 12 tribes of Israel bring together two passions of the Bible writers, both of which play a central role in Mormonism: genealogy and numerology. The concept of Chosen People creates a fixation on bloodlines, and the Bible writers often go to great lengths to establish the lineage of powerful men. In fact, two of the New Testament writers, each with a different audience in mind, offered contradictory genealogies of Jesus that theologians have struggled for centuries to reconcile. The Mormon religion continued and expanded the obsession with bloodlines to the point that vaults in Granite Mountain , Utah, now house almost two million rolls of microfilm with genealogical records. Mormonism teaches that family is forever, which is why a man controls his wife’s standing in heaven and members can be baptized on behalf of deceased antecedents, and it is terribly important to know who your ancestors were.
The number 12 traces its own lineage of significance clear back to the signs of the zodiac and manifests repeatedly in the Bible. Joseph Smith himself was deeply influenced by Freemasonry, which provided the sacred symbols that appear on Mormon undergarments. It also reinforced a fascination with numerology and biblical numerology in particular.
From Salon: Romney and the White Horse Prophecy
A close look at the roots of Romney's -- and the Mormon church's -- political ambitions
When Mitt Romney received his patriarchal blessing as a Michigan teenager, he was told that the Lord expected great things from him. All young Mormon men — the “worthy males” of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it is officially known — receive such a blessing as they embark on their requisite journeys as religious missionaries. But at 19 years of age, the youngest son of the most prominent Mormon in American politics — a seventh-generation direct descendant of one of the faith’s founding 12 apostles—Mitt Romney had been singled out as a destined leader.From the time of his birth — March 13, 1947 — through adolescence and into manhood, the meshing of religion and politics was paramount in Mitt Romney’s life. Called “my miracle baby” by his mother, who had been told by her physician that it was impossible for her to bear a fourth child, Romney was christened Willard Mitt Romney in honor of close family friend and one of the richest Mormons in history, J. Willard Marriott.
In 1962, when Mitt — as they decided to call him — was a sophomore in high school, his father, George W. Romney, was elected governor of Michigan. Throughout the early 1960s, Mitt collected petition signatures, campaigned at his father’s side, attended strategy sessions with his father’s political advisors, and interned at his father’s office during all three of his gubernatorial terms. He attended the 1964 Republican National Convention where his father led a challenge of moderates against the right-wing Barry Goldwater. Although he was fulfilling his spiritual obligation as a Mormon missionary in France in 1968 while his father was the front-running GOP presidential candidate, Mitt was kept apprised of the political developments back in the U.S.
Upon completion of his foreign mission, he immersed himself in the 1970 senatorial campaign of his mother, Lenore Romney, who was running against Phillip Hart in the Michigan general election. That same year, the Cougar Club — the all male, all white social club at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City (blacks were excluded from full membership in the Mormon church until 1978) — was humming with talk that its president, Mitt Romney, would become the first Mormon president of the United States. “If not Mitt, then who?” was the ubiquitous slogan within the elite organization. The pious world of BYU was expected to spawn the man who would lead the Mormons into the White House and fulfill the prophecies of the church’s founder, Joseph Smith Jr., which Romney has avidly sought to realize.
Romney avoids mentioning it, but Smith ran for president in 1844 as an independent commander in chief of an “army of God” advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government in favor of a Mormon-ruled theocracy. {BTW, A THEOCRACY IS WHAT IRAN HAS.}
Put Mitt Romney on lie detectors and ask him if he thinks he is some sort of Prophet or Prophesied Being from some Lost Tribe Of Israel. I bet the answer will be yes.
More Proof That Mormonism Is a Cult...
From The BBC - Mormon attitudes to other faiths
Mormons do not believe that they are the only people inspired by God and so have a tolerant attitude to other faiths.Although Mormons are certain that their Church teaches the true doctrines of salvation, they don't see it as the only teacher of truth.
Hot Tub Time-Machine - "Posthumous Mormon Baptism Author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel speaks out against the Mormon practice of posthumously baptizing dead Jews and calls on Mitt Romney to end it."
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
News reports:
Was Anne Frank baptized by Mormons?
The allegations come just a week after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apologized when it was brought to light that the parents of Holocaust survivor and Jewish rights advocate Simon Wiesenthal were posthumously baptized by church members at temples in Arizona and Utah in late January.
