The Interfaith Council of Las Vegas has a series of lectures trying to bring understanding and tolerance to different faiths. The LDS church hosted the meeting last night. I did go down to the meeting and this is my report:

There were six speakers representing Islam, Sikh, Humanism, Mormon, Ba’hai, and Scientology. This is my impression. All views are the sole opinion of the biased “ex-mo leaning agnostic/humanism” witness and in no way represent this channel or any of its affiliates.

The topic was how Evolution fits into the various faiths.

Islam said it fit perfectly. He was the best public presenter IMO. He made it sound like there was no conflict between Islam and Science. He quoted stuff from the Quran that talked a lot about water and other things. I bet he would be surprised to know that the devil rules the water.

The Sikh guy was easily the coolest one there. He basically said this life is all we know. His movement attempts to better everyone’s life in the here and now. He said you could be in any church and still be a Sikh. Based on what he said, his seemed like the most healthy outlook of anyone there other than the humanist.

The Humanist/Athiest said the normal things. Science has the real answers. We don’t need myths. Evolution is a pretty solid theory and religion is on shaky ground for the most part. I liked it but you know how when your view is being presented in the public and you feel embarrassed or nervous that it comes across well? I had that feeling while listening to him and so I’m not sure I was very objective at his stuff.

The word “mormon” was never used. They did however, have to say the “CoJCoLDS” so many times that I grew weary. What a mouthful. You know, the Reorgs really were smart. Community of Christ. Way shorter and better. But of course our name was set down in revelation…er oops…well it was originally but then a better revelation came so we have what we have. Am I digressing? Sorry. Okay, the Stake President said: WE ARE CHRISTIANS DAMNITT. Okay, not quite like that but he said it so many ways, so many times that it was getting gross. Regarding evolution, he quoted BoA scriptures, Book of Moses and the position of the church in 1920 regarding evolution. And you thought we were distancing ourselves from the BoA Epic Fail. Nope. Not last night anyway. He further talked a lot about literal belief in the bible, Adam being the first man, etc, etc. I thought the official church position was neutral on evolution but it isn’t according to this Stake President. I grew up when mormons still thought science would prove us right. I didn’t get that feeling from Pres Parker. Science is okay but Revelation and Scripture is the true source of important knowledge for salvation. About halfway through his presentation, he suddenly got quiet and…you know what is coming…he got choked up and could barely speak. You know, I hated that crap when I was a Mormon and think it is even worse now. It doesn’t look inspiring to outsiders. It looks stupid and more like a juvenile attempt at manipulation than some truth indicator. More on that later. Oh but first this part, the other panelists didn’t know about our cheap parlor trick and thought he needed water or something so they tried to give him some—that part was funny and embarrassing to watch too. Okay, I’ve hammered him enough. There is more but first…

Bahai. I couldn’t actually tell what he was saying very well. He talked about water a lot too and also something about humans and animals being separate and distinct. In fairness, I couldn’t see him from where I was sitting and don’t know what they really think about evolution.

Scientology. And you thought we were once in a moronic/sophomoric religion. What a bunch of crap. Lots of L. Ron Hubbard bluster quotes trying to sound important, superior and smart but really being totally full of crap. To quote JS: “Having a form of knowledge but denying the power thereof.” You know, real Hugh Nibley stuff. They would make each other proud. I couldn’t really listen to the presenter once she started using their superior sounding code words that seem to work wonders on the naïve. I’m totally immune to their weak mind tricks. I’m an exmo! I survived brainwashing and manipulation of the most extreme kind. Your jedi mind tricks can’t work on me.

At the end of the presentations, I had the biggest urge to just run to the podium and say: “No one that is in a cult knows they are. In fact, they are sure they aren’t in one…but you are…RUN while you are still young and have a future!”

I should explain. There were mostly mormons there and quite a lot of youth. They had the YW from the stake sing a stirring rendition of…something…to start the meeting and most of them stayed with their parents. In fact, they did a poll and by far most people there were CoJCofLDS. The next biggest set was Humanists which caught the mormon moderator off guard. There were only a handful of anything else. I was frankly a little bit surprised that they would have the youth listening to other opinions but maybe that’s how it is out in the real world…er I mean mission field. I grew up in SL and wasn’t exposed to different faiths at all. You know, now that I think about it, that is probably the reason the Steak President got all emotional—it was probably for the benefit of his tender flock more than an attempt at conversion.

Okay, after each presented, they fielded questions from the audience that were written on cards and screened by the mormon moderator. The Stake President got: Do you still believe “As God now is, man once was…?” I so couldn’t help it--I muttered aloud: “I don’t know that we teach that.” ObiWan had trained him well. He had the Hinkley Dodge down perfect. He quoted a scripture in Romans (I think it was Romans) that says we can become like the savior or something—it was a reiteration of his theme: “no man, we. not. weird. We Christian.” Did not answer the question. His next audience question was about evolution after this life: “Can you progress from Kingdom to Kingdom in the next life?” Again, the patented dodge, “don’t answer what they are asking you, answer what they should have asked you.” He said something about how if you are good now and do all your proper ordinances you will get to a neat-o kingdom. He said you couldn’t digress (but wait what about the son of the morning? Didn’t he digress? I think I am). Anyway, he did not answer the question about advancing in the next life. His wrap up was more of the same theme of “we Christians man”.


