Learning more about Mormonism

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MartinaM

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Does anyone know of a website where one could learn factual information about the LDS church?
 
Google it. Pick a variety of pro and anti sites, and make up your own mind. Should be easy enough. 😃 You really will have a lot of difficulty finding something that is totally unbiased.
 
I don’t know if I would point to any one website for this. THere aren’t any that are really objective. All the ones I know of are either apologetic for Mormonism or against Mormonism. WHat do you want to learn, exactly?

Do you know anything about the religion? If you know nothing, it’s not bad to start with mormon.org which will go over the surface issues. I’d recommend skimming through the Book of Mormon especially the testimony as how it came to be. That will give you the basic idea about what Mormon missionaries would probably try to sell to you. If you want, I can give you a run down of the basic beliefs and what the Mormons call the plan of salvation.

I’d definitely do this before getting too involved int he anti sites. They can be helpful actually, but not if you don’t know anything at all about Mormonism because they’ll give you a skewed perspective (one example of this is the propensity that these sites have to quote the Journal of Discourses without letting the unwary ‘investigator’ of Mormonism know that Mormons do not view this source as authoritative).
 
Thank you for the info, I’ve been interested in different religions for a time, and while I don’t have one of my own, I feel drawn a bit to Mormonism because of the focus they place on Americanism and conservatism. I’m checking out a lot of different religions right now, trying to find the best one for me.
 
Well you should probably start from theology rather than ‘values’. If the theology is correct, the values should come from that basis. Catholicism, many Protestant groups have conservative values as do many other religions claiming to be Christian or not.

YOu should start with the question: what do I believe?

Do you believe in One God and ONe God only? If so, Mormonism is not for you. If you are open to reinterpretation the nature and number of God(s) then you might find Joseph Smith’s revelations compelling.

If you don’t start from what you actually believe to be the truth you’re just window shopping for a religion that suits your tastes and not looking to please God. That’s never a good basis for conversion.
 
Please stay with the faith and don’t be fooled into something that leaves Christianity behind. I understand the pull because I am conservative/libertarian and sometimes feel alienated when I hear so many Christians supporting candidates who represent all the wrong points.

If you feel drawn to the LDS, you should read, among other books, Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon and some from Catholic Answers. Mormonism is attractive, but it worships a different Christ from the one the Church does.
 
Why would you come to a Catholic website:confused: to learn about Mormonism?
 
racing59 said:
I have always found it a good thing to learn about all faith. Ignorance leads to prejudice. Are we not here to learn?🙂
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Well actually she can learn a lot about Mormonism here. There’s plenty of threads on Mormonism. It’s just kind of odd to come here as her first source.
 
Hi Martina,

I am a Mormon, and I think nebula gave the best advice so far. Nebula used to be a Mormon, but isn’t any longer.

Christine, who seems like a very nice person, thinks this is a good place to get info about Mormonism, but I disagree with that to some degree. You can get some good information from both sides of the fence, it’s true, but there are an awful lot of really, REALLY stupid posts along with the informative ones.

Best to try to get as complete a basic picture as you can, and then see how criticisms and responses to criticisms add up.
 
MartinaM said:
Does anyone know of a website where one could learn factual information about the LDS church?
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  1. LDS.org
  2. There is an LDS message board: (lds.net) populated by all sort of people, but plenty of faithful members of the The Church of Jesus Christ, LDS that are willing to answer well-intentioned questions. It also has some very nice Catholics and Protestants.
  3. You can ask me or some other active members on this forum.
 
MartinaM said:
Does anyone know of a website where one could learn factual information about the LDS church?
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I won’t lie to you. For awhile, it’s been pretty difficult for me to search for a website on something like that. LDS is just one of those things where you either purely negatively biased info or purely positively-biased info. The best, most neutral website I ever came by was religioustolerance.org, but a lot of people (usually conservatives) dislike that website for some odd reason.

Ironically Yours, Blade and Blood
 
For an interesting take on the LDS from members you could take a look at New Order Mormon and Faces East.
 
MartinaM said:
Thank you for the info, I’ve been interested in different religions for a time, and while I don’t have one of my own, I feel drawn a bit to Mormonism because of the focus they place on Americanism and conservatism. I’m checking out a lot of different religions right now, trying to find the best one for me.
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Why would you come to a Catholic site to learn about Mormons?

Start with mormon.org
 
Martina, you will find plenty of conservatives, and patriotic Americans, of varied faiths, on these forums. Based on the exit polls in the election, we have both conservatives and liberals in the Catholic Church itself.

I do not know how many of each are actually practicing Catholics, though. The word “Catholic” is, like “Jewish,” is one that means both an ethnic backgound, and a religion. So, just because a voter identified himself as a “Catholic” to a pollster doesn’t mean you’ll see 'em at Mass on Sunday.

God be with us all,

Ruthie
 
MartinaM said:
Does anyone know of a website where one could learn factual information about the LDS church?
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Jerald and Sandra Tanner do not offer information from the Catholic perspective, so some of their positive theology must be taken with a grain of salt 😃 --but check out the Utah Lighthouse Ministry (www.utlm.org)). Many excellent documents are presented on the site for your personal evaluation. And while you are there, say a prayer for the repose of Jerald’s soul.
 
venite_adoremus said:
Jerald and Sandra Tanner do not offer information from the Catholic perspective, so some of their positive theology must be taken with a grain of salt 😃 --but check out the Utah Lighthouse Ministry (www.utlm.org)). Many excellent documents are presented on the site for your personal evaluation. And while you are there, say a prayer for the repose of Jerald’s soul.
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Jerald and Sandra Tanner are rabid anti-Mormons. They are lousy (and amateur) historians and pick and choose what to present so as paint the exact picture what desire to portray.

No legitimate seeker of a fair and honest view would suggest them as an appropriate source of information. It would be like asking Hillary Clinton for information on Obama. She’ll tell you just what she would want you to know.
 
Snow said:
Jerald and Sandra Tanner are rabid anti-Mormons. They are lousy (and amateur) historians and pick and choose what to present so as paint the exact picture what desire to portray.

No legitimate seeker of a fair and honest view would suggest them as an appropriate source of information. It would be like asking Hillary Clinton for information on Obama. She’ll tell you just what she would want you to know.
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Same if you only listen to what Mormons have to say about themselves. Neither are official church sources particularly objective. Soemthing to keep in mind both ways.
 
nebula said:
Same if you only listen to what Mormons have to say about themselves. Neither are official church sources particularly objective. Soemthing to keep in mind both ways.
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If you want official LDS belief, the best place to get it is official LDS sites and sources.

If you want a fair and balanced look at history, you should look to scholarly books, both inside and outside the Church.
 
Snow said:
If you want official LDS belief, the best place to get it is official LDS sites and sources.

If you want a fair and balanced look at history, you should look to scholarly books, both inside and outside the Church.
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you have to be careful because “official” LDS sources change over time and tend to edit and even omit things over time.
I am not a tanner fan as they tend to be really bad about proof texting but if you look up their references and read them in context you can get a true picture. LDS sources like to whitewash history in orwellian fashion.
 
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