well, what joseph smith did is to sort of supercharge it with high octane fuel, to make it even more amazing. the possibility was the fact that we have unlimited territory, the people are energized to do it, and we've got the frontier, so there's a lot of space to move on, and move on they did- as we said, establishing great communities like nauvoo. and finally, the place. well, the place today, just to run that down for you, the place, of course, is utah. after the death of joseph smith in carthage, most of the mormons, after continued harassment, followed brigham young out to utah- that becomes zion for them- and today, that's the latter day saints. there is 8 million latter day saints; it's a very, very large movement. so we have 8 million folks in the latter day saints movement. the second group is, with 250,000, are the reorganized mormon church, and they still hold to the independence, missouri, is the center, and they have followed the descendants of joseph smith. thereafter, there's several other different sects, but the idea here is that the place becomes utah, the place bec

friends would love to see him pitch a fit and say i have never apologized for america overseas, and joseph smith'soesn't check out. and he needs to realize himself on a personal level how much is at steak if governor romney gets in. >> eliot: yes, one word is optimism. anger and optimism don't usually go together. >> jennifer: yes. >> eliot: optimism is what he has to capture. and empathy and optimism is hard to balance. >> jennifer: it's optimism and determination. he is going to lay out his future plan, and be specific and optimistic about what it will generate. he has to acknowledge that we have not arrived at the promise land yet. >> john: and america is better off now than it was four years ago. >> jennifer: yes. >> john: in january 2009 we were losing 800,000 jobs that month. and he can point out that maybe the reason that governor romney won't release his tax returns is because he doesn't want y'all to know he is better off than he was four years ago. >> jennifer: exactly. >> eliot: we also have to acknowledge where the white house has been a little weaker has been articulating something ne

elected, he will be the fulfillment of his cult's pedophile, racist, con artist murdering founder joseph smith's white horse prophecy that romney and all mormons believe. i know what you're thinking. why didn't obama say that during the first debate? it is worth pointing out that the web site spells the plural of mormons mormon's because apparently punctuation is an abomination as well. the site that features links to donate money to bill keller encourages everyone to write in the name of jesus on their presidential ballot. i, for one seriously crew, could not agree more because what right wing bible belt fundamentalist wouldn't want to vote for jesus. he never spoke english was totally anti-death penalty anti-wealth, anti-family anti-public prayer. that's matthew 6:5 but never once anti-gay, he never mentioned abortion, never fought for tax cuts for the wealthiest nazarenes, he was a long haired, brown skinned progressive activist mideastern jew. and this is why if jesus ever does come back, it will be tough to hear his message of love and compassion over the screams of his followers >>and now

sacred, secular tension, you know, in previous classes, and we can even think about someone like joseph smith, who had to struggle to find his own way, his own sacred world out there. and though there's about 13 centuries separating them, both mohammed and joseph heard revelations from angelic beings and brought a text that created a community, that was holy. interesting comparison there- very different otherwise, but you know, that's what we're looking at. we mentioned zakat, but just to run down through our relationships here, next on the graphics, besides giving alms to the poor- and we'll hear from a muslim, a believer, which we want to do in this class, we'll hear how they describe it. but also, fasting- during the month of ramadan- another key pillar in islam. another one that you might want to do is the haji. in your lifetime, you'll be wanting to make a pilgrimage to mecca- a ritual. you know, here we are keeping the ritual dimension in, but you'll want to go to the holy, holy shrine in mecca, which is, of course, again defined by myth. another term, relational- i've just pulled some

. >> and joseph smith even alluded to the united states constitution being... its framers being inspired, the constitution as an inspired document, not quite scripture but somewhere in that league. >> narrator: some mormons say mitt's political ambition may be connected to his faith. >> the kingdom of god is to be built on earth, and we all are to take part in doing that. so when somebody says... somebody does something really remarkable, someone may remark, "it's an act of consecration in building the kingdom on earth." and mitt may very well see the presidency as part of that, and it would certainly be a great accomplishment in building the kingdom on earth. >> narrator: back in 1994, when he had failed against ted kennedy, his chances of becoming president seemed remote. but five years later, in 1999, he saw another opportunity to be in the public eye. >> with scandals swirling around the salt lake city olympics of 2002... >> several members were bribed for their votes... >> narrator: a bribery scandal threatened the salt lake winter olympics. >> growing scandal is turning into a gold

joseph smith husband gene -- has a dream.ost: religion, is that a factor among your viewers and listeners? guest: florida is a religiously diverse place. religion is huge in the sunshine state. you have a wide spectrum of folks. catholics are very prominent in the sunshine state. you have the evangelical vote. important thing when you talk religion in florida is not to make broad, sweeping statements. there are evangelicals that are more liberal. there are evangelicals that are more conservative. there is a strong and active muslim population in central florida. you have a wide diversity of religious groups. this is an instance where traditional leanings will likely point them toward their canada of choice. host: a question on our twitter page. guest: hands down is the economy at this point. florida is a tourism based economy. it is a low-wage economy. that has been hit, certainly. florida was on this huge building boom before the economy went down. housing is such a big part of florida. wanted to get the retiree sector comin

the entire texans defense was getting to joe flacco olympic looking for smith and, nope, it's going to jonathan josephll the way the other way. a 52-yard interception return for the touchdown. texans win in a rout, 43-13 the final. houston now 6-1 on the year, best start in franchise history. >>> jason garrett and the cowboys paying a visit to ron rivera and the carolina panthers. cam newton has his nateam in th red zone and now they're in the end zone. five yards and the touchdown pass. carolina doing the hand jive. third quarter though, same score, tony romo on target all game. no interceptions from him today and that was a beautiful ball to miles austin. austin holds on for a 26-yard score. cowboys take a 10-7 lead. they go on to win, 19-14. >> that davis injury, it didn't look that bad at the very end

and it brings up this fascinating question, we talked about it with myth: did joseph smith actually find plates revealed to him by a divine personage that revealed a new book and this plan? well, people are going to argue back and forth, and if you go to nauvoo, as you well know, you're going to find the established christians in town, signs everywhere saying, "this is not true. don't believe in mormons," all of this. but it's belief and behavior- beliefs and believers- that is so amazing. and you are so right. i was there just now three, four weeks ago, and the women making candles, the mormon men who are on a mission- you know, they're there for free, utah plates, idaho plates- they're there, working there for free, making horseshoes, showing the kids how to make buggies, how to make soap, how to do all these sorts of things. you sense, and you look in their eyes, the joy that this is really doing something for them. they're not making this up, they're not actors- they're there for free and they're there on a mission. and so one reason why i wanted to bring up the mormon religion in th