What do Mormons believe?
I thought I was unusually ignorant, in America, for knowing almost nothing about Mormonism: but if Mike Huckabee, who has devoted much of his life to the professional pursuit of religion, knows nothing much about Mormonism either, then there is a bigger information failure to be corrected.
I have, in fact, been trying for several weeks to find somebody willing to write a feature about "what Mormons believe", mainly to answer my own desire for information on that point. So far I have failed. I do hear, however, that The Economist has one cooking. I hope that is correct, and I await it keenly.
I see Mitt Romney is trying to rebrand the church—getting Jesus into the headline, as it were—by saying that "Mormonism" is a sort of nickname, and that he would much rather have it called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That may indeed make it sound a touch more user-friendly to other Christians (and should that "other Christians" be just "Christians"? I am as clueless as Mike Huckabee here).
But to me that smacks of an unworthy defensiveness. The practical details of any religion are going to sound pretty fantastical, frankly, unless you believe in them. Is the archangel Moroni really any more improbable a figure than the archangel Gabriel? Is the revelation of the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith any more implausible than the revelation of the Ten Commandments to Moses? Is "sacred underwear" any odder an aide-memoire than rosary beads? We become habituated to the elements of our better-known religions. I find it salutary to be surprised by a new variant every once in a while.
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Mormonism
December 15, 2007 - 14:10 — Randall Moon (not verified)Have you found anyone willing to write about Mormonism? As a former Mormon myself, I'd be willing to enlighten you, and I believe that I could give you a fair representation of Mormon doctrine given that I have no axe to grind with the church. You must be aware, however, that the internet is chock full of information about Mormonism. Some of it is spurious, of course, but you can always go to the official Mormon website to get the "official" story.
I think what worries a lot of so-called "mainstream" Christians is that the Mormons do have some singularly peculiar doctrines which place them outside of the mainstream. Then there is its hierarchical organization which asks for a kind of obedience to the authority of men which elicits the charge of it being a cult in the same way that mainstream Christianity considers the Jehovah's Witnesses a cult.
Mormonism
December 20, 2007 - 05:01 — Visitor (not verified)In the same way that every liberator starts out as a terrorist, every supernatural belief system starts out as a cult. If it adapts to human nature enough to attract a modicum of adherents then it graduates to a faith; if it survives another few hundred years then it becomes a religion. The longest-lived religions are precisely those that are slipperiest and most adaptable: by showing its willingness to adopt new 'revelations' about bigamy and male supremacy, Mormonism is showing it wants to play in the big league.
Please. It used to be common
December 21, 2007 - 03:15 — BSuden (not verified)Please. It used to be common knowledge [I show my age] that the Mormon Church denied some cardinal doctrines of the Christian church and thereby qualified as a cult, not a sect.
One would be the Trinity which all branches, Roman, Orthodox and Protestant affirm. Another would be, for Protestants, the sufficiency of Scripture and the providential preservation of authoritative copies of the original Hebrew and Greek texts in the usage of the church. The canon of Scripture was closed with the book of Revelation (22:18) and the death of the apostlic eyewitnesses or the penman for the apostles (Mark to Peter for instance.) Some 1800's years later to find a long lost? supplement to the New Testament in the Book of Mormon written in Egyptian? hieroglyphics now lost again I think, is a little much.
Muslims too, claim to believe in Jesus and at least the Pentateuch yet the Koran pretty much says what it wants to about the Bible and Christ. Likewise J Smith.
Nevertheless Christ claimed to be not only the alpha and the omega, and the last prophet after whom none would come, but also the Son of God. No Muhammed, no J Smith are needed.
Further the battle cry of the Reformation was salvation by faith alone, by sovreign predestinating grace alone, in Christ alone, to God's glory alone as found in Scripture alone. Salvation is not a works righteousness like every other religion teaches, including Mormonism.
Which is all to say, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Mormonism all have their distinctive beliefs. They are not the same things, though there are some historical developments, similiarities or claims by the last two to the first.
But then neither is Christianity Judaism.
Thank you.
[Interesting website. Never have seen it before. Came in on the link for the indexing article]
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