Conor,
I accept your apology.
I was like you, very open to the Mormons…I became friends with a Mormon doctor I assisted…he liked me and wanted me to do my internship with him. He asked where my kids went to school, and when he found out, a dark pale crossed over him. I found out later on he was Mormon…We ended up liking each other very much. One day I kidded him and said, may be the reason why he likes me is that I am a Catholic…he just about gagged but really laughed. Some how, I think he changed.
I met some more of his friends. I initiated a dialogue with them as I never knew any Mormons in my entire life, and I am pretty old. I found baselines to share with them, and they were surprised we shared some of the same concerns, values and interpretations. All good. But then they moved away to Utah.
So I wanted to learn more about Mormonism with an open and positive heart. When I came into their bookstore, and found some books on their teachings, I was shocked at their position and stand, and that the great Roman Church was the abomination, its teachings corrupt, and so on. I called the LDS in SLC about this kind of material, and the store is located next to a highly affluent neighborhood. They knew nothing. When I went back to again see the title, the book was pulled. It was one going back to the 1850’s. It was considered a classic.
I went online and did my own search. I read about the old Mormon ritual of denouncing the Catholic Church for the men, the treatment of women and how they had the highest use of Prozac in the country…and that stood out in my mind because the doctor I worked with said they should just give housewives Prozac. I found their theology of becoming gods coupled with their justification in rejecting the Catholic Church very false, along with the day to day practices that became more and more questionable, even harmful. Joseph Smith was not a polygamist, no–this group surrounding him never did say they witnessed his work as a fraud and so on. A poster here put out links revealing many ideas and practices on Mormonism, and going back to check on them, saw them pulled.
It is a cover up, it is deceptive.
So I find it disconcerting that, although I have already stated to people here not to worry about Mormon baptisms for the deceased, etc., it is disturbing having seen their materials and their judgment against the Roman Church to now set itself up next to it in its own ball park, and to go about its back, and its natives back to do rituals on their people without their knowledge or permission…I mean, this is all so indicative its own constructs.
People, especially women from what I am reading on Ex
Mormon.org are rushed into baptism, no questions asked, and then begin to find out this religion has ideas very contrary to Christianity. Switch and bait. And women going to the eternal kingdom to perpetually bear spirit children.
And the integrity of family life. I just shared on another post my perception of Protestantism growing up…it was this oppositional spirit and divorce. The whole thing a spirit of divorce. This leads to warped understanding of faith, scripture, and Christian unity, as well as the breakdown of family. This is the Jewish Catholic perception, yes I am an associate with them, that Protestantism led to the breakdown of family, then that led to the Enlightenment with Descartes,…I think, therefore I am…the beginning of relativism.
I shared with the Mormons here a piece on St. Justin the Martyr who was requested by the Emperor of Rome around 150 AD to explain what happened at Mass. He spoke of the Mass of Baptism, and then he wrote another piece on how Mass is said in Rome and the Roman countryside. The basic elements of the Mass, the spirit and tone were the same as is said today. And this is how Mass was generally said in Christiandom at that time. I brought up the ancient catacombs and the signs of faith that would lay down their lives for Christ. And yet it all meant nothing…we have documentation, and that is why the Vatican has the greatest library in the world.
So there is a long, long culture of Catholic faith in Rome, the people there as everywhere else have a checkered past, but there is authentic faith there. And the Italians…they are known for such care for their families. You read on Ex Mormon and others who testify here about knowing a mother and the family not being allowed to see the sealing ceremony of their grown child. That is profoundly hurtful. I know of no culture that will split up a family like that.
So no, I am not a relativist. And I am piqued that the Mormons are all rejoicing now that they are getting their temple up near the great Roman church of which they so soundly label as corrupt. They said on BYU they hope the world will hold their temple in awe just like the Vatican and the Eternal City.
As I said before, no human hands can create anything to please God, only humble and contrite hearts in need of our Savior Jesus Christ. All the human hands that worked to build Vatican City were working for the honor and praise of Almighty God.
So I see the writings and doings and rituals of what Mormon leaders have done and convinced their followers of my people and my faith, and it isn’t a big win really. But there is a blindness and lack of sensitivity, and not owning up to the Mormons’ past stand against the Church, and really, the Italian people need to really really know what that temple will be used for. Fair disclosure. Then it is up to them.
