“Twilight is essentially .an allegory of one gentile seeker’s coming to the fullness of Latter-day Saint faith and life. Bella, though, as Mrs. Meyer’s stand-in, is also a modern American woman who struggles with Edward’s patronizing misogyny and over-protectiveness. Her mind is the only one in the book not open to him, which serves both as an indication of her reverential reserve towards him as God or prophet and her resistance to being totally subject to him. Though devoted to and in love with him, she sounds notes throughout the series that reflect something like feminism.”
Here’s an example of Mormon theology appearing in one of the books.
“A core genealogical belief of Mormons is that Native Americans are the descendants of Abraham through the children of Lehi. But in several articles written in 2002 and 2003, LDS anthropologist Thomas W. Murphy has argued that DNA studies show “no intimate genetic link … between ancient Israelites and the indigenous peoples of the Americas—much less within the time frame suggested by the BoMor [Book of Mormon].”
Mrs. Meyer’s answer to this scientific challenge to her faith comes in the climax of Breaking Dawn. The Volturi have come to the Cullens’ Mountain Meadow for a showdown with the “vegetarians” and their allies, and it looks very bad for the latter. What saves them from the vampire-papists is an inversion of the genetics argument against the Book of Mormon revelation: The Cullens are saved by the ex machina appearance of a South American aborigine whose DNA proves that the Mormon vampires are telling the truth. Genetics isn’t the enemy; it’s the savior.”
I suspect Mormon evangelism would work better if they bit their prey and infected them with some sort of terrible disease.
I can’t understand how the religion gains traction anywhere but in the United States where I think it can be explained as a case of misplaced patriotism.
Anyway, here’s a little picture I drew of a Mormon missionary Twilight style. Anybody got a number for Blade?
Nathan runs St Eutychus. He is currently a student at the Queensland Theological College. In a previous professional life he worked in public relations for an economic development and tourism marketing organisation. He is married to Robyn. He likes coffee and the internet.Read Nathan's
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Current LDS teaching is that Lehi’s group are AMONG the ancestors of Native Americans, not THE ancestors of them. Mormon scholarship has been arguing a small geography for the Book of Mormon, no larger than Guatemala, on an already-populated continent for almost 100 years now.
Yet the DNA studies attack a folk-doctrine of a continent-wide Book of Mormon geography that has been out of style for a long time now.
Once you limit the geography, DNA critiques of the Book of Mormon essentially fall apart.
Granger’s article was a mess. He basically seemed to be coming from the position of “let’s see how many Evangelical stereotypes of Mormons I can fit into this article.”