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To: Alex Murphy
I tried to explain that if we are going to criticize Mormonism, it should be on matters that they actually believe, not on what we think they believe. I said the best way to know Mormon beliefs is to actually engage in dialogue with Mormons.

Excellent advice.

2 posted on 11/10/2006 11:54:41 AM PST by Logophile
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To: Logophile
Excellent advice.

It's how I've always discussed the issues with my LDS friends. Of course, what my friends believe and what the leadership has taught historically and publicly, are often very different things indeed. It's when we discuss that juxtaposition that the sparks usually fly....

"...While certain doctrines are enunciated in the standard works and some doctrinal issues have been addressed in formal pronouncements by the First Presidency, there is nothing in Mormonism comparable to the Westminster Confession of Faith of the Augsberg Confession. Few of the truly distinctive doctrines of Mormonism are discussed in official sources. It is mainly by unofficial means -- Sunday School lessons, seminary, institute, and BYU religion classes, sacrament meeting talks and books by Church officials and others who ultimately speak only for themselves -- that the theology is passed from one generation to the next. Indeed it would seem that a significant part of Mormon theology exists primarily in the minds of the members... the absence of a formal creed means that each generation must produce a new set of gospel expositors to restate and reinterpret the doctrines of Mormonism..."

Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Autumn 1982


3 posted on 11/10/2006 12:16:07 PM PST by Alex Murphy
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