https://www.quora.com/What-do-Protestants-and-Catholics-think-of-Mormons/answer/James-Hough-1

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lokisuperfan said:
Do tell of the evils of the Mormon church. I’m very curious to see what you have to say that I haven’t heard before.
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I could write a book, but I’ll spare you with just a few examples of many.

The most evil thing I see about the Mormon church is that it simply destroys lives–individuals and families.

Examples:
  1. You obviously know that when you are a Mormon and get married, assuming it’s in one of your great and spacious buildings, your non-Mormonite parents will be invited to sit in the parking lot and not be allowed to attend your wedding ceremony. I, personally have seen how this destroys families and pulls them apart. I fully respect the right of the Mormonite church to allow or not allow anyone they want. I’m just pointing out that it’s destructive.
I also find it interesting that you have admitted that you will defy your father’s counsel about not stepping foot in a Mormon church house when you have a driver’s license. So much for honoring him.
  1. War is hell, but even war has basic rules of conduct. For instance, combat is between soldiers, not to include the women and children. It’s barbaric terrorism to make targets out of children or to put them on the front lines. The Mormonite church has a war going on with same-sex couples. That’s fine. I don’t disagree with the morality of it. But the Mormons put the innocent children on the front lines. They are the pawns in this war. They are the focus. Not their evil, good for nothing parents. That’s pure evil, in my mind.
  2. The objective of discipline in the Mormon church is to shame and embarrass the sinner. If you’re a man who makes a mistake and go to the bishop with full contrition and penance, that is not enough. You will be subjected to a 17-man dog pile in which you will be at the bottom, gasping for air. Everyone in your ward and stake will know that you screwed up. There may as well be a marquis in the foyer announcing it. You will be shunned and scorned by other members. You will pay for your mistake in countless ways. Forgiveness is not between you and the Lord, but between you and the suits who pretend to be the Lord. I have a close family member who was a bishop. He was stalked by a member of his ward. She came to him time after time after time for counsel. Her real objective was to get him in bed. In a weak moment, he caved. It has been over six years since the incident. He has payed in more ways than anyone can imagine. The pressure from his fellow ward members was so great that he eventually had to move. His new ward soon found out about his transgressions, the phones lit up, and he became an outcast in his new ward. After 6 years, he was finally baptized. The suits decided to let him in. But he is not allowed to hold the priesthood or receive any of the “blessings” of it or the temple. In his Elder’s quorum, he’s still looked down upon. His participation in gospel discussions are minimized. He told me he wishes he was dead.
 
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  1. You’re 14. Imagine being in a room with an old man you barely know and he’s drilling you about things like necking, petting, fornication and masturbation. If you have done any of those things, you can lie, which is what most probably do, or you can own up to your mistakes and tell him all about it. He will gladly listen to the details.Then, of course, you’ll not be allowed to go to the temple to do baptisms and everyone will know why. I was a branch president. I conducted these interviews. I know they happen from personal experience.
  2. I have two children who committed suicide because they would never measure up to the Mormon standard of behavior. The pressure was too great. Death was a welcome relief for them.
  3. The Mormonite church teaches that nothing short of perfection will qualify you for God’s grace or to be a part of His kingdom. Unless you are perfect, “continually”, where He is, you will never, ever go.
This is just a side bar to this discussion, but you grossly misunderstand Section 132. You’re young and appear to be a thinker, which I admire. I trust that you’ll eventually get it.
 
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Lemuel,

I am so sorry for the profound pain that Mormonism has caused you, your children, and others in your family.

Yes, all of that qualifies as evil. May Our Lord give you His peace.
 
I appreciate it, but I’m not seeking for pity. I did what I did voluntarily. I just wish I had been strong enough to leave sooner than I did. I wasted a lot of years that I won’t ever recover.
 
