Shout Out to the Latter Day Saints
If there are any readers, Mormon or otherwise, who fret that serious and sober debate seen in this space in weeks erenow with Mormons over theological questions will dim my high opinion of the LDS Church, I ask you not to fret.
Let me tell you my experience with Mormons.
Once upon a time, my middle son flushed a toy down the toilet, and the toy, with a power far beyond that of ordinary toys, managed not only to clog the pipe running under my front yard, but break the pipe during the attempt to remove it, so that my front tree had to be hewn down as if my the cruel Orcs of Orthanc, and all my yard ripped up and despoiled.
Next, the Home Owners Association sent a legal notice saying we had to restore the lawn to good and proper condition forthwith, or face legal penalties. At this point in time my wallet had moths in it, and echoes, but no money. I could not hire a landscaper no do the work myself.
My wife prayed to her God (I was an atheist at the time) and within the same day, two young men, dressed soberly, and with good manners, approached her and said that they were walking the neighborhood looking for good works to do. At first she thought of turning them away, but then realized they were an answer to prayer.
Since they were conservatively and soberly dressed, and spoke politely, and had a shining of grace and good favor about their faces, I knew at once that they were either Agents of the Machine from the movie THE MATRIX or that they were elders from the Church of Latter Day Saints.
I think their names were Elder Younger and Elder Kidd, but let me not be too droll on that point.
The two Mormon boys helped us that weekend with strenuous manual labor and the next and accepting no payment for their good deed. Nor did they lose their good cheer even for an instant.
(By way of jest, I asked my Christian wife if she would consider converting to the Mormon faith because of this event. She looked at me askance, and wonder why, if her God prompted answered her prayers by sending Mormons, why should she switch from hers to theirs?)
So I LOVE the Mormons. I will always be grateful to the Mormons. I respect the Mormons. The Mormons put their time and effort where their mouth is — and actually act like the Christians I know say we should act.
Dear Mormons, any of you reading these words, let me say I am glad your Church had the guts to stand up to the forces of sexual perversion and abomination in the recent elections in California. The Dark Lord who runs this world will have his vengeance on you for that, but God will protect and sustain you through any trouble.
Rome and Salt Lake City are allies in the Culture Wars. We are allies in the war for the souls of man, and souls of the world. No matter how much we disagree on matters of theology, even on crucial matters, the enemy is Satan. I have not lost sight of that fact, and I pray God I do not lose sight of it.
To be sure, the Roman Catholic Church does not regard your beliefs to be orthodox, nor your baptisms to be valid: if I may say it without offense, I do not consider a Mormon to be Christian any more than I consider a Muslim or Jew or Gnostic. The Christ you propose is too alien to orthodox theology to be considered a mere difference of opinion — your Christ is wholly different from mine.
And having said that, let me hasted to add I would that certain public figures who claim to be Catholic were as half as Christian in word and deed as every Mormon I have ever met.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
