Electing a Mormon President

With two members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints running for president, I thought it might be helpful to explain what should be expected about their beliefs.

--The nickname "Mormon" isn't really representative of our beliefs. We believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and consider ourselves Christian.

--We believe that the family is the most important unit in society. One of our former church presidents, President David O. McKay said, “No other success can compensate for failure in the home.”

--We believe the Bible to be the word of God. But we do believe that there can be additional scripture. The Bible itself mentions many books that were either lost, or were not included in the Bible when it was preserved. "There are many sacred writings mentioned in the scriptures that we do not have today, among which are these books and writers: the covenant (Ex. 24:7), the wars of the Lord (Num. 21:14), Jasher (Josh. 10:13; 2 Sam. 1:18), the acts of Solomon (1 Kgs. 11:41), Samuel the seer (1 Chr. 29:29), Nathan the prophet (2 Chr. 9:29), Shemaiah the prophet (2 Chr. 12:15), Iddo the prophet (2 Chr. 13:22), Jehu (2 Chr. 20:34), the sayings of the seers (2 Chr. 33:19), Enoch (Jude 1:14), and the words of Zenock, Neum, and Zenos (1 Ne. 19:10), Zenos (Jacob 5:1), Zenock and Ezias (Hel. 8:20), and a book of remembrance (Moses 6:5); and epistles to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 5:9), to the Ephesians (Eph. 3:3), and from Laodicea (Col. 4:16). (The Guide to the scriptures, LDS publication of the Bible) One of our books of scripture is called "The Book of Mormon", and is the spiritual record of the people of ancient America.

--We believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior. We believe that it is only through his grace that we are saved, after all that we can do. We believe that repentance is an important step in helping us to become more Christlike.

--We believe in "baptism for the dead" that was spoken of in the Bible. "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?" 1 Cor. 15:29. One of the missions of our church is to provide the saving ordinances for our ancestors who died without the opportunity to receive them. This is done in sacred, holy temples.

--We believe in the same organization that Jesus Christ set up in the original church. Today, our church is led by a prophet and twelve apostles, with Jesus Christ at the head of the church.

--With a living prophet comes on-going revelation. We believe that God still speaks to us today through a prophet, just as He did in times of old.

--We follow the Savior's admonition, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15. Therefore, our church sends missionaries to all parts of the world to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and encourage others to repent, and accept baptism.

--We believe this is the church of Jesus Christ, restored to the earth following a great apostasy that occurred after the death of Jesus Christ, and the original twelve apostles.

There is much more I could write, but I hope that this will give you some understanding of our beliefs. If you have any question about our beliefs, please don't hesitate to ask me.