Objective, Not Sensational* Thank you for the objectivity presented in “Southern Baptists Take Up the Mormon Challenge” [June 15]. As a Latter-day Saint of 31 years, I have read many articles, books, and commentaries that distort the beliefs of my faith. Usually I find sensationalism, half-truths, and misnomers. The recent articles by John W. Kennedy are the most objective take on the Mormon Church that I have ever read. Although he did consult with the infamous anti-Mormons, the Tanners, he showed unusual restraint as he presented a more objective view. The decision of the editors to be objective rather than sensational shows a true Christian attitude.
Derek WhiteOrem, Utah
I wish to applaud John W. Kennedy’s balanced and informative article. The statistical projections of Mormon growth in the article—from 10 to 270 million by the year 2080—are conservative. Mormonism is quickly becoming a global challenge to evangelicalism. Outreach to Mormons, like Muslims or Hindus, must be seen as outreach to a larger culture, and not just to a “cult.”
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I humbly suggest that the larger Christian church look to the cross-cultural approach to Mormons that evangelicals in Utah have used for some time now, with remarkable evangelistic success, which is central to the mission of Salt Lake Seminary.
Ken Mulholland, PresidentSalt Lake SeminarySalt Lake City, Utah
I enthusiastically applaud the incredible ministry of the Southern Baptists around the world and now their zeal for reaching Mormons. On the other hand, let’s not get panicky about Mormon growth or that of other religious movements around the world.
With a flaming arrow pointing skyward, CT dramatizes their projected growth to 267 million adherents by 2080. On the other hand, there is much evidence that evangelicals around the world are growing at a rate of 6 or 7 percent a year. Even if we slowed to just 5 percent average annual growth rate, the current 600 million evangelicals would become more than 30 billion worldwide by that date.
So what’s the big deal about 267 million Mormons by AD 2080?
Jim Montgomery, PresidentDawn MinistriesColorado Springs, Colo.
* Your article on Mormonism quotes R. Philip Rogers: “Mormons shamelessly proselytize members of Christian churches, encouraging them to leave their own denomination and renounce the validity of their former group.” This is a puzzling statement in light of the SBC’s efforts to go door-to-door in Utah, encouraging Mormons to leave their church and renounce its validity. In the same breath, the article “warns Christians not to let door-knocking Mormons enter the house” because such true believers are “susceptible” to being deceived by the people you label “the enemy.”
I welcomed the SBC’s visit to Utah and was disappointed that they did not knock on my door. Sharing one’s faith is never “sheep-stealing” to be feared. Evangelicals and Mormons are not “diametrically opposed” in our common faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Clearly, there is much we have yet to learn about each other. And we will never learn when we are afraid to listen to each other.
John WilliamsElk Ridge, Utah
When the Mormon church can address factually and honestly issues [such as] the following, I will consider the group to be credible. Otherwise, the Mormon church is, for me, a sect at best, or a cult at worst.1. Since the production of steel is only a few hundred years old, how was it possible for the Book of Mormon to speak of Nephi and Shule as possessing and having the knowledge to forge steel (1 Nephi 4:9, 16:18; 2 Nephi 5:15; Ether 7:9)? 2. Silk became known to the world outside China in a.d. 552. How was it possible for silk to be available to and used by the people of the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 13:7; Alma 4:6; Ether 9:17; 11:24)? 3. How about that compass that worked by faith (1 Nephi 16:10, 28; 18:21)?
The Book of Mormon is a fantasy. Through his fertile imagination and by “borrowing” liberally from other “science fiction” of his day, Joseph Smith created a fanciful history for America. What is so perplexing to me is how so many reasonable, intelligent people can ignore the facts. How the Book of Mormon can be considered to be infallible is a mystery. Evangelicals need to base all dialogue with Mormons on the gospel and the truth of Scripture. There is no reason or room for conversation on any other basis. The similarities existing between me and a Mormon are superficial, not substantive.
Edmond LongRinggold, Ga.
* As a Mormon reading that descriptive article of a Sunday meeting in a ward of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that’s the first and only news article, of hundreds I have read, that actually reports the facts, accurately, and without bias or opinion. Well done!
Mark DupreeLogan, Utah
* The Mormons can teach us a lot. Here are some of the things they are doing from which we could learn:1. Rejecting mercenary ministry. In an age of high disposable income and abundant free time, the LDS have built a model in which every leadership function needed by a local congregation can be and is done without pay. 2. Giving primacy to testimony. In addition to the conventional “lecture” format, the LDS place emphasis on the power of ordinary members sharing their faith. 3. Allocating maximum resources to evangelism. Instead of building bureaucracies and careers, the LDS devote all available resources of time and money to the spreading of their message. 4. Emphasizing family values and social responsibility. We, who are the body of Christ, have not matched the LDS at instilling morality, practical living skills, and essential care toward each other.
Your article and personal experience demonstrate that the above approaches go a long way toward explaining the LDS success story.
