Our church is hosting a group from a sister church visiting UT from Texas. They are interested in learning about Mormons from former Mormons- so Peter Priesthood and I have been asked to speak to them and then answer questions. We are supposed to put together a 20 minute power point presentation. What do you think are the most important things to share?

About 40-50 people male and female college aged

Share the multiple versions of the first vision, the temple ceremony with references to freemasonry, joseph smith's wives. That would be a good start.

As a nevermo who was visited by missionaries last year I say:

- Explain how Mormons use common Christian terms but mean quite different things with them than most Christians would. Simple things like the nature of 'god' or what 'atonement' means. Lots of people don't realize that Mormons define things like those very differently than they do.

- Explain the importance of temples to Mormons. Nevermo's don't understand why Mormons are fixated on building temples and on having a temple recommends. A lot of them baptize into Mormonism thinking they're just joining another Christian church...

- Tell about all the Mormon scriptures. When missionaries 'teach' nevermo's they tend to just mention the Bible and focus on the BoM. They NEVER talk about D&C or PoGP.

As a nevermo, raised a semi-fundy flavor of Christian who still claims the title - sorta (I love Hippie Jesus), here's my take.

I agree with smorg on the terminology thing. Particularly "gospel" and "atonement." The whole corporeal non-Trinity thing is a pretty big difference too.

One thing that I found striking was the emphasis placed on covenants; you might want to mention that. Biblically covenants are either all-encompassing for mankind (Noah's rainbow, blood sacrifice) or very individual following a personal encounter (); it's not some boilerplate agreement you sign upon church membership. Spirituality is not (supposed to be) a vending machine.

Pop out the "after all you can do" de facto works-above-grace bit, too. That's a pretty wide diversion from standard Christianity.

While we're on the topic of diversions from standard Christianity: Mormon God is not all powerful. Mormon God is subject to all sorts of rules; Christian God makes all the rules (which garners a lot of understandable flak from some people concerning the whole blood-sacrifice-for-sin thing).

Point out how much of the religion is based on obedience to the structure, topped by the "prophetic" legacy of the did-more-than-Jesus man himself, Smith. For that matter, you may want to highlight the mysticism placed on the concept of "priesthood," which in a Biblical context is simply the ability to act as an intercessor (and, as a social role, made obsolete by the New Testament), not an achievement that imbues certain rituals with magic power.

...putting it all down like that made me realize that Mormon cosmology is basically just a bunch of people-god-things following rules through eternity. That's.. well I've never looked at it that way before. Huh.

Anyway, if I were you, I'd also use it as an object lesson to encourage them to look critically at their own leaders and cultural constructs. Raised through Christian culture, I've always hated the fact that a lot of members worship their church without realizing it.

And be nice; point out that a lot of Mos are born into it and are so immersed they just never think to question.

Start the talk with what it was like for you as a Mormon and why you left.

In 20 minutes you really are not going to be able to do a whole lot more than that.

Thanks so much for these suggestions. This gives me some really good direction.