'Blood Moon' seen as sign of end times by some Mormons

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

'Blood Moon' seen as sign of end times by some Mormons

Brady Mccombs, Associated Press
Updated 1:59 am, Saturday, September 26, 2015



SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A rare confluence of a lunar eclipse and a supermoon set to happen this weekend has prompted such widespread fear of an impending apocalypse that the Mormon Church was compelled to issue a statement cautioning the faithful to not get caught up in speculation about a major calamity.

Sunday night's "blood moon" and recent natural disasters and political unrest around the world have led to a rise in sales at emergency-preparedness retailers. Apocalyptic statements by a Mormon author have only heightened fears among a small number of Mormon followers about the looming end of time. The eclipse will give the moon a red tint and make it look larger than usual. It won't happen again for 18 years.

It's unclear how many Latter-day Saints buy the theory, but Mormon leaders were worried enough that they took the rare step this week of issuing a public statement cautioning the faithful not to get carried away with visions of the apocalypse.

Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints told its 15 million worldwide members that they should be "spiritually and physically prepared for life's ups and downs," but they urged them not to take speculation from individual church members as doctrine and "avoid being caught up in extreme efforts to anticipate catastrophic events."


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Blood-Moon-seen-as-sign-of-end-times-by-some-6531229.php

[Warpy]

1. Gotta keep those tithes rolling in

and scaring the hell out of simpletons with a long predicted lunar eclipse can do it.

Yes, I have an unsympathetic view of religion, why did you ask?

[Sunlei]

16. if only mittens didn't cut the hair off the white horse rider we would have been a greater nation

how can one person wreck it for everyone?

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. To give them their due, the church is saying there's nothing unusual about the eclipse

It's the crazies finding stuff on the internet who are raving about end times.

[The CCC]

42. Gotta keep those tithes rolling in

Ad Hominem and Non Sequitour.

[Journeyman]

2. Since the dawn of time, natural disasters have been our lot, and the international situation . . .

has been desperate (as usual) since we began taking note of it long before we had the means to write about it. And celestial movement? It's what we are, for we are stardust.

I can no more see patterns between these disparate events or foretell disaster from their chance alignment than I can pick meaning to life from random tea leaf patterns or see the future in Jim's magic hairball.

It is a telling aspect of the sickness with which religion can infect the gullible that such balderdash is taken seriously by the weaker minds among us.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. Will they get really upset if we dance naked around a bonfire?

It's a ritual thing.

[Le Taz Hot]

27. ROFL!

Ah, that was good.

[TexasProgresive]

4. I guess the end has come and gone several times in my life time

I have seen several full lunar eclipses and everyone resulted in a "blood moon." I may have seen one like this one where the moon is at perigee (closest to the earth) but I'm not sure. The sign in the sky that I fear is the end is a mushroom cloud to the SSE or the W or to the NNE or even all three. That would be Houston, Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth being vaporized.

[Enthusiast]

15. It's coming, any day now.

[url=http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php][img][/img][/url]

[Sunlei]

18. I still regret running in fear like a little kid, the one time a 'ufo' dropped close

I will not run the next time.

[Enthusiast]

20. Really?

That would be cool!

[Sunlei]

22. really. About 3-4? second 'experience' I'll never forget.

Never had another experience like that.

[Enthusiast]

25. I have never had the privilege of seeing a UFO.

I always keep an eye out. I used to bass fish at night a lot in total darkness. I got to see a number of spectacular meteors but no UFOs. It has been a disappointment.
.

[LiberalElite]

28. I thought I had seen one - ran around screaming -

it was a jet on descent to the airport. I didn't know they had lights. (It was a long time ago.) So, I haven't had that privilege either.

[Enthusiast]

30. It would be awesome to see one. It would be a life changing event.

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Judi Lynn]

50. That would be a natural response, I'll bet, for almost anyone. What a shock! Amazing. n/t

[camelfan]

5. Amid the endless talk about Pope Francis...

...and now this shit. The only way to fix the problems of the world is to wholly embrace science and rid ourselves of this superstitious nonsense, regardless of its source. Religion put us back by 1,000 years by having such a chokehold on people's beliefs. If religion had never taken root, and we didn't need the Renaissance to re-learn everything the ancient Greeks had already learned, there would be no climate change and far less disease and poverty. We would have figured it out long ago.

[Calista241]

36. I'm not going to disagree with your premise

But there's a lot of assumptions in there.

[LiberalElite]

56. I was raised RC

left it years ago and am now one of those "nones" - or not belonging to an organized religion. I've never been bothered by Atheism - if you don't believe in god or gods I don't care. Atheism just doesn't appeal to me. The thought that this life now is it there's nothing else is too depressing. That being said, Atheists have been looking pretty damn good to me in recent years because of the right wing "Christians". However, I do not subscribe to the belief that religion is the reason for all the world's problems. I don't think it's that simple. The ancient Greeks had religion too.

[MisterP]

60. this atheist historian

says that's a-grade bullplop
http://armariummagnus.blogspot.ca/2009/10/gods-philosophers-how-medieval-world.html

[AllyCat]

6. Interesting demon these people follow.

[paleotn]

7. When has there NOT been...

...natural disasters and political unrest? I've heard the same crap off and on from Baptists for decades. To which I respond with Ecclesiastes 1: 9

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

[gaspee]

8. What is it with these death cults

And end times - it seems like all the fundies of every stripe think of the end of the world with glee. Buncha weirdos if ya ask me.

