matis,
You actually may be more "honorary Mormon" than you think.
We Mormons have many beliefs that have surprising parallels and similarities with aspects of the Jewish faith. There are some interesting articles about covenants, temples, Zion, the Messiah, etc... that relate some of these parallels, as well as discussing the theological differences between the two faiths. Regardless of whether you are a Jew or a Mormon you are still "friend" and "brother" in my book.
If you wanted to discuss theology further, perhaps dropping me an e-mail or PM would be better. If not, thanks for the nice comments.
TheLastBoyScout,
Habu's explanation of Lamanites is precise, but perhaps a bit too concise for satisfying the curiosity. I'll see if I can relate the history in two or three sentences further than what he has written, and then if you wanted to ask any other questions, feel free to PM or e-mail me (or anybody else here for that matter
) if you wanted more detail into our belief of where the native Americans came from.
OK. Here goes.
The Lamanites are were the descendents of a man named Laman and his brother Lemuel. These two men were the sons of a prophet named Lehi living in Jerusalem. Just before the destruction of Jerusalem (around 600 B.C. when Jeremiah was preaching), Lehi was warned to leave Jerusalem with his family. After arriving by ship in the Americas, Lehi died and another one of his sons named Nephi was called by God to be the next prophet. This flew in the face of the traditional Jewish custom (that Laman and Lemuel should be the next spiritual and civic leaders because they were older than Nephi), and they rejected Nephi and his family. For generations after that, the "Lamanites" as they were called, were the enemies of the "Nephites" until the Nephites were finally destroyed around 400 A.D. and the only people remaining in the Americas were the Lamanites, who are the ancestors of the Native Americans.
Well, that explanation is a bit longer than three sentences, but it is still condensed down quite a bit. Hope that helps.
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OK. Back to the discussion about "Mormons and Guns"...
