Trevor wrote:Huckleberry,
I agree with everything you have written here. In terms of the power and longevity, the myth of the Christ is hard to beat. On the other hand, to say this is quite distinct from saying that there is some difference in species that makes Jesus and Joseph completely different characters (with Jesus being inherently legitimate and Joseph being inferior, derivative, and unworthy of any kind of reverence). Joseph Smith has the disadvantage of being a well-documented person, while who knows what on earth is going on with a person named Jesus. My whole point is that both figures have been and continue to be mythologized, and that they obviously do receive worship within different communities. The non-believer looks at a historical figure named Smith, while the Mormon believer sees him in terms of a living mythos that is not unlike what shaped the Jesus figure. The historical facts have pulled Smith back to earth somewhat, but there is still plenty of deification there. And I don't see what is inherently wrong with that, as compared with Christianity, so long as the myth omits negative aspects of the historical man. Personally, I have no desire to worship Smith, but I have no problem with those who buy into a whitewashed myth and guide their lives by it and worship it. I am somewhat put off by those who yield to the demands and pressures of larger Christian culture by jettisoning their myth in favor of a Protestant one. No offense. I say let Mormons be Mormons. They don't have to be Lutherans to be good people.
T
Hi Trevor, I did have a bit of uncertainity looking for just what I wanted to respond to here. "don't have to be Lutheran" I had a Lutheran grandmother on a nonLDS side. The phrase made me chuckle. After all despite some possibilty of being good people I can picture Lutherans as tradition bound, dogmatic and narrow, afraid to do anything strikingly Christian for fear of breaking Lutheran sobriety. I have been Lutheran some years and realize they sometimes actually think they are the best Christian church. Despite all thatt they are not really all bad.
I have a hard time imagining a Mormon betraying their culture joinging one of those regular Christian churches due to some sort of social pressure. I certainly do not remember any such pressure. I found my way into other Churches by sneeking in alone to sit in the back,, wondering, what is going on in this place? Perhaps my experience is not the only possiblity. I do not live near the Bible belt. My background friends etc is quite long on skeptics. I feel a lot of social pressure to agnosticize little or none to believe Christian stuff. But sure others may experience differently. I have a good friend who always likes to underline the fact that the people he runs into discovering Christianity all come from a Culture with a long Christian past. I ask him if he would think it more believable if I was drawn to the Alyssan Wooly Bugger cult for which I expepience no social influence whatsoever.
I cannot escape that there likely is some sort of cultural push in the direction of Christian belief.
But when I speak with people about the subject I have zero interest in pushing believing Mormons into a Protestant belief. I think Protestant belief makes much more sense but that doent obligate others to l agree. I believe in both investigating and questioning ones beliefs. In that context I find interest in the comments of others whose views are different than my own.
I am not unlike some others here who went looking in places away from Josephs church because of a combination of doubt about his project and the sense the world was full of other interesting possiblities. I could wonder if a Mormon who suffers from hearing too much Joseph Smith in church might be experiencing a bit of that same conflict. Maybe a person wants to hear about Jesus with less Joseph filter due to simple interest in the possiblity. After all one of the tricky things about Jesus is that he is interesting.