[Maureen]

My thoughts are this, coming from a type of anti-Mormon – mine is more anti-Mormonism – focusing more on doctrine and not person – and definitely not history because that’s the best part. (I do believe a person can be a member of the LDS church and also be a member of “the body of believers” in Christ. I believe a relationship with God is more important than membership with a religion.)

Catholics and Protestants more or less agree on many of the black and white doctrines of Christianity, ie Trinity, Justification by Faith, (although Catholics might not agree totally about this one), Word of God etc. There are gray areas of course but many of those do not affect a person’s salvation.

Mormon doctrine tends to not agree with many of the above and Mormons believe and espouse that they belong to the “one true church” – the church of Jesus Christ.

With Christianity being approximately 2000 year old and going through it’s ups and downs, ie early heretics (leading to the Nicene creed and such), Spanish inquisition, Reformation; many tried and true doctrines have figuratively been carved in stone. So when another religion comes along placing themselves above all other religions and other religious followers, animosity (read LDS church history regarding persecution) and a need to defend your faith comes into play.

Catholicism and Protestantism also have a firm belief in hell. The unsaved are doomed to hell. What makes a person not saved? The bottom line would be, not having faith that Christ is the only way back to God. Who is Christ? And that’s where it all begins. If a religion’s idea about Christ is different than what has been established over these 2000 years then chances are if you do not believe in Christianity’s Christ you are going to hell.

I don’t have to spell out the differences between how the Mormon religion sees Jesus compared to a Protestants view – or do I? For example:

A Mormon view – Christ was Heavenly Father’s first born of spirit children – he was Lucifer’s brother, as he is everyone’s older brother.

A Protestant view – Christ is God. He has always been God, has existed throughout eternity as the second person of the Trinity – he is equal in glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit.

For the older Protestant view, Mormonism is looked on as blasphemous. By not acknowledging Christ as God and giving him the status and glory he rightly deserves, those innate reflexes with defending ones faith come into play. And the need to steer the lost soul (for those blasphemous beliefs) into the right direction, for the sake of their eternal soul.

So two main ideas come into play:

1. Defending your faith and;
2. Convincing the (to use an old term) heretic that they are in need of true doctrine, which will lead them to true salvation.

In a way it seems kind of old fashion (to me anyway) – but I believe it’s due to the doctrine of hell. If hell wasn’t looming over there then there really wouldn’t be the need to have to convince the heretic of their doom.

Since Mormonism does not believe in the same hell as Catholicism and Protestantism then the style of proselytizing will be different.

I personally am not sure about hell (as in everlasting burning and such). I’m not sure whether to read into hell as mentioned in the Bible as figurative or literal. For me at this time in my life, I have decided that “freedom to choose” what to believe is most important. I appreciate that right myself and feel very comfortable in respecting other people who have different beliefs than myself. I enjoy sharing what I believe with others but I do not feel the desire to convert others into believing the same as myself.

M.