And then same commenter says: “More subtly forced conversion happens in the West all the time today, as young people convert to appease each other’s families.”

eric covered that in his post with the line:
“people either convert because they genuinely want to, or because they are weak in the mind.” - Although I would add that some people convert because they see a ‘truth’ in another ‘religion’ that is lacking in their current one. - That additional point would still come under eric’s point, “they want to”.

and then there is this GENERAL statement - - - “That’s why I always warn conservative Jews to be careful of their “friends” on the religious right. They’re not really your friends, by any stretch. They want Israel to be at perpetual war until it is destroyed.”

What is that about? Divide and conquer? With the ubiquitous “THEY” as the demon standing between friends. Bible tells both Jews and Christians to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” - Psalm 122:6 - שַׁ֭אֲלוּ שְׁלֹ֣ום יְרוּשָׁלִָ֑ם יִ֝שְׁלָ֗יוּ אֹהֲבָֽיִךְ׃ - It is not a Jewish or Christian book that calls for Israel’s destruction.

That said, I have worked with Mormons..over the years, and found them
robotlike devoid of much emotion (but not sociopathic).

Like everyone else, they (humans) are complex beings.

I am reminded of a former classmate, (who I haven’t seen in decades) and with whom I correspond. Her son converted to Mormonism..years ago. She is so upset over this, she won’t go into it any further with me.

The fact that Mitt or others seem to be pleasant people, is irrelevant, they are still Mormons.

“Mormons consider Christians to be gentiles”, as one very bright
acquaintence tells me. If anything, they are the chosen people.

For one posters continuing knowledge, Jews chose to obey Gods
commandents..thus they are “chosen”. But they do not consider
themselves special in any way. In fact, they have suffered so much
these 2,000 years, that religious people who try and convert us, use that
as an argument, “Why be Jewish and suffer so much?”

Any Jew who DOES in fact consider himself “Chosen” is simply
uneducated and misguided.

But for the real deal, people, go to any number of websites about
Mormonism and Mormons. I have.

Frankly, under no circumstances would I even think about converting,
whether voluntarily or through some sort of tricky persuation (which
THEIR sales effort seems to have been successful).

I once listened politely, but was seething, years ago in a local
restaurant, hearing a Mormon try to convert a Jew. The words,
“we know you are still necked but..”, still remind me of that
despicable conversation. I decided to stay out of it, allowing the
poor hapless, obviously disturbed and confused victim be given
a bunch of crap.

And speaking of crap..please everyone, go to any website and
take the time out to read what their religion is all about.

I wont go into it..I have my 5,000 year old faith, with the “Law”,
one G-d, commentaries by centuries of rabbis and others on the Torah (my bible), and the 10 commandments ( and 603 other laws).

Frankly, I don’t believe in reincarnation nor do I believe that
we evolved from a fish, which grew legs, walked onto dry land to
evade the sea creatures, and eventually wound up as human beings.

But who knows, maybe my ancestors were jelly fish?

Think about it.

Just because a family welcomes someone of another faith in their
home, says nothing about them, except they are polite and courteous.
German SS families celebrated Christmas, while millions were being
slaughtered. So what!

I agree that tolerance is important. However, I don’t think Mitt Romeny is a good exmaple to use. Although opposition to him at the was fuelled at the fringes by anti-Mormon bigotry, Romney’s brazen flip-flopping on social issues, combined with a lack of humility or honesty about his original positions were the real reason why Evangelicals didn’t like him.

For my part, although he was better qualified than Palin (but who wasn’t?) and wouldn’t have been so openly disloyal as she ended up being to McCain, his declaration in the Summer of 2007 that he thought it was a mistake to go to war in Iraq revealed where his true priorities lay.

Ten Predictions for 2010 (and 2 longer term prediction)

1. AZ-SEN: Palin (reluctantly and very quietly) endorses McCain in the primary but (enthusiastically) endorses the Republican nominee, John Hayworth (or even Joe Arpaio) in the general.

2. ELECTIONS: Republicans make substantial gains in the House and the Senate but fail to capture either.

3. MIDDLE EAST: Israel finally realises that the mullahs won’t fall and that Obama isn’t serious about stopping Iran getting nuclear weapons. It therefore launches a pre-emptive strike on Iran.

4. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Hillary Clinton leaves the Obama administration and Lieberman leaves the Democratic caucus before December 31st, 2010. John Kerry is the new Secretary of State.

5. STOCK MARKET: The Dow falls slightly from its value at the end of 2009 and House prices fall back slightly.

6. ECONOMY: The economy moves out of recession into stagnation as consumers begin the process of deleveraging and paying down consumer debt.

7. FEDERAL RESERVE: Bernanke falls out of favour as the Fed (and therefore the US taxpayer) is forced to book huge losses on the portfolio of MBS that was acquired this year (the real reason why TARP is superficially looking less of a disaster than most people anticipated).

8. OSCARS: Avatar wins the Oscar for Best Picture. The next round of 3D films are flops (3D films only work during Christmas).

9. MEXICO: Fuelled by California’s feckless “medical Marijuana” policies Mexico erupts into actual Civil War as the cartels succeed in toppling the government.

10. IRAQ: Because of the SOFA and the end of patrol the situation in Iraq deteriorates further leading Obama to try to speed up the withdrawal.

TWO LONGER TERM PREDICTIONS

11. ELECTION 2012: A third party candidate will get at least five per cent of the vote in the 2012 election.

12. PALIN-TOLOGY Before January 21st, 2012 Palin will have either Pat Buchanan or Ron Paul campaign and/or fundraise for her

http://bellalu0.wordpress.com/2009/12/29/should-we-provide-panty-bomber-with-skin-grafts/

The modern-times demonization of Mormons came along with the latest Christian revival starting in the late-seventies/early-eighties. These new Religious Righ, Moral Majority types recruit with a divisive us vs. them theology. They claim they are being victimized by popular cultural, a rabidly secular government, and some kind of “politically correct”-driven preference for different faiths. This is all stupid and untrue, of course, but it works. People like being victims. It makes them feel justified in blaming and vicitimizing others for their own problems. When Mitt Romney’s father ran for preisident, no one cared that he was a Mormon. That’s because we as a people were more oprn-mened and liberal back them. Just like no one cared that Nixon was a Quaker or that Kennedy was a Catholic (well, not enough people cared to matter).

The reason Jews don;t proselyze is because they are the “Chosen People.” proselyzing to the general public would sort of run counter to that whole concept. It would be like having an “exclusive club” that’s open to anyone who walks in. It’s a contradiction. This is one of the main reasons Christians broke off from Judaism. One of the fundamental tenets of Christianity is that the Jews broke the covenent with God by denying the Messiah, and that God was open to all people, not just Jews, because of that. That’s why I always warn conservative Jews to be careful of their “friends” on the religious right. They’re not really your friends, by any stretch. They want Israel to be at perpetual war until it is destroyed. It’s all part of their apocalyptic theology. And that’s why I think conservative Jews are being intensely moronic when they tow the line of religious right conservatives regarding Israel.

JMJ