Posted by:
Catherine Mary
(
)
Date: April 17, 2011 01:53PM
I'm not a Mormon and never have been, but within the past year I've somehow become entangled in a seemingly irremediable mess. I'm hoping to find some advice here, and I apologize if I am intruding where I shouldn't be, as I am not an ex-Mormon myself.
I have been a devout (though liberal-leaning) Catholic my entire life, and I'm content to stay that way. I have advanced degrees in Catholic theology, so I'm not the sort of vulnerable, under-catechized Catholic that I'm sure becomes easy prey for Mormon missionaries. Anyway, the problem began when I was working for the U.S. Census last summer for some extra cash. I made friends with one of my co-workers--a young woman about my age, highly intelligent, and an interesting conversationalist. For the purposes of this story, I'll call her Lucy. At first, Lucy did not tell me that she is a Mormon. We shared lunch and coffee several times throughout the summer and enjoyed conversations about many issues we both find fascinating. We talked about the challenges of being a young woman and building careers in academia--I am a beginning theology professor and Lucy is finishing her doctorate in Botany. It seemed like such an amazing friendship.
Then one day, Lucy asked me if I would go to church with her--still no mention of Mormonism. Without even asking what kind of church, I immediately said yes. Being a theologian, I enjoy and appreciate attending other people's religious services just for the experience of it. Even if she had told me that she was Mormon, I probably would have gone with her. Anyway, Lucy drove me to her church the next Sunday and I sat there with her through all three hours of it. On the way home, she kept asking me what I thought of it and I told her that it was "nice." She asked me if I felt the Holy Spirit there, and because I did not want to insult her I redirected the question and said, "Your church seems to be full of passionate people." She must have taken that as a "yes," because the next day, missionaries showed up on my doorstep. Maybe I'm too kind sometimes, but it was a hot summer day and I let them in and offered them a drink of water.
We sat down in my living room, and they told me that they had seen me with Lucy the previous day and they had talked to her about my "interest." I tried to make it clear to them that I have no interest in becoming Mormon, and that I attended church with Lucy because she is my friend. They proceeded to tell me that God had revealed to them how I was touched by the Holy Spirit during their sacrament meeting. After much argument from me, they left my home and left a Book of Mormon on my coffee table--I didn't even notice it until they were gone. In all my theological training, I had never read the Book of Mormon, so I decided to read it as a matter of academic curiosity. Within less than an hour of reading and browsing, I had located numerous problems in the book--names that would not have been used in the Americas B.C.E, animals that would not have been in the Americas, etc. While I was already knowledgeable of the serious theological differences between Catholics and Mormons, I wanted to have something to tell Lucy if she were to ask me my impressions of the Book of Mormon.
Surely enough, she asked me about it the next day. I was honest with her about my prior knowledge of Mormon theology and my impressions about reading from the Book of Mormon for the first time. She told me that I needed to read through it completely and pray to see if it is true. I declined, telling her that I believe my own faith as a Catholic is sufficient. I tried to explain to her that I do not believe truth comes completely through feelings, but through reason--and that because of reason, Catholics interpret scriptures in terms of their deeper message as opposed to literally. This was a completely foreign idea to her. She continued to ask me about it for the next several days at work, so I finally gave in and did it--not because I was expecting to find truth, but simply because I wanted to satisfy her. A couple of days later, I told her that I had read and prayed, and that the Book of Mormon does not seem to be true. She wasn't satisfied, and asked me to continue praying until I received an answer from God. The missionaries came to my door again. And again, I was too nice. I let them in and tried to reason with them about why I wasn't interested. They left, but once again managed to sneak literature onto my coffee table. Up to this point I had been patient with Lucy because I wanted to respect her commitment to her faith, but the next day at work I told her that while I still wanted to be her friend, I was not interested in receiving anymore information about Mormonism. Her response was something like this: "God revealed to Elder B. and Elder P. that you're going to see the truth soon. You're so smart and you already want to serve God--his will is going to unfold for you." No acknowledgment of my thoughts on the matter.
I began to see Lucy less and less. Our time on the Census was drawing to a close and school was about to start--I was ready to begin teaching again. I was glad to be out of this situation--or so I thought.
About a week into the fall semester, I was sitting in my office and the missionaries walked in. They must have found out from Lucy that I worked at the university. They started the conversion talks again, assuring me all the while that they were not trying to convert me against my will. I had lost my patience by this time and I told them to leave my office. Later that afternoon I was teaching a class, and one of my students raised her hand and asked me about the differences between Catholicism and Mormonism (this is at a Catholic university) because she had seen missionaries (the same ones) walking around on campus and talking to students. I answered her question, but began to feel guilty because I believe the missionaries came to campus to talk to me in the first place. Now, they were preying on poorly-catechized Catholic kids fresh out of high school. Things got worse and worse. Apparently the missionaries began telling students that they were talking to me, so students began coming to me and asking me why I was considering leaving the Catholic faith--even though I wasn't. Colleagues began to ask me questions about how I got entangled with the Mormons. The only good that came out of the situation is that for the students who came to me for a talk, I was able to explain the differences between Catholicism and Mormonism. One student said to me, "Wow, Professor Xxxxx, I'm glad I talked to you. They were telling me that as a Catholic, I belong to a false church." I'm not one to tell my students what they should believe, or to degrade anyone else's faith, but I believe students should be given the whole picture on Mormon teaching, Catholic teaching, and all other faiths for that matter.
I have not talked with Lucy again, but apparently she has used the amazing stalking skills that we learned in working the Census to track me down. I am in the process of moving to a new city to take a position at another university, and no sooner than I had bought my house there (won't even be moving in for another three weeks), I received a call from Mormon missionaries in the area. The young man on the phone said, "Your friend Lucy informed us that you have just moved to Xxxxxx. We stopped by your house and you weren't there. Is there a good time to come by for a visit?" I told them no, but I am still receiving voice mails. I'm concerned that when I do move, the missionaries are going to continue coming and bothering me at my new home. This is getting to the point of being frightening. It's amazing how I ended up in this situation: all I did was go to church with a friend, offer missionaries a glass of water, and read the holy text of a religion not my own. How did these innocently-intended actions cause me to get caught up in such a mess? How do I get rid of these people, especially if they can keep locating me? It's getting scary. Thanks for listening to my story.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2011 03:01PM by Admin.