How Biblically Literate are Mormons as a Whole?

[sock puppet]

In my experience and observations from them, Mormons as a whole do not have the same familiarity with the Bible as most do the adherents, each taken as a whole, of other self-professing Christian denominations.

I continue to be troubled by the underpinnings of a conversation I had about February 5, 2025--two weeks into Trump 2.0--at dinner with two friends. Both active LDS. One boasted that in a recent time-frame of year (I don't recall how many, perhaps 4 or 5), the U.S. had X number of new billion dollar companies, but the U.K. (according to him) had no new billion dollar companies. I pointed out that according to the World Food Bank that the U.K. and U.S. each have 2.5% of the population undernourished, and that perhaps that what ought to be boasted about is if the U.S. were to reduce that.

To my surprise, his comeback was "well, I'm glad we're going to stop giving money to illegal immigrants." I don't really see a connection there, except he was making my point for me. Then I asked, "really?" To which he affirmed his statement and the other active Mormon remained silent. I also asked, "You are telling me that you are glad that the U.S. Govt is going to stop helping people in need?" He affirmed that too, adding "they need to go back to their countries. I was starting to get angry, asking why they should be treated differently because they were born on a different side of man-made lines? The silent one started to see where I was going, and began fidgeting a bit.

I asked how he planned to answer on judgment day for not having been more charitable towards 'the least' of the Lord's children? He literally had no idea of what I was alluding to. Deflecting, he said that I too was born inside the U.S. borders and asked if I did not think I was lucky to have been so born? I said certainly, but you are missing the point.

The next day, I texted him Matthew 25:40-43. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?s ... ersion=KJV. His response was, all that proves is that I know the Bible better than he does. (I don't know about that, I don't consider myself to be all that Bible literate, as I stopped reading and studying it decades ago. But I do remember certain concepts and where to look for certain themes and passages in the Bible.)

He's made no mention of it since. My point with this vignette is not the morality or not. Rather, it is that someone can attend Mormon church services for more than 45 years and not know of such a basic, rudimentary teaching about proper attitudes and conduct set forth in the Bible.

So I circle back to the thread title, "How Biblically literate are Mormons as a whole?"

[Everybody Wang Chung]

Mormons on the whole know very little about the Bible, but they love to cherry pick and use it for passages where they believe it aligns with Mormon doctrine (baptisms for the dead, Stick of Joseph, other sheep I have which are not of this fold, etc).

If there’s any discrepancy between what the Bible says and Mormon doctrine, then any Mormon text is taken over the Bible because "it was corrupted by men” and "isn't translated correctly".

Mormons have an uneasy relationship Bible. It's actually more like a tactical association, but only when it's convenient.

[Moksha]

Pick a little here and there if it supports the LDS message. The trouble with that approach is that it never lends a good understanding of the whole.

Dan McClellin knows a whole lot about the Bible but abandoned the typical LDS approach years ago.

[I Have Questions]

To my surprise, his comeback was "well, I'm glad we're going to stop giving money to illegal immigrants." I don't really see a connection there, except he was making my point for me. Then I asked, "really?" To which he affirmed his statement and the other active Mormon remained silent. I also asked, "You are telling me that you are glad that the U.S. Govt is going to stop helping people in need?" He affirmed that too, adding "they need to go back to their countries.

One assumes this friend of yours is a Native American whose ancestors are from one of the indigenous tribes, rather than being the progeny of foreign settlers that immigrated into what is now the USA? What are those words written on the Statue of Liberty? That's right, ""Keep your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost back to where they came from, I refuse to lift my lamp beside the golden door!".

[sock puppet]

To my surprise, his comeback was "well, I'm glad we're going to stop giving money to illegal immigrants." I don't really see a connection there, except he was making my point for me. Then I asked, "really?" To which he affirmed his statement and the other active Mormon remained silent. I also asked, "You are telling me that you are glad that the U.S. Govt is going to stop helping people in need?" He affirmed that too, adding "they need to go back to their countries.

One assumes this friend of yours is a Native American whose ancestors are from one of the indigenous tribes, rather than being the progeny of foreign settlers that immigrated into what is now the USA? What are those words written on the Statue of Liberty? That's right, ""Keep your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost back to where they came from, I refuse to lift my lamp beside the golden door!".

Nope. Not of Native American ancestry. He's 4th generation English on his mother's side, 3rd generation German on his father's. When it comes to immigration his otherwise unfaltering adoration of Ronald Reagan has a blind spot.

[Kishkumen]

With all the various ways that Christian dogma does not line up well with the text of the Bible, I wonder why this question really matters. The truth is that the Bible only works inasmuch as adherents to various sects of Christianity are taught to read it in the way their groups demand of them. The Bible is not really a Christian document. It is a document that was made to be used by Christians in the absence of any truly systematic blueprint for their religion.

