Rick's Response to Mormons
Since my story first appeared in this site, I have
received a lot of e-mail from members of the Mormon Church. A couple things stand out from
all these responses that I feel are worth noting.
First, I have long felt that there are a vast number of LDS
with serious doubts about the truthfulness of the claims the church makes. This has been
abundantly confirmed from the many members who have written to thank me for my story and
to say they were troubled by a lot of the same things I wrote about. Several have written
who are working their way out of the church. Some have said they feel they can't leave
because of family situations, and the very real fact that many who have are cut off from
family, friends and business associates. (This from "Christian", loving people?)
I have felt privileged to be able to help some of these people with my thoughts and ideas.
Most gratifying have been the instances where I have been able to show someone sources to
study that clearly show the many changes in Mormon doctrine, history and scripture over
the years. The church has done a very good job of appearing more "mainstream".
The all too familiar TV commercials for the Book of Mormon have even now been replaced
with ones offering a free KJV of The Bible. No mention of The Book of Mormon! It seems to
be working. The church claims nearly ten million members now. However, as one returned
missionary wrote in a letter on another site, many if not most of these are coming from
South America where the converts are mostly the poor and uneducated who very willingly
follow an authoritative figure (as the missionaries appear to them to be). Then, within
weeks they become inactive. All of the inactive worldwide, as well as unbaptised infants,
are counted in this ten million. I fully believe that it would be generous to believe that
there are five million active LDS.
Another interesting aspect of the letters I receive is the
ones that are negative. I receive letters from supposedly good LDS people who would claim
to the world that they are full of the love of Christ. These letters are mean spirited and
abusive without any serious questioning or demonstration of faith. Letters of disagreement
are one thing. However, the person who writes in a contentious fashion shows himself to be
of weak intellect. I usually ignore these. It has been an interesting time to see how my
story was received. It has been gratifying to find that many, many LDS are questioning the
leadership in Salt Lake in favor of what their own heart and intellect tells them!
Rick
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