Researcher Helen Radkey, a former Mormon who revealed the Wiesenthal baptisms, said this week she found Frank's name in proxy baptism records dated Feb. 18, showing the ritual was performed in the Santo Domingo Temple in the Dominican Republic.
The Mormon church almost immediately issued a statement, though it didn't mention Frank by name.
"The Church keeps its word and is absolutely firm in its commitment to not accept the names of Holocaust victims for proxy baptism," the Salt Lake City-based church said. "It is distressing when an individual willfully violates the Church's policy and something that should be understood to be an offering based on love and respect becomes a source of contention."
Church officials did not return telephone calls and emails from The Associated Press on Thursday. A spokeswoman for the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam declined comment.
Why Do Mormons Baptize Dead People (like Anne Frank) by Proxy?
Last week, an official representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints -- also known as the Mormon church -- apologized for the proxy baptism of the parents of the late Simon Wiesenthal, a Jewish Holocaust survivor. The baptism was conducted by proxy inside of a Mormon temple, which is the only place that ordinances for the dead are allowed to be performed.
Church spokesman Michael Purdy called it "inappropriate" that Wiesenthal's parents' names were submitted for baptism, and explained that the church's policy is that people can only submit the names of their own ancestors. Just last Saturday, though, according to Andrea Stone of the Huffington Post, Anne Frank (of "The Diary of Anne Frank," the memoirs of a Jewish girl who was killed during the Holocaust) was baptized by proxy inside of a Mormon temple in the Dominican Republic. And according to ex-Mormon whistleblower Helen Radkey, this is at least the 10th time that Mormons have baptized Frank, despite a 1995 agreement in which the church agreed to stop the posthumous baptism of Jews except for direct ancestors.
Frank isn't alone. According to Slate's Forrest Wickman, Mormons have repeatedly disregarded their Church's directive not to baptize Holocaust survivors posthumously. And a 19th-century Mormon prophet, Wilford Woodruff, was personally baptized for the signers of the Declaration of Independence "and fifty other eminent men," as recounted in a widely circulated talk by 20th-century prophet Ezra Benson.
Explainer: How and why do Mormons baptize the dead?
By Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor
The recent disclosure that Mormons baptized the dead parents of Jewish Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal by proxy has sparked outrage in the Jewish world. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has apologized for the baptism, which it says resulted from the actions of a church member acting in violation of church policy. The LDS church vowed to stop baptizing Jewish Holocaust victims in 1995.
But proxy baptism for the dead is a proud Mormon tradition. Here are the basics about how it works and why Mormons do it.
Why do Mormons practice proxy baptism for the dead?
For Mormons, baptizing the dead solves a big theological problem: How do billions of people who never had the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ – including those who lived before Jesus walked the earth – receive salvation? By baptizing the dead, a practice known as posthumous proxy baptism, Mormons believe they are giving every person who ever lived the chance at everlasting life. That includes Muslims, Hindus, atheists, pagans, whoever.
“Mormons believe that there is a place the dead go where they are in ‘spirit prison’ and where they have the chance to accept the Christian baptism,” says Richard Bushman, a Mormon scholar at Columbia University. “But it’s a duty to actually perform Christian ordinance of baptism, so Mormons seek out every last person who ever lived and baptize them.”
Many Mormons are proud of the fact that they attempt to make their faith universal through baptizing the dead. “Historically, Christians have been exclusive,” says Terryl Givens, an expert on Mormonism at the University of Richmond. “Catholics have taught that only Catholics are saved, and evangelicals say only if you confess according to their tradition. Mormons say, ‘No, salvation is open to all people.’”
“In that sense Mormonism is the most nonexclusive religion in the Christian world,” Givens says.
Mitt Romney's family baptized Ann Romney's atheist father into Mormon church a year AFTER his death
More questions are being raised about presidential candidate Mitt Romney's religion after it was revealed that he helped baptise his adamantly atheist father-in-law years after the man had died.Edward Roderick Davies was Ann Romney's father and died in 1992 after living as a staunch atheist all his life.
Recently-discovered records show that, in keeping with their controversial tradition of posthumously baptising non-Mormons, a ceremony was held to invite Mr Davies into the Church of Latter Day Saints one year after he died.
