Category Archives: Main

A poll on ‘feelings towards Mormons’

LDS Society, Main, Media

This article in the Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah) about a poll taken by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research tries, I think, to draw a bigger distinction between the public vs. college faculty results than I think the results justify:

Results of a two-year study released this week show one-third of university faculty nationwide have an unfavorable impression of Latter-day Saints, while an equal proportion of the general population holds a favorable view.

I guess I’m just not sure that statement has a lot of real information in it. If you sum up the results, you get the following:

  • General public: 33% “warm”, 43% neutral,  18% “cold”, 6% don’t know/refuse to answer
  • University faculty: 40% “warm”, 20% neutral, 33% “cold”, 8% don’t know/refuse to answer

The only real conclusion is that the faculty members surveyed are less neutral, that is, more have an actual opinion, and that that the non-neutral faculty members divide a bit more evenly on the “warm”/”cold” rating than the public at large — not surprising given the general secular/liberal nature of university faculty. In fact, I’m a bit surprised that “warm” respondents outnumber “cold” ones at all.  ..bruce..

The Trek: Explanation and Status

"The Mormons" (PBS), LDS History, Main, The Trek

I’ve actually been tracking this over on my other blog (And Still I Persist) but felt it was more appropriate here at Adventures in Mormonism. The rest of this posting is a slightly updated version of my original post explaining why I’m walking 1305 miles by early October. Now I’ve got to go walk my 11 miles today. ..bfw..

A friend of mine used to say that if I wasn’t playing in a ‘big enough game’ (referring to life itself, not World of Warcraft or even The Lord of the Rings Online, which, uh, I actually am playing in), that I’d screw things up in order to make things more interesting. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, since — in my own opinion — I’ve been mostly coasting for the past year or more. On top of that, I’ve been unhappy with my general state of physical fitness, including my weight and blood pressure (both stubbornly high).

And thus was born the Trek: I plan to walk 1305 miles between April 1 and October 6 of this year.

Why 1305 miles and why those particular dates? Funny you should ask.

Continue reading The Trek: Explanation and Status →

Mormons, education, and intellect

"The Mormons" (PBS), LDS Doctrine, LDS Organization, LDS Society, Main

In a previous post, I stated my objections to the portrayal of LDS Church disciplinary councils and procedures in the PBS show, “The Mormons”. I felt the same segment (about the excommunication of the “September Six”) left some misleading impressions regarding the role of education and intellect in the LDS Church — in particular, that the LDS Church somehow devalues, denigrates, or is afraid of education and intellect, or that Mormons who pursue the intellect end up leaving the LDS Church.

Actually, just the opposite is true.

Continue reading Mormons, education, and intellect →

LDS disciplinary councils (PBS show “The Mormons”)

"The Mormons" (PBS), LDS Organization, Main, Media

The PBS show “The Mormons” discussed the excommunication back in 1994 of several so-called “Mormon intellectuals”. While I think the incident itself was a fair one to raise, I thought the segment was both far too long and very unbalanced for a number of reasons, which, of course, I’ll now discuss at length.

Continue reading LDS disciplinary councils (PBS show “The Mormons”) →

The PBS Special: “The Mormons”

"The Mormons" (PBS), Main, Media

I watched this earlier this week when it was broadcast. My overall grade for the show is a “B”. I give it an “A” for production values, a “B” for effort, and a “C” for overall balance and accuracy. Case in point: referring to the various polygamous sects in Utah as “fundamentalist Mormons” is about as accurate as referring to the Church of England a century after Henry VIII as “fundamentalist Catholics”. I may post a more detailed critique of the show (which I recorded) later; I do intend to post on some of the specific issues raised. ..bruce..

[UPDATED 06/15/07 – 2036 MDT]

Since I seem to be getting a steady stream of people coming into this post (usually via Google), here are two follow-up posts I have written on the PBS special, “The Mormons”:

And here are a few other posts that, while not directly responding to the PBS special, do address some of the issues raised therein:

And, finally, here’s my own background and qualifications to write about all this.

Welcome to the site; I hope these posts are useful. ..bruce..

Who gets saved?

LDS Doctrine, Main

But while one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard; He views them as His offspring, and without any of those contracted feelings that influence the children of men, causes “His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” He holds the reins of judgment in His hands; He is a wise Lawgiver, and will judge all men, not according to the narrow, contracted notions of men, but, “according to the deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil,” or whether these deeds were done in England, America, Spain, Turkey, or India. He will judge them, “not according to what they have not, but according to what they have,” those who have lived without law, will be judged without law, and those who have a law, will be judged by that law. We need not doubt the wisdom and intelligence of the Great Jehovah; He will award judgment or mercy to all nations according to their several deserts, their means of obtaining intelligence, the laws by which they are governed, the facilities afforded them of obtaining correct information, and His inscrutable designs in relation to the human family; and when the designs of God shall be made manifest, and the curtain of futurity be withdrawn, we shall all of us eventually have to confess that the Judge of all the earth has done right. — Joseph Smith, Jr. (April 1842)

This posting — indeed, my starting this entire blog — is prompted by Hugh Hewett’s blasting of a piece by Gary South on Politico.com talking about “Mormon Intolerance”. South’s big concern: the LDS Church’s claim that “no other Christian church…is valid” and that only those who receive proxy baptism will be saved. He sees this as intolerance, being apparently unaware of that the LDS belief (and practice) actually is vastly more inclusive than the “problem of the unevangelized” that has plagued Christianity for most of the last 2000 years, viz., eternal condemnation to hell for anyone who doesn’t accept Christ (and, for some churches such as the Catholic Church, the appropriate sacraments/ordinances) in this life. Didn’t South ever read Dante’s Inferno, if not St. Augustine? In fact, by Augustinian doctrine, even Christians, however sincere, who never received an acceptable baptism, are damned to hell forever. Does South consider that religious intolerance?

The irony is that LDS theology is possible the most inclusive and diverse in terms of salvation of any major Christian denomination.

Continue reading Who gets saved? →

Why another blog? On Mormonism, no less?

Main

I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka “the Mormon Church”) 40 years ago, a few months before starting high school in east San Diego County. Almost from day one, I encountered anti-Mormon literature, usually in the form of pamphlets given me by well-meaning friends (and yes, they remained friends). Many of these pamphlets were published right there in San Diego, and local anti-Mormon groups would actually attend and try to disrupt periodic LDS multi-congregation meetings (stake conferences).

This puzzled me, because the pamphlets I received were badly written and badly researched, and the claims made were usually irrelevant, fallacious, taken out of context, distorted, or just plain wrong. Since I, as a high school student, had little problem doing the research necessary to see just where these claims went wrong, I wondered why the authors of these pamphlets had failed to do the same. I finally reached the conclusion that they were either ignorant or dishonest; it took thoughtful evangelical Christian scholars about another 30 years to reach the same conclusion.

But what startles me the most about anti-Mormon authors and lecturers is their insistence that they are the ones who really know what the LDS Church believes, teaches, and practices, and that we (I and other Latter-day Saints) do not. I have found this to be a constant theme over those 40 years, and yet it never ceases to amaze me, coming from people who (it becomes quite clear) have little knowledge or understanding of the basic LDS sources.

Continue reading Why another blog? On Mormonism, no less? →