What do I tell my wife about the MORMONS? (page 2)

Double Edge

When I look for someone to vote for, I'm usually voting for a politician, not someone to be my pastor. Why should religion come up at all? This has the same "smell" as when JFK ran ..... What, a CATHOLIC for president? At one time Catholics looked down on Protestants as not truly "Christian" and vice versa. That's it folks, keep ignoring the real issues and who would make a good Chief Executive and we'll get them same old, same old hack politicians. Romney, as a Republican, won the governorship of a highly Democratic, liberal state - and from what I hear he did a good job. When I hear the phrase "I can't vote for a Mormon" I think of of people filling in the blank on any candidate.....

I can't vote for a woman...

I can't vote for a black....

I can't vote for a democrat

I can't vote for a republican

Well, then don't vote for or against your prejudices, vote FOR someone.... their character, their ideas for solving the problems of the country, their ability to listen to all sides and make good judgements .... we'll never get good, honest people if we keep "filling in the blanks" with nonsense. (my 2 cents)

bebu

I think you could use this as a time to say: "Let's use the internet to investigate Mormons. We can see what is being said, pro and con, and double-check what might be construed by Mormons as rumor. The internet is a perfect tool for research and for finding resources." --Let me warn you that soap operas for the next 10 years can draw from Mormon history/scandals (faithful Mormons were exceptionally good at diaries, letters, newspapers, and recording sermons, and these are an embarassing paper trail... sound familiar?).

Language is used to confuse. They say they believe in all the things that mainline churches believe, but only a short bit of digging shows that the content of the words are worlds apart:

There are doctrinal flip-flops, like JWs. Adam/God, polygamy, and many others.
There are different definitions to words used by mainline Christians.
God used to be a man, who was redeemed by another God via another Christ... (Karma?)
Jesus and Satan (Lucifer) are brothers (but not getting along well, obviously)
"Spirit" is matter, just more "refined".
No virgin birth doctrine: Mary had sex with God the Father and produced Jesus.
There are degrees of reward/exaltation after death. No hell, as I recall, but people who don't get sealed into a temple ceremony (marriage in a temple, which is a mirror to the Masonic temple rites, and wasn't introduced into Mormon theology until Joseph Smith started up with the Masons and progressed to higher levels) don't get to become a god with their own planet, multiple wives, millions of children... and a new civilization to be saved by a ransom sacrifice. Everyone else just gets back to living on earth, more or less, although hopefully much nicer to each other by now.

(Mormons are asked to please correct me on this if I have anything wrong.)

Mormons don't usually spill all these (and other) beans when they are out knocking on doors. It all comes eventually... after baptism, when by now the person has had a strong "testimony" to the MORMON faith (not God or even Jesus).

Other similarities:

The Mormon church requires tithing... and subsequently they are a financial powerhouse.
There is a small group of men (apostles and a Prophet) who have been given divine authority. You really don't question them. BTW, the eternal "command" (that's not the word, but I can't recall the right one) of polygamy, given by Joseph Smith, was voted off by this group back when Utah was hoping to gain statehood fifty years later. You can read it in their book Doctrines and Covenants. Now that's power!
If a Mormon leaves the church, there is a general avoidance (personal and business customer) of the apostate (same term). Wives are encouraged to leave husbands who leave the church. Thankfully not as severe as shunning by JWs, but still extremely emotionally (and often financially) devastating.
Mormons are urged to avoid all apostateliterature, or else risk losing their salvation.
Mormons have no peace about whether they will be really attaining godhood (their goal). Like Muslims and JWs, you need to work out salvation. And work. And work...
Image is very important. Happy, happy families with no problems. Clean-shaven young men... and, like JWs, a strangely higher rate of depression among women.

BTW, an emotional experience is the bedrock of their faith: a burning bosom, which proves that the Mormon faith is true. (No solid scripture to back this up, just a weak appeal to the comment by the 2 men going to Emmaus.) The "Wait on Jehovah" mantra is parallel to the "I give you my testimony that this church is true" mantra, sometimes with glassed-over eyes (I've seen this).

If your wife loves soap operas, she'll love investigating the Mormons. And it might help her think about looking at characteristics of cults... and maybe the WTS.

bebu

OnTheWayOut

Good help Skeeter1 and Bebu.

Double Edge, I am not looking for political advice. I don't care about the President's
religion (although I couldn't vote for a cult member).

I just want to use EVERY OPPORTUNITY to reveal these nonsense religions to a
JW wife. I think the board understands.

Terry

http://atheism.about.com/od/bookreviews/fr/OneNationUnder.htm

The above is a link to the magnificent history of the Mormon Church by Richard Abanes.

I thought I really knew a lot about the religion. But, the research and photos (of documents) blew my socks off.

If you want the best detailed explanation from start to finish please click on the link and check out the book from your local library.

mrsjones5

A church is a religious group that accepts the social environment in which it exists. A sect is a religious group that rejects the social environment in which it exists

No matter how crazy we may think the mormon religion is, in context with that sentence above, how does it compare to the jws? How more accepting of the social environment are the mormons vs. the jws? Which one is more sect or cultlike? (I'm not talking about the radical sects of mormonism). Personally I want nothing to do with either one but I can see how mormonism has tried to be more acceptable to the mainstream social environment.

I found a really good article where I took that quote from here: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SOR/is_n4_v56/ai_17841569/pg_1

Josie

OnTheWayOut

mormonism has tried to be more acceptable to the mainstream social environment.

Yes, that is true. My goal would be to expose a "nearly" mainstream religion for
the cult that they are, to allow for comparison.

Mormons must accept the Church leader's doctrines.
Whatever is written in their book of Mormon is more important than the Bible.
Doctrines have changed. Errors have been made.
Stuff like this.

JW's are far behind the Mormons in becoming mainstream, but it seems like
a goal the GB has set- either that or they really expect Armageddon to arrive
and to hell with mainstream. I imagine the two-thirds vote would say to
mainstream and stop expecting Armageddon.

JWdaughter

Religion in general if F***ed up. Faith is personal. Make your decisions based on the person, and how they relate to their faith, more than what their religion is. How do they live their faith every day? Religions are all cults, they all can lead people to do stupid and extreme things or wise and seriously wonderful things. Depends on the person. So there are facts about the LDS church, but if it is about voting, I'd worry more about the facts on Mitt Romney.

drew sagan

I know that living hope ministries has some good videos about mormons as well as the very similiar to JWs group 'Worldwide Church of God'. I think you can find their videos for free on google video by searching for the titles. Their website is:

lhvm.org

These could be great for her to watch because there are so many similarities between them and JWs, but they say nothing about the Watchtower.

-Drew

OnTheWayOut

Thanks all.

Drew, that will help.

but if it is about voting, I'd worry more about the facts on Mitt Romney.

One more time, IT IS NOT ABOUT VOTING. My JW wife would never vote.

It's about using one cult to get a cult member thinking about their own religion.

If she's willing to talk about Mormons, then I want to highlight all the stupid
Mormon cult-teachings that make a JW think about the similarities to WTS.

truthsearcher

Hey, I have used the Mormons as examples in my discussions with JWs too. I found a book called Leaving the Saints written by Martha Beck (check the Internet) to be a very interesting look into the wackier side of their religion, including descriptions of the temple ceremonies, wife and child abuse, apostate treatment, spying, lying, etc. It is the kind of book that I devoured in one day of hard reading. I think it is a step if your wife would be willing to think about these other groups as being cultic (Honey, why do the Mormons fit this description?) to then seeing if the JWs could possibly also fit and to examine her own beliefs.

What do I tell my wife about the MORMONS?

Share this