Raised in Lib family. Saw light post 9-11. Service Academy grad. Father of 5. Love my wife. Thank God every day. Proud American. St. Thomas More a hero of mine.
@elsathora@elsathora and @FreddyLA7 please don’t start an international incident between Sweden and Germany on US soil. We’d need @VP to leave the chicken coop and @SecRubio to leave some Iranian peace negotiation in order to quell these hostilities during the World Cup. 🙏
🇺🇸 HAVE YOU SEEN THIS? 🇺🇸
Meet FREDDY, he’s a German soccer fan in the U.S. for the World Cup and he is experiencing the BEAUTY of America from the road
Here are Freddy’s highlights:
⛰️BRASSTOWN BALD: THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN IN GEORGIA
🍽️ CHILI’S IN CHATTANOOGA
⚽️JORDAN-HARE STADIUM AT AUBURN UNIVERSITY
⛽️BUC-EE’S IN ALABAMA
There’s no better way to see our country than on a road trip! Because to LOVE AMERICA you have to SEE AMERICA
Where should Freddy go next?
Comment below and follow his journey @FreddyLA7 ⬇️
Just realized the Europeans will be present to watch Joey Chestnut inhale 84 pork pistols on live television in honor of our nation’s independence.
That one will break them completely.
@TruthHolder2023 Bro, it’s literally called the Book of Mormon. Be intellectually honest & brave to at least turn your post comments on. Don’t let your naysayers use that as emblematic of how our LDS friends don’t want to hear dissent or argument. Your handle has “Truth” in it.🙄
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since April 26, 1838.
That's been its name for 188 years!!!!
So, when did people start calling its members "Mormons" and the church the "Mormon Church"?
According to Wikipedia, "The earliest documented uses of "Mormons" (or close variants like "Mormonites" and "Mormonism") to refer to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (then called the Church of Christ) appeared in 1831—within about a year of the church’s formal organization on April 6, 1830, and the publication of the Book of Mormon in March 1830."
"The terms Mormonism and Mormonite were originally descriptive terms invented in 1831 by newspaper editors or contributors in Ohio and New York to describe the growing movement of "proselytes of the Golden Bible".
The earliest document use was by Eber D. Howe, the founder of the Painesville Telegraph. He was an influential pioneer printer. He later went on to publish early, foundational accounts of the Latter Day Saint movement in his anti-Church of Jesus Christ 1834 book Mormonism Unvailed.
The terms Mormons, Mormon, Mormonism and Mormonite, were used as an epithet, and not in a nice way.
President Nelson said, "In the early days of the restored Church, terms such as Mormon Church and Mormons were often used as epithets—as cruel terms, abusive terms—designed to obliterate God’s hand in restoring the Church of Jesus Christ in these latter days."
The earliest known use by a member of the Church of Jesus Christ is in a March 2, 1833, personal letter to Jesse Smith by Newel K. Whitney. By the late 1800s, it became more welcome by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Then, why did the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints embrace it until 2018?
The short answer is, because we all make mistakes and nobody sought the Lord's direction regarding the terms until President Nelson called the church to repentance.
President Nelson made it VERY clear that it was not a "rebranding" or "name change". (It has NEVER been the name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.) He also said, "And it is not inconsequential." (I will focus later on it not being inconsequential.)
Speaking of the call to repent and use the correct name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Nelson said, "To remove the Lord’s name from the Lord’s Church is a major victory for Satan. When we discard the Savior’s name, we are subtly disregarding all that Jesus Christ did for us—even His Atonement."
He tells us, "Thus, the name of the Church is not negotiable. When the Savior clearly states what the name of His Church should be and even precedes His declaration with, “Thus shall my church be called,” He is serious. And if we allow nicknames to be used or adopt or even sponsor those nicknames ourselves, He is offended."
Does that statement sound like a call to repent?
It does to me.
After that comment, he gives some very poignant instruction as to what we don't use the name of the Church.
He then instructs us, "If someone should ask, “Are you a Mormon?” you could reply, “If you are asking if I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, yes, I am!”
"If someone asks, “Are you a Latter-day Saint?” you might respond, “Yes, I am. I believe in Jesus Christ and am a member of His restored Church.”"
As with all commandments, and this is a commandment to use the correct name of the Lord's church, he says, "I promise you that if we will do our best to restore the correct name of the Lord’s Church, He whose Church this is will pour down His power and blessings upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints, the likes of which we have never seen."
