by Chris Bodenner
A reader writes:
As a former Mormon of 40 years, I would like to think adherents of that faith would support the Mosque building in lower Manhattan. This may get you started on the "more varied opinions on this [topic] among Mormons at large" suggestion from one of your readers: For starters, their 11th Article of Faith, something every Mormon child is expected to commit to and repeat from memory, states, "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."
Furthermore, the mosque issue is directly tackled in this post by the Mormon political blog, The Millennial Star (named after a Mormon magazine of the mid 1800s). The comments section if full of opinion both for and against the building of the mosque in its proposed location. One might fairly assume that many if not most commenters are faithful Mormons.
The Millennial Star's Brian Duffin moderates:
Sadly, not only were thousands of lives lost [on 9/11], but a religion was hijacked by the worst kind of extremists, extremists who do not represent the majority of Muslims who practice Islam. The broader question, I think, for Latter-Day Saints, is will we let our faith be hijacked by politics and sacrifice one of the most basic tenets of our faith and a right guaranteed in the American Constitution: the free exercise of religion? Or will we stand up for the rights of others and let them worship how, where, or what they may? We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, but will we allow all people that same privilege?