Thank you so much for this posting! I have dinner this evening with some young Mormons who were shocked when I told them, "Oh, I don't think I could ever submit myself to a teaching authority as absolute as your Prophet's!"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN????!!!!" they exclaimed, "WHAT ABOUT THE POPE?????!!!!!"
I replied, "Oh, the Pope is nowhere near as powerful as your Prophet!" :-)
I intend to print up this article and give them each a copy tonight over veal cacciatore at one of our town's nicest little family-run Italian restaurants.
And I shall make the supreme sacrifice - for the intention of their conversion! - of having only club soda with lime instead of the excellent Chianti Riservo I would ordinarily have! :-)
Go for the Chianti but, ask your Mormon guests whether they prefer white or red wine. The pastor at my church attended a function last year at which he met a femal protestant minister. While in line at the buffet, he asked if she preferred white or red wine. "Oh, I don't drink", she replied. He then reminded her that our Lord dined and drank with sinners, changed water into wine and later wine into His Precious Blood. He posed the question to her again at which point she replied - "I'll have a glass of red wine, thank you!"
Consider it another 'teaching' opportunity.