This is already a topic, about which several blogs in the bloggernacle have already had in depth discussions. See FAIR’s point by point rebuttal; Artemis’ post at fMh; Tanya’s post at Millennial Star; Jeff Lindsay’s post at Mormanity; and, PDOE’s post at Mormon Mentality; I simply add one more voice in opposition to this type of bigoted anti-Mormon behavior by some of these our “Christian” brothers and sisters (so-called).
The Church’s formal announcement is listed on its website here. I republish the Church’s entire response:
29 March 2007 Several news reports have appeared over the past few days in Utah and Arizona about a Christian activist group that has been distributing anti-Mormon DVDs throughout Utah and in some other states.
The Jewish Anti-Defamation League in Phoenix promptly condemned the distribution, saying that “hate directed at any of us is hate directed at all of us.”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has weathered such attacks throughout its history. At a time when the Church is growing strongly throughout the world, it’s not surprising that some groups try to curb that growth in such ways.
Throughout the history of the United States, the rights of free speech and freedom of religion have been pre-eminent. Groups opposed to the Church have a perfect right to distribute their materials in ways that are legal.
The issue is not one of rights. Rather, it is that one religious group chooses to target another with a DVD full of distortions of its doctrine and history, and misrepresentations so stark that they call into question the integrity of the producers.
When Latter-day Saint missionaries visit homes or engage others in conversation, they studiously avoid criticism of other faiths. They do not attack and they do not condemn. Instead, they declare their own message honestly and openly and allow people the freedom to choose. Above all, they encourage each person to find out for themselves through personal research as well as prayer.
That will continue to be the Church’s approach, not just because honest and open dialogue is what most people want, but because in our view it best represents the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
(Emphasis added).
I would simply add these folks continue the literal fulfillment of Moroni’s prophecy about Joseph Smith, made on a late Fall evening in 1823, while Joseph was an unimportant, uneducated, and uninfluential, backwoods farm boy in upstate New York:
He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.
A great follow up in Today’s Salt Lake Tribune, from their Editorial Page:
Thumb down
Sectarian strife: As if the Christians versus the Muslims weren’t enough. Under the cover of darkness, a group of evangelical Christians placed more than 300,000 DVDs that attempt to discredit the LDS faith on doorknobs in Utah last weekend. It may be legal, but, given the sectarian bad feeling it generates, it’s not right. And it’s no way to win converts. At least Mormon missionaries have the decency to knock on the door and ask if they can leave a message. And they don’t sneak around doorsteps at 3 a.m. for the purpose of informing the people asleep inside that they are cultists, not Christians.
Good for the Tribune.
And the work rolls on. . .
March 31, 2007 at 8:27 am
They say they do these things out of love for us but let me tell you, I don’t feel loved. I feel very, very hurt and rather angry. They seek to decieve me. They claim that Mormons don’t really “know” their history, don’t research it and understand it yet they expect me to swallow their version of events every bit as blindly as they say I follow my church.
March 31, 2007 at 11:41 am
They seek to deceive, not only you and me, but everyone else that can taint with their poison and hatred. Good points, and thanks for your post over at Mormon Mentality
April 1, 2007 at 7:29 am
I would encourage LDS members to be charitable and to rightly discern between the producers of the DVD in question, and the rank-and-file people distributing the DVD who are merely accepting their leaders’ version of what’s in the DVD and what LDS believe.
I make the analogy to the Jews in the early days of the church. There was a big difference between the rank-and-file Jews, who made up all of the converts for the first few years of the church, and the leaders of the Jews who persecuted the early church.
As PDOE said, their rank-and-file are just following their leaders, perhaps as blindly as they accuse us of following ours.
An example was my grandfather, a very righteous and humble man, a member of a Presbyterian church, who walked uprightly before God and man. He did not do his own research and relied entirely on what his church leaders pointed him to. They pointed him to material put out by some true anti-mormons.
