From: bwebster@pages.com (Bruce F. Webster)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Looking for Sheep
Date: 16 Apr 92 23:13:02 GMT
Reply-To: bwebster@pages.com
Organization: Banzai Research Institute

In article <1992Apr15.112720.21303@apollo.hp.com> smith_w@apollo.hp.com (Walter  
Smith) writes:
> In article <1992Apr14.010956.1427@pages.com> bwebster@pages.com writes:
> > [gently pointed comments deleted]
> [thoughtful response and explanation deleted]

Thanks, and, yes, I should have read your comments a bit more closely. Your  
points are good ones, and understandable. 

For the most part, LDS missionaries (especially the young men) only fill the  
second half of the Savior's admonition to the apostles ("be ye therefore wise  
as serpents, and harmless as doves"--Matt 10:16), which is why I smiled at  
someone's rather melodramatic portrayal in this news group of "Mormon  
missionaries latching onto their prey" or words to that effect. In fact, the  
standing joke among LDS missionaries is that their church *must* be true--if  
not, the missionaries would have failed utterly in their task long ago. [Maybe  
*that's* why some folks are so paranoid about the Mormons--they can't figure  
out how a couple of 19-year-old boys from Utah or Idaho, with bad haircuts to  
boot, can convince otherwise rational people to change churches, beliefs and  
lifestyles, and so figure there must be some kind of secret brainwashing going  
on somewhere, somehow.] 

The primary role of an LDS missionary is not to baptize a lot of people (though  
some, unfortunately, focus on that). It is to give as many people as possible a  
chance to accept or reject their message. Again in the words of the Savior,  
"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a  
witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matt 24:14)  This  
isn't a preach-and-run attitude; the goal is to help prepare as many people as  
possible for the second coming of Christ (and the events preceding it). The LDS  
Church has missionaries in everywhere they're permitted--including three  
recently organized missions in Russia--and works actively with those countries  
where it's not permitted to get approval. (Given the popular [and incorrect]  
image of the LDS Church as a right-wing organization, it's ironic that the  
Church sought--and received--permission several years ago to build an LDS  
temple in Freiburg, East Germany, while East Germany was still staunchly  
Communist.)

As for the missionaries themselves, to pick a passage from modern LDS  
scripture: "The weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the  
mighty and strong ones, that man should not counsel in his fellow man, neither  
trust in the arm of flesh--but that every man might speak in the name of God  
the Lord, even the Savior of the world; that faith also might increase in the  
earth; that mine everlasting covenant might be established; that the fulness of  
my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the  
world, and before kings and rulers." (Doctrine & Covenants 1:19-23). The point  
is, the missionaries aren't supposed to be eloquent, learned or  
professorial--they are to be "weak and simple", or as Paul put it, "We are  
fools for Christ's sake" (1 Cor 4:10). That way, if a conversion takes place,  
it is likely to be based on something more profound and relevant than a tightly  
reasoned argument, a carefully selected (and interpreted) set of scriptural  
passages, or a threat of hellfire.

More, perhaps, another time.  ..bruce..

Bruce F. Webster
bwebster@pages.com
#import <pages/disclaimer.h>


 
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