From: jwindley%asylum.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Jay Windley)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: MORMONISM ??????
Date: 8 Apr 92 08:28:28 GMT
Article-I.D.: hellgate.1992Apr8.022828.26636
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept

fsrla@acad3.alaska.edu writes:
>I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this,

Where else would you post it?  This is the perfect place.

>but here goes......
>My girlfriend is a Mormon, and I'm interested in
>finding out more about the beliefs and all, that are related
>to Mormonism.  However, she's in New Mexico at the moment, and
>I live in Alaska, so it's a bit difficult to find out things,
>except through letters.  That's a bit slow.  Anyway, she sent
>me her book of Mormon and I've started reading it.
>My question is this....is there anything else out there that I 
>can look into to find out these things?

Absolutely the best thing to do is to find a Mormon who doesn't mind
answering your questions.  Then ask him/her your questions.  The best
person with which to do this is your girlfriend, but for obvious
reasons that isn't going to be easy.

We are a proselyting religion, which means that in your area there are
probably missionaries who do nothing all day by answer questions.
This has its ups and its downs.

One "up" is that they will be equipped with all kinds of reading
material besides the Book of Mormon which do a lot of explaining
without requiring a lot of reading.  Another "up" is that they are
comfortable discussing Mormon beliefs.  Not many Mormons are -- it's a
bit scary.

A "down" is that they will probably try to sell you on Mormonism.  If
that's a direction you want to take, then fine.  If not, you might
find their approach a little too forward.  This depends on the
character of the individual missionaries.

If you want to go this route, look under "Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints" in your White Pages.

One book I like is _The Articles of Faith_ by James Talmage.  It's an
old book, and not 100% correct, but it's one example of a systematic
exposition of Mormon beliefs.  Most college libraries have it.  I'm
sure other LDS posters will give you a reference to their favorite
book.

Willard Smith wrote an FAQ on Mormonism for soc.religion.christian.
You might find it interesting, but it's geared toward someone who
plans to debate Mormonism.  As such, it's more of a response to
frequently-raised objections, and not a very helpful to the genuinely
interested.  I've been working on condensing it down to a brief
summary, but I won't get that done for a long time.

You've probably realized that the Book of Mormon doesn't read like a
good Tom Clancy novel.  It doesn't go in chronological order, and
there's a lot of Semitic "literary baggage" you have to get around.
I've seen a list of Book of Mormon references which, if you read them
in order, give you a pretty good idea of what's going on.  Then when
you read it cover-to-cover it makes more sense.

One last thing.  This newsgroup is a good place to ask your question,
but probably a bad place to get answers.  There are readers and
contributors of all faiths in this group, and the discussions vary in
quality.  It is not religion at its best.  The picture you get of any
religion or of all religions from reading this group will be wrong,
and may leave you with the impression that we're always at each
other's throats.
--------------------------------+---------------------------------------
Jay Windley                     | jwindley@asylum.utah.edu
Department of Computer Science  +---------------------------------------
Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City   | "I have detailed files."  -- T2
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc