“[Pastor Robert] Vincent says “adopting” the school has allowed the church to serve the community while “showing love to people in tangible ways on the road to giving them the gospel.” He adds: “There’s nothing in our community that unites as many homes as a school, and if God gives you a door there, it’s a huge door.”

“That’s a door that dozens of churches are finding, according to Kenneth Breivik, executive director of School Ministries, a nonprofit organization that helps local groups organize Released Time programs. Breivik estimates as many as 500,000 public-school students nationwide participate in some form of Released Time, though Breivik’s organization works mostly with about a dozen programs in South Carolina.”

There is no mention of LDS in this article.

I wonder how many LDS students are participating in 2009 for released time in religious instruction. Wouldn’t they easily take a quarter to half of the 500,000 base?

As far as the comments over on the referenced posting at Mormon Matters — whew! It’s enough to make your head spin — everyone with their own opinion!

So rather than worrying about who and how one might be or become a son of perdition — I would just prefer to avoid the desire to worry about that and instead focus on *trying* to be “one” with the Savior and being full of love and compassion as he taught and exemplified.

Not “staying away from the edge” because of fear, but instead loving the opposite so much that there is no fear – absolutely none.

http://mormonmatters.org/2009/11/13/what-is-the-final-destination-for-apostates-and-ex-mormons/

I will clearly say this . . . ex-Baptists are not sons of perdition. The authentic disciples that the Lord Jesus talks about in John 17 are not defined by denomination.

Jesus gives the powerful descriptions of His own in the prayer – those given to Him by the Father. And Judas never lived any of this.

I would agree with your assumption IF the LDS leaders were just a bunch of old men making the whole thing up, but obviously I have reasons to believe otherwise.

I believe that it is very likely that the day will come when the LDS Church will be the ONLY and LAST ONES standing for the traditional values of family and marriage. Even if that means losing the ability to perform civil marriages in temples or even the 501c tax status.

Also, I’m pretty sure you’ll never see the day in America (or anywhere else in the world) where an LDS Bishop in full fellowship is female or living a gay lifestyle. Neither fit within the teachings of the Gospel (original or restored).

As you probably know, the LDS church has addressed this issue before — here’s some quotes from Elder Dallin H. Oaks:

“The distinction between feelings or inclinations on the one hand, and behavior on the other hand, is very clear. It’s no sin to have inclinations that if yielded to would produce behavior that would be a transgression. The sin is in yielding to temptation. Temptation is not unique. Even the Savior was tempted.”

“Gratefully, the answer is that same-gender attraction did not exist in the pre-earth life and neither will it exist in the next life. It is a circumstance that for whatever reason or reasons seems to apply right now in mortality, in this nano-second of our eternal existence.”

These quotes came from the following page:

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/public-issues/same-gender-attraction

Todd — what’s your take on the son(s) of perdition?

A cross-reference verse is 2 Thess. 2:3

A)There is a distinction to be drawn between “civil rights” and “religious rights”; one can support the former and oppose the latter which would include, for example, same-sex religious marriages and openly gay bishops.

B)The question of the role of women is completely separate from the homosexual issue, even though folks often conflate the two.

“As the poet George Herbert wrote, looking at Jesus on the Cross: ‘Thou art my loveliness, my life, my light, Beauty alone to me’.”

Praise His holy name.