From the BBC - Baptism for the Dead...
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes that a dead person can be baptised by proxy, which means that a Mormon can be baptised on behalf of someone who has already died.The Church teaches that because millions of people lived and died without learning the teachings of Jesus Christ and without belonging to his Church, ordinances such as baptism and eternal marriage should be carried out on earth on their behalf.
Mormons believe that this restores a practice followed by the early Christians.
Mormons believe that baptising an ancestor who died without hearing the true gospel as restored by the Church is a demonstration of their love for that person.
In order to help Mormons track down the names of their ancestors so that they can baptise them, the Church has built the largest genealogical database in the world.
Joseph Smith said that it was "our privilege to act as an agent and be baptised for the remission of sins for and in behalf of our dead kindred who have not heard the gospel of the fulness of it."
Ceremony
Such baptisms can only be performed in special fonts in Mormon Temples.Women act as proxies for women and men for men. There are witnesses present and a proper record is kept, although the ceremony does not make the person for whom the baptism is performed a Mormon.
Confirmation and higher ordinances can also be performed by proxy.
What's the point?
Mormons believe that this doctrine ends the injustice of millions of people being damned just because they died without learning of the gospel of Christ.Traditional faith says that people are judged totally on what they do in this life. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doesn't completely agree and believes that there is a second chance for everyone.
In Mormon belief, every soul spends time after death in a place where they are given the chance to hear and accept the gospel.
If they accept the gospel they must be baptised in order to enter into a covenant with Christ and have their sins washed away. But at this stage the person is a spirit without a body and so they can't be baptised because this involves total immersion of their body in water. Hence the need for proxy baptism, using someone else's body.
Other Faiths
There have been complaints that particularly enthusiastic Mormons have been carrying out proxy baptisms for prominent historical and religious figures including the members of other faiths.For example the Ba'al Shem Tov, the 18th century founder of the Hasidic Jewish movement, was baptised a Mormon.
In 1995 the Church agreed to halt proxy baptisms of Holocaust victims and other deceased Jews, and to remove the names of all Holocaust victims from the files. Such names are now only accepted if they are resubmitted by a direct descendant or if consent is obtained from the dead person's immediate family.
Since that agreement Church genealogists have stripped hundreds of thousands of Jewish names from baptismal records.
Theological problem
Members of other faiths argue that it is just plain wrong to baptise dead people and make them Mormons when they can't have any say in the matter.Mormons say that this is a fundamental error. No-one has to accept a proxy baptism. Just as the soul in paradise has a free choice to accept or reject the true gospel, they have a free choice to accept or reject the baptism.
If they choose to accept the gospel, the proxy baptism means that they are fully equipped to move on in their spiritual life.
Related:
1. The Mormon Church is a Corporation
2. In Bain deals, Romney gave stock to Mormon church
3. *Karger estimates that Mormons contributed $30 million of the $42 million total raised in support of Proposition 8, which passed in November 2008. "They completely altered the landscape," he says. "They took over every aspect of the campaign." This wasn't the Mormons' first foray into the fight over same-sex equality. The church has long frowned upon homosexuality; more recently, it has focused on opposing gay-marriage initiatives across the nation. (Though it should be noted that not all Mormons oppose gay marriage.) Thanks to Karger, that once-quiet effort has been outed. This slideshow explores the Mormon Church's ongoing campaign to roll back gay rights.*
4. *Yesterday I wrote that although Mitt Romney's teenage "pranks" are, by current standards, fair game for journalists, "pretending that this makes him an anti-gay bully today isn't. He's got decades of adult experiences that tell us what kind of man he's become."* Decades of adult experience he doesn't want us to know about, that is.
A Moment of Zen?
An Interview Where Michael Steele Unintentionally Exposes the GOP fetish with corporations...
********** Mitt Romney's Is Using Divisive politics like when he endorsed Scott Walker who divided his State so badly he went through a recall election - He was doing the opposite of Ronald Regan too! (i.e. Mitt is DEFINITELY using Frank Luntz - see video of Frant Luntz above)
Related: Mitt Romney calls for an end to divisiveness... by insulting Chicago!
3. Romney Supervised Medical Testing Company Guilty Of Massive Medicare Fraud
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