Ask About LDS

[agricola]

no reason. Just ran across something to share - We all know (now!) that the coc and the LDS church share an origin in time, space, and early membership! The coc and LDS also share some common doctrines (patriarchal leadership, lay- centered leadership) and practices too ('brother', 'sister', 'elder' and even some songs).

Mormonism is a religion of certainty; beliefs are paramount. Expressions of knowing accepted teachings, absolutely, permeate every Sunday service and every religious lesson, and are essential to one’s good standing in the church. I know that Jesus died for my sins. I know that the Book of Mormon is literally and historically true. I know that this is God’s one true Church. I know that my family will be together for eternity. In Mormonism’s lay-led religious organization, where everyone engages in teaching and learning together, it’s impossible to completely hide your beliefs or lack thereof. Plus, every other year you are individually interviewed by the local leadership, in part to ensure that you assent to a list of specific beliefs.

[B.H.]

There was a Church of Christ preacher named Rigdon who left that church and joined the Mormons early on. Alexander Cambell always claimed he thought Rigdon wrote the Book of Mormon because there were so many Church of Christism in it. Baptism was for the forgiveness of sin, baptism was immersion only, church name was Church of Christ, all other churches were false, you had to have elders and deacons.

[Ivy]

This is amazing, BH!! Once when I was still overcoming cofc doctrine and searching for a non-cofc church....I took the Belief-O-Matic and scored high as aligning with LDS doctrine.

It makes you wonder......

[KLP]

no reason. Just ran across something to share - We all know (now!) that the coc and the LDS church share an origin in time, space, and early membership! The coc and LDS also share some common doctrines (patriarchal leadership, lay- centered leadership) and practices too ('brother', 'sister', 'elder' and even some songs).

Mormonism is a religion of certainty; beliefs are paramount. Expressions of knowing accepted teachings, absolutely, permeate every Sunday service and every religious lesson, and are essential to one’s good standing in the church. I know that Jesus died for my sins. I know that the Book of Mormon is literally and historically true. I know that this is God’s one true Church. I know that my family will be together for eternity. In Mormonism’s lay-led religious organization, where everyone engages in teaching and learning together, it’s impossible to completely hide your beliefs or lack thereof. Plus, every other year you are individually interviewed by the local leadership, in part to ensure that you assent to a list of specific beliefs.

Biggest difference, almost, is the the LDS church is ORGANIZED and the coc - isn't.

No big difference huh?
Just off the top of my head....
Baptism by proxy
Baptism for the dead (even dead Jews) is not a big difference.
Having the building as holy sanctuary and secret
Marriage in heaven
Current day prophets and revelation
Instrumental and secular music
Elders who are young and not married
Multiple spouses
Jesus being a created being and elevated to spiritual being
God/Father was once a mortal man and became a spirit being
Being able to obtain the state or level of a Jesus and be on another planet or world
Earth and universe were not created out of nothing
Adam was a god

So while there are some similarities to all religions, I am thinking maybe there is a little more than just "organization" that is different between LDS and CofC.

[B.H.]

Aren't a lot of Mormon doctrine not found in the book of Mormon itself but in other books or supposed revelations?

[agricola]

LDS has the Book of Mormon, the Bible (which is 'accurate' unless it conflicts with the Book of Mormon), and there is or used to be a book called the Pearl of Great Price - I don't know if it is still around or not. It didn't have the authority of 'scripture' as I recall, but was more of a kind of advice or encouragement book.

Most denominations have similar sorts of books - the coc typically has journals or pamphlets from colleges (coc colleges) or institutions.

A former coc member attending a typical LDS Sunday morning service would find a lot of similarities in practice (song and a prayer, sermon, elders and deacons, 'brother' this and 'sister' that) and also some differences.

For a positive, they are indeed very organized - and this is or can be a good thing! Members are fully involved and engaged. There are programs for singles, teens, married couples - everything. There are regular 'activity nights'. The stake will have dances for young people, and parties. They practically run the Boy Scouts in Utah altogether. The church has food pantries and other necessary supplies for families in need of help. The LDS is largely lay-led - an ambitious and faithful member (male) can hope to rise as far as the Council, even maybe aspire to being Prophet someday.

They are not only family- encouraging but actually family -friendly: the church supports children's activities and education. At its best, the model of the ideal family works positively. Yes it is patriarchal in the extreme - but unlike a lot of places, the LDS church actually promotes and encourages a fond and loving parental relationship between father and children (sons and daughters both). The ideal of heaven is that the family - all the family - will live together, forever. (To me, that sounds like No Thanks! but most LDS people I know think it sounds wonderful - being reunited in heaven with parents and grandparents and sisters, brothers, cousins and everybody. Like Thanksgiving all the time without the stressful parts.)

[B.H.]

Is it true they believe Jesus and Satan are brothers. Father god (brrrrr at evenmentioning the blasphemy) was supposedly a man like us but got his own planet. He decided to make another world, ours, and there was an argument between Jesus and Satan over how we people were to be in it. Jesus wanted us to have free will while Satan basically wanted us to be robots. Father god (brrrrr) liked Jesus's idea better and Satan out of spite led a rebellion. All the people on the first planet who took Satan's side got turned black and sent to earth as Africans. Jesus's followers got sent to earth as whites. Is this true or is it an urban legend Mormons believe this? I hear so much slanderous crap against Islam I am hesitant to believe anything about the Mormons I hear from non-mormons.

