The Mormon Mirage, part 1 of 5 by Latayne C. Scott

Latayne C. Scott is the author of numerous books on Mormonism from a Christian perspective, including The Mormon Mirage. She is also a former member of the LDS church. We've asked her to share some thoughts on Mormonism and Christianity with us here at Koinonia.

- Andrew

A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today

1 of 5: Can't We All Just Get Along?

Zondervan’s new edition of The Mormon Mirage contains all the original reasons why I left the LDS Church, after being a faithful, happy, BYU-scholarship, temple-recommend Mormon. But about 50 percent of this new book is comprised of completely new content – necessitated because the LDS Church is one of the most metamorphic, dynamic religious groups of all time.

Rewriting this book was a labor of love and sorrow. Prevalent in the reviews of the book (in both previous and present editions) has been the observation that I am not bitter, nor is my writing vindictive. That’s because I have no such emotions in my heart.

However, it’s easy to understand why there are hundreds of thousands – perhaps even millions – of ex-Mormons who have no such kindly feelings toward the church they left. Many are still processing the feeling of spiritual betrayal that it took me years to overcome. Worse yet, I see an increasing number of people who leave the LDS Church and are not seeking spiritual guidance from anyone or anything. For example, postmormon.org (a non-religious site) logs between 7 and 8 million site visits per month. http://www.rickross.com/reference/mormon/mormon549.html Its discussion boards are lively and often acrimonious. This organization gives ex-Mormons a place for dialogue on its discussion boards and attracts doubters with billboards throughout Utah that proclaim: "You are not alone."

The existence of such a cyber community was unimaginable when I left Mormonism 35 years ago. (I was indeed alone: In fact, I had been an active member of a Christian church for five years before I ever met in the flesh another ex-Mormon Christian.) It’s a whole new world in the twenty-first century, one in which there are two groups within the LDS Church: "chapel Mormons" and "Internet Mormons," whose worldviews, religious tolerance, and knowledge of their own church comprise what can only be accurately described as two different realities.

Part of this divergence is directly traceable to the LDS Church’s leadership which, as reported in the Salt Lake Tribune years ago, began to deliberately cover up and whitewash oddities and contradictions in two areas: in its own history, and in the teachings by its self-avowed inspired leaders. In fact, LDS leaders once spoke openly about the necessity to "conceal" such things. http://www.janishutchinson.com/newsletter.html

While such practices may disturb Christians, it has devastated many Mormon, as seen in the story of Michael Barrett, an LDS attorney who once was called on by Mormon Church leadership to participate in such cover-ups. Barrett, an assistant general counsel to the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington, left the church over this issue. http://www.ils.unc.edu/~unsworth/mormon/churchhistory.html

http://www.mrm.org/michael-j-barrett

The thought that a church in this information-rich age would think to rewrite its own history to make it more acceptable to its members and Christians is not only shocking to many faithful "chapel" Mormons, it is incredible to most evangelical Christians. After all, haven’t we seen great strides in building bridges between Mormon scholars and Evangelicals? And to the extreme, did not Fuller Theological Seminary President Richard Mouw publicly and spectacularly apologize to Mormons for our "sins" against them? http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=19612 

On the other side of the fence, Mormons appeal: Can’t we all just get along?

Here’s an excerpt from The Mormon Mirage that addresses that question.

LDS apologists such as Robert Millet say those who critique Mormonism usually use a straw-man approach: characterizing Mormonism in terms of obscure statements by long-dead men, and using disputed or fringe teachings to describe LDS doctrines. Even some Christian writers have made the same accusation.¹ Eric Johnson of Mormonism Research Ministry, however, has formulated a simple list of beliefs to which the vast majority of Mormons of the 21st century would agree:

1) The idea that "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become";

2) The idea that temple work is essential to reaching the highest level of the celestial kingdom;

3) The idea that ultimate truth is to be found in the Standard Works² as well as the LDS prophet and apostles;

4) The idea that a person must be baptized in the Mormon Church to have an authentic baptismal experience;

5) The idea that Joseph Smith and succeeding church leaders were given complete authority on earth; and

6) The idea that the Mormon Church is the most trustworthy church in the world.³

To Johnson’s list I would add the following:

7) The idea that a complete apostasy from Christ’s teachings and Church began in the second century AD and necessitated a restoration instead of a reform; and

8) The assertion that a personal, feelings-based "testimony" of events and doctrines outside of one’s own personal experience (Joseph Smith’s first vision, for instance) is a reliable arbiter and authenticator of truth claims.

