An open letter to those who want to know more about the LDS faith:
I have made it through fifty years without ever having to learn calculus. I took some algebra in college, but that was the end of my math-life. Now, when one of my teenagers calls me over to the kitchen table for some help, I have to remind them that I don’t “get” calculus.
As an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have been curiously watching how the media is handling the trending interest in Mormonism. Some even refer to it as the “Mormon Moment”.
New articles about Mormonism show up almost daily on the websites of major media. Many are written by journalists trying to be objective, some by critics with no intention of being objective, and some by Mormon bloggers. Rarely do I see a piece from any of these sources that is factually accurate regarding the doctrines and beliefs of our church. Even the stories written by Mormons often descend into soapbox speeches about reform or some other hot button issue that the writer is trying to advocate. Espousing dedication, with an extra-helping of agenda. (They know who they are, and it is no accident.)
It seems that whenever anyone wants to discuss Mormonism, they jump right to the topics of polygamy, temples, tithing, sacred underclothing, gay marriage, etc. The problem is that these are the “calculus” level concepts in the theology, and if you don’t understand the basic principles, you are never going to “get” the advanced principles – especially if you are basing your search on the current media portrayal of the LDS church.
So, if you are seriously trying to understand Mormon theology, there are three core concepts that you will need to wrestle with, or the rest isn’t going to make any sense at all.
1) We believe that Jesus Christ is the literal Son of God, and our Redeemer. We believe he died on the cross, and atoned for our sins. We also believe that such a description barely scratches the surface of what there is to know about Him.
Although born-again pastors might call us non-Christian, and our doctrine does not line up nicely with the Nicene Creed, we believe that we are absolutely Christian. We don’t worry about how men define us. We are more concerned about how God defines us. And I am quite confident in my Christianity by that definition.
2) We believe that God loves His children yesterday, today, and forever, and that He is no respecter of persons. Because of this, we accept that God has spoken to more people than those that inhabited the tiny area of the Holy Land. It is a big world. Why would God limit Himself to such a tiny sampling of the world’s population?
Also, if God spoke to prophets and revealed truth to the world from the beginning of time to the death of Jesus’ apostles, why would he stop after that? Did he give up on us? Did He reveal all we needed? It is obvious from the tens of thousands of Christian churches that disagree with each other that there has got to be more – and better – information and guidance that He can give us.
We believe that God continues to reveal his truths to prophets today, as he always has. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He still loves us, and still communicates with us. He has not logged off.
— If you choke on this concept, the next one will make even less sense.
3) What we do is based on what we believe. Our end goal is to follow what we believe God wants us to do. It is not to have the healthiest population, to have the lowest divorce rate, to be the most scripturally literate church, to have tens of thousands of young men and women serving as missionaries all over the world, to have the highest rate of tithe payers of any church – these things are not Mormon goals in and of themselves. They are the results of dedicated individuals and families, trying their best to follow what they believe God wants them to do. Yes, the results are remarkable, which only serves to strengthen our faith.
Three basic concepts – yet none of them are simple. All of them are heresy in many circles. Yet each of these principles must be understood if you truly want to understand what makes us tick, and the finer points of our theology.
I am not speaking for the LDS Church. I am just a normal Mormon member, and there are a lot of us quietly doing our best to live our religion. I do know that the foundation of my life is my core belief, and there are many other deeper and more complex theological points in our faith.
And remember, most things that you read about Mormonism are written by people who don’t understand Mormonism. And much of what you read that is written by Mormons is really an attempt to further an agenda that is not in line with the LDS Church.
If you truly want to understand the Mormons, grasp these three concepts, and then talk to a normal Mormon.
(One great way to find us is visit www.Mormon.org.)
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When my husband was on his mission he frequently came across people not of our faith who would try to learn more about Mormonism by reading anti-Mormon literature. He would say to them, “If you want to learn about biology, would you read a history book?” I’m amazed at how many people think they understand our faith based on the snippets they get in the media.
Along those same lines, if I have a friend of a different faith and I want to know more about what they believe, I make sure that I discuss it directly with them rather than googling it. I want to know what they believe, not what some random internet article tells me they believe. I would hope my friends would do the same for me!
I love this post and I will recommend it to friends. Ours is a faith with grand, eternal and simple principles and I love your calculus analogy. When speaking to friends we are reminded to stick to the basics but so often we forget. The gospel is simple, real, and very livable. Thanks for the post
Amen, Brother!
Amen. And thank you.
Wow – even after living with you for 25 1/2 years, I am still sometimes amazed at your ability and talent to express powerful truths in such a way that I want to stand up and cheer. I love you, my very own MMM 🙂
Again, a great post! Perfect~
To the person who left the lengthy comment late last night:
I want you to know that I respect your right to have an opinion regarding the truthfulness of the Church. I hope you also respect my right to not give you a platform on my blog to espouse what I know to be false.
May you find peace and joy in your journey.
-MMM-
You are always a delight to read, and this was no exception. Love it.
Ardis: I can think of no higher compliment. Thank you.
I wish I had written this post.
Great post! Thanks!
It will always be a mystery to me why people are willing to go to the source on so many topics, except the truth about our church.
Excellent post! Spot on {as usual}. You do realize with all your spot on posts you have set a standard to be met. =) By you, of course.
Once again, thanks for the post. I really appreciate your ability to lay it out so clearly.
As always a spot on post, as a UK Mormon the presidential Mormon debate is only just causing ripples here, but it is beginning to ripple. The basics are always the best answer to all questions, it sad how many faithfull members don’t stick to plain and simple things though..,
THIS!
Whenever I am confronted online with one of the ‘sound-bites’ people use who want to denigrate our faith, I mostly feel frustration that they have completely missed the point. The frustration is further compounded by knowing that our theology is actually so complex, so beautiful, so elegant, really, that trying to explain any of it in a forum or a comment would be useless. Most just want to stick with the polygamy, gay marriage, weird temple and You Are Evil Personified themes that there is no place to explain the beauty of our understanding of the Atonement, our incredible concept of womanhood, eternal progression,Joseph Smith’s understanding of new age metaphysics and the place of the Holy Ghost in our lives. What to do?
Thanks for the three points. I’ll make use of them!
“I appreciate your point on the LDS writers who have an agenda”
Faithful LDS writers also have an agenda — I know I do!
It’s tough for non-believing journalists for all the reasons you cite.
Years ago my brother was acquainted with the religion editor at Newsweek. He was a good person who honestly tried to report fairly. But because of his perspective, it was impossible for him to report in a way that made all LDS happy.
By the way, I wear my TBM badge with honor!
The most powerful part of this post for me: “He (God) has not logged off.” I’m going to use that. Thanks, MMM.
Very well put!
I had one of my kids friends tell me “they don’t go to our church, they’re Christian “. I was a little surprised at my unchristian like desire to trip him. It gets old having other people not of my faith telling me what I believe.
Very true. Trying to understand why we do what we do is nearly impossible without the basics. It’s like trying to solve the puzzle without the easier to place outside pieces and starting from the very center. A lot more difficult.
note: Real got a sneak peak draft of this post beforehand. Because my goal in life is to gain her approval.
Being a Relief Society teacher is just one of my several callings (all of which I love), so I was tickled a few years ago when we were assigned the Gospel Principles manual. We had the opportunity to “go back to the basics.” It’s always nice to get a refresher in what makes this gospel so glorious.
Sometimes it can be frustrating to see what is broadcast about our principles and doctrines. I wish there was some sort of lie detector test that had to be shown in the corner of the screen. NOT TRUE! NOT TRUE! DON’T BELIEVE! CRAZY TALK!! AND LOOK AT THAT TIE!?!
It provides us a great opportunity to truly live who we are and what we believe. More people are watching. Like President Hinckley said, WE are the symbols of our religion! We have a chance to be better because of the scrutiny. It’s kind of fun to take it as a challenge and become better ourselves.
We can’t control them. But we CAN control how WE react and live! I’m glad you did such a fine example of explaining that today. Thanks, MMM!
It probably took me about three minutes to figure out where I had read this before! lol
I took 11 hours of calculus on a college level. Thankfully, I don’t remember hardly any of it! I appreciate your point on the LDS writers who have an agenda, or in most cases, an axe to grind. Try responding to some of the posts across the LDS oriented blogosphere. If you hint at the least bit of faith or obedience, you are quickly ridiculed and castigated as a TBM. It’s frustrating to know that because of the internet, a vocal minority of LDS often serve up confusion and disagreement instead of unity.
Very good! I agree. There are very few Mormons who have written an op-Ed without an agenda. In fact, the only one I can think of is Kathryn Skaggs…
I also think people get tripped up just by the simplicity of the gospel. That’s why they go hunting for the calculus; the basics are too logical.