Posted on 12/03/2009 11:43:34 AM PST by Colofornian
REXBURG -- A large media campaign involving billboards and mass mailings has been launched in eastern Idaho. Its goal is to draw women away from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The "Speaking the Truth in Love to Mormons" campaign was started by the Truth in Love Ministry in Nampa, and its focus is on "witnessing to Mormons" and showing them the "truth of God's words" through "loving means."
This week a billboard was placed at the intersection of Yellowstone Highway and Seventh South in Rexburg showing a woman holding her head next to the words "Feeling Worthy?" The billboard also gives the campaign Web site, HisHealingNow.com.
The "Feeling Worthy?" message "targets a foundational fact of Mormonism, the need for all Mormons to achieve worthiness in order to receive eternal life," according to campaign literature.
The campaign says God's truth is "the concept of free and full forgiveness through Christ" rather than the "earned forgiveness taught in Mormonism."
"There is an important difference between LDS teachings and conservative Christianity," said Pastor Mark Cares, president of the Truth in Love Ministry. "The aim of the campaign is to talk about the great message of forgiveness in the bible that is obscured by LDS teachings."
Campaign literature focuses heavily on Mormon "stress points."
"Mormons are under a significant amount of stress because of all the commandments they need to uphold and all the duties they need to perform in order to be worthy to receive God's blessings -- including his forgiveness," it says.
"The teachings of Mormonism cause people to despair because they have so much to do," said Cares.
Cares preaches that God's forgiveness and blessings are available to everyone for free if they simply accept the "good news of God," that "we are already perfect and worthy in God's sight."
So the question is, are Mormon women actually plagued with guilt and stress because of their religion or is this campaign simply another form of anti-Mormonism?
The Speaking the Truth in Love campaign is different from many anti-Mormon groups in that most typically seek to argue or dispute facts regarding Mormon history or doctrine.
Instead of resorting to "Bible bashing," the Truth in Love campaign seeks to fellowship and love Mormons into accepting their views that Mormonism will lead to "eternal death" rather than "eternal life."
One reason for the change in tactic may be because of recent scientific studies by Mental Health America and Express Scripts, a national drug distribution company. The report ranks Utah as the most depressed state in the country and shows that Utah residents are prescribed antidepressant drugs at twice the national average.
Researchers have drawn conclusions that the large LDS population was partially to blame for the high levels of depression in the state.
But these statistics have their critics.
Brigham Young University sociologist Sherrie Mills Johnson recently did a comparative study of more than 3,000 non-LDS women and two national surveys of more than 2,000 LDS women.
According to Johnson, "to date, no conclusive evidence has been presented that proves that LDS women are more depressed or take more anti-depressants than other women."
Johnson stands by the "most significant finding of her study," that "increased religiosity predicted increased life satisfaction and mental well-being."
Local psychologists agree with those findings.
According to Reed Stoddard, the director of the Brigham Young University-Idaho Counseling Center, feelings of guilt, being overburdened and stress are issues that they deal with frequently, but he says there not necessarily caused by religion.
"Properly understood, our religion does not contribute to depression or anxiety," said Stoddard. "In fact, the church can be helpful in overcoming stress and depression."
Local LDS leaders and LDS religion professors agreed with this sentiment, and most said that the LDS faith is very liberating in its views.
"The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is fundamentally liberating," said Phillip Allred, a member of the BYU-Idaho Religion Department. "By definition it offers salvation from guilt, sin and weakness -- but he (Christ) provides those on his own terms. He requires our allegiance, our loyalty and our faithful obedience to his commandments and ordinances because they help qualify us to receive the highest manifestations of his grace."
Allred suggested a May 2007 address to LDS women given by James E. Faust, a deceased member of the First Presidency of the LDS Church, to further explain the LDS Church's stance on personal self-worth and forgiveness.
The address is titled "The Value of Self-Esteem."
