Dave's Mormon Inquiry

Religious Degeneration

So I read Niall Ferguson's small book The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die (Penguin Press, 2013). It's a theme I am familiar with from Mancur Olsen's The Rise and Decline of Nations (1984), with Ferguson adding three decades of new data and events to the argument. Two quick reactions to this rather depressing book.

Evangelicals Need Inoculation Too

I hope you have seen the recent public announcement of the initiative to use the Gospel Topics section of LDS.org to essentially do what we have been calling "inoculation" for the last ten years (see here for a list of links to Bloggernacle posts on the topic). The three short video interviews of General Authorities listed at the top of the Gospel Topics page (identified with titles like "How will Gospel Topics be enhanced?" rather than identified as GA interviews) give additional details about the initiative. While there is a lot of ground to cover, this is a very promising development. We should nominate whoever championed this initiative for Mormon of the Year.

Did Jesus Exist?

Yes, he did. But you don't have to take my word for it; go read Bart Ehrman's latest book, Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth (HarperOne, 2012). The title seems intentionally provocative (publishers do like to sell books), but Ehrman makes it clear that there is no question Jesus of Nazareth existed and that the small but vocal group claiming otherwise has little evidence to support their claim.

Bible, Church, and Mystic

On a recent trip, I took along as reading material Christianity: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2004) by Linda Woodhead. Like all of the books in the wildly successful VSI series, the book is short but informative. I want to focus on the author's analysis of how views about divine power and earthly authority can be used to classify Christian churches and denominations, then try to place Mormonism and the LDS Church within that classification scheme.

Peterson Down Under

The week-long fifth Parlaiment of World Religions just concluded in Melbourne, Australia. BYU professor Daniel C. Peterson chaired the popular session "Islam and the West: Creating an Accord of Civilizations," as reported at the Church's Australian website and, in a briefer account, at the LDS Newsroom blog.

Finding Christian Heretics in Strange Places

A very interesting post at Mormon Matters, reviewing a 1989 book titled "Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up?" The book was written by an attorney who grew up a Jehovah's Witness, then became an Evangelical Christian. That lasted until he conducted a thorough reading the original writings of the pre-Nicene Church Fathers.

A New Mormon Gateway

A website with answers. That's what Time Magazine calls the new religion website Patheos.com in "What Do Religions Believe? A Website with Answers." The Time article describes the new site as one "that sets out to explain the differences among religions as well as illuminate the areas of common ground." Just today the site unveiled its Mormon Gateway section, a menu of resources designed to complement the more detailed information presented in the Library section of the site.

The Latest Pew Survey: Losing Your Religion

Lots of stories on the latest Pew Forum survey, "Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S." Here is the first paragraph from the summary prepared by Pew:

Americans change religious affiliation early and often. In total, about half of American adults have changed religious affiliation at least once during their lives. Most people who change their religion leave their childhood faith before age 24, and many of those who change religion do so more than once.

Christianity and Equality

I recently ran across this transcript of remarks by Dinesh D'Souza, author of a variety of books, most recently What's So Great About Christianity. While the New Atheists have become the darlings of the media, you have to dig around to find articulate responses. Here's a paragraph near the end of D'Souza's speech, summarizing his view that Western notions of equality and the dignity of human life are grounded in Christian morality.

The eradication of Christianity--and of organized religion in general--would also mean the gradual extinction of the principles of human dignity. Consider human equality. Why do we hold to it? The Christian idea of equality in God's eyes is undeniably largely responsible. The attempt to ground respect for equality on a purely secular basis ignores the vital contribution by Christianity to its spread. It is folly to believe that it could survive without the continuing aid of religious belief.

Originally posted with comments at Beliefnet.

Religion and Pseudoscience

In "Look Who's Irrational Now," WSJ summarizes the results of a comprehensive study conducted by Baylor University (hat tip: ASA). The big surprise: religion and various forms of superstition and pseudoscience are substitutes, not complements. In other words, the data show that those who abandon religious belief are more likely to affirm superstition and pseudoscience than believers. Apparently the facts run contrary to the widely accepted view that religion and acceptance of superstition go hand in hand. But don't expect mere facts to change many opinions.

Why the Pope Is So Smart

Because he takes science seriously. More specifically (as discussed in the post at LDS Science Review) it is because the Catholic Church appears to have institutionalized a scientific advisory role that informs and educates senior Catholic leaders about various scientific concepts. Now I know that senior LDS leaders sometimes engage in individual conversations with LDS scientists, but imagine how much more effectively this process would work if it were similarly institutionalized. It wouldn't take much, and it would help overcome the wounds inflicted on LDS thinking by decades of CES-sponsored anti-intellectualism.

Reflections on Orthodoxy

At Get Religion, "Orthodox or extremist?", a reflection on the use of the term "orthodox" in media religion stories. It quotes from a NY Times article which includes the following paragraph:

A short history of the megachurch, and why there aren't any Mormon megachurches

At Mere Orthodoxy, "Why Didn't Jesus Start a Megachurch?" Megachurches are defined as a congregation with weekly attendance over 2000. They weren't seen before the 1950s, and didn't really come into their own until the 1980s. [Pictured at right: the Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, California, which seats 2900.] The linked post provides a very interesting summary, but the author seems to miss a basic point: megachurches can only flourish as part of an organizationally weak movement like post-denominational Evangelicalism. There are no Mormon megachurches and there never will be, because, in the efficiently managed LDS Church, when demographics or (strange thought this) the popularity of a bishop cause the size of an LDS congregation to swell, the local stake president will split the congregation into two congregations or make some other boundary adjustment for the local units.