[msnobody]

In my experience and observations from them, Mormons as a whole do not have the same familiarity with the Bible as most do the adherents, each taken as a whole, of other self-professing Christian denominations.

I continue to be troubled by the underpinnings of a conversation I had about February 5, 2025--two weeks into Trump 2.0--at dinner with two friends. Both active LDS. One boasted that in a recent time-frame of year (I don't recall how many, perhaps 4 or 5), the U.S. had X number of new billion dollar companies, but the U.K. (according to him) had no new billion dollar companies. I pointed out that according to the World Food Bank that the U.K. and U.S. each have 2.5% of the population undernourished, and that perhaps that what ought to be boasted about is if the U.S. were to reduce that.

To my surprise, his comeback was "well, I'm glad we're going to stop giving money to illegal immigrants." I don't really see a connection there, except he was making my point for me. Then I asked, "really?" To which he affirmed his statement and the other active Mormon remained silent. I also asked, "You are telling me that you are glad that the U.S. Govt is going to stop helping people in need?" He affirmed that too, adding "they need to go back to their countries. I was starting to get angry, asking why they should be treated differently because they were born on a different side of man-made lines? The silent one started to see where I was going, and began fidgeting a bit.

I asked how he planned to answer on judgment day for not having been more charitable towards 'the least' of the Lord's children? He literally had no idea of what I was alluding to. Deflecting, he said that I too was born inside the U.S. borders and asked if I did not think I was lucky to have been so born? I said certainly, but you are missing the point.

The next day, I texted him Matthew 25:40-43. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?s ... ersion=KJV. His response was, all that proves is that I know the Bible better than he does. (I don't know about that, I don't consider myself to be all that Bible literate, as I stopped reading and studying it decades ago. But I do remember certain concepts and where to look for certain themes and passages in the Bible.)

He's made no mention of it since. My point with this vignette is not the morality or not. Rather, it is that someone can attend Mormon church services for more than 45 years and not know of such a basic, rudimentary teaching about proper attitudes and conduct set forth in the Bible.

So I circle back to the thread title, "How Biblically literate are Mormons as a whole?"

Scripture also says that we are to obey laws.

Romans 13:1-2
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

And:

1 Peter 2:13-17 mentions submission to authority.

[msnobody]

With all the various ways that Christian dogma does not line up well with the text of the Bible, I wonder why this question really matters. The truth is that the Bible only works inasmuch as adherents to various sects of Christianity are taught to read it in the way their groups demand of them. The Bible is not really a Christian document. It is a document that was made to be used by Christians in the absence of any truly systematic blueprint for their religion.

I agree with most of what you’ve said, but I do see it as the blueprint for Christianity. Yes, people do seem to twist and cherry pick to try to make biblical scripture say what they want it to say, and even more disconcerting, is a complacent and lackadaisical approach to the God who gave us His Word in whom we say we place our trust.

That is why we need to be like Bereans, comparing Scripture to Scripture, showing one another grace in the negotiables, and stand firm on the non-negotiables, even when His word “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Hebrew 4:12.

When that Word pierces our hearts, it is often difficult to accept what is revealed to us.

[Kishkumen]

I agree with most of what you’ve said, but I do see it as the blueprint for Christianity. Yes, people do seem to twist and cherry pick to try to make biblical scripture say what they want it to say, and even more disconcerting, is a complacent and lackadaisical approach to the God who gave us His Word in whom we say we place our trust.

That is why we need to be like Bereans, comparing Scripture to Scripture, showing one another grace in the negotiables, and stand firm on the non-negotiables, even when His word “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Hebrew 4:12.

When that Word pierces our hearts, it is often difficult to accept what is revealed to us.

I can see where you are coming from. This is an answer that comes from the perspective of active faith operating in the interpretation of the Bible. What is not entirely clear to me is whether the Word is inherent to the Bible or manifest in the faithful interpretation. I can believe that the Bible is the Word of God in every respect, and perhaps it becomes such because the eye of my understanding is opened through faith. Without that higher spiritual guidance, the words on the page would sometimes lack significance. To add more complications, why is the Protestant Bible the Word of God but not the Catholic Bible? Joseph Smith called the Song of Solomon Biblical trash, but I think an allegorical reading can render it quite meaningful. I see scripture as more a tool for receiving revelation than inherently meaningful in and of itself. Revelation can tease out meanings beyond the intentions of the human authors. One might say that God is the author of revelation, and that God is not limited by what is on the page.

[Gadianton]

I don't know Sock Puppet, if that Matthew verse has the force that you imagine it does, then it seems like the entire Christian right is Biblically illiterate since their main concern is immigration, and they emphatically support a violent deportation agenda. Why would Mormons stand out in particular?