@CookQuentinL Let me ask the LDS folks on X: When you, as a Mormon, say Jesus is our savior, or as Quentin says, “As you study the Savior’s life,” what do you Mormons (and LDS Church teaching) mean by savior? Please explain and provide some clarity.
You might notice that Mormons lie a lot about their beliefs and their organization. It's pathological. And I mean, bald-faced, stare you in the eye, lying. For example, in recent days on X, you might have seen Mormons swear up and down that they are not polytheists - and denouncing anyone as a "liar" for alleging it - when, with their fingers crossed behind their backs, what they mean that they've redefined "polytheism" to require the *worship* of two gods at once, a definition no one else holds in the world (but they don't tell you that up front). What you might not know is that you didn't just happen to run across an anomaly of a lying Mormon. It's a part of the religion. It even has a name.
"Lying for the Lord" is a named, recognized concept within Mormon studies, ex-Mormon scholarship, and even some internal Mormon academic circles. The most substantial treatment of it as a named phenomenon comes from Mormon historian Richard Packham, who documented it extensively, and from Grant Palmer's work, particularly his book "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins." The phrase circulates widely enough in Mormon critical scholarship that it has its widely understood, specifically the pattern of Church leaders, missionaries, and members making demonstrably false or misleading public statements to protect the institution.
For example, Gordon B. Hinckley, the Church's president from 1995 to 2008, demonstrated this live on national television when Larry King asked him whether Mormons believe they can become gods, and Hinckley replied, "I don't know that we teach that." Obviously, the Doctrine of Eternal Progression is one of the most essential Mormon doctrines, and it's like a Christian denying they teaching Justification By Faith. The interview was ridiculed by almost everyone, including Mormons who were upset their president lied on national TV.
It's just a Mormon tradition. Joseph Smith publicly denials practicing polygamy while actively practicing it. He denied it in print in 1835 in the Messenger and Advocate, denied it publicly multiple times thereafter, and was simultaneously taking plural wives, some of them other men's wives. Brigham Young denied the Danites existed, his Mormon assassination and execution squad. And now, you'll find Mormons on X promising you that the Church banning black people from full admission until the Carter Administration is "an untrue rumor." They 100% know better. Lying is allowed in Mormonism.
When lying to prospective converts about what Mormonism teaches, the concept of "milk before meat" - a phrase drawn from 1 Corinthians but repurposed in LDS practice to mean that full doctrinal disclosure is inappropriate for outsiders or "new investigators," and that presenting a simplified or sanitized version of Mormon theology is not deception but pastoral wisdom.
The more structural grounding comes from Doctrine and Covenants 123:15, which instructs members to be "wise" in dealing with enemies of the Church. Combined with the temple oath of consecration, in which members covenant to give everything including their lives to the building up of the Kingdom, the institutional logic produces a community where protecting the Church's public image is treated as a sacred obligation that can override ordinary truth-telling.
There is also the "inspired fiction" concept around Joseph Smith's own history. Smith dictated multiple conflicting accounts of the First Vision, and the Church suppressed the earlier accounts for over a century. When the earlier accounts surfaced publicly in the 1960s and 70s through research, the institutional response was not correction but damage control, including the firing and later excommunication of historians like D. Michael Quinn who documented the discrepancies accurately.
The Islamic parallel to "Lying for the Lord" is called taqiyya, the Shia doctrine permitting deception to protect the faith community, with a softer Sunni cousin called kitman, which is concealment by omission rather than outright falsehood. The Rabbinic parallel is the shev v'al ta'aseh principle and various Talmudic permissions around eilu v'eilu that allow dishonesty if the cause is good enough.
Mormonism's version is less formally codified than taqiyya but more institutionally practiced than either. The difference is that the LDS Church is a modern organization with press offices, PR firms, and legal departments, so its deception tends to arrive in the form of carefully worded non-answers, strategic omissions, and rebranding operations rather than a named doctrinal permission. The effect is the same. The paper trail is more deniable.
You can find out more in the latest I2I Intel Drop, complete with 20+ footnotes of citations and links to primary sources on how this doctrine is lived out in the life and teachings of the LDS.
@InezFeltscher@bariweiss Bari: "team, let's focus on the fundamentals and build up our credibility with solid, factual reporting"
Pelley: "how dare you, woman! How DARE you! Do you know who I am? I shall now depart on my schooner!"