Neither he nor his Presbyterian leadership realized there were distortions and misrepresentations in the anti-mormon material. The anti-mormons has gone around and “poisoned the well” so to speak, deceiving not only my grandfather, but his Presbyterian ministers.
I like to point out that LDS doctrine has much in common with evangelical doctrine, especially in regards to how the Holy Spirit works, how one should always attempt to walk in the Spirit, and live by personal revelation.
It’s the producers of the video in question that have assumed a confrontational stance, not the foot-soldiers who think they are doing God’s will in distributing it. Please, please, please don’t lay this sin of misrepresentation at the feet of their rank-and-file. And please don’t take a confrontational or adversarial stance with their rank-and-file.
When that future day comes, at some point before the final judgement, all those who sincerely thought they were doing God’s will in distributing that material will humbly apologize.
Another point in the future that I look forward to is when the Lord will pour his Spirit out on all flesh, both LDS and non-LDS. Many of our evangelical brethren who are sincerely trying to follow the Spirit, will recognize the restored gospel because they will finally recognize that the Spirit which they seek is among the LDS.
We should be thankful that we suffer nothing more than mere verbal disagreement. Our LDS forebears from the 1800′s are likely looking down upon us and saying “Feh. You think you have it bad? That’s nothing compared to what we went through.”
And remember what Brigham Young once said about persecution, “Every time you kick ‘Mormonism,’ you kick it up stairs: you never kick it down stairs.
http://www.journalofdiscourses.org/Vol_07/refJDvol7-21.html”
So when countering the misrepresentations, please be aware that their rank-and-file are not intentially misrepresenting things as are the producers of the material.
April 3, 2007 at 9:05 am
I think it is ironic that LDS get mad at someone for telling them that their religion is false. Here is some quotes that you might want to look at before throwing stones.
“I was answered that I must join none of them (Christian Churches), for they were all wrong…that all their creeds were an abomination in His sight” (Joseph Smith History 1:19).
“…orthodox Christian views of God are Pagan rather than Christian.” (Mormon Doctrine of Deity by B.H. Roberts, p.116)
“…the God whom the ‘Christians’ worship is a being of their own creation…” (Apostle Charles W. Penrose, JD 23:243)
“The Christian world, so called, are heathens as to their knowledge of the salvation of God.” (Brigham Young, JD 8:171)
“We may very properly say that the sectarian world do not know anything correctly, so far as pertains to salvation. Ask them where heaven is?- where they are going to when they die?-where Paradise is! -and there is not a priest in the world that can answer your questions. Ask them what kind of a being our Heavenly Father is, and they cannot tell you so much as Balaam’s ass told him. They are more ignorant than children.” (Brigham Young, JD 5:229).
“The Christian world, I discovered, was like the captain and crew of a vessel on the ocean without a compass, and tossed to and fro whithersoever the wind listed to blow them. When the light came to me, I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness.” (Brigham Young, JD 5:73).
“What! Are Christians ignorant? Yes, as ignorant of the things of God as the brute best.” (John Taylor, JD 13:225)
April 5, 2007 at 11:27 am
[...] Guy Murray’s post has links to four other LDS [...]
December 5, 2007 at 11:11 pm
That’s pretty bad. What a waste of their time.
July 6, 2011 at 4:37 pm
My name is Thomas Knight from Lilydale, Victoria, Australia. I should like to issue a testonmy regarding the conduct of the Morman Missionaries. I have been welcoming the missionaries in my home since approx. 1970. At all times they have all conducted themselves in a most excellent manner. They are fine upstanding people, both male and female, and are a credit to their faith.
Rest assured this is not a message from a Church of Jesus Christ member, just a testomony of a group of fine people. As a Filmmaker I have just finished a documentary titled, ‘The Tragedy of Abandoned Churches’ and it is rather interesting to see how so called ‘christians’ leave their abandoned churches. They are so disgusting they would make the devil blush.
Thomas Knight. ALC .ACA. AFFPA.
Wintergarden Film (Aust)