How do Mormons not answer Christian claims? (Article)
By Michael Otterson
October 12th 2011
The author wrote this article from his own perspective as a Latter -Day Saint church member. He was told by a very close friend 'you're not a Christian because of X,Y,andZ beliefs, or lack of those beliefs'. According to him, Mormons follow Christian ideas but of course have their own additional beliefs as well. The author writes with a very open-minded voice, not insulting other religions but simply stating the fact that 'yes, it's different than what some people know to be Christianity but come talk to us if you would like to know the similarities as well'.
This article made me think of how both Hinduism and Buddhism have so many different branches, and yet I consider them all to be properly grouped together under the same 'umbrella' naming of those main religions. For example, do people that follow the Mahayana school of though claim that the Theravada followers are 'not Buddhists!'? That is an honest question because I have never had the opportunity to ask someone, but I am going to assume not. I would think that generally people would qualify someone as a Hindu/Buddhist if they were following the same basic principles. This too SHOULD be the case for Christianity, in my opinion. I think people need to chill out, keep religion bashing OUT of their political speeches (look at this article for a good example of what I mean) and just let people be!
Your article really made me think about the ignorance of the majority of the population about Mormonism and really tons of things especially different religions. Just focusing on the ignorance about Mormonism though, the only time Mormonism is talked about in the media is when it has something to do with polygamy. The stories people hear in the media is the limit of what a typical American knows about Mormonism.
ReplyDeleteGreat post... It is very interesting how the way certain religions are portrayed in the media influences how people regard them in relation to other religious faiths. Check out this article which is also on the controversy about Mormons being Christian. The author also agrees that Mormons believe in the same fundamentals as Christians but it is written by someone outside of the LDS-Church.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2011/10/12/opinion/obeidallah-mormon-christian/index.html