Baptist Leader Lds Church As "Competition"

[smac97]

Here:

In a published

interview in Time online April 11, 2012

Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee of the South Baptist Convention stated that “...Mormons and evangelicals are in competition”.

This guarded stance may help explain the often hostile views that Baptists and many evangelicals in general have towards the LDS Church. Even among what are often labeled “mainline” Christian churches there are significant doctrinal differences. Yet, the LDS faith seems to have been singled out as the target of near-obsessive public and private negative comments.

==When I was in the military, I had a roommate from Georgia. He seemed to be an abstractedly devout sort of guy. He seldom went to Church on Sundays, yet he seemed uncomfortable that I went to church every week and did so without anyone forcing me to. He would also apologize to me whenever he got drunk and came back to the barracks in an inebriated state. I had never said anything to him about this, but he seemed uncomfortable with rooming with someone who didn't drink at all. We nevertheless became good friends, and one day he explained his occasional discomfort at associating with me. He said that the night before he left home for basic training, his parents - both devout AoG (Assemblies of God) adherents - sat him down and warned him against the three great temptations he would face while in the military. These temptations were 1) alcohol, 2) loose women, and 3) Mormons. He had clearly been told to expect Mormons to be creepy, sly, even menacing. So when he ended up with a Mormon roommate, he had been discombobulated. But then he hung around me and found me to be relative unthreatening (and, I suspect, pretty boring). My lack of weirdness confused him, as his parents had described Mormons in some rather unflattering terms.

==Anyhoo, long story, that one. But it exemplifies the "near-obsessive public and private negative comments" referenced in the article. Speaking of which...

Land went on to say that “Most evangelicals know what Mormons believe. Their pastors have taught them in order to inoculate them against the missionaries going door to door.”

Predictably, information presented by pastors designed to “inoculate” members from the missionary efforts of another faith is often presented in an unfair and unflattering light.

==Later on in our friendship, my friend from Georgia broke down one night, clearly upset (I never found out what precipitated this, but I suspect it had something to do with the other two "great temptations" his parents had warned him about). Having grown up in Utah Valley, this was pretty much my first ever missionary experience. I told him about The Book of Mormon and living prophets, and I gave him a Book of Mormon and challenged him to read it. I was quite happy, as giving out Books of Mormon is what we are supposed to do. However, he gave it back to me a few days later, having refused to read it. I think I had weirded him out after all. Or maybe I had done what his parents had warned him Mormons do: share our beliefs. In other words, I played into the "unfair and unflattering light" in which his parents had presented our faith. Ah, well.

==Back to the article:

National TV coverage of Pastor Jeffress labeling the LDS Church a cult from the pulpit of his Dallas mega-church to the sounds of enthusiastic applause of his congregation is stunning.

The effect of these efforts is the vilifying and stigmatizing of the Mormon Church and its people in the eyes of many evangelicals.

==I live in Provo, so I don't see much of this first-hand. However, my in-laws in Washington State have an AoG congregation just down the street from them which hosts semi-annual showings of "The God-Makers" and its sequel.

The Mormons on the other hand view relations with other faiths quite differently. The idea of “competition” with other churches is not part of LDS thinking according to Jan Chappell an LDS Church public affairs representative in the Houston area.

“We are busy trying to be the best people that we can be and prefer to serve shoulder to shoulder with those of other faiths in our communities, irrespective of their doctrinal beliefs.”

In fact within the LDS Church there are no lessons, courses or seminars that discuss other faiths. No comparative religion classes are taught and other churches are never discussed over the pulpit.

==Yep. And I'm glad of that.

-Smac

[why me]

Here:

In a published

interview in Time online April 11, 2012

Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee of the South Baptist Convention stated that “...Mormons and evangelicals are in competition”.

This guarded stance may help explain the often hostile views that Baptists and many evangelicals in general have towards the LDS Church. Even among what are often labeled “mainline” Christian churches there are significant doctrinal differences. Yet, the LDS faith seems to have been singled out as the target of near-obsessive public and private negative comments.

-Smac

The lds have experienced this hatred since the founding of the church. And it hasn't changed. I have seen it on the catholic board and others have seen it on other christian boards. They single out the mormons quite often and mock their religion and call it a cult. I am glad that the Baptist minister is now confronting the hate. I think that as the year progresses and Romney goes around the country for his campaign, many people will need to access their negative attitude toward the mormons and the mormon church. I think that Mitt's wife did wonders yesterday when she defended stay at home moms. These kind of happening will cause a change in attitudes in many people's minds.

At least lets hope so.

[Freedom]

I have found a huge difference in the material that is being written this time around compared to 4 years ago. There are some snide remarks, but by and large, the articles are as balanced and objective as an outsider can make them. If God wants there to be a Mormon president, Mitt will become president. If it will make no difference to the progress of the church, then if he gets in, it will be up to the gods of luck and chance. All this coverage will work to our good.

[The Nehor]

I encourage them to keep it up. The vitriolic anti-Mormon speeches given at a prominent Baptist church near my university gave us over 50% of our converts when they came to find out what all the fuss was about.

To badly paraphrase Princess Leia:

"The more you tighten your grip the more converts will slip through your fingers."

[thesometimesaint]

Another paraphrase. This is how belief dies to the sound of thunderous applause.

Edited April 13, 2012 by thesometimesaint

[why me]

What is often downplayed in lds history is that when the mobs attacked during the week, many went to church on Sunday. And I have often wondered what the wives were doing when their husbands were burning mormon homes or threatening the mormons. I think that the groups mentioned in the OP need to ask themselves some reflective questions about their past relationships with the mormons, as do other faiths whose members were involved. Maybe then, they will be less hostile with their words.

[thesometimesaint]

You misunderstand. It's because they loved us so much they wanted to save our souls from their "Christian" Hell. That is why they murdered us, and drove us from state to state, and finally out their "Christian" country.

Edited April 13, 2012 by thesometimesaint

[TheSkepticChristian]

Seriously?? Competition??

[Bernard Gui]

Seriously?? Competition??

No. Serious competition.

Bernard

[Mariner]

smac97's story about how EVs seem to be conditioned against Mormons from an early age reminded me of a singular experience in my Mormon career that could not have been more different from his.

About 80 miles from home early one morning, I witnessed a single car rollover accident in the opposite lane. I crossed the median and swung around to see if anyone was injured. I found an elderly couple who had been headed in the opposite direction to visit their son, who it turned out, was a Pastor in an evangelical church some 120 miles away. This was before cell phones and miles away from any phone at all. After making sure they were not injured, i decided I had better take them to their son's home in Western Washington State, because they were in pretty bad shape emotionally and a bit disoriented, having just rolled their car three times after running off the road.

It took some convincing to get them and their luggage into a car with a stranger, but I finally managed, and after leaving a message on the wrecked car for the State Patrol, drove about 120 miles in the opposite direction from where I was headed. When we arrived, their son was extremely appreciative and asked me to have a meal with them before I left to go to my home. (Turns out that the State Patrol had found the note and a dispatcher had called the son to tell him his parents were on their way.)

I stayed for a very nice meal during which, out of the blue, the Pastor asked me why I had given up my day and a tank of gas to help out perfect strangers. Without waiting for an answer, he then asked if I was a Mormon. It was clear from the question that he had somehow come to expect this kind of behavior from Mormons. When I said "yes", he just smiled and said, "I knew it".

Edited April 15, 2012 by Mariner