Mormons Plan Temple in Manhattan

[Jahnava Nitai Das 2]

Mormons Plan Temple in Manhattan

 

By Peggy Fletcher Stack

The Salt Lake Tribune

 

August 8, 2002

 

Ending weeks of speculation among Manhattan Mormons, the LDS Church confirmed Wednesday it will create a temple in a six-story building across the street from New York City's Lincoln Center.

 

Of all the temples built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this will be only the second, after the one in Hong Kong, that is not free-standing. The temple will occupy the top two floors of the nondescript church-owned building, which long has been used for Sunday services. There will still be a chapel on the third floor, classrooms, a cultural hall for midweek social activities and a genealogical center open to the public, said LDS spokesman Dale Bills. Design and renovation work has already begun.

For more than 11 million Latter-day Saints worldwide, including more than 62,000 in the New York area, temples are where Christ's teachings are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism and other sacred ordinances.

 

"I am absolutely overjoyed," said Sarah Asplund, a singer who lives in upper Manhattan. "This is an incredible blessing to be able to jump on the subway and go to the temple. It feels like Utah -- it's so close."

 

The new space will be "the people's temple," said Chris Carlson, a technology consultant in Brooklyn. "We like the idea of the rich people in Westchester having to come into the city to go to the temple."

 

The church also owns property in Harrison, N.Y., about an hour north of the city, but neighbors oppose plans for a temple there, arguing that traffic would increase and that the building would be too large for the area. The church recently agreed to many concessions, including reducing the size of the temple, but has still not been able to finalize its plans there.

 

The Manhattan building is on a parcel of land between 65th and 66th streets on Columbus Avenue that the church bought in 1972. It leased the property for 99 years to a developer who built a high- rise apartment building and the adjoining six-story building, which had stores on the street level.

 

[Guest guest]

mormons are the richest church in the world.

unlike catholicism,which incorporates seperately from church to church,or area to area,

the mormons are led by one all powerfull

man.

all the money goes to the top group, led by that man.

They are considered to be one of the top ten corporations in America,with massive investments in real estate,communication,banking(they bankrolled vegas),insurance,farming,cattle,aerospace,

newspapers, they are one of the top shareholders in

many top corporation like time-life,among others.

 

they originally were led by joseph smith,

who said he recieved golden tablets from moroni,an angel,the tablets were able to be read by the angels power,they were written in an unknown ancient american language.

 

The next leader was brigham young,

who unsuccessfully tried to gain admittance into the masonic order for

the church.

The rituals in the church today are very similar to masonic rituals,using many of the same paraphanelia and rites.

They believe strongly in lineage,specifically they try to connect

to jesus,and other ancient kinsmen,

this is very important to the hierarchy,why? I guess it's all about

who is more qualified then the next guy.

 

The f.b.i.,the c.i.a, and other "intelligence" agencies are full of mormons.

They recruit mormons vigourously,due to their

language abilities and foriegn experience learned on missions,which most youths go on for a year or two.

This has created a large mormon presence in

the spy community,what that means ,who knows ?

 

Mormon doctrine is variable from mormon to mormon,basically they believe that after the time of noah,some tribes sailed to africa,then america,becoming, after losing their identity,the native americans in north and south america.

Jesus suposedly visited them and had interaction and pastimes,all this is in the book of mormon,as "translated" by joseph smith.

They also believe in a type of ascension to godhood.

On attaining perfection,the man becomes a god,his son becomes jesus and they rule over a planet.

These theological points are becomming phased out of public view,and the church is trying to present a more traditional christian image.

 

[Guest guest]

How can you spread something about the Church that you know nothing about? Why don't you truly look at what we are saying and what we believe in. I hear outrageous stories about the Mormon chuch every day and they are simply not true.

God is the Eternal Father, Jesus Christ His son and the Holy Ghost is a companion to worthy members.

We are not Enron. We are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that it's a pretty bold statement to say that We are the true Church of God when there are so many denominations out there. It makes one all the more curious to wonder why this is so. Please write back

[Guest guest]

I agree. Non-Mormons should really investigate who the Mormons are. Go to an active Mormon family. They pray to God & Jesus, they keep the commandments of God, they are honest, they love their family, they serve their fellowmen...

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Lattero-day Saints since childhood. I could say that there's no other religion like this. Because it is the TRUE CHURCH on earth. That's why it prosper and the people are blessed. It's leaders are men of God....

[Guest guest]

Dear Mormon Guy And the Other Mormon Guest,

 

Please excuse the outlandish statements made by one of the members of this forum (shiva)and please understand that this does not represent the views of the Krishna Consciousness Movement or the vast majority of its adherents.

