First of all, this diary is not an attack on Mormonism. As a political site, I don't think the DK community is well served by such attacks. It is however an attempt to better understand Mormonism and thus better understand some of our neighbors and (often) political opponents.
For full disclosure I consider myself an atheist and recovering Christian. I do have Mormon friends and family, and have had in the past, an over developed interest in religion. So I've asked a lot of questions, read a lot of books and articles. I don't consider Mormonism any more or less "out there" than any other religion. It's just different. And that's the main thrust of this diary.
Behold the Orange Squiggle of Doom:
"Reboot"
It seems one of the biggest trends in Hollywood (right after trying to convince us that 3D isn't just a warmed over gimmick from the 50s) is the reboot. Can't think of a great new idea or villain for your super hero? just reboot and start the story over from the beginning. Having trouble keeping the story's cannon straight after 5 television series and 10 big screen productions? just reboot and start the story over from the beginning, disregarding all that went before.
I believe it's helpful to consider Mormonism as a reboot. While the Reformation was an updating and reevaluation of what had come before, Mormonism is starting over. Don't get me wrong, it still features the familiar cast: Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, Peter, James, John. And the King James bible, complete with Old and New Testaments, still plays a large role. But there are also new cast members: Lehi, Nephi, Mormon, Moroni. As well as new settings and new plots: The Book of Mormon.
I've come to the same conclusion on Mormonism as did South Park. Mormonism is weird. But Mormons are (generally) pretty nice people.
But I also think that people often misunderstand and misrepresent Mormonism because they are coming at it from a Christian perspective, not understanding that this is something different.
Terminology
One of the easiest things for us outsiders to stumble over is terminology. That word you know from your world often doesn't mean the same thing in the Mormon community.
For example, if I told you my niece was attending seminary, you might assume that she is at a divinity school studying to attain the priesthood. If you knew my niece is Mormon and understood their language, you would understand my niece is a high school student and meets every weekday morning before school with other Mormon high schoolers and a teacher to study Mormon scripture.
If I told you a potential presidential candidate was a bishop, you might think that he was in the higher echelons of his church and sat on one or more of its higher counsels. If you know that man is a Mormon and you know something about them, you understand that bishop in the Mormon church is a lay position more on the level of a local pastor or priest, that men usually hold that position for 5 years before being "released" to be available for a new lay "calling" which might be Sunday school teacher or boy scout leader. You would also understand that if you walked into any given Mormon church service on Sunday and looked around, at least a dozen of the older men in suits you see have been bishops at one time or another.
Basically, don't assume you are talking about the same things when talking to or about Mormons just because the words are the same.
The "Unified Christ Theory"
It took quite a while, but after years of questions and reading I finally understood the point of Mormonism. To do so, you must take a grand view of what they believe, including the the Bible and additional scriptures (the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Peal of Great Price).
It seems to me that Mormonism is an attempt to create a grand unifying religion that explains everything that the Bible seems to contradict itself on or is at best ambiguous on. To do so, it uses additional scripture, first the Book of Mormon and others later on, to fill in the gaps, redefine terminology (hell changes from an actual place to a state of feeling really bad you didn't do better in life) and bring everything under one grand Mormon umbrella.
By it's nature, this is too big a topic to cover in this diary. But I will attempt a brief overview.
If one were to approach the Old and New Testaments as presented in the King James version as an outsider, without all the explanations and justifications one receives from churches, you would get the following general outline of God's dealings with man:
1 - God creates man and woman in Paradise and tells them to be happy. Apparently from these verses, God intends this to be mankind's condition. But, they (meaning the woman) screw up and are cast out.
2 - New plan. God now wants everybody to be "righteous" but leaves the term rather ambiguous. Mankind fails to meet His expectations, and God destroys (almost) everybody in a flood.
3 - New plan. God will now focus on Abraham and his family -- they shall be chosen. He establishes an "everlasting covenant" with them to be His special people "forever." They fail to fully meet His expectations.
4 - New plan. God will focus on just part of Abraham's family -- Israel and his kids, making up 12-ish tribes. They fail to fully meet His expectations.
5 - New plan. 10 tribes are lead off (God only knows where). God will combine the remaining 2 tribes into one and focus on them. They fail to fully meet His expectations.
6 - New plan. God sends his Son to live and die in order to save mankind. The Son (and by extension, God) "is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Again, from the outside, God (who is supposed to be eternally consistent) was constantly changing the plan and even made "everlasting covenants" and reneged.
Enter Mormonism. Mormonism "fixes" this.
