Worst BBC article ever?

[Nubclear]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6203179.stm

that its adherents are bright and intellectually open, and have a sense of humour, of humanity, that is sadly lacking in other strands of American religious life.

At this point, I knew that something was up. I mean, it isn't as if all mormons are stupid, intellectually dishonest, and/or humourless....but they are neither more or less of these things when compared to the rest of American religious life.

But here is a big difference between Mormons and other American evangelists - Mormons do not feel threatened by science.

And here I knew that the article was a bit odd. At least in *my* experience, Mormons appear to be no more or less threatened by science than the rest of the religious right (that is to say, they are threatened by it)

They are not enemies of the rational world - they are not creationists.

They aren't? Again, my sample isn't particularly statistically significant, but every encounter I've had with Mormons (remember, I live among them) on this subject has been a large group of creationists (either outright creationism or "intelligent design") vs. me.

The "lol i wasnt no monkey LOL" sort

And on human conduct they tend to stress setting personal examples rather than getting the state to enforce religious rules.

No, Mormons aren't so big on the whole "seperation of church and state" thing, unless the State is trying to persecute them. Mormons like to accomplish both - we can let people set their own examples, of course, but it's always nice to use the state government to try to enforce them (for instance, in teh alcohol laws, or wrt/ gay marriage, or whatnot).

So BBC essentially portrays the Mormon Church as a nice, rationalist, essentially liberal religion.
Which is laughable

[Will9]

One small church bringing down the Coffee industry in one year. LOL!

[Dis]

who in the hell is tac?

Isn't that the bad "guy" in the Stephen King novel: Desperation?

[Aeson]

One thing you have to understand about the LDS church is that most of the teaching in church is done by general membership. They are given official material to teach, but (like anything) it is open for interpretation on the part of the one reading/teaching it. So you end up with a lot of people (most actually) who don't really understand what official LDS doctrine is on a lot of points. Learning about the LDS religion from a couple of the quorum of the seventy (kinda like the Cardinals) would be much different than learning it from general members, so I could see how this reporter would have a different take than Tass does.

I was raised in an active LDS family, a Dad and 3 brothers who were missionaries, I almost ended up going on a mission myself, and before leaving the church I studied LDS doctrine rather extensively. Far more than most ever do. But it's been a while, so I'm not completely sure on some points...

As for how liberal the official LDS doctrine is, I can't think of anything other than their stance on homosexuality (they view it as a choice) that doesn't conform to, or at least not disagree with, generally accepted scientific theory. Evolution is accepted as a method God could have used to put us here on earth, and the big bang (or whatever) as something God could have used to create the universe. (Though that gets sort of iffy, as there are actually many Gods, as anyone willing to dedicate themselves to it can eventually become a God. God didn't create the universe in a traditional creationist sense. What God "organized" for us is part of a greater whole.) In general I would say LDS doctrine is quite a bit more scientifically acceptable than most Christian sects, especially when taken to a fundamentalist level. There's that one leap required to accept a Spiritual existence and God a priori, and after that it mostly works.

On civil rights and women's lib it has lagged behind some though. Those of African decent were not allowed to hold the priesthood until the 70's. Though I think inter-racial marriages were acceptable earlier, and slavery was never an issue, likely given the timing more than anything. Women still are not allowed to hold the priesthood, or hold the positions reserved for the priesthood that would correspond to Priest, Bishop, Cardinal, Pope in Catholicism, though women are allowed to give talks (think sermon, only friendlier) in sacrament meetings and teach classes. It's rather patriarchal in general.

To be honest, the LDS doctrine is about as "nice" as you can get. There is no Hell. The worst that can happen is outer darkness, which is basically not existing, and only a few people will ever end up there. (Could be counted on one hand.) Otherwise there is a purgatory which is where people pay for their sins after the second coming, but it's more like a place to learn than punishment. Then there are 3 stages of existence in the afterlife, all being far better than any life could be here on earth, and even the potential to be a God yourself. So yah... if any of these religions turns out to be true, I'd hope it's the Mormon version.

[Imran Siddiqui]

In reading up on it (since it was in the OP), I've seen that the Church takes no official stand on creationism vs. evolution, saying God has not revealed the answer. So on that basis, it seems that some Mormons aren't creationists (though some undoubtably are).

[Verto]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
In reading up on it (since it was in the OP), I've seen that the Church takes no official stand on creationism vs. evolution, saying God has not revealed the answer. So on that basis, it seems that some Mormons aren't creationists (though some undoubtably are).

I was never taught that the Earth was created in 6 days. There were unofficial theories, where people guessed that a 'day' for God could be a million years, or something like that - in other words, finding ways for religion and science to coexist.

[Nubclear]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
In reading up on it (since it was in the OP), I've seen that the Church takes no official stand on creationism vs. evolution, saying God has not revealed the answer. So on that basis, it seems that some Mormons aren't creationists (though some undoubtably are).

The vast majority of Mormons that I have encountered tend to be either creationists, or not religiously active.
Mormonism is kind of nice, in some sense (though the vision about God creating a mountain out of the bodies of the dead during teh rapture is a bit gory), but Mormons themselves tend to be socially and politically conservative.
The BBC article might fool you into thinking that Mormons are somehow "different" from the rest of the religious right in America. They aren't creationists - they loves teh science! Etc etc.

The Church often does not take official positions on many areas. For instance, the Church has no official position on who you should have voted for in the last election. However, it is extremely commonplace for "unofficial positions" to be taken up

Any Briton coming to Utah expecting it to be an outpost of Western European civilisation in America is going to be sorely disappointed.

[notyoueither]

God forbid the BBC publish material that does not depict American religious communities as friends of Fred Phelps.

[Drake Tungsten]

Tacc?

Who are you?

[Nubclear]

Editing

[Solly]

Those Amish (they are Mormons aren't they?) girls could be quite fit if they only did something about their body hair..

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Doddler
Those Amish (they are Mormons aren't they?) girls could be quite fit if they only did something about their body hair..

Amish and Mormons are almost totally unconnected as far as I can see.

Mormons have about as much connection and similarity to the Amish as they have to the Roman Catholic Church.

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Doddler
Those Amish (they are Mormons aren't they?) girls could be quite fit if they only did something about their body hair..

Far, far off. Mormon religion was invented (yes, that's the best term) in the 19th century by Joseph Smith and has a very particular relation to other Christian movements. Mormons define themselves as Christians (since Jesus/christ plays a central role for them), but the fact that they have their own Holy Book shows how actually different that religion is from Christianity as we commonly understand it.

OTOH, Amish and Menonites (that's who you're probably thinking about) are fundamentalist evangelical Christians, their origins dating back to the 16th century, who were prosecuted during the religious wars in Europe. Many emigrated to America because of this.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Re: Worst BBC article ever?

Originally posted by Tacc
[url]
So BBC essentially portrays the Mormon Church as a nice, rationalist, essentially liberal religion.

You'll notice that the article is clearly labelled as being an opinion piece, so the BBC is not claiming that at all. This "personal reflection" might state so, and I've no doubt that fairly soon we'll see a contrasting opinon.

[civman2000]

That is so not the worst BBC article ever. This is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/conte..._feature.shtml