Afterward they had refreshments but no green jello. I spotted a group of levi wearing people and mixed in. They were humanists and discussed a lot of things. Eventually one of them commented on the weird behavior of the Mormon doing the crying game. One of them said they thought maybe he had just found out his sister was in a car accident or something. I filled them in. They totally saw it as a cheap manipulation strategy and were not in the least impressed. One of them commented that it was like when your argument is weak you resort to a deflection trick. Yah. We ended up talking for quite a while and I came away much nourished in the “gospel” and totally fired up after meeting some of my own kind. WE really are social creatures. I haven’t set foot in church for over a year and it was really nice to talk to some other like-minded folks who understood how crazy mormons and other religions are. And that is my report.

Thanks so much for posting that, onendagus. You are a talented writer and had me completely engrossed. This is one of the reasons you can leave RfM, but you can't leave it alone...:)

Gotta pop in to see what religon-on-the-ropes has up its sleeve.

I particularly find inter-faith activities with Mormons HILARIOUS. Having run an interfaith column plus having started an interfaith non-profit to provide free senior services, I have been up close and personal with the real LDS interfaith and humanitarian policies in action. Let me put it this way,

The evangelicals thought that interfaith effort of any kind was a step towards the New World Order and a cheap trick of Satan to lull believers into complacency and put us shoulder to shoulder with non-believers who might move us towards believing that one religion is as good as another.

I was able to use their own prejudice against them by visiting them in person and telling them that their seniors who called out hotline would be assigned people from other churches unless they joined us. They were horrified and quickly agreed that they wanted to help their own, or at least have the first crack at it.

Now get this-- the Mormons were completely unmoved by that because they didn't give a flying fuck if their seniors were helped or not helped or helped by another religion. Their attitude was markedly indifferent--not mad or hostile, just puzzled, like why should we care if you're going to help them instead of us. Have at it.

They flatly refused to participate in anything interfaith because "we're not allowed."

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I think part of that is mormons are so overloaded with bs make-work projects--think temple anything, endless meetings, etc--that they don't really have time for things that actually would help people and make a difference. What they don't realize is that if they dropped all the crap JS saddled them with, they would be able to do more actual service and wouldn't have to go around tooting their horn about what great christians they are because everyone would already know that.

I think I know why the youth were presented with an interfaith panel. They can learn first hand, from the horse's mouth, that the other religions are weird, false, and full of half-truths. (according to the bias filtered in by their leaders/parents).

I'm sure they had a youth meeting prior to the event and filled their minds with things like, "be respectful of those who don't have the whole truth" or "isn't it wonderful that we have the fullness of the gospel", or "set a good example, because we are all missionaries tonight".

When I was TBM, I would take my kids to my sister's church when we visited, but filled their mind with persuasion. Things like - "gosh, that didn't seem like church at all, almost like school w/recess" or "that was nice, but it was too loud to feel the spirit" or "I sure miss TCOJCOLDS and the wonderful programs they offer". I did it on purpose so that when they got older they wouldn't feel like they needed to explore other churches if their testimony ever wavered. They would have childhood memories that I tried to make fulfilling.

I hate to say it but I'm guilty of this too. My daughter went to something at a catholic church several years ago and mentioned a "weird feeling" there. I totally played that up to reinforce the us versus them thing.

And I'm sure you are right about the de-briefing sessions.

The local BIG fundamentalist church had their praise band do a couple numbers (repetitive, simplistic). It was held in the truly gorgeous yet tasteful Catholic church in town. The Catholic church's small choir did a nice yet forgettable couple of anthems appropriate to the occasion. Our ELCA church did two anthems too, which included our children's choir singing with the adult choir - knocked their socks off. Two or three other church choirs did some nice anthems also.

Then came the Mormons. Dear gawd - a straggling, pitiful group of suits and drab women, two of whom were wearing denim jumpers and sneakers. They squawked through an interminable rendition of How Great Thou Art, right out of the hymnal. It was awful. Not one of them bothered to look up at their conductor, just catterwalled/plowed right through all four verses - or was it five? It seemed to go on forever.

It seemed as if they were sending a message that they couldn't be bothered to put any effort into this at all. They were cold, unfriendly and clannish. There was a potluck in the church basement afterwards, and they all sat together - everyone else there mixed it up - it's a small community. We sat across the table from one family, and they tried not to talk with us, answering questions designed to bring them out with as few words as possible. Very strange.

So much for ecumenicalism. They clearly did not want to really be part of the interfaith community.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2011 03:32PM by serena.

There was an interfate concert 6-7 years ago in Ottawa where the mormon church was represented by a friend of mine. The moment of the concert that touched most is when my friend sang. But here's the catch, he didn't sing anything from the hymnbook or lds singers/song writers... ;)
he sang "You raise me up" by Rofl Lovland and Brendan Grahan and 'popularized' by Josh Groban. And I think the fact that it touched many had more to do with the fact that my friend had a great voice and his accompanist was is son who is a very talented musician ;)