Has anyone in their past tbm lives been critical of Catholic practices & then later realized what you were criticising had its counterpart in Mormonism?
For me; when I was in high school, I was critical of Catholicism for teaching doctrines that have no Biblical basis; such as the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. I thought that any doctrine should have scriptural support. I realized later on that Mormonism has that same problem; teaching things that aren't in the Standard Works; such as the doctrine of Heavenly Mother & confirmation & ordinations for the dead.
I meant an exmormon lady who mentioned that she was critical of the Catholic church for being real ritualistic & then felt ashamed of being critical of that when she went through the temple.

When I joined the LDS faith, my Protestant Mom said that Mormons and Catholics were both alike in believing the church was very necessary for the faith. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that the 7 Sacraments were similar to the Mormon baptism, endowment, marriage, and confession of sins. Holy orders has a parallel with serving a full time mission.

The major difference I see between the two church is that current Catholic teachings see my Protestant faith community as Christian--but flawed. Catholics also accept my baptism as a "lay" baptism (in other words, I am a baptized, but misguided, Christian). Mormons make no accommodation for anyone else.

I should add that I'm always treated warmly by my Catholic friends when I attend mass, I can't say the same for when I attend my LDS ward.

One more thing, the Immaculate Conception refers not to the conception of Jesus, but the conception of his mother Mary. This is a very common doctrinal mistake made by non-Catholics.

That's right. Many people think the Immaculate Conception is synonymous with Virgin Birth.

"Catholics also accept my baptism as a "lay" baptism (in other words, I am a baptized, but misguided, Christian)."

Nope, they don't. LDS is one of the "christian" religions they do not accept as valid. Methodists and others, yes, but LDS no.

I was baptized by a Protestant clergyman as an infant. I'm of the opinion that any baptism (including Mormon) that is done in the name of the Triune God, and involving water, is baptism, period.

Theologians can argue the legalisms, but Jesus never specified the water level, temperature, ph-balance, or silt content.

If you consider yourself baptized, who am I, or anyone else, to quibble with you. Best wishes.

Funny...the baptism question used to really upset me. In 2000, the United Methodist Church instituted a new policy that required Mormons who wanted to join the Methodist Church to be re-baptized.

This really bothered me. I guess it was because I had left Methodism for Mormonism. Though I was inactive as LDS by then I was still defensive about TSCC.

As I reflected on it though, I realized Moromons don't accept a Methodist baptism...so why shouldn't the reciprocal relationship apply?

Wow. That suddenly made sense. One step closer to letting go!

Generally speaking, Catholicism and the mainstream Protestant churches accept each other's baptisms as being valid as long as they include the concept of the trinity. Mormonism does not have a triune god, and therein lies the problem.

I personally consider my Catholic baptism to be perfectly valid (as far as that goes,) and would not consider joining a church that did not feel the same way about it.

I wouldn't part with my simple wooden Rosary for anything. I don't say prayers with it, I meditate. For each cycle of a deep, slow in-breath and out-breath, I move my fingers to another bead.

By the time I've finished what my uncle used to call "a lap around the beads," I find that my breathing is slower, my blood pressure is lower, and I am calmer in general. Over a period of several days, the numbers are even better. (I write them down, to be sure.)

This can be tiresome and boring, but it is a healthy discipline, and there is no arguing with the numbers.

I see a rosary as a tangible tool of faith used by my Catholic brothers and sisters. Other traditional Protestants also have their version of prayer beads.

I think what you've described is a wonderful way of meditating and exercising spirituality!

I once thought Mormons weren't allowed to use birth control because like Catholics, they tend to have larger than average families. I later learned that wasn't the case with Mormons, but Mormons are often stricter about their religion than Catholics can be. After all, there are plenty of Catholics that ignore their church's rule against birth control as they're having fewer children than their parents and grandparents did.

Years ago, in a gospel doctrine class on 1 Nephi, the conversation focused onto "the great and abominable church." Of course, someone pointed out that B. R. McConkie had identified it as the Catholic Church in Mormon Doctrine, and had further linked it to the "whore of Babylon" mentioned in the Book of Revelations. (Sarcastic side comment: How wonderful it must have been to have been Bruce and to had such insight and absolute self assurance about what was truth.)

A listing of "stupid Catholic beliefs" followed. My smug classmates listed belief in saints, transubstantiation, the rosary, candles, incense, paid clergy, stained glass windows, confesssion, use of alcohol for communion, and a dozen other things they felt were grounds for derision of Catholic belief.

I was internally wrought up—at this point I was in an advanced questioning stage, and one of my big issues was the claim of exclusive truth the LDS church made. Finally someone said, "They even pray for the dead! They even think they can pray the dead into heaven!" General laughter all around.

I responded, "True, they say prayers for the dead...but in the temples we baptize the dead, confirm the dead, ordain the dead, wash the dead, anoint the dead, give new names to the dead, endow the dead, and marry the dead. All so they can enter the CK. Isn't that pretty much the same thing, if not even stranger than remembering the dead in a prayer?"

Let's just say it wasn't well received. There was a long uncomfortable silence. After the class, the gospel doctrine teacher chastised me for "mocking" the temple ordinances and said if I ever repeated the performance, he'd go to the bishop and report my behavior.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2017 08:34AM by seeker221.

That reminds of me when one of my brothers went to a "class" at an Institute of Religion across from his Junior College--he said they described other churches (it's an "institute of religion", right?), then described what's wrong with all of them...

The creation of different Christian denominations originated from the original Christian faith alone. Like Mormonism, they just came up with rules, doctrines and all, and then put a label on it.