I have family that are part hispanic and others who are part black. This doctrine of theirs if true really bothers me. I have read Mormons are in a lot of top positions in government and business. As traditional Christianity fades in influence I fear something like Mormonism may take its place to fill the void, even if people join just to have a social safety net like the Mormoms I grant are good at. I am thinking a parrallel between the Mormons and society of today with non-mormons and minorities compared to how the Christians acted with the pagans in the Roman Empire latter days. What will happen if the Mormons get the power and influence to control society? I have read of things that happened in the past when Mormons kinda took over areas of Illonois and Utah. I don't like what I read either.

[agricola]

Well- yes but.

It is pretty easy to make a cartoonish picture of a faith that is very different from the one you grew up in. It is a bit harder to see that your faith is just as subject to a cartoonish presentation.

Does LDS teach that God was once a human (or at least a person) who was 'elevated' to god-status and got this world as a reward? Yes, more or less.

(hint, LDS is NOT Trinitarian).

But the 'Jesus and Satan are brothers' (true) is obscuring the teaching of the LDS that ALL HUMANS ARE SIBLINGS - every human ever is a literal child of God. All men are Sons of God. All women are Daughters of God. Jesus isn't merely Satan's older brother, Jesus is EVERYBODY'S big brother. Yours, mine, everybody.

Didn't I mention that 'family' is a Very Big Deal in the LDS? 'Family' in LDS culture is LITERALLY holy. Families will be reunited in Heaven (there are different levels for different people) because God is not FIGURATIVELY our Father in Heaven, God is LITERALLY our Father in Heaven...see how that works?

[KLP]

I was triggered by the OP in that it asserts how similar LDS is to CofC and differing mainly in organization. Also, it was not clear that anyone with first hand experience was speaking on behalf of LDS so how can there be much asking about or getting first hand responses? So I was provoked and triggered and pointed out that just off the top of my head that there are huge doctrinal differences between LDS and CofC. And in addition, that pointing out differing in "organization" was rather facile when discussing CofC as compared to other denominations as that is the case with almost all comparisons...so what is the point of even bringing it up...unless to stress the assertion that LDS and CofC are essentially alike. Again, I refer to the OP.

I am not saying the LDS is wrong or whacko or disrespecting their doctrines in this provoked response...but I am pointing out there are significant doctrinal differences between LDS and CofC...and really between LDS and most any other Christian denomination. So suggesting that organization is possibly the biggest difference is to either deny reality of the LDS doctrines or to be unaware of the LDS doctrines. So again...who is answering on the thread on behalf of LDS as an LDS expert or chosen path of faith?

But yes, CofC and LDS do share in the practice of shunning and kicking people out who choose a different path of faith. But then so do other groups that have been discussed. So having something in common with the LDS is not unusual because of course all religious groups share something in common.

So if we are creating a support site and are concerned at all about helping people on the cusp of exiting CofC...then maybe there should be some pause before moderators post that CofC and LDS are essentially the same. This might be a triggering statement to those sensitive ones. Just my thoughts on how to make this a functional support site. But then as has been noted elsewhere, who on this site ever reflects and posts that maybe something was "ill-advised".

[agricola]

So yesterday I was at the gym being tormented by my trainer, and we talked. She's LDS. So here's a bit of 'straight from the source' stuff about LDS 'church' (stakehouse) stuff.

A) nobody is getting paid. Members tithe to the church HQ and the church HQ turns around and supports the stakehouses (I keep writing 'steakhouses' and have to fix it).
B) there isn't a 'preacher'. Various members rotate and give short (five minute) presentations on assigned topics. Men, women and young people all participate in this. They are assigned a topic by the bishop, who is a member who has been selected or assigned to 'run' that stake. Everybody has 'day jobs', there are no professional clergy at all - but the way they train EVERYBODY in a congregation means that practically EVERYBODY is 'clergy': see next -
C) members also rotate among all OTHER duties - songleading (chorister) is an assigned position and can be male or female. A pair of people lead the mens group, womens group, youth group - the pair could be a married couple, or two women, or two men, or a man and a woman. The bishop passes these duties around and members rotate through them for some specified period of time (like a year, perhaps).
D) the position of 'bishop' also rotates around in much the same way, but is assigned from higher up than the local stake.
E) communion/Lord's supper/what have you:
They use bread and water. It is passed around. The bread is 'blessed' by somebody (her son had that duty this weekend). (side note, all boys become 'elders' when they turn 13 and they can then 'bless' things). What is the bread? It is WHATEVER THEY HAVE AROUND THE HOUSE. So some weeks they get white bread and some weeks it is wheat and I guess occasionally somebody splurges and buys garlic-olive pugliese. It's - whatever.

I've said this before: the LDS and CoC shared a lot when they got started, but the LDS is ORGANIZED and the CoC isn't. An LDS congregation trains EVERY member to take EVERY role in the church, from childhood on up.
It is still largely male-led, however, at the upper levels. The elders are male (age 13 and up), the bishops are male, and going up the heirarchy, it's guys all the way. But at the congregational level, there is a lot of women involved actively in everything the church does.