The current prophet of the church is inspired by Jesus Christ, not by Joseph Smith, and it is Christ who is the head of our current church.
How, then, might Mr. Romney defend himself against the charge that, as president, he would be vulnerable to direction from the prophet of his church?
As the eighth prophet of the church, in a line that began with the Mormon pioneer, Joseph Smith, Mr. Jeffs led the largest religious group in North America that still practices plural marriage and is ostracized by the mainstream Mormon Church for the same reason.
Bednar, just 63-years-old, will likely someday be the president and prophet of the church, a calling that is currently based on seniority and endures until death.
My parents lived by every word that came from the mouth of the prophet of the Mormon church.
But Mormons continue to believe, for example, in direct and ongoing divine revelation, which is why the church's president, currently Thomas Monson, is considered a prophet and his quorum of church leaders are deemed apostles.Yet in practical matters Mormonism seems well adapted to the modern world, for Mormons are, by many measures, disproportionately successful.
As president of the Church's Boston stake from 1986 to 1994, he established strong ties to top church officials; in January 2008, Romney suspended his first failed presidential campaign to attend the funeral of church president and "prophet" Gordon B. Hinckley, described by USA Today as Mitt's personal "spiritual leader".
But a vast majority of Mormons in the poll said they believed in Mormon doctrines that were distinctive from traditional Christian churches: 94 percent said they believed that the president of the church is a prophet of God, and 95 percent said they believed that families can be bound together eternally in temple ceremonies.
Ecclesiophobia- Fear of church.
Mr. Jeffs is the self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon Church with about 10,000 followers acroSaints West.
