criticism – What Do Mormons Believe?

Judge not . . .

When I was a kid I used to think that everyone was just like me and that for the most part their lives were like mine–they had a warm, safe place to sleep, more than enough to eat, and that they felt safe and knew that their mom and dad loved them. When I got to be a teenager, I realized that that wasn’t always the case, but I erroneously thought that it was their own fault if they weren’t happy, or if they had “problems”. In the last few years, but in particular the last few months, I have seen and heard a lot of sad stories, heart wrenching really, that have truly changed my perspective .

I see a lot of people who have been shot, stabbed, hit by a car on their bike, run over while waiting at the bus stop, and in one case, a drunk woman hit a van with a woman and three or four kids, killing them all and yet she lived with a broken ankle. Meanwhile there was a husband and child, who were lucky enough to not be in the van, whose lives were changed forever that night.

We are all quick to point our fingers at the drunk lady and say, “how could she do that– drink and drive. She should be the one who is dead.” But, I would almost guarantee that if you were to ask this woman about her life she would have a heart-wrenching story of her own to tell, which would probably turn your stomach in knots. I would almost bet that her life was so bad that the only way that she could deal with it was to drink until it didn’t hurt anymore.

We all do it; we all judge each other. Christ taught, “judge not, that ye be not judged” (St. Matthew 7:1) He was speaking with a some experience, remember He was Mary’s son, who was pregnant before she and Joseph were married. I am sure the young couple was the talk of Nazareth for a while.

I have thought about those seven words a lot and the more I hear these sad stories and see the scars, either emotional or physical, that people carry, the more I realize that I have no room to think, “well, if you would just . . . then you wouldn’t be like this.” If I had to go through what some people have, maybe I would drink myself to death too. Or how can you not be violent to others, when all you have experienced was violence from those who you are supposed to trust?

I am not advocating that people should not be punished for their actions, or that sin as defined by God’s laws is excusable, but what I am saying is that we should all have a little more compassion. We can hate the sin, but still love the sinner (as a contributor to this website put it). We should all view people as who they really are–sons and daughters of an Eternal Father in Heaven, who have divine and unlimited potential. So when that guy flies by you on your way home tonight and then proceeds to slam on his brakes and cut you off to get in the turn lane, take a deep breath and say, “I bet he is on the way to the hospital to see his wife who is taking her last breaths.”

Is Mormonism a Cult?

You might have heard that the Reverend Robert Jeffress called Mormonism a cult a couple weekends ago. It’s nothing new to us Mormons: people have been calling us cultists for generations. It’s only news because someone connected to a presidential campaign said it, giving journalists the perfect excuse to write headlines combining the words “religion” and “politics.”

With accusations of bigotry flying in from all directions, the pastor has stood by his statement and made the clarification that Mormonism is a “theological cult,” which has a different denotation than a “sociological cult” akin to the small, controlling groups led by the likes of David Koresh and Jim Jones. The way that Jeffress describes it, a “theological cult” is a religious group that deviates from traditional Christianity significantly enough that it should be excluded from the realm of Christianity.

Now, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does deviate from traditional Christianity in some ways, so there may be some value in his assessment; it’s a question worth exploring through further research and education. My main objection to the term “cult” is its connotation: it conjures up images of brain-washing, living in barbed-wire compounds, restricting access to the outside world. Rather than opening the question, it closes the door on it. The intent of the word is to tell everyone, “DANGER! Don’t go near these loons!”

So, there’s a problem with the word “cult” itself: it’s pejorative. Rev. Jeffress’ relatively neutral definition is automatically charged by the fierce emotional context surrounding the word, and the message of that emotion is “REJECT MORMONS!” As Mormons, we feel that message unfairly replaces education with anti-Mormon propaganda.

This tactic is relatively commonplace in the public square. The well-known atheist, Christopher Hitchens recently summed up my religion as one led by “a supreme leader, known as the prophet [who can order Mormons] to turn upon and shun any members who show any signs of backsliding […] Word is that the church can be harder to leave than it was to join. Hefty donations and tithes are apparently appreciated from the membership.”

If Jeffress or Hitchens were my first introduction to Mormonism, I’d probably call the LDS church worse names than “cult.” Fortunately, I (as a Mormon) know more about my religion than these two combined.

While each of these descriptions is based on a small kernel of truth (we do have some theological differences with traditional Christianity and we do indeed have a prophet and we pay our tithing, etc.), they mislead you (we believe in the grace of Jesus Christ, we actively reach out to “backsliding” members, and we allow members to resign their membership freely). Without the necessary context it’s impossible to understand some issues the way Mormons understand them. If your goal is to feed your hatred for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints then stop right here. Just go find some anti-Mormon screeds and don’t be surprised when you develop strong feelings of disdain and disgust for us lunatic Mormons.

If you want to understand Mormonism, though, here are the main things a Mormon will focus on when introducing the Church:

God is our Father and He loves us,
Jesus Christ atoned for our sins,
the original Christian priesthood and apostleship have been restored, and
God speaks to us through His prophets and through the Holy Ghost.

I’m not sure why these don’t get the press’s attention as much, but they are the foundational principles of the Mormon religion (and my life). Start with these to better understand the frequent accusations and misleading descriptions that are thrown our way.

To get a true education on our religion, contact a Mormon friend or acquaintance; you can ask them your questions directly. We are always itching to tell our story to people who want to learn, especially if the focus is on the central themes I listed here. If you don’t know any Mormons, send me an email. I’ll gladly volunteer to be your first latter-day saint friend.

A FAIR Perspective on Critical Claims

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who don’t like us Mormons.

