The Hope of the Believer . . .

Visiting Other Churches: New Series, No.9...  

THE MORMONS: NO COLLECTIONS! 

Since there are so many peculiarities about the Mormons it may appear odd referring to them as the church that has no collections, but this is a distinction that impresses me. Of all the 70-odd churches I have visited in Denton the Mormon wards (congregations) are the only ones that did not pass a collection plate. This is not to say that they are indifferent toward money, for they are among the few churches that teach and practice tithing, and they may be the most "money wise" of all denominations. But the Mormon church is no place for anyone who is interested in making a living in church work, for no one is paid for any service in the Mormon church except some positions at headquarters in Salt Lake City.

One can see the members handing an envelope to one of the bishop's counselors, who take care of financial matters, leaving the bishop free to care for spiritual needs. This is his or her tithe which may be for a week or a month or longer. The counselors make out a deposit slip each Sunday evening, call Salt Lake City and report the amount of the deposit. When the money is deposited at the local bank on Monday morning it is immediately electronically transferred to Salt Lake City. The members never see the money again and have no voice as to how it is spent. And yet when their imposing stake center opened here in Denton, where two of the wards meet regularly, it was all paid for in cash by headquarters before they ever opened the doors. The only people the local wards hire are janitors, and even their checks come from Salt Lake City. The only money that remains local is the bishop's budget which is for charity and miscellaneous items.

The members do not select the bishop (same as pastor in other churches) who presides over their ward nor his counselors (deacons). They are nominated by the stake (diocese or district) president and are appointed by the First Presidency in Salt Lake City. The ward has no veto power. The Mormon church is hardly a democracy, even though they highly prize democratic principles as very loyal Americans. The whole church is ruled by twelve apostles. The Reorganized Mormons, a separate church with headquarters in Independence, Mo., also have twelve apostles. Each group of apostles considers the other apostate. One of my anti-Mormon friends said he agreed with both of them!

The Mormons are phenomenal in raising money, which is often for charitable causes. They will periodically call for a church-wide day of fasting and almsgiving for some particular cause. On one occasion they raised $12,000,000 for the American Red Cross for relief purposes, which is the largest contribution the Red Cross ever received. Such things are often done quietly and are not reported to the press.

A visitor to the service of a Mormon ward would not notice any major difference from most other Protestant churches, except that they read from the Book of Mormon as well as the Bible. They do not have responsive readings from either book. He might suppose he was at a Baptist church or a Church of Christ (except for piano, organ, and violin!), but he would know that he was not at an Episcopal church! The Mormons are noisy, talkative, and very informal. I felt quite at home with all the noisy kids and in starting the service late. Even in a sacramental service, when Communion is served (each Sunday and with bread and water), their children sit with them. They have Sunday School for all ages, but when the ward gathers for worship the children are there. The Mormons are one of the most family-oriented of all churches. Their services reflect this.

They utilize their facilities better than most of us. Here in Denton there are four wards (about 700 members on the roles) meeting in two buildings. It is common for several wards to use the same facility, but each congregation is independent of the others, with their own organization and program. Each ward bishop is responsible to the stake president, who in turn reports to a regional office, which in turn is responsible to headquarters. A stake is made up of about ten wards with some 4,000 members. Stakes have their own programs, such as calling all wards to a stake center where they watch programs from Salt Lake City on closed circuit TV. A stake will also have a food and clothing center for the needy. The bishop of any ward can issue a permit to any needy person, Mormon or non-Mormon, with which he can go to the center and get what he needs. Mormons are widely respected for the way they care for their needy. Unlike our federal welfare system, they also prod their people to get off welfare by going to work! But they see their own through an emergency, however long it may last. If the Mormons succeeded in converting all America we could close down the welfare department in Washington!

The Mormons are historically anti-black, anti-feminist, anti-ERA, and anti-gay, and they vote conservative Republican. By way of a comparatively recent divine revelation to the church's president the church is no longer officially anti-black. There is but one black family in the Denton wards, which is typical of all white churches in Denton, and the missionaries have recently begun to work among blacks.

While there is a gay-rights Mormon group, as in all denominations, it is not approved by the church. If a Mormon is found to be gay he is excommunicated unless he shows evidence of repentance. And yet the Mormons have quietly set up a therapy treatment center for gays designed to help them to restructure their life style. The church has also recently issued new guidelines for working with gays, a document held in confidence by the bishops.

The Mormons were so anti-ERA, from Salt Lake City to the local wards, that some politicians either credited or blamed them for killing the ERA Amendment. When I asked a bishop's counselor if they were sexist, he conceded that if sexist meant that they recognized the distinctions that God ordained then yes they were sexist. A woman cannot enter their priesthood, either Aaronic, the lower order, or the Melchizedek, the higher order. She cannot be an elder, a bishop, a counselor, and certainly not an apostle. She cannot baptize or serve Communion. A black male could now do all these things! Never sell the Mormons short on what revelation may come next in these days of women's liberation! If a revelation could deliver them from their historic practice of polygamy, the Mormon feminists are not exactly without hope.

And yet the Mormons are far ahead of many of us when it comes to women's ministry. In my several visits I have heard women give testimonials, lead the singing, play instruments, make reports, and even preach. Women sometimes plan and conduct the entire service, except to serve "the sacraments." At one ward recently a woman gave a testimonial on what her conversion to the Mormon church meant to her. She then sat down and began to hyperventilate. A doctor in the audience rushed to her side, but she died there on the front pew.