 

Having been a member of the Krishna Consciousness Movement for about 30 years, I can tell you that I have nothing but the greatest respect for the members of your Church. I have met a number of you personally, and even after just a brief meeting, I always felt that I had made a new friend.

 

Once again, please accept my humblest and most sincere apologies.

 

Your humble servant, Guest J.

[Guest guest]

They helped build a Krishna Temple in Utah . They are the best followers of Jesus that I ever met.Hare Krishna

 

[Guest guest]

God.signed in

[Guest guest]

 

 

how sweet, you guys speak ,without thinking.

 

he claims that what i said is not true, exactly what

is not true ?

 

i have studied the mormons for years, everything i said is fact,and anyone who studies mormonism will see the truth.

 

what did i say that is not true ?, i will prove that you are being dishonest, any one can do a search on mormon philosophy,it is exactly as i said, anyone can search

on all i said, it will be confirmed, what are you trying to hide ? in fact go to a mormon discussion forum as i have, and you will find that this kind of nonsense

is not true, most mormons are proud of everything i said.

in fact the only thing i did wrong was say time-life corp,

that should have read times-mirror corp, i could also have included exxon,since the mormon church and the saudi royal family are the two largest shareholders, but anyway

what i posted wasn't critical, just the facts.

[Guest guest]

quotes from Joseph smith and other early leaders

http://www.masonicmoroni.com/Quotes.htm

 

from Time magazine

http://www.lds-mormon.com/wealth.shtml

 

philosophy/difference between LDS and traditional christianity

http://www.spotlightministries.org.uk/ep.htm

http://www.namb.net/evangelism/iev/Mormon/Concepts.asp

http://www.catholic.com/library/Distinctive_Beliefs_of_Mormon.asp

 

history

http://www.popmatters.com/books/reviews/o/one-nation-under-gods.shtml

[Guest guest]

THE CIA'S NEXT GENERATION

 

 

 

America is looking for a new breed of spy

 

Dateline: WASHINGTON

 

A WASP from Yale used to be considered the ideal spy for the old-boy

network of the CIA. Now agency recruiters jump at the chance to snare a

Mormon. Young Mormons tend to have squeaky-clean backgrounds and, thanks

to their work as Third World missionaries, they often have a skill the

CIA desperately needs these days: knowledge of a foreign language.

Skilled linguists, along with business executives and scientists, are

part of a new generation of covert operatives the Central Intelligence

Agency is sending out to a world where the Soviet Union is no longer the

enemy.

 

Washington has begun to change the way it spies. Last week, the chairmen

of the Senate and House intelligence committees, Sen. David Boren and

Rep. Dave McCurdy, proposed a sweeping reorganization of the American

intelligence community that would reduce its $30 billion-a-year budget.

Next month CIA Director Robert Gates will report to the White House on

the agency's vision of spying in the 21st century. The agency has made

no secret of the fact that it is devoting more attention to drug

trafficking, nuclear proliferation, terrorism and economic intelligence.

But what is less well known is that for the past three years the agency

has been increasing its roster of spies with more specialized skills.

Since 1989, Congress has secretly added several hundred million dollars

to the CIA's Operations Directorate, which runs the agency's covert

operators. "Gates intends to push as many people out into the streets as

he can," says one U.S. intelligence official.

 

During much of the cold war, the agency relied heavily on satellites and

electronic eavesdropping rather than human spies. High tech worked

better to penetrate the Soviet monolith and gauge its war-making

potential. But today's threats are more varied and require more eyes on

the ground. CIA satellites can photograph the outside of a Third World

nuclear facility. But to confirm that uranium is enriched inside, it

helps to have an agent who can scoop up earth samples around the

building to be examined for traces of uranium hexafluoride. A

well-placed agent can be critical in gathering economic intelligence,

tipping off Washington to a government's position in trade talks or

warning when American businessmen are being victimized by foreign spies.

The CIA does draw the line at industrial espionage, however. Gates says

his agents are willing to give their lives for their country "but not

for a company."

 

To meet the new demands, the agency is hiring more physicists who

understand nuclear technology and business grads who can read a

spreadsheet. New officers still learn how to recruit agents and use

"dead drops" for messages during trade-craft training at the agency's

"farm," located at Camp Peary near Williamsburg, Va. But after that,

many are packed off to language schools. Officers already in the field

are rotated into academia to hone technical skills. "We still want a spy

like the one you read about in a John le Carre novel," said an

intelligence source. "But now George Smiley will have to speak

Japanese."