"There are many whose self-esteem has been so devastated by the loss of loved ones, by divorce, or by other personal misfortunes," said Faust during the address. "Some carry an extra burden of guilt from grievous sins. Transgression is so devastating to self-esteem. After transgression so often comes rationalization and even lying. This is what makes justice so violent to the offender. Fortunately we have the great principle of repentance whereby sins that are 'as scarlet' can become 'white as snow.' I am grateful for this principle and pray no one will hesitate to find the peace that comes from repentance."
LDS Area Seventy Robert Chambers, who represents the LDS Church in southeastern Idaho, had no comment on the Truth in Love Ministry campaign partially because he had not heard of the group.
In addition to the billboard in Rexburg, two "Feeling Worthy?" billboards have been placed in Idaho Falls and another two in Pocatello. They are slated to remain standing for at least three months.
Cares said that the biggest thing he wants to stress is that "we aren't against the Mormon people -- our focus is against the Mormon teachings," and "bringing as many Mormons as possible to heaven."
For more information about Cares or his campaign, visit HisHealingNow.com or truthinloveministry.net. Faust's address can be found at http://lds.org/library/display/0,4945,538-1-4136-1,00.html .
“There is an important difference between LDS teachings and conservative Christianity,” said Pastor Mark Cares, president of the Truth in Love Ministry. “The aim of the campaign is to talk about the great message of forgiveness in the bible that is obscured by LDS teachings.”
Campaign literature focuses heavily on Mormon “stress points.”
“Mormons are under a significant amount of stress because of all the commandments they need to uphold and all the duties they need to perform in order to be worthy to receive God’s blessings — including his forgiveness,” it says.
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This is so true. I have worked couseling and mentoring former mormons for about 15 years now, most of them women. They all say how much of burden being “perfect” was, (that is my experience as well) and how coming to have a real relationship with Jesus has made all the difference.
Posted on another thread just yesterday:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2398217/posts?page=54#54
A friend of mine tells this parable about marriage and salvation:
There once was a woman married to a man who told her he would love her only if she kept the rules of his house perfectly. He wrote out the ten rules and gave them to her to help her remember. She wanted her husband’s love so much that she struggled from dawn till dark every day to perfectly obey his rules. But no matter how hard she worked, she was never good enough. She begged him for his love, but she did not receive it.
After many years of heartache, her husband died and she married again. This husband gave her all the love she had ever desired and then some. She was so happy that her struggle to please simply faded away. One day she discovered her first husband’s rules, tucked away in a book. As she read the ten rules over again, to her delight and amazement she realized that she was keeping every one of them perfectly. Her new husband’s love had made her able.
I pray those who are...
...thirsty for once-and-for-all forgiveness,
...for assurance of an eternal relationship with the true Jesus,
...and for grace & mercy to be received on this side of the veil
—who desire to receive both this good news & the Holy Spirit who yields new life in us
— would pray with me:
“Father, our identity outside your Son is as...
“sinners,
“Dead people (Eph. 2:1),
“in bondage — not free agents (Romans 6),
“enemies of yours (Rom. 8:7),
“once-born creatures (2 Cor. 5:17),
“unreconciled to you (2 Cor. 5:18),
“fearful of death,
“fearful of our enemies,
“anxious about the future.”
“You’ve already done a ‘recommend’ on us and found us wanting...greatly...
“...but you still passed us into a new relationship with You via Jesus’ perfect ‘recommend’...
“Jesus, Your Son, the perfect proxy baptized into being washed in our sins...
“...So we could, as the even the book of Mosiah says, be born again...
“I pray that many would confess your true Son in this hour and in this season. So that, they, too, can say with full assurance, ‘we HAVE eternal life’ (John 3:36; 5:24).
“In His Name we pray, Let it be so.”
= = = = = = = =
AMEN!
4) You have to get married — sorry, no never-married single people allowed
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So the Apostle Paul is not there ???
Gollies I was looking forward to meeting him...
Wait, I wont be there myself...
Females need not apply...
The mormon afterlife is a same sex club...
Just males...
Never mind...
There’s something kinky about an afterlife that only has one gender...
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
What was #22 ???
A pic of them secret so called temple clothes or what ???
The pressure to perform has to be killer...
"They'll be like the angels in Heaven..."
Beats me - I went to dinner...
don’t know, it was gone by the time I saw that it would have been there.
