New Church Problems: Mormonism

[Walden]

I just a read an interesting article that touched on many of the topics discussed here, entitled: 

The link is here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mette-ivie-harrison/new-church-problems-mormo_b_8991496.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

The author is apparently a Mormon, and she details the difficulties encountered by most new religions, stating "many problems of the Mormon Church today...are typical of newer religions, which older religions no longer struggle with," going on to enumerate these issues as follows::

" 1. Image and visibility
2. Demands to be included among other world religions
3. Justifications of past wrongs
4. Re-writing of history
5. Frequent excommunication of dissenters
6. Missionary work 
7. Pressure to have large families
8. Becoming world-wide
9. In-fighting among the faithful
10. Creation of a "canon"

It is an interesting read, with many comparisons to other religions and the struggles that those religions endured in their early years.

Any thoughts on her assessment of the current state of affairs of the LDS church? I thought that here assessment was straight-forward and mostly accurate, as well as insightful.

[Robert F. Smith]

There is nothing at all wrong with applying sociological analysis or standards of organizational behavior to the Mormon Church, and some of the observations she makes are commonplace.  However, much of it is sophomoric and negative, evincing a lack of understanding of the basics:  What is doctrine?  What is the status of the JST?  Where non-Mormon Jan Shipps sees excommunications as normal "boundary maintenance," Harrison sees them as reactionary.  She needs seasoning, and that takes time and a lot of reading.