I’m calling this feature ‘Sunday Sermon’, but it’s anything but a sermon. To me, a sermon implies someone will stand at a pulpit and relay his or her interpretation of a religious document as if their interpretation were the complete truth. Furthermore, they would expect you to buy  in to their interpretation and take it on as your own.

My Sunday Sermons are anything but that. I will explore different questions of faith that I am having and look for thought provoking discussion in return. What I would like to do is present topics for discussion or thought that you may or may not have thought of yourself.

Let me start my discussion of the Mormons with this clarification: I believe that faith and spirituality is a cornerstone of family life. I was raised as a Christian (Methodist to be exact) and I do believe it made our family stronger and gave us support when we needed it most. But, my own personal beliefs I now feel are a very internal choice. I want to give my children that choice. I want to introduce them to ideas that I have been introduced to, and allow them to decide which way they want to go. Kat, the teenager, has gone the way of science. She embraces Quantum Physics and String Theory. I do as well, but those ideas don’t lend much to the human experience. So matters of religious faith are still important to me as well. So Sunday Sermons are about exploring all aspects of faith. Any discussion is completely welcomed here!

So, back to the current topic: Why did I let missionaries, or door-to-door Jesus salesmen in to my home? I was simply curious! Beyond the random mention in an Orson Scott Card book or blog post, I really didn’t have a clue what the Mormons were all about. The day they knocked, I had recently watched Bill Maher‘s ‘Religulous‘, where he claims that Mormons believe God, Jesus, and Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormons, all live on a planet by the sun. Really? They’re that crazy? I thought as I watched. So when they knocked on the door, I had to see for myself…

The first visit was an introduction. I admitted that I had been curious about the Mormon faith, and they gave me a small copy of the Book of Mormon and asked me to read through it and pray about it. I would receive an answer if it was absolute truth. I admit that I didn’t read the entire book, which is essentially a new Gospel written by an American, Joseph Smith, during the late 1800′s. I did read the part that was most interesting to me, however, the story of Joseph Smith.

Here is the Cliff Note version: Around the age of 18, Joseph Smith was questioning his faith. With the United States of America having religious freedom, there were certainly a lot of voices to listen to! So he began asking what the true answer was. Which church was right? He went out into the woods to go to the direct source. He prayed to God, who came down with Jesus and told Joseph Smith that there was a manuscript of golden plates buried in the woods. Joseph must find that tome, and everything would be made clear.

The Angel Moroni visits Joseph Smith

With the help of the angel Moroni, who was a resurrected indigenous American, Joseph found it, which was written in ‘Reformed Egyptian’. Joseph Smith was given the power to translate it. There was a lot of drama surrounding the translation of the text, but I won’t get in to that here.

The angel Moroni claimed that he was a member of a people that were brought to the Americas from Jerusalem 600 years before the birth of Christ. He was the last prophet of those people, and had buried the book in order for it to resurface in latter times.

Given this information, I told the Mormons when they returned that I had given it a chance, and I was not receiving the call to that faith. I told them that I did find it interesting that The Church of Latter Day Saints kind of made Christianity more modern. That The Book of Mormon makes Christianity something an American can relate to was very interesting to me. However, I just didn’t hear the call.

They read a few passages and we prayed, then they left. I kept thinking about it, and read a bit more of the Book of Mormon, and they came back the next week with a DVD about Joseph Smith, which detailed the account of finding the Book of Mormon that I briefly relayed to you above. We prayed again, and I told them I’d call them if God answered and told me it was the truth.

Unless I’m just blocking Him out, He hasn’t.

RLDS church in Independence, Mo

I didn’t lie, it is interesting to me, but I certainly do not feel that the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints is the One True Church. Especially given that I grew up near Independence, MO, home of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints, which I believe is now a ‘Church of Christ’. If this is the One Answer that I’m looking for, why did it have to be reorganized? When a band releases a second Greatest Hits album, which one is truly the greatest? It all comes back to personal preference. Which ever belief speaks to you at any given moment, that’s what you’re going to choose.

The Mormons didn’t speak to me, perhaps, because I’m too analytical. I didn’t want to hear the stories, and the lessons behind the stories, because I’m too caught up in where the stories come from. A book written in ‘reformed Egyptian’? What does that mean? According to what I’ve read online (reliable, right?!) reformed Egyptian is not mentioned anywhere else but the Mormon faith. Joseph Smith sat behind a curtain and translated aloud for one of his followers to transcribe it. There were 12 witnesses that held the golden plates, but where are they now? That we can’t find the stone tablets of Moses makes perfect sense to me, that was a very long time ago. But sacred plates made of gold from the late 1800′s? They’ve got to be around here somewhere.

One final demonstration of my overall thought process on faith:

I recently discovered a ‘Goth’ musical artist (and animator!) that goes by Voltaire. He wrote a song that I love called ‘God Thinks‘. The overall message of the song is that no one can know what God thinks, and don’t trust anyone that says they do. The final verses hit hard:

God thinks puppies need to drown and

God thinks babies need to die ’cause

God is neither good nor bad

God is you and me

God is everything.

I played that for Kat, who enjoys thinking about this kind of thing too. When the song was over she asked, ‘I don’t get it. Aren’t you a Christian?’

I was a little taken aback. We actually haven’t gone to church in a long time. I’m certainly not as devout as her statement made it sound.

‘Well, I’m Christian as far as I believe a man that went by Jesus Christ walked the Earth and did a lot of amazing things and got a lot of followers. But I also believe in Siddhartha Buddha and Muhammad.’

‘I didn’t want a discussion.’ She replied. I think I interrupted a phone call with a boy. My bad. I’ll give her some more time.

So, what are the thoughts out there? If you are a Mormon, I’d love to hear from you. What draws you to that faith? If you’re not, are you a little bit curious? Do you think I’m crazy for inviting them in?

If you do want to know more, I’ve sprinkled the links in this blog with various sources, but I suggest you start with Mormon.org. Get it straight from the Mormons themselves.

Thanks in advance for the discussion!