One service I attended was conducted entirely by girls 12-18 and their leaders, all older women. They are well-organized into age groups which bear them through the years on programs of spiritual improvement. They keep a journal of their progress in prayer, study, and good works, fulfilling their motto of "Stand for Truth and Righteousness." After six years of such development they go before the bishop for an interview. If he agrees that a girl is a worthy "LDS Daughter" she is given a "Young Womanhood Recognition Award" and her name is engraved on a plaque that hangs in the church foyer. The entire service was given to the reports of these girls. There was no preaching at that service.

The girls are strongly urged to marry within their own church. This enables them to marry in the temple (There is now one in nearby Dallas), which seals them in matrimony for time and for eternity. If they marry a "Gentile" (Have you heard the old saw that Salt Lake City is the only place in the world where a Jew is a Gentile!) they are by no means disenfranchised in any way, and the bishop will perform and bless the marriage at the local ward. They are now under pressure to convert their husbands!

The Mormons have their problems just as the rest of us. They lose at least 40% of their converts in less than two years. Only half of those on a ward membership list attends church with any regularity. Only a minority of those are really "good Mormons" who fast (on special occasions and they skip two meals before taking Communion), tithe, conduct home devotionals, and abstain from tobacco, alcohol, tea, and coffee. A good Mormon family may send a son to Salt Lake City to train as a missionary, who then gives two years of his life either in home or foreign missions — at the expense of the family, not the church! Daughters may also now go out as missionaries even if they can't be elders. They are simply "sisters" who usually work among women on college campuses, in two's of course.

The Texas Fort Worth Mission, which supervises about 180 missionaries in our area has about 20 sisters. Such a mission reports directly to Salt Lake City. The Mormon elders who knock on your door will temporarily be a part of the local ward in your area, but they are responsible to a higher level of authority in the church. There are some 17,000 of these worldwide. They are highly esteemed in the ward where they are really visitors, and are often eyed by the girls who may dream of being married to one of them both on earth and in heaven. But eyeing is as far as it goes. No dating, no nothing, and no exceptions! I am suspicious that this is one more reason why the missionary-elders are constantly on the move. While they serve for two years, they stay at one place but a few months. One elder told me that his call to be a missionary interrupted his education at Brigham Young University (BYU). He will return to BYU and finish his education, but having served as a missionary will make him a super Mormon for life. He will also have a special place in the next world, and he will not have to wear dark suits and ride a bicycle.

The attitude of the church at large toward Mormons may be seen in a conversation I had with one of my old Princeton profs when I returned one year for a reunion. He had been invited to lecture on religion at BYU, and being a Presbyterian he was surprised they had invited him. When I said something about the Mormons deserving high marks in some areas, he responded with, "Yes, if they didn't have to believe so many crazy things." That is the essence of Mormonism as viewed by many non-Mormons who have knowledge of Mormon history and theology, except that some go further and insist that they are apostate and anti-Christian.

I find it baffling that a Mormon scientist can really believe there was an ancient civilization in America with vast cities and an advanced culture long before Christ, when there isn't the slightest scientific evidence for it, archaeological or otherwise. And I am nonplused that intelligent people that the Mormons are can actually believe that the apostle John is still alive somewhere in the world today more than twice the age of Methuselah! What is so odd about this is that the source of this doctrine, Jn. 21:21-23, anticipates that some would interpret what Jesus said to mean that John would not die, so the apostle went out of his way to make it clear: "Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but 'If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?"' (speaking to Peter).

And now they have to believe, according to an old letter that has turned up, written by one of Joseph Smith's associates and conceded by the church to be authentic, that it may have been a salamander who first appeared to the prophet instead of an angel!

Such beliefs are not just crazy. They are weird and cultish. The Mormons invite such problems when they claim new revelations and create extra Bibles.

I have a dear and highly intelligent friend, longtime a Church of Christ missionary, who knows more about the Mormons than any non-Mormon I know. Since his wife converted to Mormonism, he went along with her to church as well as to his own Church of Christ, and he has spent a large part of his life being with them and studying them. At one time he was so accepted by them that he preached in their services. They were all out to convert him also, and even arranged an audience for him with one of the apostles in Utah! He told me that the apostle was most gracious, but the moment he questioned a Mormon interpretation the interview abruptly ended. He at last told the Mormons plainly that their chances of converting him was absolutely nil, as much as he loved them, for he knew too much about their doctrine.

He told me two things about the Mormons that impressed me, prompted by my question as to whether they are really Christians, which most evangelical Christians seem to doubt. First, he said, they have the most inexcusable, indefensible theology of any church in Christendom, especially in reference to God, Christ, and the church. Second, he said, they are the most devoted, committed Christians he had ever known; they are better Christians than we are.

If we have to give the Mormons an F in theology, I am tempted to give them an A in practical religion. And if I graded those churches that are so judgmental of the Mormons, perhaps including my own, I would be tempted to use the same grades — in reverse order! It is just as well to let the Lord issue the report cards. But if we must be judgmental, let it be self-judgment.

So, when it comes to the Mormons, you can see what you want to see, the good or the bad. Visit with them in their own churches and decide for yourself. As for me I choose to see the good while not unmindful of the bad. One thing is evident, the Mormons make good friends, fine neighbors, and productive, law-abiding citizens. — the Editor