Wednesday, March 13, 2002
|
Wednesday, March 13, 2002 |
|
Mormon doctrine unlike familiar Christian beliefs Your recent article in The Citizen ["Olympic spotlight illuminates Mormon faith," March 6] invites some comment and correction. The LDS church claims to be "considered to be the world's fastest growing religion." That claim, however, is false, and I suspect that it is only the Mormons themselves who believe that. According to the church's own figures, it is growing at a recent rate of about 2.5 percent per year, and that rate is decreasing. In comparison, another similar-sized denomination, the Seventh-Day Adventists, posted a growth of 10 percent in its last year. And the Chinese religion Falun Gong, which is under severe persecution by the Chinese government, grew to the present size of the LDS church in a mere 15 years from its founding in 1985 (the LDS church is 172 years old). Thus, the LDS church is by no means "the world's fastest growing religion." The church is also losing members, both to increased numbers of formal resignations and to member disillusionment and inactivity, none of which is reflected in their official numbers. Recent pronouncements by church authorities deplore the large numbers "falling away." Missions are being closed in Europe because of lack of success. The number of converts who remain active members after one year is less than half, and only a quarter in some areas. A major cause is probably that the standard missionary procedure is to baptize as quickly as possible, before the convert has a chance to think or investigate thoroughly. Many converts from other Christian denominations are quite surprised, for example, to find after their conversion that Mormon doctrine resembles very little of the Christianity they were familiar with. The press at the Olympics was not nearly as uniformly enthusiastic about Mormonism and the Mormons as your article implies. Many articles in the international press exposed a side of Mormonism that the Mormons did not want to the world to see. And some of these articles were retracted when vocal Mormons objected to them. Such is the influence of Mormon power on the free expression of ideas. (A long Mormon tradition: Joseph Smith, its founding "prophet," died as a direct result of his destroying a newspaper press which dared to criticize him.) To get a taste of the other side of Mormonism, I suggest that you talk to those whose experience was not as wonderful as those whom you interviewed (apparently you interviewed only active members of the church). You will find a great deal of such information on the Internet, particularly at www.exmormon.org (over 150 former Mormons talk about why they left the church), or at www.ExmormonFoundation.org (the official website of The Exmormon Foundation, with special links to contacts for the media). There are two sides to every questions, of course. I hope that you will follow up with an article on Mormonism showing the other side. Richard Packham (Former Mormon) President, The Exmormon Foundation
|
||