No pity, for sure.
But real and authentic compassion. I know many of us wish we could have a “re-do” when it comes to parts of our pilgrimage. At least I know I do
 
Lemuel said:
You’re 14. Imagine being in a room with an old man you barely know and he’s drilling you about things like necking, petting, fornication and masturbation. If you have done any of those things, you can lie, which is what most probably do, or you can own up to your mistakes and tell him all about it. He will gladly listen to the details.
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How does this work if you’re converting from atheism or another church that doesn’t enforce these things as well as the LDS church does? Or if you did something like that before you knew it was wrong?
 
A person who is converting to Mormonism does have to go thru a pre-baptismal interview, so it happens in that interview, before baptism
 
Lemuel said:
You’re 14. Imagine being in a room with an old man you barely know and he’s drilling you about things like necking, petting, fornication and masturbation. If you have done any of those things, you can lie, which is what most probably do, or you can own up to your mistakes and tell him all about it. He will gladly listen to the details.Then, of course, you’ll not be allowed to go to the temple to do baptisms and everyone will know why. I was a branch president. I conducted these interviews. I know they happen from personal experience.
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Lemuel,
I do not know who taught you to conduct these interviews this way when you were a Branch President, but it was inappropriate. Again it is like you were part of a church that has very little connection with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have as an adult confessed to a Bishop. My son has had many Bishop Interviews as a youth and has never had “drilling you about things like necking, petting, fornication and masturbation.”

I know you have said you were a Branch President so you have received more training than I have on these interviews, but I assure you, “drilling you about things like necking, petting, fornication and masturbation” should never happen and you should not have conducted those interviews that way.

I will mention that in the confessional, I was asked by a priest at the Vatican if I was having sex with my friend. I said, “He is a guy!” The priest asked if I was having sex with him. I said, “no.” He then asked if I was having sex with myself. I admitted as much and was concerned with his response. A few days later I had the chance to go to confession at Notre Dame in Paris. The Paris priest assured me that those Italian priests were quite hard core and that while masturbation was a sin, it was something I should work on. I felt better. I grew up in a VERY LIBERAL parish. We ONLY had General Absolution services and I NEVER went to confession with my priest. I understand today that this is wrong.

So, I expect that your practices as a Branch President may have been as you describe and MOST other Bishops and Branch Presidents in the past followed the more explicit guidelines NOW published for these interviews (a spectrum of practices). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has now taken steps to ensure that Bishops and Branch President Interviews are not as you describe, but they NEVER should have been like that (and I doubt it was common).

In general I am very sorry for the experiences you report in your previous faith. I do not believe you present the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint accurately when you describe your previous faith. I am not convince that your anger at your former faith will serve you well as you move forward in your new faith. That being said, I really have very positive memories from my 20+ years as a Catholic. I chose to seek out the Paris priest, but it was certainly not a huge thing for me. Perhaps my positive Catholic experiences and your negative Mormonism experiences have something to say about which church is God’s church, but I think if the data set were expanded …
Charity, TOm
 
I spoke to a priest during confession this past Sunday about it, and, after asking me why I preferred Mormonism over Catholicism, he told me I should do what I felt to be right, and that I should do what I felt to be right in my heart. Honestly, that’s the first time anyone’s ever reacted with respect towards my decision (except for when I told my mom; she was very understanding because she was raised Lutheran but then converted to Catholicism so my dad could have the church wedding he wanted). Like when I told my catechist that I hadn’t been doing my homework because I didn’t want to be confirmed, she literally yelled at me to go to the chapel and confess to a priest my infidelity to the Catholic Church. She also told me I was a disgrace for thinking that any one religion could possibly be better than Catholicism. So, not much different than this.
 
The Baptismal interview questions are quite simple and are conducted by a couple of missionaries. There is no grilling. The only time they refer to masturbation is when the person seeking Baptism is asked if they are “willing to obey” “The Law of Chastity which prohibits any sexual relationship outside the bonds of a legal marriage between one man and one woman.”

LDS (and Catholics) teach that Baptism washes away all previous sins.

Charity, TOm
 
I was interviewed both by the missionaries AND the bishop.
I was 15
 
My experience with my confessor is that he isn’t the one guiding my confession. He may ask some clarifying questions, but I am the one who confesses. He isn’t asking me “are you living chastely?”

