Leaked Video Shows Republican Senator Supported Iraq War So He Could Spread Mormonism

                  

In leaked videos, Mormon leaders discuss concerns about the growth of the gay rights movement and hear from a former U.S. senator and church member who tells them the Iraq war could open the door for new converts, according to footage that pulls back the curtain on a religion that is closely guarded about its inner workings.

The 15 videos were posted online Sunday during the final day of the religion’s twice-yearly conference. They show top leaders hearing presentations and discussing topics at meetings from 2007 to 2012.

Though the videos don’t reveal information that is necessarily surprising or damning, they have generated widespread interest because people are curious about how the religion’s top leaders — considered apostles — make decisions, Bowman said.

The leaked videos come nearly a year after an internal memo about banning baptisms for children of parents in same-sex marriages was released by a Mormon who had been excommunicated.

Shortly after he left the U.S. Senate in early 2009, Gordon Smith, an Oregon Republican and a Mormon, told church leaders that he voted for the Iraq war “because I felt the Lord’s hand in it.”

He said that if the war ultimately succeeds, “there will be an opportunity to begin building the church in the Middle East, which is a deeply troubled place.”

In response to a church leader’s question about the biggest threats of concern to the faith, Smith first listed “secularism, which is fueled by socialism,” followed by weapons of mass destruction in the hands of “a fanatical branch of a great religion.”

After the church faced backlash for supporting California’s gay marriage ban, he suggested the church lower its profile by working with leaders of other faiths who have strong ties to lawmakers who are able to kill legislation they find threatening. Cont.

Story from - Review Journal
Video from - Mormon Leaks - YouTube