Meet the Mormons

So as we live in the middle of nowhere, not many of my fellow nowhere-ites have ever heard of Mormons. The Sutherland Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is over 100 miles wide, and the branch building is an hour's drive from our teeny town. So the earth is salted very sparingly in this particular corner.

As such, I thought it might be helpful to some of my friends who may be wondering about my beliefs. Www.mormon.org is as good a primer on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka the Mormon Church) as any, but I figured I might create a Reader's Digest version, and dispel a few myths I've run into while I'm at it. If you have ascribed to any of these myths in the past, don't sweat it. You're not alone. And we're not offended. :-)
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Who we are...
We are the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We call ourselves saints (in the non-Catholic sense of the word), members, Mormons, the church, or LDS for short.

As you might guess from the name of the church, we are Christians. We believe in Jesus Christ as our savior and the redeemer of the world. We believe that he suffered for the sins of mankind in the Garden of Gethsemane and died on the cross that all mankind may be saved through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel (faith, baptism, repentance for one's sins, etc.). I think people get hung up on this one because we believe that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three separate, distinct beings, but one in purpose - the Godhead. Many other Christian denominations believe in the Trinity, which was adopted as a Christian doctrine by the Nicean creed several hundred years after Christ.

So yes, we believe in the Bible and in Jesus Christ. We believe that our church is the same church that He organized when he was on the earth, with prophets, apostles, pastors (we call them bishops), teachers, and so on.

We are also big into some funny things, most of which are not doctrinal: funeral potatoes, green jello salad (with or without shredded carrots), quilting, crafting, food storage, mommy blogs, scout camp, CTR rings, pouffy hair, bad driving, mission stories, family history, pioneer reenactments, home party businesses, and scrapbooking.

Who we are not...
We are not Amish or Mennonites (though we like them both, and we have been known to do barn-raising type of stuff). We do believe in dressing modestly, however, and I think that may be where some of the confusion lies. The restoration of our church in the 1800s took place in the eastern U.S., which I think is where the others originated, which may be point of confusion.

We are not Jehovah's Witnesses (but we like them too). We do send out missionaries - you can tell ours by the black tags. But we're cool with birthdays and parties and stuff. Just no alcohol. Or drugs or coffee or tea. Chocolate is okay (thank heaven).

Though we do not condone homosexuality, we are not gay-haters.

We are not polygamists. No, Big Love is not true to life. Sorry - Mom was right. You can't believe everything you see on TV. As in the Bible, polygamy in the church was a brief, limited practice, but it ended in the late 1800s. (C'mon guys. That was soooo two centuries ago). Rule of thumb: if you see a news article or story about Mormons and there's polygamy involved, unless is was published in 1860-something, it's safe to assume it's actually talking about a fundamentalist off-shoot group or something.

We are not a cult. I seriously have no idea where this one comes from. Each church member and each of those looking to become church members is encouraged to pray and study the scriptures and the principles of the gospel, and to ask God to gain a personal witness of their truth.

We are not perfect. We are mortals and we all make mistakes. Some of us have prejudices. We are not nice all the time. We offend people sometimes. Some of us struggle with the standards we believe in. And we all wish we were doing a little better to represent Christ.

We don't have horns. Again, I seriously don't know where this one comes from. Some of these make me laugh.

What we believe...
Volumes could contain this one, but here's a start. We believe that God created the earth so that us, his spirit children, could gain physical bodies and experience the tests, trials, and triumphs of mortality. He wants us to learn to love and serve each other, and ultimately return to live with him one day.

He sent us to families to help serve this purpose. We believe that through ordinances in holy temples, families can receive divine instruction and be sealed so that their relationships will be perpetuated beyond the grave. Families CAN be together forever.

In the temples, we do vicarious ordinances for those that have died so they can choose to have these blessings if they accept the gospel after death. Please note that we do not dig up corpses and baptize them (yuck). Ordinances are done by a living proxy in the name of the deceased. (That's why we're so big on family history and genealogy.) The deceased person can accept or reject the ordinances done for him or her. Through this work, those that have died without a chance to hear the gospel of Christ will have a chance to accept it and be redeemed from their sins.

We believe in trying to better ourselves and encourage and help each other. We have several auxiliary organizations that accomplish this aim, including the Relief Society, humanitarian aid, the church welfare program, the Perpetual Education Fund, and others.

We believe in living prophets and apostles, just like Jesus appointed in his day. We trace the authority they have (the priesthood) back to Joseph Smith, who received it from John the Baptist, and Peter, James, and John, who received it from Christ. We believe that the priesthood is the authority to act in God's name.

Speaking of Joseph Smith, we believe that he was the first prophet in these modern times. When he was about 14, he (like many of us have been at some point) was confused on the subject of religion and wanted to know which of all the doctrines were true and which church to join. He prayed to God to know, and God and Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him that none of the churches on the earth at the time had the full gospel. Through subsequent revelations and visions, God restored His church and authority to the earth through Joseph Smith and others who helped him.

We do not worship Joseph Smith. He did many great and marvelous things. He translated the Book of Mormon (a book of scripture from the American continent comparable and complementary to the Bible), and he was a prophet chosen of God, but he was a mortal man. So, too, are the prophets today - wonderful, mortal men called of God to lead his church and reveal His will to His children, which is affirmed by the testimony of the Holy Ghost in each of us.

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Wow, that got long. But it doesn't even scratch the surface. I am so blessed to belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Our teachings seem old-fashioned and even crazy to some, but I know they are true and that they bring happiness to those that live them. The older I get, the more evident that is to me.

If anyone has any questions about this, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or anything else, feel free to contact me or browse the www.mormon.org website.