Seven Rules for Discussing Religion
1. Never attack someone else's beliefs. 2. Declarations of sincere belief are always welcome. And if you wish to rebut someone else's belief, then do it by expressing what you believe, NOT by pointing out which points of doctrine you find to be silly, erroneous, or misguided. 3. If you want to know what members of another religion believe, go to them and not to their enemies. 4. Always judge a church by its best members, never by its worst. Those who fail to live according to the tenets of their religion are not representative of that religion. 5. Leave room for divine envy. 6. Everyone has the right to believe or not what you are saying. 7. Listen (in this case read) for understanding, not to plan on what you will say to refute what the other is saying.
Before I begin discussing the topics which have come into the public forum as the result of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, I thought it would be helpful to discuss two topics to help you understand Mormonism: the Priesthood of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
6 comments:
Thanks for all your time and effort with this project!
It has been really interesting to get a clearer picture of what y'all believe. I think a lot of people's discomfort with Mormonism is not just how different it seems to them but also that they know very little about it. I think that if more people knew what even their own mainstream denominations believed they would be just as startled as when they learn about the Mormon faith. It is easy to come down on groups who are very thorough and specific in educating their members in their beliefs, but I really respect the high regard in which they clearly hold them and the amount of thought and consideration that goes into that.
All that just to say that so long as you keep writing, I'll keep reading! (I secretly enjoy this learning experience to the ones I ought to be having with my cases....)
Hello, you don't know me but I'm a future Baylor law student and also member of the Church. I have a wonderful little family as well and I was wondering if I could contact you with some questions we have about Waco, the School, and the LDS community. We start in the Summer and all of us are super excited (especially my three year old, we told her there's a zoo in Waco.)
Thanks, we would really appreciate any advice you could give us.
I'm also enjoying reading your blog, keep it up!
Tom Askeroth
my son is engaged to a mormon, & in the past year, i've had real questions i've wanted to understand about the mormon religion. she is very shy around me and i feel uncomfortable asking her. i could not find your email on the side bar to write and ask you these questions, do you have an email?
Anonymous, you can post whatever questions you have on this site if you want to remain anonymous. Or I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have privately. You may use my baylor email address: craig_pankratz@baylor.edu
Hey, Craig, you're getting a little traction here!
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