I had an interesting experience this week.I was invited to join a face book group called Understanding and Witnessing to Mormons which seemed to me to be a noble thing, as I feel that inter-faith dialog at its best can be.It seemed to be too good to be true, and it turned out that it was.Feel free to check out the group and decide for yourself but it was long on the witnessing to Mormons and nonexistent on the understanding Mormons point to mind.
I was invited to join because they don’t have enough LDS people in the group and need more to inform the non-LDS of the actual LDS view point.But an example of how the group operates is best exemplified through an exchange I had with one member in particular.They were claiming that it was and is an LDS teaching that God was once a man as we are.Now they know of this based for example on the famous Lorenzo Snow quote in Man's Destiny
“As Abra'm, Isaac, Jacob, too, babes, then men--to gods they grew. As man now is, our God once was; As now God is, so man may be,-- Which doth unfold man's destiny. . ."
But standing in stark contrast to this quote is Moroni 8:18 which reads “For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is aunchangeablefrom balleternity to all eternity." So for one that idea of God being literally an exalted man is completely refuted by LDS scripture to my mind and my reading of this passage in Moroni.
When I cited Moroni 8:18 and explained that Gordon B. Hinkley had said that “I don’t know that we teach that” the response was basically “So the one man with a direct pipe line to God says I don’t know? I can’t accept a non answer.”But that spoke only to part of my answer and not to the passage and explanation in Moroni.So the reason this person couldn’t accept my answer is because it stood in direct opposition to what they wanted to believe the LDS church has and does teach on the matter.
Now I know some LDS people who do believe that God has been exalted but I don’t know that is what the church teaches or has ever taught officially.
But this is one example of an ongoing problem with this group, answers LDS people give aren’t accepted because it doesn’t validate what evangelicals want to believe about us.And they ask questions like “What would you do if you found out your church DID teach false teachings?”That reminds me of a psychotic ex who asked me “What would you do if you cheated on me?Would you tell me or lie about it?”I don’t know could you ask me a more loaded and slanted question, like if you really tried?
I don’t know what I would do anymore than I can Imagine what I would do were I to find out that Jesus was a false prophet.
And there are other issues to; the group forbids buzz words like “cult” and anti-Mormon” so as not to slander others.Yet to refer to Joseph Smith as a false prophet and a liar is fine, what’s more is when I naturally got offended by the matter of fact slander I was degraded for taking offense so easily.
But when one of the people who railed on me for being offended saw one of my face book status’s which was “So i joined a group called understanding and witnessing to mormoms which is an interfaith dialog group by evangelicals. They railed on joseph smith over polygamy and i mentioned that abraham, isaac, david and solomon were all polygamists and that as a result of jess being from the line ofndavid who was from the line of isaac who was abrahams grandson that jesus was the product of polygamous relationships. Guess how that went over?”
Her response was this……Jill: You're really showing your lack of maturity here. Just for the record, I'm not offended. But if you want to be my friend, I don't suggest making fun of my beliefs on yourstatus. She stated she was not offended but she clearly was, and on this issue she was actually looking to be offended.I never mentioned her beliefs or her and on top of that when I was criticized by her for being offended by people on that group referring to Joseph Smith as a liar and false prophet like it’s a matter of fact rather than faith it is hypocrisy of the highest order! Bottom of FormSo I unfriended her and quit the group because aside from the issues I mentioned already I honestly felt like the one liberal commentator on Fox News on a show contending with like 8 conservatives and being shouted down rather than having a debate or an actual dialog.Here’s a chart to help demonstrate the difference between having a debate or dialog with someone and preaching a sermon to them:
I was born and raised a member but growing up my Mom sent me to any church she could find and being a kid I didn’t know any better they all taught the same Bible stories I recognized so I was good.When I got older after having bad experiences being called a Satan worshiper for being Mormon I only went to LDS services.But I became quite rebellious and had a lot of questions both philosophical and theological that I couldn’t find answers to in the ward I went to at the time.So I left.
After a decade plus of study and visiting many different churches, synagogues and mosques I met my Wife.She was Mormon and though I’d dated Mormon women before who couldn’t get me to go to church, even though one was actually a return missionary, my Wife did get me to go to church….begrudgingly.
Then our 10yr old received Missionary lessons so she could get baptized and I was the one who took her to meeting after meeting.And our Bishop encouraged me to go to church and became an Elder to provide a better example for her and our other 2 daughters.I prayed to find the right path and begged for guidance.But one of the reasons I had bounced around from various churches is that I always felt like something was off, like something was missing and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
After sometime I not only felt better about going to church but I felt like I had found what was missing, I had found the church I needed to be a part of.My faith was restored, my faith in God, in and afterlife, in Jesus and in the LDS church and the Gospel of the restoration.My friends have said I sound better and happier, that I’m healthier physically, mentally and emotionally.And I credit my Wife but also my faith.
It has changed my life and I am so grateful for my Wife and to our friends for putting up with me while I had hard feelings toward the church and even the Gospel.It has changed my life forever and for the better and it can do that for everyone which is why Missionary work is so important.But Spencer W. Kimball said “Every member a Missionary” and every member can be that Missionary, that friend to make the Gospel understandable to someone of another faith or of no faith and maybe they will aid someone on their journey to accepting the Gospel and changing the course of their lives.It happened to me, it can happen to others too.