Michael opening thoughts
In some ways Mormons and Evangelicals are like oil
and water. Both groups possess very
distinct beliefs and when we come together our differences come to light more
than our similarities. Often, our
doctrinal disagreements can result in bitter feelings and
misunderstandings. Over the last
centuries relations haven’t been terrific between us, which keeps us from
benefiting from any sort of profitable relationship.
Perhaps it is time for a change in the way we
approach one another. If it is possible
for Mormons and Evangelicals to be friends, or at least coexist peacefully,
here are a few places to start. First,
both our religions believe we have “good news” to share. It shouldn’t be difficult for Latter-day
Saints to understand that Evangelicals don’t consider themselves good friends
at all if they don’t try to share the gospel, since we believe we’ll be held
accountable for friends we don’t share it with.
Maybe we should allow our Mormon and Evangelical friends to share their
view of the gospel with us.
I know some of you are reading this and thinking,
“blasphemy”! Let me clarify that letting
someone share their beliefs with you comes with no necessary commitments. You don’t have to marry someone just because
you go on a first date, and you certainly don’t have to switch religions simply
because someone witnessed to you. As
every former Mormon missionary knows, it’s all about choice; and a good choice
cannot be made without the proper information.
Evangelicals and Mormons alike will understand if their message is
shared but not accepted. Participating
in this sort of exercise can strengthen friendships by allowing each
participant to share the hope that is in them while learning about the other.
As Latter-day Saints we are intimately aware of the
fact that Evangelicals disagree with us on many important doctrinal
issues. What we aren’t always so sure
about is whether or not our Protestant friends bring these up simply to spite
us. However, it has been my experience
that most Evangelicals are not excited
about the prospect of any Latter-day Saint spending eternity in hell. Usually when they talk religion to us, it’s
actually because they care about us. Of
course, I understand that some Evangelicals (and Mormons) do not talk religion
with love in their hearts, and I would encourage these individuals to get their
priorities straight before entering into any sort of interfaith dialogue.
On this note, Evangelicals and Mormons should
refrain from “telling” each other what they believe and try “asking”
instead. When we view each other with
our Mormon or Evangelical lenses, what we see will not make much sense. But if we try on one another’s glasses for a
moment, and try to see things their way, we’ll see clearly why someone believes
as they do. This will eliminate the
tendency to build and tear down straw men.
Sometimes I’ll hear Evangelicals say something along
the lines of, “I’m not attacking you, I’m attacking Mormonism”. What Protestants need to realize, is Mormons
take their religion very personally, and so attacking our religion will be
construed as an attack on us. If an Evangelical absolutely feels the need
to bring up an objection or concern with Mormonism, it should be done with the
same tender love and care one would use to tell someone they might have
cancer. Evangelicals should also take
care not to use the words “Mormon” and “Jehovah’s Witness” in the same
sentence. While we may share some
similarities with Jehovah’s Witnesses, we are still very different religions,
and lumping us together makes the perpetrator seem ignorant and “anti-Mormon”.
My advice to Latter-day Saints is to be sure we
aren’t pretending to be the same religion as Evangelicals. Certainly there’s a desire in Mormonism to be
acknowledged as Christian, and we do use many of the same words a Protestant
would use to describe their faith. We
should not be so zealous in our quest to expose similarities that we make our
Evangelical friends perceive us as no different.
There is no reason
Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals cannot be agreeable, even while
disagreeing. If we come to a point where
we have to agree to disagree, that’s ok.
But if we’re going to change the way our relations have been sliding
over the last few centuries, we need to admit that being friendly and really
seeking to understand each others’ views can and should be done without
compromising on our beliefs or our standards.
Bobby Opening Thoughts
I came across Michael Flournoy when
I was in the middle of one of my all time favourite hobbies. Book shopping on
Amazon. As I often do I was looking for books on Mormonism, the title "A
Biblical defense of Mormonism" of course caught my eye.
I was pleasantly surprised to
see that Michael understands where I and many others come from theologically,
(no modalism strawmen) as a result of a lot of dialogue with Christians, and also that he had some
interesting and even challenging points raised in this book. I looked him up on
Facebook and the chat that has followed between us has brought about this idea
of some joint posts.
When evangelicals hear of an
ongoing dialogue with an LDS apologist or scholar etc I think we all often have
the same fearful expectation of another compromise. Another evangelical for the
sake of being "friends" with a Mormon letting go of some key beliefs
and not asking some of the key questions, and further victory of the LDS
churches goal of being accepted as Christian.
