Jesus, Lucifer, Mormonism

Here's a fascinating exploration of the question raised by Mike Huckabee with respect to certain Mormon beliefs. Money quote:

In their book No More Strangers, Emeritus General Authority Hartman Rector, Jr., and his wife Connie, record the following story as told by LDS Church member Naomi Adair Hendrickson:

"This is what they [the Mormon missionaries] told me: God has a physical body shaped like a man's except that it is a resurrected and perfected body of flesh and bones and spirit-no longer corruptible. He has a head, body, legs, and arms such as ours. He has feelings and emotions-love, compassion, jealousy, anger, and so on-much as we have, though in him they are controlled and exercised to perfection. He once was as we are now, and we may some day become as he is now. He once lived in accordance with eternal laws on a planet such as ours. In due time he obtained the power to beget spirit children---to become a God or Father in heaven. Jesus Christ was the first born of his children in heaven. Probably Lucifer similarly was among those early born spirits. Both are older brothers of ours, Jesus Christ being our eldest brother. We were created in God's image." (No More Strangers, 3:91)

God also has sex, it seems. I reproduce this solely because it's interesting. Mormonism really is very different from Christianity in its theology and doctrines. I don't think it's inherently stranger. As a Catholic, I am obliged to believe that the mother of Jesus was whooshed physically into the sky rather than dying. (This is a more binding teaching than the bar on sex with my husband, by the way.) Once you start subjecting religious doctrines to secular, empirical standards, not many would survive. But, as long as we have a secular politics, this doesn't and shouldn't matter in a presidential election. For me, it doesn't. But here's the point: for those who believe no politics is meaningful without religion dictating its meaning and direction, i.e. today's Republican leadership, it's a legitimate question.

So quit the whining, Mr Romney, and enjoy the bed you've made for yourself.