Jim Vander SpekEscondido, Calif.
Are Catholics Christians?* As an evangelical, or born again, to be exact—saved in a Catholic college while at the same time being an avid member of the Eastern Orthodox Church—I am repulsed by Timothy George’s all-inclusive reference to Roman Catholics as our “brothers and sisters” in his article on “What I’d Like to Tell the Pope About the Church” [June 15]. If what constitutes them (or Orthodox, for that matter) Christians is their soteriology, that is, baptism (according to the Pope and the official catechisms of the Roman Church), then those like myself have erred in our understanding of Scripture, need to consider returning to our native nominal “Christian” roots, and question the authenticity of our “new birth experience”—was it the operation created by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit? This is the ultimate question of ecclesiology.
I fear the direction that George and others are going as leaders, and who may be ignorantly following.
Pastor Gary GeorgeLeicester, Mass.
* The article by Timothy George contained headings that correspond to the church’s attributes described in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. I think that fewer than one in three American evangelicals has any knowledge of those great creeds and probably fewer than one in five recites them in worship. The great legitimacy for noncreedal churches really began with the Campbellite Restorationists. Even the Anabaptists had the Schleitheim Confession (1527) and the separatists had the Westminster, Savoy, and London Baptist (1689) confessions to appeal to.
Anticreedalism in this country has really harmed Protestantism and evangelicalism a great deal and has paved the way for a new liberalism based on ignorance of the facts, not rejection of them. The seeker-church movement could be the final nail in the coffin for evangelicalism, since it “dumbs down” the understanding of the gospel until it dissipates into total experientialism.
We can’t have a worldwide missionary vision without the gospel, and we can’t have a gospel to preach without agreement as to what we should teach.
Edwin B. CouserMount Holly Springs, Pa.
Qualifications for Leadership* Eugene Peterson’s contention that “our flawed ideas of leadership need chastening quite as much as our flawed leaders” seems to cloud rather than clarify the biblical perspective [“What Bible Heroes Can Teach Us About Scandals,” June 15]. The expectation that our leaders, particularly in the church, will be above reproach and exercise marital fidelity is hardly some overidealized hang-up of American Christians. It is rather the qualification for ecclesiastical leadership that God himself has expressed in his Word (1 Tim. 3:2; Tit. 1:6). When Peterson notes in the example of David that “morality is not a precondition for salvation,” he fails to differentiate between qualifications for salvation and qualifications for leadership. The question Christians must discern is not the salvation status of fallen leaders but the leader’s qualifications for continued leadership.
The potential influence leaders exercise over those in their fold means that the consequences of their behavior is that much greater. In a recent Time magazine report (May 15, 1998, p. 52), a few middle-school boys rationalized their sexual exploits by retorting, “If the President can do it, why can’t we?” The lesson from the biblical record is not that we should not express shock and disappointment when our leaders fall prey to moral lapses, but that no leaders in their human condition are so strong as to be beyond susceptibility to moral failure, and that consequently we have a great responsibility to uphold their continued integrity and fidelity in our prayers.
Barry DanylakAurora, Ill.
* Eugene Peterson catalogs the sins of David, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samson, Samuel, Solomon, and pre-Pentecost Peter and concludes, “They turn out to be no better nor worse than the people with whom he [God] works still, the very ones we meet in daily newspapers.” But one vital ingredient should make a great deal of difference for leaders today who claim to be Christians. They supposedly have the Holy Spirit to remind them of all that Jesus taught. Hence Americans are rightfully disappointed in Clinton.
Peter YuenOakland, Calif.
Castle for a Few?I read “God’s Green Acres” [June 15], with interest, because as a conservationist and farmer, I believe that we can supply the world’s material needs and still leave this planet in a better position to serve the next generation. Modern technology has given us the tools to produce much more from our farms and forests and leave the soil and the environment in better condition. Only good soil produces big crops, and big crops leave more residue, which improves the soil.
I applaud those who are working to discover the secrets of nature so that we can live in harmony with the environment, and as a consequence, our generation and those who may follow will have adequate supplies. The Dunn experiment seems to build an environmental castle for a few where the drawbridge can be raised and the serfs outside the mote can mix the asphalt and build the roads and schools and all the other “messy” things that make our modern life possible.
Enos HeatwoleDenmark, S.C.
* I enjoyed your profile of Christian environmentalist and Calvin College graduate Calvin DeWitt. DeWitt, a 1957 graduate of Calvin, was one of two men honored as winners of the 1998 Distinguished Alumni Awards at Calvin (the other was Anthony VanZanten, a 1961 graduate who is director of Roseland Christian Ministries in Chicago).
I also enjoyed the piece by Cornelius Plantinga, but I did want to note that he is dean of the chapel of Calvin College, not Calvin Theological Seminary. His duties at the seminary are as a professor.
Phil de Haan, Director, Media RelationsCalvin CollegeGrand Rapids, Mich.