Are denominations irrelevant?

From Mark D. Roberts:

Most American Christians aren’t especially limited by or even committed to their denominations. For the most part, denominations mean something to those who are greatly involved in them (clergy, denominational officials, etc.), but relatively little to their members. Any conversation of denominations and their future must take seriously the fact that denominational brand loyalty is dying. Some would say it’s already dead.

Well, Protestant brand loyalty is dying, which isn't quite the same thing as the more general claim Roberts is making. Believers are suddenly acting as if the organizational scheme that Protestants have pursued for almost 500 years doesn't matter? There must be books out there that take a harder look at this.

Evangelical Epidemic

At Parchment and Pen — "Leaving (Christ)ianity — An Evangelical Epidemic," recounting a conversation between a minister and a young lady who lost her faith:

Defining "My Church"

It's not just Anglicans that are being torn apart by the issue of gay ordinations; Presbyterians are quietly waging their own struggle, as is evident in Mark D. Roberts' post "Is the PCUSA My Church?" [PCUSA stands for Presbyterian Church USA.] Roberts is a highly respected pastor, author, and blogger, so you know there's a problem when he says something like this:

The issue of gay ordination will continue to plague our denomination, to drag us down, to debilitate us, and to divide us until we come to some sort of institutional change that allows us to stop fighting . . . or until we kill off the PCUSA. [Ellipsis in original.]

Palmer Contra Ritual

The SL Trib has a short opinion piece titled "Jesus stressed kind behavior, not rituals, to get to heaven." I didn't think much of it until I noticed that the author was Grant Palmer.

Knowing Versus Doing: Those Ignorant Americans

I'm just starting Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — and Doesn't, by Stephen Prothero, chair of the religion department at Boston University and author of the highly regarded book American Jesus. The book forces us to confront the question: Just how ignorant is the average American? [That's a dangerous question to ask in an election year.]

Things Evangelicals Don't Like To Talk About

One of them is the Baptist doctrine of submission. A couple of pointed posts by LDS women who certainly do not share the Baptist view of submission are "Huckabee is a Chicken Patriarch" at Feminist Mormon Housewives, and "Follow-up on Huckabee and 'Chicken Patriarchy'" at Zelophedad's Daughters. The Bloggernacle features entire blogs full of women who don't share the Baptist view of submission. In fact, I think it is fair to say that, apart from the CES and a few hundred octogenarians scattered along the Mormon Corridor, the entire LDS Church rejects the Baptist view of submission.

A New Christian Apologetics?

A website called Christian Manifesto posted an inteview with Dr. Andrew Jackson, author of the new book Mormonism Explained: What Latter-day Saints Teach and Practice. After noting that he found LDS missionaries and bishops to be a poor source of reliable information about Mormon beliefs, he gave this promising response:

I ended up leaning on Steven Robinson, Robert Millet, a few of the new Mormon scholars who have been interacting with evangelicals as of late, and the writings of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young for source material. I found that there are really two streams of Mormonism, which I explain a little in my book.

The Divide is Getting Wider

An article in today's NY Times talks about Evangelical concerns over Romney's Mormonism. It features the obligatory quote from an Evangelical minister calling the LDS Church a cult. Another brainless hypocrite -- the guy runs a website, and thinks the LDS Church isn't churchy enough to be a church? The only reason the media is sucking up to Evangelicals in the Mormon stories is because it's an easy way to slam Mormons.

Getting to Know Evangelicals

There's a nice story over at Get Religion about a Bible Belt Evangelical congregation. Their message: God hates America. Some might think that's an extreme position, but it seems like just a restatement of the general Evangelical view that God hates everyone except Evangelicals. So the Westboro Baptists at least deserve some respect for grasping what's at the heart of the Evangelical message and running with it. It's not pretty (check out the photos at the Wikipedia link), but it's instructive.

Coming Apart at the Seams

That's what many Protestant denominations seem to be doing these days. The latest story, as reported at The Religion Clause, concerns another "who owns the chapel" lawsuit. Seems half of a Presbyterian congregation in Ohio decided to disaffiliate from PCUSA and join the NWAC. That's not the Northwest Athletic Conference; NWAC stands for New Wineskins Association of Churches. The other half of the congregation was apparently happy with the old wineskin, hence the lawsuit.

An Evangelical Miracle

Yes, Evangelicals have brought to pass a modern-day miracle: by once again doing their best to loudly ridicule Mormons quietly attending the LDS Church's semi-annual General Conference in Salt Lake City last week, activist Evangelicals impelled the Salt Lake Tribune to publish an editorial defending Mormons. Print that page — you won't see it again soon.

How To Be A Good Anti-Mormon

Most people have better things to do with their life than to be an "anti" anything. But for the benefit of Evangelical Christians who think it's their calling in life to become religious stalkers to Mormons and Mormonism, it is worth taking a few minutes to talk about how to at least be a good anti-Mormon (one that can one day stand confidently before God to report on their labors) as opposed to a bad one. My thoughts here, while not responding directly to any one post, were motivated by this post -- apparently by an Evangelical who is just figuring out that the strategy of attacking another's religion and religious beliefs does that person harm rather than good. That's a great place to start.