Mormons Not Morons

So I had my third meeting with my new Mormon friends... at least I hope they consider me a friend.

They came over tonight for dinner and conversation. The thing about them, and I don't know if it's all Mormons (I'm so generalizing it's not even funny), but they always get there early. I'm already running behind as is, then they come 15 minutes early! These guys are walking though, so it must be hard to gauge properly.

From the start it was a much more relaxed meeting than previous ones. It was like we were free to shoot the breeze, rather than mozy right into doctrine.

First Kyle asked me about the MonaVie on my couch. So I told him about the wonders of MonaVie and my semi-recent lifestyle change. He expressed how he had started eating healthy before he began his 2-year missions thing, where he eats junk food and stuff.

Then we got into politics and presidential candidates. Obviously they can't say Mormons endorse anything about what he had to say, but I think Kyle and Steve were thinking McCain, escially in hopes that Romney would be VP. I did feel it was kind of funny how they so openly endorsed Romney because it seemed a little too... expected... cliche... automatic. But hey, whatever.

From there we slipped into a talk on war, and if it's good, tolerable, or bad. We all knew it wasn't good. But tolerable/necessary and always bad brought up some good debate. It was a fun talk, while I continued to prepare dinner. I made a potato, pepper (yellow, red, orange, green), red onion, celery, pinapple, orange baked thing with olive oil, some butter, and lemon juice. It turned out pretty good I guess.

Later, around dinner we started talking about Mormon beliefs a bit more. I presented some stuff I had read that posed major questions to me, as to Joseph Smith's prophet status. It's an online book, which I haven't finished (similar video version); however, it wasn't looking good for Smith. I'll have to finish it, but I mentioned what was presented thus far anyway. Kyle and Steve knew little about the question of Smith's correctness in interpreting the "Book of Abraham" from a Egyptian papyrus, which scholars said to be only a death record. It is important since Smith himself had claims via his prophecies, that God's prophets could translate any ancient writing. If Smith can't, by his own claims, he is not a prophet.

Beyond that we talked some more about prophets, a line of high priests, human authorities, the afterlife, and more. I was, and am pretty skeptical of a lot of things they say. I am not against believing Joseph could have been a prophet, or even that Jesus came to the America's. The problem comes in their doctrine seeming to go against what I feel was the way of Jesus. Where Jesus was sending away the idea of elite people, or God being hidden at times. I feel this was open to all peoples of all faiths, if they obeyed Jesus's and Gods teachings. The verse just linked also goes to show that Jesus's words are always with us, and available whenever we seek him. This opposes the Mormon belief that man without a guiding prophet cannot be who God desires. I am not against prophets, but Jesus promised his availability. Prophets certainly could and may help, but I don't think a prophet is necessary for me to commune with God and know his will.

At the end of the evening, Kyle asked me if I believed Joseph Smith was the prophet he claimed to be. I told them that I wasn't there and was certainly learning towards "no," but wouldn't make a definite decision without first examining it and praying about it. Kyle opened up at that point and something really shined through him.

He began to tell me about some of the hardship that comes with giving up two years of his life at such a young age. He sacrificed playing sports at college, a girlfriend that could very easily choose to leave him during his missions, seeing two of his sisters get married, meeting his two new nieces/nephews, and a life that could be much more nice and normal. He gains no money for doing this, in fact he had to raise all the money. None of the Mormon organizers/priests/prophets... no one receives money for who they are (according to Kyle). There is no reason to pretend, because it's not lucrative and requires much sacrifice. Kyle's moments of laying it all down reminded me of Paul boasting of his trials for Christ, but not in arrogance. Kyle didn't seem arrogant, but he believed in something and desired to stand before God having done the things God called him to do. It was a beautiful display, and I felt like God and His Spirit was very much in every word.

I let Kyle know he should not wait so long to tell his testimony, because it is the most powerful and convincing thing either of them had said. The testimony says more than any of the scripture says on its own.

I truly still do not feel confident in the prophet status of Joseph Smith, or at the very least, lack validation for many of the doctrines brought forth by him. I do feel much more confident that Christ is active in their faith. They may be wrong about many things or I may be wrong about many things, but most probable is that we are both wrong about many things. Despite our wrongness, I do believe we are brothers in Christ, working for a common goal. I see God moving, so undeniably, in their faith, and I have seen his Spirit's impact on their individual lives. Whatever their doctrine, I personally can learn much from their lives and spring forward in my journey by the encouragement they share.

:::I don't know why I really put that picture at the top, other than it's Romney. It doesn't depict my experience with Mormons at all:::