Why are Mormons so happy?

  • Thread starter Thread starter SacredHeartBassist
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
SacredHeartBassist said:
My Mormon cousin came to visit. The way she described her family and all of Utah seems pretty wholesome and happy if you ask me. Maybe she’s trying to make it sound better than it is or make her family sound nice. Idk
Click to expand...
People visiting me on vacation usually give a fairly positive view of their lives. I suppose they might be trying to make their lives sound favorable, but mostly I think getting some time to enjoy your family and have a change of scenery is going to give you a fairly optimistic view of your life.

I also have a lot of cousins. It is pretty common to want the relatives to think you’re doing better than average well. Lots of people are worried about what their extended family thinks and what the family grape vine might have to say about them.

I wouldn’t read too much into your visit with her. If you aren’t finding joy in the faith to help you with the trials of your life, ask why. The answer isn’t likely to require conversion to Mormonism. This is a good thing, because if you read the Catholic Answers tract about what Mormons believe, I think you’re going to have a tough time accepting that as the truth. If you want more joy in your life, look for it where you are. There are lots of joyous Catholics in the world. Nothing is stopping you from being one of them.
 
Last edited:
In the area surrounding Chicago.

I was actually supposed to shadow at a dentist’s office in the winter and got kicked out after one day because I didn’t smile enough. It’s not like she told me I was supposed to and I just acted like my normal self.
 
Like born of a natural sexual union or by the power of the Holy Spirit?
 
Clarification.

My question is did Christ enter into our humanity by the power of the Holy Spirit (This is the Tradition handed down by the Apostles) where He didn’t enter our world in the usual way, or was He born of a sexual union?
 
I honestly don’t know. It baffles me. I remember when my wife took the missionary discussions and I sat right there with her through it all. She only made it through three discussions when she was flat out disgusted with it all. She is intelligent, thoughtful and discerning. She could see right through it. She was raised Catholic and could see little resemblance to Christianity in the Mormon church.

The big turnoff for her was what they call Fast and Testimony meeting. Go to one of those and you won’t even know you’re in church.
 
Last edited:
Lemuel said:
The big turnoff for her was what they call Fast and Testimony meeting. Go to one of those and you won’t even know you’re in church.
Click to expand...
Can you describe what those are like? I’ve never heard of them.
 
Bottom line–emotion. Mormons make a very strong appeal to your emotions. They tell you you can know the truth through your feelings. For some this is a very powerful force. Their belief system is a mile wide but an inch deep. Most members or investigators don’t bother digging beyond the surface. Those that do often end up leaving when they realize how truly bizarre the whole thing is.
 
kainosktisis said:
Clarification.

My question is did Christ enter into our humanity by the power of the Holy Spirit (This is the Tradition handed down by the Apostles) where He didn’t enter our world in the usual way, or was He born of a sexual union?
Click to expand...
LDS belief is that Mary remained physically a virgin after conceiving Jesus. LDS believe that the Holy Spirit came upon Mary for this event and that Jesus is the literal physical offspring of God the Father and Mary (Luke 1:35)

For more information regarding the LDS belief regarding the Virgin Birth, please see:

http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Virgin_Birth

I hope this helps…

Question for you since we’re on this topic. What is meant in CCC 499 the phrase “virginal integrity”?

CCC 499 The deepening of faith in the virginal motherhood led the Church to confess Mary’s real and perpetual virginity even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made man. In fact, Christ’s birth "did not diminish his mother’s virginal integrity but sanctified it."And so the liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary as Aeiparthenos, the “Ever-virgin”.

Thanks in advance…
 
Chris-Wa1 said:
Bottom line–emotion. Mormons make a very strong appeal to your emotions. They tell you can know the truth through your feelings.
Click to expand...
This statement is misleading. LDS make a strong appeal to the witness of the Holy Spirit, as does the Bible (i.e., James 1:5, 1 Corinthians 12:3, Luke 24:32)

In a nutshell, LDS believe that there is an intellectual component and an emotional component to that Divine Witness.

D&C 9:8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.

I hope this helps…
 
Limoncello4021 said:
From my vantage point and based on some of the things you’ve said it seems the teachings are, to be honest, not rational and even preposterous, and the spirituality unattainable.
Click to expand...
Which LDS teaching do you believe to be “not rational and even preposterous, and the spirituality unattainable”?
 
One Sunday a month, typically the first Sunday, Mormons are supposed to have a 24-Hour fast and give the money they would have spent on their meals, and often more, to the church to be used for welfare purposes. The typical Sunday sacrament meeting is what is called a Fast and Testimony meeting. Instead of regular speakers, members of the congregation are invited to come forward and share their testimonies about whatever it is that stirs their souls. For the children, the testimonies are rote and almost the same over and over no matter where you go. “I want to bear my testimony and I know this church is true and I know that Russell M. Nelson is a true prophet and I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and I know the Book of Mormon is true and I love my mother and my father and my brothers and sisters in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”

For the adults they mostly talk about how God healed them from a sickness or helped them buy a house with a swimming pool or how their family got close to one another on a recent vacation, or they talk about going to the temple or their child on a mission or how the Book of Mormon is true or about how wonderful Russell M. Nelson is and ONCE in a while they actually might mention Jesus, however he’s generally a footnote. It’s a real turnoff to me. By the way, what stood out in my mind was my wife’s one experience with a fast and testimony meeting where one woman talked for fifteen minutes about how God guided her family to buy the house with the swimming pool even though it put her husband 30 minutes further away from his work.
 
Last edited:
Where do I begin? Joseph Smith, the white stone, the golden tablets, Jesus in America, polygamy as a church teaching, etc etc. Pure fantasy, and the historical Joseph Smith certainly comes across as a complete fake.
 
One of the Mormon trolls here says that Mary remained a virgin after she conceived Jesus, which is contrary to official LDS doctrine:

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/gs/mary-mother-of-jesus?lang=eng

“In the New Testament, a virgin chosen by God the Father to be the mother of His Son in the flesh. After Jesus’ birth, Mary had other children (Mark 6:3).”

But I guess she could have conceived her other children through artificial insemination, who knows . . .
 
I assure you he was real. He is real enough to have fooled millions of people that he was onto something.
 
gazelam said:
This statement is misleading. LDS make a strong appeal to the witness of the Holy Spirit, as does the Bible (i.e., James 1:5, 1 Corinthians 12:3, Luke 24:32)

In a nutshell, LDS believe that there is an intellectual component and an emotional component to that Divine Witness.

D&C 9:8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right , and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right .
Click to expand...
It all comes down to feelings. The “intellectual component” as you call it is always trumped by the emotional. Feelings always trump intellect in Mormonism. Mormons tell you what your’re going to feel and that those feelings prove Mormonism is true. The problem is that lots of different things in life give the same types of feelings. It’s no way to know whether or not something is true. In fact those feelings usually get in the way of your intellect’s ability to make good judgments as to whether something is true or not.

What Mormons call “the witness of the Holy Ghost,” a.k.a. the burning in the bosom, is really just feelings. No matter what your intellect may tell you, those feelings are THE final arbitor of truth. When a Mormon is challenged by someone else and they don’t have a good answer, they will almost always fall back on “Well I KNOW it’s true” (this comes from those feelings). If a person is not receiving those feelings, then it is always their own fault and certainly nothing wrong with the church. It is one of the many cultish aspects of Mormonism.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top