We all cringed when we heard Richard Mouws words in
2004 at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, when he apologized on behalf
of the evangelical world saying this:
"We
have sinned against you. The God of the Scriptures makes it clear that it is a
terrible thing to bear false witness against our neighbors, and we have been
guilty of that sort of transgression in things we have said about you. We have
told you what you believe without making a sincere effort first of all to ask
you what you believe."
While of course this will have at times happened,
many Evangelicals that heard this sighed. Thinking Mouw was pandering to the
LDS people without gaining an understanding from many of those in ministry to
Mormons themselves about their methods and motives.
LDS Apostle Jeffrey Holland in his talk
"Standing together for the cause of Christ" said:
“If I esteem
mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in
their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not
seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for
truth will cut its own way. Do you believe in Jesus Christ and the Gospel of
salvation which He revealed? So do I. Christians should cease wrangling and
contending with each other, and cultivate the principles of union and
friendship in their midst; and they will do it before the millennium can be
ushered in and Christ takes possession of His kingdom.”
While there may be good
intentions here, for evangelicals this wreaks of compromise, and also the
misconception that our goal is to tear down, when actually the intention is to
serve God by bringing people to Himself. This is not about wrangling and
contending but rather preaching and causing people to submit to Christ leaving
behind their false religion. LDS people may not accept this conviction but
often the fact that this is our desire is missed.
It often seems that the only
people that are known to publically dialogue with the LDS apologists scholars
or leaders are those that compromise, and don't make the points or ask the
questions that many others think should be asked.
However is it possible for someone to dialogue with
LDS people, publically and honestly with friendship love and respect without
compromise?
In October 2013 Southern Baptist Seminary President
Albert Mohler visited Brigham Young university regarding issues of the threat
to religious freedom. Probably the most memorable quote Mohler made on this
visit was as follows:
“I am not here because I believe we are going to heaven together, but I
do believe we may go to jail together,”
Its my desire that LDS people see that while I and
many others share the sentiment of this quote, that LDS people who go strictly
with the teachings of the LDS church have missed the gospel of grace and are
not going to heaven, that this is not a belief that we take pleasure from at
all. Often this is not understood.
I do not like this belief, but nevertheless I hold
to it on the conviction that the gospel of grace and the God who saves, has
been missed by the Mormon church. So often the label "Anti-Mormon" can
get thrown around and before you know it any good motives are irrelevant and
missed. The desire of myself and many others in doing this ministry is to bring
people to Christ.
If I were to say that I myself have never
communicated in a way that may be less than totally friendly or respectful or
have never assumed the beliefs of the LDS person I am speaking too before
asking, I think I would be less than honest. So often a supposed
"expert" like myself can jump in too quickly without truly respecting
the other person by listening as well as speaking. Sometimes the conviction
that I have something this person needs to hear can overtake the fact that they
may not want to hear it, at least not in a disrespectful manner.
If there is a way through dialogue with Michael that
I can learn from him how to better communicate with LDS people, and start a
respectful, uncompromising dialogue then this seems like a great opportunity.
Michael Closing Thoughts.
Ephesians 4:15 says that we may grow up unto Christ
in all things by “speaking the truth in love”.
Notice that this verse does not say speaking the truth is love.
Are we at times coming across too aggressively, saying the truth hurts
as an excuse to be overbearing? Indeed,
we may honestly have love in our hearts while sharing our message, but if we
are unable to show that love so that the receiver recognizes it as such, it is
useless.
When Bobby initially contacted me on Facebook, I
knew immediately that I could trust him.
Although he unflinchingly acknowledges that he is anti-Mormon (the
religion), he is at the same time one of the least anti-Mormon (the individual)
people I’ve come across. Sometimes the
things he says on his blog “Mormonism Investigated” can sting a bit to read,
but his writing is devoid of sensationalism and exaggeration. If any Evangelical is wondering what tone to
take when engaging Latter-day Saints, I highly recommend taking a look at Bobby’s
articles, he does a great job of it.
Finally, let me just say that Evangelicals make
wonderful friends, and if any LDS readers have them, you know what I’m talking
about. There is zero doubt in my mind
that Protestant Christians are God-fearing, respectable people. I’m so grateful for my Protestant friends who
continue to put up with me, showing Christ-like love day in and day out.
Bobby Closing Thoughts
This is hopefully the
first of many posts where Michael and I will, learn, teach, dialogue, laugh,
get frustrated, and so on with each other in love, with the goal of truly
understanding each other, and of course seeking to bring the other closer to
Christ.
This is new territory
for me and I hope that people reading will enjoy this as much as we do, and I
hope this opens a lot of doors for people to see that dialogue between LDS and
Evangelical people, or other faiths for that matter, does not have to be
disagreeable and does not have to compromise in the process.