 

Cover story. The funding increase the Operations Directorate has

received-less than the cost of orbiting one spy satellite-goes a long

way in gathering human intelligence, or HUMINT. Third World agents work

surprisingly cheap. Even in his heyday, Panamanian dictator Manuel

Noriega received only $1,500 a month from his U.S. intelligence

handlers. The biggest expense has been in building new covers for the

spies. The traditional cover - a U.S. Embassy job - has become

increasingly transparent: a foreign government can spot many spooks

simply by cross-checking State Department directories. But nonofficial

covers ("NOCs," as the agency calls them) have become more difficult to

establish in an age of instant communications and computer credit

checks. It now takes the CIA at least two years to build an officer's

cover. NEWSWEEK has learned that Gates plans to expand NOCs into the

international business community. The agency is hiring midlevel business

managers and placing them undercover in multinational corporations

around the world-with the corporate chiefs' private consent. "These are

guys who will never set foot in Langley," said one U.S. source. "They're

trained remotely and buried in the multinationals."

 

The expanding spy network has had its growing pains. The agency's

capabilities in the Mideast are still weak. Before Iraq invaded Kuwait,

the CIA had satellites to track Saddam Hussein's forces but no agents in

Baghdad to let Washington know what he intended to do with them. Law

officers still complain that Langley is stingy with its intelligence on

drug traffickers. CIA officers, who once ignored criminal activity

around them, will now get legal training to spot and report it.

Intelligence officials also worry about keeping highly skilled recruits

from jumping to better-paying jobs in business once they realize that

spying can be dull. "Without the glamour of the cold war, it may be

difficult to retain these people," says McCurdy, chairman of the House

Intelligence Committee. Agency insiders say it may take five years

before the CIA sees the fruits Of "HUMINT in the '90s," as the program

is privately called. But once in place, the agency hopes it will offer a

better view of the world beyond the cold war.

 

PHOTO:The end of an era? Richard Burton in "The Spy Who Came in From the

Cold"

 

~~~~~~~~

 

By DOUGLAS WALLER

 

To the top

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[Guest guest]

Dude, I know you're wrong on some points, so I question your accuracy on other points. I think you should research the Mormons more.

[Guest guest]

Dude, I know you're wrong on some points, so I question your accuracy on other points. I think you should research the Mormons more.

 

There's nothing about going to Africa in the Book of Mormon. Church doctrine does not vary from person to person. Obviously beliefs do, but that doesn't mean what the church teaches has changed. Church doctrine has also not been diluted to appear more mainstream. The possibility for Godhood is taught plainly, openly, and unashamedly. The plates were not said to have been translated by any power from the angel Moroni. Nobody tries to connect his lineage to Jesus, and geneology has absolutely nothing to do with heirarchy.

[Guest guest]

when i read the book of mormon, i remember it saying that

first the tribes went to africa,then the americas,

that is what i rememeber,i don't remember that they

did anything but stop over there, either way

it's not relevant to their beliefs.

 

as far as the bloodline of jesus,it is not official church

doctrine,but in reality the church's official position

has ususally been to appease outsiders, for instance

plural marriage,although it was officialy banned,

the fact is that it was continued in secret(for many years) with the blessings and help of the official leadership, they have an

"official" stance on things, and an "actual" one.

 

British israelism also called Anglo Israelism is popular

and has been for a long time in mormonism, this is the theory of a direct lineage back to King David, the lost tribes moved into europe,or the americas in mormon dogma,

in this theory, and that the british and other europeans

are direct descendents of the biblical heroes,as well

as jesus,who was considered to be in the house David,

This is not official dogma or belief,but still

it is popular among mormons,pentacostals,and others.

 

Also they have a very racist ideology,dark skinned people

are being punished and are considered lower life forms,

until recently they were not allowed to be regular

members(elders) of the church,for a long time the church

was extremely racist and vigorously supported the south in the civil

war, believing in a divine right to lord it over darker skinned peoples.

 

then there is the blood thing, they believe that to cleanse someone of their sins you can kill them, this is all dependent on getting "a sign" from God, which has happened

many times in recent years,murders aplenty in mormon ville,

a recent book on this violent phenomena is the excellent

"under the banner of heaven" , showing the inside

world of mormon fundamentalism,and the history of mormonism

in it's battle against the "gentiles",the rest of us who are considered to be "the enemy".

 

 

[theist 1]

I have only had a few conversations with Mormons, usually stree preachers. To a person they were always polite and listen politely to my points. That was a good lesson for me as I usually beglect to be so polite.

 

No one's opinions were ever changed during these exchanges but I don't remember them ever ridiculing my beliefs or mocking my beliefs etc.

 

Nice folks Mormons.