I’m curious now, tho.
If you could only drive all the Mormons out of Idaho, it would turn into a tolerant, guiltless utopia like Detroit or San Francisco, wouldn’t it?
I don’t understand, Vigilanteman, why we ONLY have a choice between either licentiousness or legalism? That’s offering a false dilemma — that we have to “pick our poisons.”
The cross cuts through the middle of them both. The labor God delighted in was the labor of love of His Son on the cross. The reconciliation it brought with us, former enemies. A rebirth. Regeneration. New enablement, thru His Holy Spirit, to do good deeds out of love & not to earn a spiritual grade. It cuts out all legalism. ‘Cause let’s face it, if we keep commandments & do good deeds because we expect a boomerang “payback,” it’s chock loaded with selfish motivations.
At the same time, the cross humbles us to see our sin on that cross. To know IF there was another price that could be paid other than the Son of God taking the form of a mere man — of which we see this Christmas — & enduring what He did, God would have done it. Knowing what it cost is in itself innoculation and a self-check vs. an anything-goes tolerance.
I mean, why re-nail Christ to the cross over & over again?
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Excellent post, Colofornian. I don’t get why some assume because Christians believe in salvation by Grace alone, that we also WANT to sin, or that we think we have a license to sin.
Recognizing Christ’s suffering and sacrifice on our behalf, and allowing HIM to change us, makes us less likely to WANT to sin not more.
Now that we've established the fact that you guys hate Mormons because they require more of their members than what you think are the minimum requirements to enter heaven, what is the reason?
Do you think God grades on a curve and they are breaking the curve by requiring more than a mere profession of faith? Or is their unpaid ministry thing just bad for your business?
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
Bad analogy.
A better analogy would be...say you bought a car from a dealer, the dealer promises you that the car is new, in perfect condition, never been in an accident, all checked out, full warranty. You pay A LOT of money for this car.
Shortly after buying the car, it breaks down, the engine is shot, the fluid leaks, the radio quits working, and the transmission slips. You go back to the dealer and he just shrugs and says “it’s your problem now”. You do research and found out the car was totaled. There is no warranty and nothing you can do to get your money back.
How would you feel? Would you warn others about this crooked dealer? Of course.
That is all we are doing. We are warning others about the LDS church.
And as hard as it may to believe, we do not “hate” Mormons, most of us still have loved ones in the LDS church.
Ah yes, the usual attacks against those who have left the LDS: they “hate” Mormons, they couldn’t live up to the standards, and they must be in it for the money.
first, don’t hate mormons.
second, I was a faithful, active, testimony bearing, “molly mormon” who lived the LDS gospel very well. Works are easy.
Trusting Jesus alone is what is hard.
third, I work with several ministries, none of which I get paid for. Nor do I know anyone in ministry to Mormons who gets rich from it.
BTW, the LDS did not always have an unpaid ministry. During the early Utah years both Bishops and Stake Presidents received 10% of tithes for themselves. Even today, the general authorities get money for being on the “board of directors” of LDS owned businesses. They get paid even if they cannot attend the meetings (Ezra Taft Benson was paid long after he was bedridden and unresponsive).
God does not grade on a curve. He also does not count “works” for salvation. If He did, then Christ would not have needed to die.
His gospel is plain:
John 6:28-29 says:
Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
There is only ONE requirement to enter the presence of God, faith in Jesus Christ and in His sacrifice for your sins.
To add ANYTHING to that, ANYTHING means grace is no longer grace, but works.
Romans 11:6 - And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
Ephesians 2:8-9 -For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
Or is their unpaid ministry thing just bad for your business?
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Both Joey Smith and Brigham Young were multi millionaires...
and didnt provide for most of their families..
The later “prophets” did great also...
Unpaid...hardly...
They make much more than Christian pastors...
and give much less...
The Morg takes in 10% and gives out 1%...
Good business that Mormon Inc...
Are you trying to say that Mormons are the only thing keeping Idaho from turning into San Fran?
Why is it that you go off the deep end only on the topic of the LDS religion, one of most reliable conservative demographics in America?
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