Is a "church" without a creed/doctrines just a social club?

[_sock puppet]

The Mormon apologist's job is made much easier by the wiggle that Mormonism has no creed and no doctrines. (Given the numerous instances where the Mormon Church has not lived up to even the 13 Articles of Faith, it is easy to understand why it eschews the concept of doctrine. Too binding, too confining.)

But what then do you have except an organization the primary goal of which is to seek new members to grow, to give it and those at the top greater stature, and to instill adherence by those members to whatever the leaders of that bureaucracy might say?

Keep in mind, DHO has preached that members should follow their Mormon leaders even when those leaders are wrong. For me, that brings to mind the Jonestown massacre mentality, or the issues of individual culpability of soldiers ordered to participate in the My Lai Massacre.

[_Patriarchal gripe]

The Mormon apologist's job is made much easier by the wiggle that Mormonism has no creed and no doctrines. (Given the numerous instances where the Mormon Church has not lived up to even the 13 Articles of Faith, it is easy to understand why it eschews the concept of doctrine. Too binding, too confining.)

But what then do you have except an organization the primary goal of which is to seek new members to grow, to give it and those at the top greater stature, and to instill adherence by those members to whatever the leaders of that bureaucracy might say?

Keep in mind, DHO has preached that members should follow their Mormon leaders even when those leaders are wrong. For me, that brings to mind the Jonestown massacre mentality, or the issues of individual culpability of soldiers ordered to participate in the My Lai Massacre.

I've actually heard it argued that if you ignore many of the early teachings of church leaders, which seems to happen a lot these days, and only focus on the utterances from church leaders who speak for God today, that the church seems to lack an actual theology. The argument is that it seems on the surface to be an organization without a theological underpinning, just a lot of platitudes and homilies gleaned and cherry-picked from scriptural resources and the more recent platitudes and homilies of church leaders since the 1960's. Someone investigating using the church resources that are current might find themselves at a loss to describe the church's theology with any certainty, apparently.

[_sock puppet]

A church without doctrine?

It's like eyes without a face.

[_ajax18]

Don't most churchs lack doctrine? They're all playing the same game of saying whatever fills the pulpits and coffers.

I tried going to Church today just because I wanted to go and not because of any consequence it might cause in my future. I couldn't stand it. I left before the first hour was over. It was just too boring. I'm going to have to get an iphone or something more entertaining if I ever try that again. The social club approach may have been attractive to other people, but it sure wasn't attractive to me.

[_hugh jass]

The vast majority of the active membership are nothing more than social Mormons of the chapel variety.