by Lisa M. | Jan 16, 2013 | About Mormons
“Mormon? What’s a Mormon?” I have been asked that question many times throughout my life. When I was younger, I could never quite think of what to say, so I’d stumble over the answers: “Well, we don’t drink coffee, tea or alcohol. We don’t smoke. We don’t use foul language. We believe in the Book of Mormon…” I’d like to say that as an adult I’m much better, but I am not sure that’s true. The short answer is that a Mormon is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes called the Mormon Church because we believe in a book of scripture called the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and a companion to the Bible.
The long answer, like most long answers, is more complex. Often people would comment that our faith is very restrictive…a sentiment probably aided and abetted by my statements. The truth is just the opposite. Being a Mormon is all about choices, and learning how and why to make the right ones.
LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson said, “ I am so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father for His gift of agency, or the right to choose. President David O. McKay, ninth President of the Church, said, ‘Next to the bestowal of life itself, the right to direct that life is God’s greatest gift to man’” (President Thomas S. Monson, “The 3 Rs of Choice,” October 2010 General Conference). (more…)
by Keith L. Brown | Jul 13, 2012 | About Mormons
In his article titled “Six Reasons Why Mormons Are Beating Baptists (In Church Growth) , dated 10 July 2012 which was posted on the patheos.com website, David French begins his article with the strong statement, “Our churches face a demographic crisis.” What he is speaking of is not so much a decline in actual church growth, but rather the losses that many Christian denominations are facing as numbers of their young people are beginning to leave their churches. In particular, French makes a stark comparison between the growth rate of youth in the Baptist Church and the growth rate of youth in the Mormon Church, noting that at a time when some youth are abandoning their church affiliations, the growth rate of youth membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often referred to as the Mormon Church) is consistently increasing.
In his opening comments he states:
Young people are leaving, even the Southern Baptist Convention is starting to lose members, and when you drill down deeper – comparing church attendance with population growth – the picture grows even more bleak. Simply put, when America’s fastest-growing religious segment is “nonreligious” we have a problem. [1]
After compiling the results of a number of national studies, the Barna Group (an Evangelical Christian polling firm based in Ventura, California), published a list of six reasons why young evangelicals leave the Church. The six reasons that were listed are: the church is overprotective, their experience of Christianity is shallow, churches seem antagonistic to science, the church’s approach to sexuality is judgmental and simplistic, they wrestle with the exclusivity of Christianity, and the church feels unfriendly to those who doubt. [1] (more…)