Your parish has a priest available for confession at the drop of a hat? I’m impressed. My parish only has 45 mins every Saturday prior to the vigil Mass. :-/

You must live in a very active and busy parish.

It’s been awhile since I heard a teacher referred to as a catechist, too.
 
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AngelaMarie said:
Former bishop, and now excommunicated Mormon, Sam Young talked about his concerns over sexually explicit youth interviews
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I was involved in the Catholic Answer thread about this. My position in that thread was the same as it is this thread. It WAS inappropriate for this to happen. There are now guidelines making it very clear that such questions are inappropriate, but it seems they were rare and inappropriate before. These guidelines were published and Sam Young continued his crusade against his now former church. And Sam Young 2 years ago had a laundry list of problem with his now former church, this was number 6 or so, but none of the others made him famous.

Lemuel is the first person to suggest that such things are Standard Operating Procedure for the CoJCoLDS and to point out that he was a Branch President who conducted 100’s of these “drilling you about things like necking, petting, fornication and masturbation” interviews.

In the thread on Sam Young a Catholic poster who once regularly attacked my church here claimed to know a pedophile Bishop who was protected by her (the Catholic lady) LDS family and her LDS employers. She later said she was lying about this and trying to get me to do something. I am still unsure if I did the something or not.

Anyway, I am aware of Sam Young. Some of his concerns IMO were valid and I believe the Church addressed them. The current guidelines are IMO better than not having these discussions at all.

Charity, TOm
 
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AngelaMarie said:
I was interviewed both by the missionaries AND the bishop.
I was 15
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I might be wrong.
Are you sure that the missionaries didn’t interview you, you became a member, and then some time in the future your bishop interviewed you?
Either way, the youth will talk with their bishop some time even if it is not before baptism.
AngelaMarie said:
Your parish has a priest available for confession at the drop of a hat? I’m impressed. My parish only has 45 mins every Saturday prior to the vigil Mass. :-/

You must live in a very active and busy parish.
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The confessions I described were at large tourist churches (Vatican and Notre Dame).

I grew up in a very liberal parish. I understand the practice of having a “general absolution” service is something done with the expectation that a future confession will happen. That did not happen in the parish where I grew up. It was all done with general absolution. I remember thinking that I liked that at the time, but I was young and unwise.

Charity, TOm
 
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To suggest that the Mormon church hasn’t had its own bouts with child sex abuse is laughable. It certainly has.
Certainly not okay and certainly not the norm, but don’t act like it doesn’t happen.
 
There was this other forum I was reading on about the LDS, and someone said that once you convert people start pushing you to do missionary service or get married, and either way, they then push you to get involved in the church, and if you get married, people start pushing you to have kids. Is this true? I don’t mind if it is, since I’d like to do all those things anyway, but I’d like to know what things are “encouraged” in the church.
 
They will push you to do all kinds of things you may not want to do. Do you realize that should you convert and decide to marry LDS in their temple, your family is not permitted to attend, or any of your friends who are not Mormon?

Do you realize how inherently misogynistic the LDS are? Women have one purpose, to have and raise kids. At first glance this may not seem so different that Catholics but in the LDS women are treated as though their only worth is child bearing. There are no women in the brief history of the LDS who is looked up to as we look to Mary or any of the female saints.

There is nothing in the LDS that is close to similar with the Catholic faith or even Christianity in general. You are a child still, not able to make a decision of this magnitude. You have no idea of the consequences. You don’t even really know the LDS thought. You’ve read a couple of books of fiction, listened to some people tell you stories and now you think you know the truth.

So ask about spirit babies and how they come to be.
Ask what happens to single women after death or women married to a non LDS man
Ask if your family would be welcome to attend the entirety of your temple wedding should you marry LDS

Then start asking the hard questions regarding how what they teach does not line up with Christian theology at all. Go to your priest and ask him about the LDS and what they teach.
 
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