In Mormonism, Christianity is not a late comer. It is the rule in God's dealings with man, not the exception. The history of the world goes something like this: God sends prophets to the people who teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The people accept it and live it for a while. Then they fall into apostasy and the Gospel is taken away. Until new prophets are called and the Gospel is taught again. Mormonism is a return of prophets to teach the True Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Pearl of Great Price includes the Book of Moses which contains a complete and unabridged account of creation. According to the Book of Moses, the following occurred shortly after Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden:
But God hath made known unto our fathers that all men must repent.
And he called upon our father Adam by his own voice, saying: I am God; I made the world, and men before they were in the flesh.
And he also said unto him: If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, and be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ, the only name which shall be given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men, ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, asking all things in his name, and whatsoever ye shall ask, it shall be given you.
Moses 6:50-53
And it came to pass, when the Lord had spoken with Adam, our father, that Adam cried unto the Lord, and he was caught away by the Spirit of the Lord, and was carried down into the water, and was laid under the water, and was brought forth out of the water.
And thus he was baptized, and the Spirit of God descended upon him, and thus he was born of the Spirit, and became quickened in the inner man.
Moses 6:64-65
(Yeah, that's how Joseph Smith writes. The Book of Mormon and other Mormon scriptures are all pretty much like this. It can be kind of laborious to get through. It's pretty obvious he was trying to match the tone and language of the King James Bible. It's also pretty obvious that he usually failed.)
And so, life after the Fall of Adam starts with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The "everlasting covenant" made with Abraham, according to Mormonism, is that from Abrahams family would come the future prophets, including Christ, who would teach the Gospel.
In Mormonism, the first time Moses descends from the mountain, the tablets contain the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Israelites are bad. Moses breaks the tablets. A second set of tablets is obtained, now containing the Law of Moses to prepare the Israelites for the Gospel they rejected.
etc., etc.
I call it the "Unified Christ Theory."
Literalists (with a New View)
Mormons are fundamentally literalists. But because they are open to new "revelation" they aren't strict literalist. Huh?
The world was created in six days. Absolutely. But those days were pre-Fall days. Which means they are God Days not Earth Days. Generally, a God Day in Mormonism is 1,000 Earth Years (2 Peter 3:8). So for a while, it was accepted in Mormon circles that the creation took 6000 years. More and more Mormons I talk to are open to the idea that a Creation Day may be different than a God Day, and that a Creation Day may be a Billion Earth Years or more and maybe those Creation Days are arbitrary divisions, not equal time segments.
But it has been roughly 6,000 years since the Fall of Adam. Literally.
Mary was a vigin. Christ was born a baby, lived and died on the cross, and was resurrected into a physical body of flesh and bones. Literally.
And so on.
Which also means, that when Joseph Smith found a reference to "baptism for the dead" in 1 Corinthians 15:29, he had to take it literally. Baptism for the dead is a part of the Gospel and room must be found for it in Mormonism. Luckily, new scripture is always available to expand and explain a fleeting and mostly ignored Biblical passage.
Lay Leadership
Before I close this diary out, I do want to point out another thing that can lead to misunderstanding our Mormon neighbors.
They have lay leadership.
Romney served as Bishop to his congregation ("Ward") while working at Bain. This is something they do after work, on their own time, without pay and without training.
It's the last part I want to emphasis. When I hear something particularly outlandish about Mormons that is attributed to "a friend who is Mormon said," I tend to 1- believe that some Mormon somewhere probably believes and teaches it, and 2- it may not be official Mormon teaching.
Lacking formal training, local Mormon leaders are free to teach whatever they believe. Sometimes this can be far afield from official doctrine.
In fact, this diary started out when I came across this article in the Washington Post: Priest to profit: How the Mormon church teaches priesthood holders to lead. It describes this lay leadership system very well.
Since the 1970s, the Church has made great strides to create and enforce standard teachings. But in it's early history, proponents of opposing doctrines where often quite vocal in pushing their views. The most famous of these feuds occurred after the arrival in Utah. The Prophet of the church, Brigham Young, taught that God the Father (Elohim) came to Earth as Adam (much as God the Son, Jehovah, came to Earth as Jesus). One of the Twelve Apostles, Parley Pratt, said that was crap. The two dueled it out across the Utah territory until the Prophet finally sent the Apostle on a mission to England to get rid of him. In the end, it was the Apostle's doctrine that won out, and the church now bends over backward to explain that Brigham Young never taught any such thing.
So while your Mormon neighbor may believe that the world is going to end with the end of the Mayan calendar, it's not an official teaching of the church.
The Beginning
Of course, a diary like this can't explore all the ways the Mormons are "different." But I hope it's a beginning. And I hope it helps in understanding them a bit better.
Again, I don't want to start any Mormon bashing. I will ignore any such comments and ask you do the same. I will try to answer any honest questions about what they believe. But I'm not Mormon and can only call on what I've learned from them. But I will do my best.
Yes, Mormon beliefs are weird. But, generally, Mormons are pretty good people and neighbors.