Disagreement with a retreat leader. Advice please

[sophion]

That’s another unfounded premise. The Church is the leading part of a religion, not a social popularity website.

When the OP is asked “who are Mormons?” the correct answer is to say what their religion is, NOT what the speaker thinks of the people themselves.

If I asked someone who Catholics are, what would be a better answer: a synopsis of all their history, stating the scandals in detail as well as the good parts, or what the religion is actually teaching?

the leader said “They are good people”.

my advice is merely to agree with that.

You folks here who insist they dont know the mormon people. I hope you are not americans. If you are…its just the hate then.

 

[dshix]

the leader said “They are good people”.

my advice is merely to agree with that.

You folks here who insist they dont know the mormon people. I hope you are not americans. If you are…its just the hate then.

In what you just said, you completely put aside and disregarded what I and others have said in the past posts.

In addition, you pulled out the “hate” word and made an accusation of hate. That, in most cases, it usually a sign that you have closed your mind to further discussion.

 

[sophion]

In addition, you pulled out the “hate” word and made an accusation of hate. That, in most cases, it usually a sign that you have closed your mind to further discussion.

Mormons are part of the american people. part of american history. An entire state is populated and controlled by them! There are lots of famous mormon. Even a filipino like me knows that. So unless an american lived in a caved all her life, i cant see why he/she would say that she doesnt know the mormon people. unless its hate. and its common knowledge that lots of christians hate mormons. mormons suffered from christian persecution.

anyway i’m done here. my advise is reconcillation. its up to you folks if you reject it.

---

This is how i would have handled the situation:

** I was at a retreat with some Catholic college students and during some downtime a friend asked what Mormons believe.

• I responded that they deny the trinity, have an incorrect form of baptism, and have some very strange views on the afterlife. I then said, “In relation to other Protestant sects, they have some of the weirdest doctrines.”
• That drew a disgusted look from the woman that ran the retreat and this statement, “I have Morman friends and they are some of the best people ever. They don’t do anything on Sundays and are dedicated to their family.”

*** I responded “I am sure they are good and nice people, just like everyone else. I was just sharing what I know about their beliefs. And my opinion of those beliefs in relation to other protestants. I meant no harm.” **

• The woman said “Thats good”.*

 

[Gorgias]

:slapfight:sophion & dshix, I can’t believe ya’ll are still arguing about this; it’s easy enough to resolve.

sophion, you’re saying “give people the benefit of the doubt.” That’s a good approach, and it sure sounds pretty Christian. The way you expressed it, though, was to assume that someone’s good unless and until you know otherwise.

dshix, you’re saying “you can’t say something about a person that you don’t know is true.” This is a true statement, too. However, it doesn’t speak to what sophion’s trying to say: until you know that someone is not a good person, treat them like they are and don’t presume that they’re not.

Even a filipino like me knows that.

Let’s suppose I don’t know any Filipinos personally. Should I presume that a particular Filipino is a good person, absent of any particular knowledge? Yep. Does that mean that every Filipino is a good person? Not necessarily.

Can we stop arguing about this now?

 

[dshix]

Fair enough. I’d already decided to stop posting (hence why I didn’t respond to his last post), but I don’t know if your interpretation of what he was saying is what he meant.

If he had said, “give people benefit of the doubt” I would have agreed. I usually do so.