I’m curious, what in peoples minds makes Mormonism more of a cult that any other variety of Christianity?
...or any other religion for that matter.
My god is a shoehorn - prove me wrong.
Faith is faith.
What makes them a cult is the idea of a cult-mind.
When you are a member of the Mormon church, you are expected to not question the validity of doctrine or the validity of your Prophet who speaks on behalf of God Almighty, or you will be labeled an Apostate. If your labeled as such, you will find yourself not being able to do business with other Church members who know of your “apostacy” and you and your family will be ostracized.
As a member of the Mormon church, you are expected to participate in ceremonies in order to further your “rank” in the church. You must wear certain garments and you must participate in specific temple rituals in special temple clothing. I believe a huge part of the definition of a cult is that you must keep things secret. The Mormon church keeps temple activities secret and during the Temple ceremonies you are to run your hand in a cutting gesture across your throat and abdomen, symbolizing that revealing the temple secrets mean death. I don’t know, all this doesn’t sound just like any other church to me. What other church do you have to make such a gesture and swear to secrecy?
I guess a great example is the Mountain Meadows Massacre. A group of Mormon men surround and killed over a period of days a wagon train of 150 men women and children that was passing through Utah. They told the remaining men women and children that they would let them surrender after several days. Then, when the wagon train folks laid down their weapons and were escorted from their train, the Mormon men were told by the Mormon leader (Lee) to shoot them all in the head except for children under 8 years of age.
A cult mind means that a person is so unquestioning to a religious organization that they will do anything that their leaders ask of them (in this example, the men killed defenseless women and children and men). Other examples would be like the Jim Jones poison coolaid drinkers, the David Koresh fanatics, etc. History is full of examples.
Once your involved with the cult, it is not easy to get out of it, and ramifications of membership oftentimes effect family relationships.
gang ?
He claims that God appeared to him and handed him the Mormon scriptures on Golden Tablets which suddenly disappeared when he was done translating the Ancient Greek (a language with which he was not acquainted).
The finished book, called The Book of Mormon, is very much like another book published at that time.
God used to be like us but He was really good so He got his own planet and faithful Mormons will be Gods on their own planets too. Polytheistic, not in Christian scripture.
Satan and Jesus are brothers. (Not in Christian scripture). Jesus will come back physically and reign over America.
The other Mormon books , 'The Pearl of Great Price' and 'Doctrine and Covenants' contain archaeological claims which are easily refuted. The Christian Bible is supported by modern archeology.
Mormonism has a process theology, that is, it's scripture may be changed at any time by the current "Prophet" (head of the church). Christianity may not be changed by any man.
God 'revealed' to Joseph Smith that he should take many wives, typical of cult leaders - David Koresh and Jim Jones, etc). You must learn the secret handshake and signs to be admitted to Heaven (stolen from Freemasonry, Joseph Smith was a Mason).
The list goes on and on, I could send you to a website if you really want to know more.
The nature of Jesus.