The New Yorker: I, Nephi

[_Equality]

Like the Gnostics, the Mormons thought that the conventional texts had too much atonement and too little attainment.

I've never heard this sentiment in Church.

Once again, you have demonstrated your prodigious talent for completely missing the point.

[_BartBurk]

Once again, you have demonstrated your prodigious talent for completely missing the point.

But the statement above is not what I have experienced among Mormons either. The sacrament service every week emphasizes memory of the atonement as do many, many talks in General Conference and elsewhere. The author seems to be reading too much into the statement. If you get right down to it you could make the same statement about the Eastern Orthodox if you interpreted them incorrectly.

[_kjones]

Just look at DCP's recent blog entry, where he says he was creeped out by the closing ceremonies at the Olympics, which leads him into a long-winded ridiculing of John Lennon's "Imagine," followed by a protracted attack on atheism, and ultimately wrapping up with an essentially prayerful worship of free-market capitalism.

Can somebody provide a link for me to DCP's blog?

[_Drifting]

Just look at DCP's recent blog entry, where he says he was creeped out by the closing ceremonies at the Olympics, which leads him into a long-winded ridiculing of John Lennon's "Imagine," followed by a protracted attack on atheism, and ultimately wrapping up with an essentially prayerful worship of free-market capitalism.

Can somebody provide a link for me to DCP's blog?

It's called 'sic et non'

[_Equality]

Once again, you have demonstrated your prodigious talent for completely missing the point.

But the statement above is not what I have experienced among Mormons either. The sacrament service every week emphasizes memory of the atonement as do many, many talks in General Conference and elsewhere. The author seems to be reading too much into the statement. If you get right down to it you could make the same statement about the Eastern Orthodox if you interpreted them incorrectly.

The author is not referring to what is taught in Sacrament meetings in Mormon meetinghouses in 2012; the author is describing something about the early Mormons and how the focus of their faith departed from the mainstream Christian tradition and was more focused on the triumph of Jesus than his agony and suffering on the cross. It is in the context of the paragraph on how Mormonism dovetailed so well with the idea of American exceptionalism and ascendancy. The author makes clear that he is not calling the Mormons Gnostics, only that there is a "Gnostic aroma" to Mormonism (which point, I think, ought to be rather uncontroversial). The author is not trying to argue that Mormons do not believe in Christ's atonement. I think Mormons are so used to defending themselves against that charge from evangelicals that they read it into places where it is not intended.

[_MCB]

he is not calling the Mormons Gnostics, only that there is a "Gnostic aroma" to Mormonism (which point, I think, ought to be rather uncontroversial).

There is nothing seriously wrong with Gnosticism per se. It is just that everyone going according to their own understanding leads to chaos and/or spiritual abuse, because the leaders tend to get it into their heads that only they have a monopoly on secret truths. Definitely an aroma to that.

Still reading "The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists." The Munster story. Pretty rough stuff.