I can understand why. We aren’t like most break-off sects, based on our peculiar interpretation of scripture. People are more or less comfortable with these groups. After all, if Martin Luther said something you don’t agree with, you can rest assured that his foundation is firmly rooted in the Bible. He might be mistaken on some things, but by and large he agrees with mainline protestantism. He never claimed to be a prophet.

But Mormons are new and different. It’s all or nothing. It can’t be swallowed half-way.

Joseph Smith described in detail a visitation from God the Father and Jesus Christ. Either Joseph Smith was honest about his first encounter with God or he lied about it. He was visited frequently by angels or he wasn’t visited at all. He was a prophet or a hoaxer. If one is not Mormon and will not be baptized, “Joseph Smith was a fraud” is the stance one is required to take. The middle ground is removed.

This polarization has energized detractors to produce mountains of criticism to discredit Mormonism, which if seen by itself makes our religion look plain silly, or worse. The criticisms range from sophomoric name-calling and laughably-inconsistent retelling of our beliefs to historical documentation and intellectual DNA analysis. Most of this is aimed not at Mormons (these kinds of attacks rarely have the gravitas to significantly shake LDS faith), but primarily at potential investigators of Mormonism. They are designed to damage the Church’s reputation enough that you’ll dismiss anything we might offer.

The criticism, in turn, has prompted Latter-day Saints for years to rebut the arguments and point out evidences in our favor. This rebuttal in defense of faith is called apologetics from the Greek apologia, meaning “defense.”

The leading body defending Mormon doctrine from critical arguments is the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR). It is an independent, non-profit group of Latter-day Saints dedicated to “providing well-documented answers to criticisms of LDS (Mormon) doctrine, belief and practice.” They have a website and a wiki full of every piece of anti-Mormon material you could ask for and a confident, clear response to each.

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A few weeks ago I attended their annual conference in Sandy, UT. They had speakers from a variety of professional backgrounds. A lawyer-economist spoke on the failed Kirtland Safety Society, a banking endeavor that Joseph Smith initiated (and according to critics, caused to fail in order to steal parishioners’ money). A physicist (a former member of the federal government’s — and no, this isn’t a joke — Dark Energy Task Force) gave a lecture on Joseph’s cosmology compared with a modern physics account of the creation of the universe. There were talks with titles like, “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Plural Marriage (but were afraid to ask),” “Haplogroup X in Light of Recent Book of Mormon Claims,” and “Joseph the Seer, or Why Joseph Translated with a Rock in His Hat.” I came away impressed with their professionalism and their ability to make the topics accessible, interesting, and relevant.

Dr. Daniel C. Peterson, the face of modern Mormon intellectualism

My favorite FAIR contributor is a professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic named Daniel C. Peterson. I became a fan through watching his FAIR presentations on YouTube. (Click here to see Dr. Peterson’s review of Christopher Hitchens’ infamous book god is Not Great).

Members of FAIR look into the criticisms in their spare time and on their own dime; the Church doesn’t fund their research. There are important reasons for that. One of the key reasons is that Father has a different method for teaching us, which the Church favors. It doesn’t require advanced degrees or superior reasoning capacity, and the objective isn’t merely knowledge. The objective is goodness, even Godliness. He created this whole world as a sort of school. A proving ground. What is required is a humble heart and a will to follow Jesus Christ. Learning how to pray is much more vital to this kind of education than writing a thesis.

So, if you are investigating the Church, and you’ve been bombarded with defamatory information in anti-Mormon pamphlets or movies, first go to God. You can learn a lot through prayerful revelation. This should be your first step. Always. If it still bothers you, poke around FAIR’s website. They’ve heard it all. You may find peace in knowing that when you don’t have all the answers, some smart, faith-filled people have blazed the trail ahead of you. It certainly helps me.

Coverup?

Q. Why does the Church not tell people that the Prophet Smith “translated” part of the [Book of Mormon] by looking into a hat using a seer stone? An Elder of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles wrote about this in the Ensign [the Church’s monthly English-language publication], but why don’t missionaries tell the whole story of the translation? It seems like the Church is hiding something.

I understand how you must feel — betrayed to learn about something that seems so odd for the first time, but it really isn’t that odd. One of the best ways to make Mormonism out to be cultish and strange is to take facts completely out of their context–just leave them standing there naked and defenseless. Learning about the process of translation is the best way to understand this fact in its context. nelson

Elder Russell M. Nelson gave a great talk about the process of translation at the Missionary Training Center, and he spoke about this process of Joseph figuring out how to translate.

It does seem supernatural, but so are most of the amazing stories in the scriptures–Moses parting the Red Sea, Joshua crossing the River Jordan, marching around Jericho seven times and the walls collapsing, David slaying Goliath, Samson killing 2,000 Philistines, Christ healing people–himself rising from the dead! etc. We come to expect supernatural things from our God and His servants. Joseph’s use of a seer stone or the Urim and Thummim to translate fits in with all the other miracles that have been documented in the scriptures.

The Church’s curriculum department must meet the needs of all members. This means everyone from the just-baptized and uninitiated to the seasoned scholars. It’s a tall order to serve milk to some and meat to others, so what generally happens is everyone mainly gets milk. I think the Church prefers that members who are prepared to get more carnivorous in their pursuit of Church history and deeper doctrines learn it through independent study. But the information is readily available to those who want to know. I searched “seer stone” on lds.org and it came up with a list of links with conference talks, manuals, explanations, scriptural citations and other information.

The Church isn’t trying to hide anything–if it isn’t spoon fed into your mouth each week at church, seek it out on your own through prayer, scripture study and other resources (like lds.org). The Lord will readily teach a searching mind (see Matthew 7:7).