[trusty elf]

9. There's a superfluous "m" in the middle of the last word of the title....

[Darb]

11. Heeehe. DUzy.

[Enthusiast]

17. Pfft!

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Enthusiast]

26. ...

[trusty elf]

31. Thanks!

That's funny!

I could only listen to the audio, though! The video wasn't playing for some reason-only one still frame during the entire clip.

[Enthusiast]

47. That's the way it is supposed to work. You can see the entire episode at the South Park site.

It was funny. Unless you are a Mormon.

[The CCC]

49. There's a superfluous "m" in the middle of the last word of the title....

Hmmm rusty elf.

[Marrah_G]

10. Well if the world doesn't end Sunday, they can stir up the fear in another 18 years.

[DemoTex]

12. Lunar eclipse, not solar eclipse fer gawds sake!

Why use a photo of a solar eclipse to illustrate an article about a lunar eclipse?


Solar eclipse by moon and earth: fancy NASA shot, but not germane to the article.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Arguably not a solar eclipse either, since it's not taken from Earth

The caption is:

"This Sept. 13, 2015 image provided by NASA shows the moon, left, and the Earth, top, transiting the sun together, seen from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The edge of Earth appears fuzzy because the atmosphere blocks different amounts of light at different altitudes. This image was taken in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths, invisible to human eyes, but here colorized in gold."

Which is quite interesting, but, as you say, not a lunar eclipse, or even close to it. Since the SDO is in a geosynchronous orbit, I suppose it could be called a solar eclipse.

[MyNameGoesHere]

13. Well we had a good run

so long everyone. Hasn't the end happened like a dozen times already?

[Sunlei]

14. That moon makes my dogs so happy!

[Locrian]

19. title is misspelled - there's supposed to be only one "m" in the last word

[JCat]

21. Real Reason for Blood Moon

My grandson turns thirteen tomorrow. He has a fascination with space. That is the real reason there will be a Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse. Happy Birthday Sean, from Grandma and Grandpa.

[forest444]

53. Happy Birthday to your grandson, JCat!

May his talents take him where no man has gone before.

And welcome to DU. Happy posting!

[LiberalElite]

29. Wasn't there a blood moon a couple years ago?

this is supposedly catastrophic because it's an eclipse? When will we get over this?

[valerief]

38. The Alarm Farm never stops farming its crops. nt

[LiberalElite]

39. .

"Alarm Farm" I like it!

[valerief]

40. Ha! Yeah, just popped into my head as an apt description. nt

[kairos12]

32. Blood moon is what I got low crawling under a barbed wire fence.

[tavernier]

63. ...

[Maeve]

33. I am so sick of cowards who can't cope and just want the world to end!

Seriously..."Ooooo, too many disasters, scary things in the sky, must be the end and now Gaws will take care of the mess we've made!" And if it IS the end, what good is a bunch of canned food going to do for you???? D'you think it's only the 'penultimate times' that there's going to be salvation only for the hoarders? So good people who don't hoard get the same punishment as unprepared bad folk, and evil hoarders win, too? What the HELL kind of stupid Gawd do you believe in?????

[davidpdx]

34. I have an underground bunker with some koolaid if they'd like

All fundies welcome!

[Lychee2]

35. A "blood moon" is a recurring theme in Jewish & Christian end-times stories

Joel 2:31 ESV

The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.

Revelation 6:12-14 ESV

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

More here: http://www.openbible.info/topics/the_red_moon

[valerief]

37. Hopefully, it's the end of the oligarchy times.

I'm such an optimist.

[Generic Other]

41. Isaac Asimov always identified "Nightfall" as his best short story

Here's a link to the story. It perfectly illuminates the mindset of the doomsday cults.

http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/fwalter/AST389/TEXTS/Nightfall.htm

[KatyMan]

45. Great story!

I seem to recall the movie was pretty good too (maybe late 80s?)

[tabasco]

43. Break out the kool-aid if you really believe that crap, dummies.

The human species is a cowardly species which needs superstition to deal with its fear of death.

[world wide wally]

44. There is nothing new under the Sun

Here is a list of dates the world was predicted to end ...to date, of course
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events

[CanonRay]

46. "I see a bad moon rising...."

"I see, trouble on the way..."

Credence knew about this!

[dhill926]

48. well dress yourselves up in your magic jammies....

and go already. Utah is such a beautiful state, we could repopulate it with sane people....

[Judi Lynn]

51. The magical underwear should protect them, you'd think, or they could get a refund. n/t

[Tom Kitten]

52. It's Doomsday...again

It's a doomsday morning every day
It's a doomsday evening every night...

[Dont call me Shirley]

54. Oh another end-o-the-world scare, they need to be more concerned about keeping their anger in

check. Maybe begin to honor their feminine side. Or begin to shed their negative thoughts and emotions. These would be a much wiser use of time and energy.

[nomorenomore08]

55. "Saw it written and I saw it say, pink moon is on its way..."

[wildbilln864]

57. it should read...

'Blood Moon' seen as sign of end times by some Morons.

[cindyperry2010]

58. what utter crap

one moment in time is no different than any other. b.s.

[sudenlyseymour]

59. Well, that should really help out w/ all my credit card debt.

It should be rather beautiful too.

[tonekat]

61. The Moon is Coming For You, Mormons!

So put on your magic underwear and start drinking!

[tavernier]

64. My grandmother

who would be about 130 now had she lived, used to tell me about the time a comet was heading for the earth, and all the ppl in her town dressed up in white and went up to the hillside outside of town to await the end of the world. Night came and went and Grannie woke up long enough to see her father pick her up and carry her home. 😄