mormanism. food for thought.
I've been watching this documentary on Mormonism the past couple of days. it's really fascinating stuff.anyway, the documentary kept showing different interviews with various members of the LDS church (latter day saints). some of them were great, some were not. this is bound to happen with any cross section of people from any religious group.
there were a few things that really grabbed my attention. one was a man whose wife felt as though there was someone "missing" from their family; someone who had not been born yet. they prayed about it and decided to have another child. the wife died at childbirth. the man was devastated by this.
here's the catch. if you were certain that god wanted you to have another child and then your spouse died, i imagine you would experience a good deal of pain, anger and confusion. but according to Mormonism, your "salvation" hinges upon how well you behave on this earth. where does this man have room to grieve? or to feel like he's allowed to be angry? the idea is that the harder you work, the closer you get to becoming a god. essentially, you've gotta earn your place. i don't know about you, but that doesn't seem to be good news. it strikes me as rather enslaving.
the other thing that stood out to me was a man who used to be a part of the LDS church. while reflecting on his experience with that church he said two things. one: "whatever it (LDS church) was, it wasn't what it claimed to be". two: "it might be the greatest thing ever invented. but IF it's invented, it isn't worth dying for".
i haven't ironed out all of my thoughts about it, but it makes me wonder why the mormon church is trying so hard to get itself accepted as a main line christian denomination. regardless of your religious beliefs, the fact is that there are several essential doctrines of christianity that the mormon church deny (The Trinity, deity of Christ, salvation by grace and not works etc).
you may or may not think these doctrines are a big deal. but think of it like this. it'd be like muslims trying to make everyone believe that they are really jewish (with the qur'an being god's final revelation after the old testament...) if the muslim world said "no, no this is Judaism. regular judaism. we're not a different religion. we're the same," wouldn't you be a bit skeptical? then imagine if (once gaining the name of Judaism) they said well actually those other people aren't jewish at all.
yeah, it's sort of like that. and honestly, people should be free to practice whatever religion they choose, but why go through the trouble of telling people it is something it isn't?
help me out here. i'm a little confused.
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