At the Things of My Soul blog, a Mormon shares his frustration with the Evangelical view of the Bible as applied negatively to Mormons but not to others in "Religious Double Standards When Dismissing Mormonism":
Someone called me un-Christian for not accepting the Bible (as canonized in the 4th Century AD) as inerrant. They said that the Bible is the word of God - straight from God's mouth to the prophets' ears to the page. Then, in the same breath, they accepted as Christian someone who said that an entire book in the Bible is not inspired of God. (Martin Luther about the Epistle of James) They quoted Revelation (completely out of context in my opinion) to castigate us for adding to the canon, but they didn't castigate Luther for taking away from the canon. That's a double standard.
Other posts on this topic:
- Stephen Robinson and the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy at Summa Theologica.
- Bart Ehrman, Biblical Criticism, and Mormons at Juvenile Instructor.
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I am a confirmed Lutheran and have attended Evangelical Lutheran Churches (not to be confused with Fundamentalist Evangelical or Missouri/Wisconsin Synod Lutherans).
Luther really wasn't to hip on the book of Revelation, in the canon, as I understand it. Luther was also a peasant that kept Biblical literalism in vogue to this day (I'm not to hip on Biblical literalism myself). Most importantly, Luther did help to reform a very corrupt Roman church which had literally made a temporal business out of salvation.
Luther was incredibly courageous.
If somebody wants to be Mormon, well... that's just fine with me.
As I understand it, LDS folk dismiss all other churches as apostate churches. So, this frustrated Mormon is like a pot calling the kettle black.
As far as Fundamentalist Evangelicals go, I don't even bother myself with 'em anymore. Nobody on this green earth is God, so I don't worry about what others think of my faith. It's really easy: it's personal.
Thanks for the refreshing comment New Age Cowboy. What you have said brings a good breeze of common sense about religions putting down other religions. I also don’t bother with most of our critics because their understanding of themselves (their roots, history and belief system), us (Mormons), and Christianity in general is so shallow that trying to have an analytical debate with them becomes too tedious and fruitless. Don’t get me wrong, I find that same ignorance in abundance among my own, the accusation on this post may be an example of it.
I am LDS myself, and personally I wouldn’t dare to accuse others of having a double standard. While I am aware that most of our critics do point their hypocrite and ignorant fingers at us, making false statements of all kinds; I also have to admit our position is rather strong as you said. We do declare all other creeds to be wrong and in my opinion, not only that, but some of our leaders have wrongly demonized some of those creeds to fanatic levels. In that context, I see it as a mixture of ignorance and hypocrisy when we accuse others of having a double standard toward us. Yes, it is true, they do. Unfortunately, when it comes to both currently and historically, Mormonism has had double standards all along, and some have been extremely embarrassing and outrageous too. But then again, who hasn’t? I feel that in a religious argument, accusing others of double standards is a bit redundant.
Nonetheless, I am not going to criticize Mormons for bringing light and context to the shallowness, ignorance, hypocrisy, and ill intended falsehoods that some of our accusers have carelessly and diabolically kneaded over the decades. It is our right and duty to clarify these things and it is ok to me if in so doing we point out the absurd contradictions that our accusers often incur. I think the good old "don't add to the Bible" issue falls well in this category.
At the same time, I wish we did the same and that we would bring more light and context ourselves as we write our own history, for I know very well that the humble, righteous and victimized image we portray in our manuals and traditions is a lot of times short from honest.
Manuel/Dude,
You sound like my kinda Mormon. I've met some really cool LDS folk; and I marvel at the LDS welfare system (The welfare system is a model for all other religions).
Actually, I was baptized in the LDS Church before I was confirmed in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. I probably have a grasp on rudiments of the LDS doctrine.
Funny thing is that I was raised Evangelical Fundamentalist Christian. After my freshman year of undergrad I had a huge crisis of faith. I was quite familiar with the New Testament... I had no issues with Jesus or the works of Paul.
I decided to really study the Old Testament for the first time at the age of 19. I didn't get far. I wondered why God would punish Adam and Eve for wanting to become like Him.
I had never come across anything in the Bible that I doubted. It tore me apart. Then I discovered that Mormons believed in a Heavenly Father that desired they become just like Him.
It took me til my 20th birthday to get through the missionary discussions. I even met a really cute girl. Well, I got baptized but couldn't fully commit, to make a long story short.
Doctrinal issues like the Trinity and deification are not small; but love conquers all.
Since my LDS and Lutheran undergrad adventures I've also attended a Unitarian Universalist Church; practiced Buddhism (I lived in a Zen Center for a year); chanted a mantra for several years; gone to the Religious Science Church; become a Freemason; etc. Heck, I even picked up the Book of Mormon again a couple weeks back and read 1 Nephi. Let's just say that I won't die wondering.
I'm comfortably Buddhist now. But, I'm still down with JC.
I've met incredible people in all traditions. One LDS friend, also a Spanish professor of mine, was my home teacher and visited me regularly even after I'd lapsed. I told him I really dug the idea of reincarnation and thought that it would fit well in the scheme of 'eternal progression'. He was actually a person of some authority. By my recollection he was above the bishop. He said that he could see how that would fit into the scheme of things. I couldn't believe he was open minded.
Well, I've about written a novel on this blog. I wanna tell ya that I appreciate folks like you... folks that can take an honest look at everything, including their own faith institutions. A great Lutheran theologian said that doubt is an essential component of faith. If there's no doubt, than two possibilities remain: we know something, which doesn't require faith; or, we are deluded.
Good point on the double standard. I hope more Mormons come to realize what others have noticed - the double standards evangelicals apply to others when it is convenient for them.
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