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If you are devout Mormon and intellectual, is there any obligation or expectation that you engage in Mormon apologetics, in any of various forums or outlets?

If not, what makes it attractive to those that engage in it?

If you are devout Mormon and intellectual, is there any obligation or expectation that you engage in Mormon apologetics, in any of various forums or outlets?

Besides the general injunctions to teach the gospel and give answer as to the hope within us, there are recent directives such as those to not let others dominate the conversation about the LDS Church.

If not, what makes it attractive to those that engage in it?

Being right all the time is a huge plus.

Is there any compulsion to be a mopologist?

If there is a compulsion then Prozac can help ease the symptoms.

Bcspace is right, the Church does have teaching the Gospel of Jesus as one of their prime mission objectives. It is up to individual members to seek their own level of honesty in doing so. Some may teach while others may become apologists. This adds to the symmetry of the Universe.

Depends what you mean by "mopologist" -- when I hear someone unjustly criticizing the Church, I do feel compelled to defend it. I imagine that almost all Mormons feel the same way, and probably every other person of faith feels the same about their religion as well.

bcspace wrote:

If you are devout Mormon and intellectual, is there any obligation or expectation that you engage in Mormon apologetics, in any of various forums or outlets?

Besides the general injunctions to teach the gospel and give answer as to the hope within us, there are recent directives such as those to not let others dominate the conversation about the LDS Church.

If not, what makes it attractive to those that engage in it?

Being right all the time is a huge plus.

bcspace, were those recent directives in writing? Were they, for example, in the Ensign? Can you provide links?

bcspace wrote:

If not, what makes it attractive to those that engage in it?

Being right all the time is a huge plus.

Yeah, there does seem to be something gratifying about the LDS self-delusion. Granted.

I think the compulsion is driven in part by what bcspace said - Mormons like the feeling that they are superior and want to show people that they are right.

I also think it is driven by a Mormons need to bolster a weakening testimony. The more vehement the Mopologist the weaker the self-confidence is apparent in their own testimony.

Hey, SP.

I've seen Elder Ballard urge faithful saints to participate more in online discussions:

http://newsroom.LDS.org/additional-resource/transcript-of-elder-m-russell-ballard-s-speech-given-at-brigham-young-university-management-society

http://www.ldsmag.com/component/zine/article/2926

http://www.byui.edu/News/NewsReleases2008/080411April08Graduation.htm

I think if you google this topic with Elder Ballard you will find even more. It seems to have been an important subject for him the last few years.

Cheers.

jon wrote:The more vehement the Mopologist the weaker the self-confidence is apparent in their own testimony.

That's about as astute as arguing that the more vocal a person is against gay rights, the more likely that the person is a closet homosexual -- a charge Buffalo makes repeatedly against Loran Blood.

Apologists come in all stripes. I'm amazed that the members of this board treat them as monolithic cretins.

Apologists include fierce believers with intense spiritual reasons for being apologists. Apologists include people like Paul Ozbourne who struggle because they are gay and think they can get out of their gaydom by being an apologist. Apologists include inactive non-attenders, like Droopy. Apologists include non-believers, like Ray Agostini (who flips and flops on the deck like a fish.)

I don't consider myself an apologist and am generally rejected by the mainstreamers because of my views of the LGT, the fact that I am a Democrat and a socialist, but I post in defense of the church for sheer entertainment value. It is more interesting doing this than watching TV. But, my reasons for posting aren't the same as others, and I don't post because Elder Ballard encouraged members to do so..

Judge an apologist on the quality of his posts, rather deploying a bigoted and (for anonymous posters) hypocritical view of defenders as a group.

Mormons like the feeling that they are superior and want to show people that they are right.

Even if true that is very much the impression that many of the critic posters here give off. Probably, again, not a Mormon thing, so much as a cultural thing.