More, Please!* Bravo! and thank you for Cornelius Plantinga’s meditation on Psalm 91 [“Can God Be Trusted?” June 15]. I have just used it in our prayer meeting, shared it profitably on a personal level with several individuals, and have personally benefited from his insights. This is the kind of material we need more of in the pages of CT.
Pastor Jim KutnowThe Blue ChurchSpringfield, Pa.
Spong: Comical or Tragic?* In regard to the review of John Shelby Spong’s book Why Christianity Must Change or Die [Books, June 15], it is hard to tell if people like Bishop Spong are more comical or merely tragic figures on the fringes of American religion. He reminds me of the last man on the Titanic, crying out, “Get back on the boat! Don’t you know it is unsinkable?” The “Father Almighty” God that so offends Spong is the only one who could be changing the lives of sin-hardened sinners in this jail. His new book should be titled Why Spong Must Change—Or Die.
Chaplain Rick McEverGood News Jail and Prison MinistryBisbee, Ariz.
While I can agree with Michael Maudlin’s assessment of Bishop Spong’s theology, I heartily disagree with his view of the Anglican (Episcopal) church. The Anglican church has 70 million members worldwide and is growing, despite the fact that as a church we encompass different views on some matters. We can hardly be compared to the Titanic.
It was unfair and hurtful to have a whole church condemned because of the views of one of its leaders.
Rector Bill ClarkeParish of the RideauPortland, Ont., Canada
For the Children’s SakeThank you for reissuing the call for Christian parents to find a way to stay home with their children [Editorial, “Home Is Where the Parent Should Be,” June 15]. As a stay-at-home mom and pastor’s wife, I am saddened by the large number of Christians who delegate their children’s care to outside and often non-Christian caretakers.
I am more convinced than ever that we must break out of our current culture that says women are only fulfilled and have self-worth if they pursue a career away from the home. We have a lifetime to pursue the corporate ladder or a second car but only 18 years to develop children of character.
Debbie HardingerLynden, Wash.
Work for ChangeYour article concerning the reaction to the acquittal of United Methodist pastor Jimmy Creech neglected a significant point [News, “Verdict Aftershocks,” June 15]. The United Methodist Book of Discipline contains not only church law, but also theological and advisory materials, such as the Constitution, Our Doctrinal Heritage and Our Theological Task, and the Social Principles.
Because the Social Principles are advisory rather than binding, they do not carry the authority of church law. The statement Creech violated is in these Social Principles; therefore, he was acquitted. The conservative voices now crying foul need to accept this as fact and work for change in the legal paragraphs pertaining to the ordained ministry if they want a social prohibition across the church on performing same-sex unions. I find a disturbing lack of veracity among conservative United Methodists at points like this.
Pastor Jim Frisbie, Sr.First United Methodist ChurchTwin Falls, Idaho
The removal of Jimmy Creech will not solve the problem of gay marriages nor any other point of dissension. Many church members are fed up with the waffling and indecision on the part of the leadership of the United Methodist Church. Its devotion to “political correctness” has reached the point of no return and has evolved into absurdness.
Unless the UMC returns to biblical doctrine and its strong Wesleyan tradition, there is little hope that effective reform can occur. It will take strong action by the laity to bring this about.
Jimmy R. Cash, Sr.Fayetteville, N.C.
Greek Orthodox RespondWe respond, respectfully but sadly, to errors and impressions created by the article “Lay Coalition Demands Removal of U.S. Archbishop Spyridon” (News, June 15].
First, it states that an incident of sexual harassment at the seminary was covered up. This allegation is false. The archbishop appointed a blue-ribbon committee of lawyers to investigate this charge, and it was completely refuted. Moreover, the article fails to mention (1) our policy against sexual harassment and (2) our record of dealing directly with such incidents by cooperating with legal investigations and then following up on adverse findings, when they occur, with procedures before the spiritual courts of our church.
Second, rather than removing lay oversight of archdiocesan finances, the archbishop has actually acted to give laypeople more control over financial assets of the church. For example, the archbishop, in cooperation with lay boards and trustees, has recently restructured our endowment fund into an exclusively lay-controlled fund.
Third, the author never asked the archdiocese whether the complaint that priests who question diocesan decisions are frequently reassigned is true. In fact, it is false.
We appreciate the opportunity to correct the record.
Mark B. Arey,Director of CommunicationsGreek Orthodox Archdiocese of AmericaNew York, N.Y.
Baroness Cox’s CSI TeamThe article by Baroness Caroline Cox on Nagorno-Karabakh [April 27], which references her team from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), does not reflect the facts. She made the trip on behalf of Christian Solidarity International (CSI), Switzerland, which paid for this visit to Karabakh and provided most of the administrative support. As CSI-U.K. broke away from CSI-International last September and is now called CSW, readers will assume that the wrong organization was responsible for the action in Karabakh described in that article.
Rev. Hans-J. StuckelbergerFounder and International PresidentChristian Solidarity InternationalBinz, Switzerland
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