This is the Mormonism of real Mormons today. And there’s not a single statement there with which an Evangelical Christian could agree, no matter how many friendly fireside chats are held between us. Just as they make Mormonism distinctive from traditional Christianity, these elements are also significant enough and powerful enough to disqualify Mormonism from categorization as Christianity.

Tomorrow I’ll share with you an area of theology, representational thought, which I have found useful in dealing with concepts like Mormonism.

1) Francis J. Beckwith, Carl Mosser, and Paul Owen, The New Mormon Challenge: Responding to the Latest Defenses of a Fast-Growing Movement (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002). Mosser, one of the editors, levels the charge that "some evangelical apologists jealously guard the kind of Mormonism they don’t believe in" (81).

2) "Standard works" of the LDS Church are its four books of scripture.

3) Review by Eric Johnson, "The New Mormon Challenge: Responding to the Latest Defenses of a Fast-Growing Movement." Online at Mormonism Research Ministry: http://www.mrm.org/topics/reviews/new-mormon-challenge-responding-latest-defenses-fast-growing-movement

Latayne C. Scott was a faithful and happy Mormon for ten years, attending Brigham Young University on writing scholarship and working as a staff member for two of BYU’s weekly magazines. She is the author of thirteen published books, including The Mormon Mirage, Why We Left Mormonism and After Mormonism, What? She has also published articles and poems in secular magazines and in major Christian magazines. She is the recipient of Pepperdine University’s "Distinguished Christian Service Award" for "creative Christian writing." She is a representational thinker and a full-time writer. Her Web sites are http://www.latayne.com/ and http://www.representationalresearch.com/.

Comments

[Sheila Gregoire]

Thank you, Latayne, for that article. It really is illuminating.

I had heard a lot lately that perhaps Mormons were becoming more orthodox, but I had my doubts. Seeing your list solidified my opinion.

We need to reach out in love, and accept the people, but never the doctrine!

Visit To Love, Honor and Vacuum today!

[Scott Ferguson]

I would venture that many a non-denominational church would recognize item 6, might quibble with only the timing of the apostacy in 7, and practice number 9.

This is the Christianity of many real Christians today.

While there are certainly things in your list that are unacceptable to mainline Christians, lets be careful of sweeping statements.

[Latayne C Scott]

Scott,

I'd like to interview people from those "many" non-denominational churches who believe that the LDS Church is more trustworthy than their own, and their reasons for staying in those churches.

:)

Latayne C Scott
www.latayne.com
novelmatters.blogspot.com

[Irving Salzman]

Thank you, Latayne, for a very insightful post. I will look forward to your forthcoming installments. Kudos to you that you have been able to keep yourself free from any vindictiveness toward your former church. I was saved out of an Orthodox Jewish background and it took me a goodly amount of time to set myself free of some degree of anger that I had toward the rabbis. I was indignant that they had steered us wrong and had so misdirected us as to miss the One promised by God to be our Messiah. My people are still very much enslaved today to the rabbinic institution and have largely been inoculated against hearing and believing the messianic claims of Jesus. It was hard not to be angry. But Jesus said "Forgive them for they know not what they do." We are called to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us.

I hope at some point you'll give your testimony and that you'll comment on whether or not you've become a target for your former coreligionists. I am not very popular in my community. I am viewed as a traitor. Again, thanks so much for your post.

[Latayne C Scott]

Sheila, may God bless you for your supportiveness and insight.

Irving, I do understand so many of your feelings. You asked about my testimony: The Mormon Mirage contains the story of how it was that I came to leave Mormonism after loving it so deeply. In a second part in the book, I provide a retrospective of how difficult it was to learn to love and trust God. I think it might be startling to many people who saw me "function" for ten years after leaving Mormonism; and then see what it took for me to come to some sort of peace with the true and living God.

Sometimes these things just take time. Sometimes it takes a whole lot more.

Your sister,
Latayne

Latayne C Scott
www.latayne.com
representationalresources.com
novelmatters.blogspot.com

[Arthur Sido]

Latayne,

I get where you are coming from. God saved my wife and I out of mormonism seven years ago and it is a jarring experience, but one I of course wouldn't trade for anything!

[gloria]

Hi, Latayne --

I just received the book: the Mormon Mirage! I am so excited to read it -- now just needing to carve out time to do so!
God bless you!

Gloria
www.musingsonmormonism.blogspot.com