Rank Religious Bigotry And America’s Editors
I commented on this blog entry on comment #5
Jenny Hatch writes: Thursday, April, 26, 2007 10:25 AM
Response to Souths main question
I am an active member of the LDS Church. In reading Souths piece I believe his main question was this:
“The far more critical and basic question is: Does Romney’s brand of faith and membership in the Church of Latter-day Saints require that he question or dismiss the validity of the Christian tradition, and the efficacy of baptism into their faith, of every non-Mormon adherent of Christianity who has ever lived since the end of the apostolic era? And does he?”
Joseph Smith as a young boy was confused by all of the religious fervor in upstate New York when he was a fourteen year old boy. He decided to act on the words of a scripture in James that encouraged him to ask God and find out for himself.
What Mormons term the first vision is our collective belief that Joseph in fact talked with God and Jesus Christ face to face and he was told to join none of the churches, they were all wrong.
Mormons don’t shy away from these facts, we share them as the greatest news to hit the world in the last few centuries. Sit down and talk with our missionaries for a few hours and you will hear the first vision story as the very first teaching.
Does this mean we hate other faiths? Or that we believe we are better than other christians?
All you have to do is look at the history of christianity and you will see that many people had serious issues with Christianity as it was being taught and practiced by the early christian sects. The whole point of the schisms and Protestant movement was the infighting about various points of doctrine.
Joseph was told that none of them had the fullness and he was to be the means of Restoring Christs true church on the earth.
We believe that the great reformers like Luther, and Wycliffe paved the way for the restoration.
Read this talk by one of our Apostles Thomas Monson for an overview of how we feel about other faiths and religious activists:
From the talk:

“In due time honest men with yearning hearts, at the peril of their very lives, attempted to establish points of reference, that they might find the true way. The day of the Reformation was dawning, but the path ahead was difficult. Persecutions would be severe, personal sacrifice overwhelming, and the cost beyond calculation. The reformers were pioneers, blazing wilderness trails in a desperate search for those lost points of reference which, they felt, when found would lead mankind back to the truth Jesus taught.

John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, Jan Hus, Zwingli, Knox, Calvin, and Tyndale all pioneered the period of the Reformation. Significant was the declaration of Tyndale to his critics: “I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the scripture than thou doest.”

Such were the teachings and lives of the great reformers. Their deeds were heroic, their contributions many, their sacrifices great—but they did not restore the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Of the reformers, one could ask: “Was their sacrifice in vain? Was their struggle futile?” I answer with a reasoned “no.” The Holy Bible was now within the grasp of the people. Each person could better find his or her way. Oh, if only all could read and all could understand! But some could read, and others could hear, and all had access to God through prayer.”

If the claims of Mormonism are offensive to some people of faith, they are offensive in the same way that Luther was offensive to the catholic church, or that Wycliffe was offensive to the pope of his time, (so much so that 44 years after his death his bones were dug up, crushed, and thrown in the river).
Asking a mormon or Mitt Romney to back away from this hard doctrine that Joseph Smith restored Jesus Christs church is simply asking us to deny the very foundation of our faith.
Mormons are not bigots, we simply claim the right to believe that we are a part of Jesus Christs only true and living church on the earth, restored and fully functioning as the ancient church with prophets, apostles, and the living christ as our head.
I don’t believe the South article was a hit piece, he was asking legitimate questions, and all I would ask the reader to do is search for yourself if any of our teachings encourage hate or bigotry against any other religion, with the understanding that the very foundation of our church is what seems to be the problem in some peoples minds.
Jenny Hatch