Hey, Who Are You Calling a Cult?

As for LDS being two-faced about what you hold sacred for 180 years. I understand that you feel/think that way. I believe Mormons might have been rather less that gracious, to say the least...I have on occasion felt that some attitudes were in appropriate. I have ALWAYS, in no uncertain terms, pointed out that that attitude is WRONG. I’ve more than once called someone on the carpet, not caring WHO it was, and reminded them that though our understanding of doctrine may be different, there is no call to be disrespectful...I taught in 2 Tim 3:1-3 today in Relief Society ( our women’s organization) that we are surrounded by choices, we can be distracted, degraded, downhearted or depressed by what we see around us.

In 2001 at the BYU Women’s Conference, James A. Toronto, a BYU associate professor, was invited to speak. His title: “No More Strangers and Foreigners” This was published by BYU the following year under the title “Ye Shall Bear Record of Me.”

BTW, did I "get this" info from some "anti-Mormon" site? (No. I own the book)

Now, indeed, what does Dr. Toronto say that tends to reinforce your comments above?

p. 35 of No More Strangers and Foreigners: ”As adviser to several non-LDS student groups on BYU campus and a teacher of world religions, I have had many opportunities to interact with those whose ethnicity, religion, politics or lifestyle places them outside the BYU mainstream…Unfortunately…those of divergent backgrounds among us hae felt excluded, demeaned, or diminished…I have wondered what leads us to exhibit sometimes intolerant, unkind attitudes toward others. Why does society at large perceive us as a community characterized by insular attitudes toward outsiders?”

Toronto then adds some are “mistreated” and “have difficulty being accepted.”

p. 36 of book: ”I have also observed that doctrinal misunderstandings often lie at the root of intolerant behavior and attitudes sometimes exhibited by Church members. Three prominent examples will illustrate. First, sometimes Church members…refer…only to the seemingly exclusivist language of certain scriptural passages…we unwittingly portray a sanctimonious, holier-than-thou stance that…is offensive to nonmembers. In my comparative world religions course, I deal with this problem in the first minute of the first class period each semester. I begin the discussion by reading some scriptures familiar to all Latter-day Saints: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is ‘the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth’ (D&C 1:30); the leaders of other faiths ‘draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’ and all their creeds are an ‘abomination’ in God’s sight (Joseph Smith-History 1:19)…”

p. 37 of book: ”We reinforce the erroneous idea that all other religious are completely false and dead and that our community does not value the spiritual experience of others.”

On p. 39 of book, Dr. Toronto also mentions ”how a skewed understanding of doctrine can lead to unkind attitudes and behavior…”

So, to sum up Dr. Toronto, a BYU prof:

(1) He said: ”…doctrinal misunderstandings often lie at the root of intolerant behavior and attitudes…” (p. 36)
(2) Lds communicate to the Christian world that we “are completely false and dead” (p. 37) and are creedally valueless as Lds “scripture” teaches that Christians don’t have a single creed that honors God.
(3) He also blamed ”…a skewed understanding of doctrine” as what was behind …”lead[ing] to unkind attitudes and behavior…”

It's these last two points I want to close my comment upon. You see, YR, it's not simply, I believe, lack of Mormon graciousness...lack of Mormon charity...etc. that has resulted in what Mormons and especially Mormon leaders have said about Christians for 180 years.

I think Dr. Toronto is on to something when he says: "...a skewed understanding of doctrine" has overwhelmingly contributed to fueling "unkind attitudes and behaviors..."!!!

exercise faith in the hope that His Grace is sufficient to wash away my sins, though they be as scarlet.
____________________________________________________

Kid this is so misquoted in so many ways...

It was the blood that the LORD Jesus shed on the Cross that washes away sin...

1. His Grace is sufficient

The actual verse on Grace from the Christian Bible goes...

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Paul had asked the LORD Jesus Christ weho is god to remove a hinderance from him...

Paul said “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.” 2 Corinthians 12:7, 8

2. Wash away my sins

He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him. Then he said: ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on
Hhis name.’ Acts 22:13-16

3. though they be as scarlet.

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. Isaiah 1:19

and so on...

It is the Blood of Jesus that was shed on the Cross that cleanses us from sin...

Paul said “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” Hebrews 9:14

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