When people start to discuss problems with the historical narrative of the LDS church with members, inevitably the accusation of “bashing” comes up. People don’t like their sincerely held beliefs to be challenged.
The ironic thing about this is that the Restored Gospel that the LDS church preaches can only be introduced by bashing someone else’s religion. That is what every one of the over 80,000 missionaries that are out in force around the world today are doing. They are boldly proclaiming what Joseph first declared that God told him – all the other religions are “an abomination” and “corrupt” Joseph Smith History 1:19Â – hence the need for the restored gospel of mormonism.
Imagine Joseph using social media to spread his message – what would that be like? Imagine if he was met with the same protests that ex-mormons face when discussing the challenging issues in church history. Maybe it would go something like this:
Of course, this is an irreverent parody, but it does raise the question of what constitutes “bashing.” If you express an opinion that is mutually exclusive of another persons belief – does that automatically constitute bashing? If you are not personally insulting the individual people within a religion but making statements about factual discrepancies in the organization and the founders are people justified in asking you to refrain from “bashing” them or their faith?
Sometimes people feel personally attacked, even if they were not. Many LDS people will feel bad as a result of a perceived attack and interpret this as “the spirit of contention.” They have been taught that Christ’s way is one of peace and that anything that does not drip with good, warm fuzzy feelings cannot possibly contain truth. Is this assertion true? Did Christ always avoid the spirit of contention? Let’s see what a facebook exchange might look like with Christ and his audience from Matthew 23:
Based on Matthew 23, it seems clear that Christ did not shy away from boldly “bashing” that which he felt needed to be bashed. But was Jesus the first to bash? Check it – yo:
Moses and the Sons of Levi win the trophy when it comes to “Bashing” as they appear to have done it with extreme prejudice. God and his people cannot protest “bashing” by other people and maintain any sort of credibility. Their history is rife with it – and it still goes on today.
I am still willing to accept and comply with someone who wants me to stop doing what they interpret as “bashing”. It would require the LDS church to recall all of their proselytizing missionaries or converting them all to service missionaries. It would also require the church to recognize that they are not the only one true church on the face of the earth and acknowledge that people of other walks of faith or disbelief have the hope of salvation. In short, they would have to stop engaging in the same sorts of things they want others to stop engaging in.
It is not likely to happen. So in the mean time, following in the steps of Joseph Smith, Jesus, Moses, Copernicus, Darwin, Sandra Tanner and others – I honestly search for truth and open my discourse to its discussion inviting others to challenge and dispute accordingly.
